As spectacular massage seats in non-luxury cars are, it is quite easy to build some. You have to reinvent the wheel, because there is already massage mats for cars to be placed on the seats. Exactly such mats I've just installed in my seat and the control electronics integrated in the seat console. On Sense and nonsense of a massage seat, one could argue, but I think it's just great, if you take a longer route tired to drive.

These mats are individually encapsulated in the interior of 5-6 vibration motors, like cell phone, but mingled with a bit larger. The control electronics, which has been so designed natively for the 12V cigarette lighter is in me from a simple on-off switch and 4 sliders. 3 sliders each controlling 2 motors for thighs, upper and lower back. The fourth slider controls the speed and intensity of all the engines. On the market there are many of these mats, which have a real wide range of programs with many, many buttons. But I have deliberately chosen this simple version, the number of switches to keep my seat low. Read the full post ...

Also, I was overtaken at some point the lot of the broken-G200 sensor, which pretty much breaks down in all cars of model year 99 up to 2006. Both in my Bora, and certainly the Golf IV, like the Audi A3 and even a smart one I've already repaired. Because the problem is quite simple: As only a small chip, which measures the lateral acceleration forces, the solder joints themselves wiggle loose over time. The only problem is that the little box is sealed with resin.

So if you too for the ESP light signals and one of the following errors in the control device is present, then you should read on.
Transverse acceleration sensor - Electrical fault in circuit G200
Transverse acceleration sensor - G200 implausible signal
Transverse acceleration sensor - no signal G200
Transverse acceleration sensor - faulty G200 read the full post ...

Everyone knows these small, nice, and recently in Germany allowed FM transmitter for MP3 player, which you can hear music in your car without cables. Unfortunately, the sound quality is due to permanent faults but very much to be desired. This is sometimes in the statutory, rather low transmission power. But you can improve a little bit, by pimps, the antenna a bit. For this I use an old and well proven principle of the antenna. In other words, just a cable in a certain length, which must be calculated beforehand. The best thing is when the length of the cable length frequency wavelength, or fractions thereof. The FM spectrum is in the VHF band II between 87.5-108 MHz, the mean count on us is thus 97.75 MHz.
Now we calculate:
Speed ​​of light [m / s] / frequency [1 / s] = wavelength [m]
in numbers:
300 million [m / s] / 97.75 million [1 / s] = approx 3.07 [m]
Since no one has fixed on a 3m long antenna, you can also use a fraction of them, eg 1/8 or 1/4. Ie 77 cm or 38 cm.

Then I have the body of my ultra-cheap, illegally produced in China by children, housing my FM transmitter and have opened the aerial search, which was glued a small strip of copper in the body. I have then extended the same time. At the point where it was soldered with a small antenna cables to the board, I then simply soldered on my 38cm cable. But the best thing now would be really, if we take this new antenna cable out of the case and simply hangs on the device, so the length to its best advantage. But I wound for aesthetic reasons, this cable and herded into the enclosure. Experimentally, I've also found that if I bridge the small SMD capacitor, which is located directly after the antenna connector on the motherboard, the range has again raised discreetly. Why can not explain it, maybe even one of my readers know the reason. Have fun listening to music!