I have "calibrated" my iPAQ 2210 / SysOnChip Antenna / Tomtom 3 GPS system by careful timing against motorway markers and found it to be spot on well within the boundaries of experimental accuracy.
Comparing GPS speed with speedometer display, I was then somewhat surprised to find SWMBO's ten year old 306 indicating a pretty accurate 72 MPH at an actual 70 MPH whereas our 2004 V70 indicates a much exaggerated (and given the degree of electronic contol, no doubt intentionally so) 76 MPH, only just inside the ten percent boundary. As V70 speed rises above this point, the degree of over-reading remains at exactly 6 MPH. P2 platform Volvos (S60/V70/S80) have a 'hidden' menu within the stereo display, and when activated I find that the active volume control (in kph and which takes its feed from the same sensors as the speedo) is pretty well spot-on with the GPS at any speed.
On my Hornet motorbike the degree of over-reading at an actual 70 MPH is 5 MPH.
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------------Volvos (S60/V70/S80) have a 'hidden' menu within the stereo display, and when activated I find that the active volume control (in kph and which takes its feed from the same sensors as the speedo) is pretty well spot-on with the GPS at any speed.---------
SjB, I have heard anbout this hidden menu. How do I access it and what does it do? Is it worth activating?
Many thanks!
Gavin
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SjB, I have heard anbout this hidden menu. How do I access it and what does it do? Is it worth activating?
www.honestjohn.co.uk/forum/post/index.htm?v=e&t=15...4
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SjB, I have heard anbout this hidden menu. How do I access it and what does it do? Is it worth activating? Many thanks! Gavin
.pdf document along with some others available from www3.sympatico.ca/p_bruno/volvo/
Once the logic for when to push and when to rotate the appropriate buttons has become engrained, it is very easy to work through the comprehensive menus.
Some items are of little benefit to you and I and are really intended for workshop use, but they are interesting to see none the less. Other settings are very useful, such as adjusting the frequency response of each of the three speaker circuits (front / rear / Dolby surround). There is a 'return to factory speaker settings option' to make it easy to undo mistakes, and after playing with the settings using a wide range of CD material, my already stonking system is even more so.
Of course there is also the aforementioned active sound control setting which can be set to replace the radio display. When so invoked, the display shows the speed of the car in km/h and the amount of automatic amplification (in db) being applied to compensate for noise.
Have fun playing!
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Hi, SjB. Does that explain why so many Volvos are driven slowly? :-)
The only easy means I've got for checking this is the occasional appearance of a mobile large-digit speed display deployed locally by the police, which suggests that our cars over-read by a few mph, but that my motorbike is almost exactly right. Of course, that assumes that the police display isn't exagerrating...
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There are, in many parts of the country, calibrated Mile marker posts by the roadside.. There used to be a set on the A2030 Eastern Road (Portsmouth) going North, but these seem to have disappeared. They are black and white striped posts about 4 feet high, exactly 1 mile apart. Can be useful to calibrate odometers. I have just driven 15,000 km in Australia and 10,000km in New Zealand in 8 weeks.. and in New Zealand there are lots of "calibration zones" where you get a warning sign that in 2Km there will be calibrated markers every km for 5km. Was very useful to see what the actual speed and distance we were travelling was. In the Fiat Ducato campervan, the mileage was 8% out from the odometer. Managed to get 1000km from a tank of diesel though.
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"..the mileage was 8% out from the odometer. Managed to get 1000km from a tank of diesel though."
Or would that be 926km? :-)
BTW, is it still mileage when measured in km (and if not, what is it)?
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"exagerrating" = "exaggerating"
Oh, for an edit button...
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"exagerrating" = "exaggerating" Oh, for an edit button...
>
Why not read it through before hitting the "Post this Message" button?
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Why not read it through before hitting the "Post this Message" button?
However many times you read it through you only spot the mistake 0.001 seconds AFTER you hit the "Post this Message" button, Murphy's law of backroom posting.
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Murphy's law of backroom posting.>>
One of the reasons - apart from their basic duties - why the media has sub-editors is that they can/should spot spelling or other errors in copy.
Even then, many years ago, there used to be proof readers as the Linotype operators would usually introduce their own mistakes (quite deliberately in some cases).
It's a well known fact that it's difficult to spot your own mistakes, hence the backup.
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What\'s for you won\'t pass you by
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In the past, before digital displays came on the scene, the police used to work on the basis that a speedometer read, on average, 10 per cent fast i.e. an indicated 44mph was in reality 40mph.
On top of that a figure of 2.5mph was added to the figure i.e. 44mph plus 2.5mph meant a 46.5mph reading for 40mph.
It's part of the reason why so many motorists who used to boast of "doing 80mph all the way down the M6" or similar never seemed to get done for speeding i.e. a 70mph speedometer reading equalled 77mph plus 2.5mph (79.5mph) from the police point of view.
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What\'s for you won\'t pass you by
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It's part of the reason why so many motorists who used to boast of "doing 80mph all the way down the M6" or similar never seemed to get done for speeding i.e. a 70mph speedometer reading equalled 77mph plus 2.5mph (79.5mph) from the police point of view.
Other way round, don't you mean?
Murphy's law of the Backroom strikes again!
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>>Murphy's law of the Backroom strikes again!>>
No. Even though the speedometer registered 80mph, in reality it was 70mph plus the 10 per cent extra, plus 2.5mph (79.5mph) - a true 70mph.
Perhaps stating "a true 70mph speedometer reading equalled 77mph plus etc" might have made it more clear...:-)
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What\'s for you won\'t pass you by
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"exagerrating" = "exaggerating" Oh, for an edit button...
Edit ~ Copy ~ Edit ~ Paste into your word processing package and then Tools ~ Spelling and Grammar. It's tedious but satisfying.
--
L\'escargot by name, but not by nature.
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I have two identical motorbikes, but I am sure there is at least 5 mph difference in the two speedos at around 40mph, increasing to as much as 10mph at 70!
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You lot need to get a Citroen. Above 50mph My C5 read exactly the same as the GPS based reading on the camera detector (Drivesmart). Even at low speeds it is within 1mph at all times.
My previous car was out by up to 10%.
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