More Photos of Hoar Frost

I finally got the pictures off my camera and online. Enjoy!

-DK

Hoar Frost

A nice winter fog can mean a few things. Reduced visibility, tricky driving conditions, and some of the most beautiful winter landscapes. By the time this was written Grand Forks has been under 1 mile visibility for the past 18 hours. Below are some pictures along with the metar reports from The Grand Forks airport. Visiblity is the number before SM, FZFG = freezing fog, VV001 = vertical visibility 100 ft, OVC001= Overcast Skies 100 ft, Temperature and dew point in degrees C ex: M11/M12 = -11 C Temperature, -12 C Dew point.

More photos to come later on during the day.

KGFK 191407Z 14009KT 1/2SM FZFG OVC001 M11/M12 A2994 RMK AO2 SNB06E07 P0000
KGFK 191353Z 15010KT 1/4SM FZFG OVC001 M11/M12 A2994 RMK AO2 SFC VIS 1/2 SLP157 T11061117
KGFK 191253Z 15011KT 1/4SM FZFG OVC001 M10/M11 A2994 RMK AO2 SFC VIS 1/2 SLP157 T11001111
KGFK 191207Z 16009KT 1/4SM FZFG VV001 M09/M11 A2993 RMK AO2
KGFK 191153Z 15008KT 1/2SM FZFG VV001 M10/M11 A2993 RMK AO2 SLP153 4/009 T11001111 11089 21106 58009
KGFK 191053Z 14009KT 1/2SM FZFG VV001 M10/M11 A2994 RMK AO2 SLP157 T11001111
KGFK 190953Z 16007KT 1/2SM FZFG VV001 M10/M11 A2994 RMK AO2 SLP158 T11001111
KGFK 190853Z 18009KT 1/2SM FZFG VV001 M11/M12 A2995 RMK AO2 SLP162 T11061117 56005
KGFK 190753Z 19008KT 1/2SM FZFG VV001 M10/M11 A2996 RMK AO2 SLP164 T11001111
KGFK 190737Z 19007KT 1/2SM FZFG VV001 M10/M11 A2996 RMK AO2
KGFK 190653Z 20007KT 1/4SM FZFG VV001 M10/M11 A2996 RMK AO2 SLP165 T11001106
KGFK 190553Z 17004KT 1/4SM FZFG VV001 M09/M10 A2997 RMK AO2 SLP168 4/009 T10891100 11089 21094 410221161 55002
KGFK 190453Z 16007KT 1/4SM FZFG VV001 M09/M11 A2997 RMK AO2 SLP167 T10941106
KGFK 190353Z 18008KT 1/8SM FZFG VV001 M09/M11 A2997 RMK AO2 SFC VIS 1/2 SLP172 T10941106
KGFK 190253Z 18009KT 1/8SM FZFG VV001 M09/M10 A2998 RMK AO2 SLP172 T10941100 58001
KGFK 190153Z 18008KT 1/8SM FZFG VV001 M09/M10 A2998 RMK AO2 SLP173 T10891100
KGFK 190053Z 18009KT 1/8SM FZFG VV001 M09/M10 A2998 RMK AO2 SLP172 T10891100
KGFK 182353Z COR 17006KT 1/8SM FZFG VV001 M09/M10 A2998 RMK AO2 SLP170 4/009 T10891100 11072 21094 53006
KGFK 182253Z 15007KT 1/8SM FZFG VV001 M08/M09 A2997 RMK AO2 SLP167 T10831094
KGFK 182153Z 16007KT 1/8SM FZFG VV001 M08/M09 A2996 RMK AO2 SLP164 T10831089
KGFK 182137Z 18007KT 1/8SM FZFG VV001 M08/M09 A2996 RMK AO2
KGFK 182130Z 17005KT 1/8SM FZFG VV002 M08/M09 A2996 RMK AO2 TWR VIS 1/4

-DK

What I'm reading...

With taking a few classes this semester I've been able to start reading more articles and papers based on my thesis. Here is a growing list of current articles I have read.

Read:
METRo: A New Model for Road-Condition Forecasting in Canada, Louis-Philippe Crevier adn Yves Delage 2 may 2001, Journal of Applied Meteorology

Weatherwise Wheels, David Hosansky, Spring 2009 Ucar Quarterly

Intellidrive Road Weather Research & Development - The Vehicle Data Translator Sheldon Drobot et.al., USDOT-FHWA

Vehicle Infrastructure Integration (VII) Concept of Operations, Booz, Allen, Hamilton September 2006, USDOT-FHWA

DSRC Technology and the DSRC Industry Consortium (DIC) Prototype Team, SIRIT Technologies, January 2005

Clarus System User Guide, Mixon Hill, January 2009, USDOT-FHWA

Road Weather Information System Environmental Sensor Station Siting Guidelines, Manfredi et al., April 2005 USDOT-FHWA

Implementation and Evaluation of RWIS ESS Siting Guide Final Report, Garrett et. al, November 2008, USDOT-FHWA

This list will be growing within the next couple of weeks when I finish reading a few reports that I've started reading.

-DK

Classes winding up again

Since my semester is starting once again I'll have some more time to read articles on surface transportation and also pose some questions to my readers. Be sure to check the side bar once and a while for a weekly pole or question surrounding a post or hinting towards a future post.

-DK

CES Keynote Address by Alan Mulally

Even if your not a fan of Ford, Fords new myFord and myLincoln is something really awesome to connect driver and their car when their driving to the world around them. It's easier to watch than explain.

Watch Here

-DK

Fuel Efficiency Adviser Review

How much information do you get from your car? I'll admit I'm kinda fortunate with my 1996 Mercury Grand Marquis that I have ford's digital dash. Ford allowed the driver to see what the fuel economy both average and instant w/ this digital dash. At the same time, it's limiting to the point where it is frustrating. Many cars display the tachometer, some display voltage and other temperatures besides water temperature. Linear-Logic seems to have a solution to the lack of information for the tech driven drivers. The unit is called ScanGaugeII or the one I'm specifically talking about is called the Fuel Efficiency Adviser. From what I can tell, it's the same unit with a different sticker on the front.

Design: When looking at it from the outside it isn't a pretty device. It's black with a changeable color backlit display. Dimensions are about 5" X 1" X 1.5" small but it can be hard to find a place to mount if your gear is located just above the steering column. It has a 6' black cable, which looks like a network cable on one end and an OBDII port connector on the other.

Utility: The guts of the Fuel Efficiency Adviser are where this product becomes useful. Once attached to the car it's very simple to be interfaced. Just turn the car to the on position and wait usually 5-10 seconds and it's connected. The Fuel Efficiency Adviser's main screen shows Primary information, Gauges, and Trip. Primary information is mainly information for fuel efficiency like Current Trip Cost, Total cost so far today, Instant MPG, and average MPG. Its good information, but I prefer more gauges. The Gauges are cool because it gives a possible of 16 built in gauges to look at including the ones from primary. These gauges include RPM, intake temperature, water temperature, battery voltage, engine load, etc... Trip is a useful trip computer when you want to look back at stats pertaining to you current trip, so far today, yesterday and tank. Information you can get includes max speed, max RPM, average speed, Driving time, distance, and amount of fuel remaining to name a few. For the current version of Fuel Efficiency Adviser, it also has the program called X-gauges, which allows a user to program in different gauges that are not a part of the default 16. Depending on how many sensors you have on your car the information from these gauges can be vast or limited.

The Fuel Efficiency Adviser also allows a user to check error codes on their vehicle. I didn't have a check engine light on so I couldn't test this feature.

So what is my overall opinion of this car computer? In general I believe it's a very useful tool for both the enthusiast along with those who hyper-mile. It gives information that is usually hidden from the driver but can be very useful to the driver if they know how to apply it. It does transfer from one car to another easily but when it comes to measuring fuel efficiency when it is going from car to car it ends up lacking. From what I can tell, it uses a calibration reading based off tank fill ups and estimated fuel used. Well if it was transferred to another car and used, it accounts that information for the original car and when a fill up is done throws off the MPG and averages for fuel consumption immensely.

If your using it for one car it's very good at being calibrated for fuel consumption and estimating MPG, but fuel consummation estimation by using it on multiple cars doesn't work very well even if it is adjusted for engine size and tank size.

Overall, I would give the Fuel Efficiency Adviser 4.5 out of 5. It's well worth the $150 price tag and can be usable across multiple cars for gauges if you’re not worried about what your MPG and Fuel usage are.

Fuel Efficiency Adviser called by another name

For most car geeks or performance enthusiasts knowing what your car is doing / can do is usually high on priorities. Since 1996 cars / light duty trucks have been equipped with a On Board Diagnostic version II (OBDII) port or sometimes written as OBD2 port. For the average driver this is some random looking computer port hidden out of site and usually out of mind. For drivers who want to know what their car is doing this is a gold mine of information that just needs to be tapped. Now a day’s most cars have a on board computer that will tell you avg mpg, temperature outside, gallons used, gallons left, etc... That information can leave some drivers especially those who hyper-mile without the information they want most. Linear Logic seems to have a solution to those who want it all... data that is. Linear Logic has developed a unit called ScanGauge and over the years, it's been updated to ScanGaugeII along w/ some nifty software on the device called X-Gauge that allows users to make their own gauges. Therefore, what is ScanGaugeII well it's a compact automotive computer that connects to a OBDII port. When connected it reads the basic trouble codes like most other automotive computers and it reads the streaming data coming from the car. Fuel Economy, Fuel Rate, Intake Air Temperature, Engine speed, Engine Load, etc... In addition, with the latest version of the software it allows users to create their own gauges with X-Gauge.
Will this computer make you more fuel efficient... That depends; if you can process a plethora of numbers quickly and curve your driving habits then sure it probably will make you more fuel-efficient. On the other hand, if you could care less of about the environment and you driving habits then this device will probably not help too much.
There are a few places you could pick one a scangaugeII. One is over at the manufactures website http://www.scangauge.com/.

The other is over at Fuel Efficiency Centers http://www.fuelefficiencycenters.com/. It is the same unit except that instead of saying ScanGaugeII on it, its label says Fuel Efficiency Adviser.  The other plus through buying it the Fuel Efficiency Centers is that it costs $20 less when you punch in the Star Driver discount code.

Check it out and find out all the information you can get from your car.

Review will be up in a few days I finally had a good trip w/ it and found out a lot about the unit during the trip.

-DK

I personally paid for the device so opinions I share are not influenced by the manufacture.

Happy New Years!!!