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Reply to "Other illuminated controls on original VWs"

 

@WOLFGANG posted:
 

...Mercedes has 64 different color ambiant lighting option.  Give me orange or green or dimmable white...

 

 

The LED's for mood lighting probably cost bubkis.

But it must take 4000 lines of code to make them work. And somebody has to pay the dudes who write the code.

I've always suspected it was those 4000 lines of code for the mood lighting that have been screwing with the windows on my MINI Cooper - which are also controlled by The Computer.

It used to be, you had a double-throw switch for power windows that connected to a motor. Switch up, window goes up; switch down, window goes down. There was a very old-school logic to it all. But, like everything old school, there is a better way.

Now the window switch is connected to The Computer. Switch up, and a circuit closes which sends some pulses along the main bus to the CPU, which runs some code and a few seconds later decides if something should be done. About every fourth time I push the window UP switch, The Computer decides that the window should go DOWN.

The Computer knows that if it did this every time, I would be pissed enough to have it reprogrammed. So it doesn't. It does it only every fourth time or so. There is some sadistic consistency to its little scheme, however. About every fourth time I press the window DOWN switch, it sends the window UP.

The Computer must fear being reprogrammed, though. It never plays its little trick with the windows when the car is within five blocks of the dealership.

"I'm sorry, sir, we can find no fault with your windows. Do you still want to pay the exorbitant charge for having the CPU reprogrammed?"

This probably could be worse. Suppose every fourth time I pushed the window DOWN switch, one of the fuel injectors stopped working? It's just as likely as the window going UP. After all, The Computer is all-powerful. It can do anything it wants at any time.

I guess I should be thankful that my mood lighting works.

 

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