[Amps] Good engineering...More Car Computer Horror Stories

[Rob Stampfli]

On Mon, Mar 29, 2010 at 06:53:18PM -0500, Phil Clements wrote:
> My Wife commutes daily on I-20, between Dallas and Tyler, Texas in her 1999
> Cadillac Eldorado. There is a stretch of about 5 miles, between two
> cell/microwave towers where her "No Charge" annunciator lamp comes on. The
> battery is being charged normally, but the computer says it is not. This
> phenomena is repeatable day after day, at the same place on the route.

Interesting.  I've heard that similar phenomena (and worse) occurred
with regularity back when the VOA was running lots of power from their
transmitters near Cincinnati, and I had a car once that lit the "Rear
light out" lamp when I transmitted on 2m at high power.

But, the reason for my reply:  Do you know for a fact that the battery
is being charged normally while this event is being reported, and that
the car is indeed not experiencing a temporary charging problem?  It
is undoubtedly just a sensor picking up some RF, but which sensor, the
one reporting or the one controlling the charging circuit?

Rob / KD8WK