Adding car thermometer
Discussion
I have a van that doesn’t have a thermometer for outside temperature, keep meaning to get round to it but never do. I find car thermometers a bit slow up the uptake as you can whizz down a country lane and not be alerted quick enough to massive temp differences etc
I have a contactless thermometer that I use for reading the babies forehead temp, spotting air locks in house radiators, diagnosing binding brakes all sorts it’s ace
Now is there a gadget you can get for a car that measures the road surface temperature and displays it?
I guess road grime would be our enemy here
I have a contactless thermometer that I use for reading the babies forehead temp, spotting air locks in house radiators, diagnosing binding brakes all sorts it’s ace
Now is there a gadget you can get for a car that measures the road surface temperature and displays it?
I guess road grime would be our enemy here
Unless its on a really long pole out the front bumper, surely by the time its registered a reading you'll be 200yds too late to do anything about it? I'd have thought an air temp sensor would be the best bet.
I'm thinking if you're on a hill, the uphill might be in the sun and the downhill not, so there's a big difference in the surface temperature compared to the air 3 feet above it. But I'm no John Kettley.
I'm thinking if you're on a hill, the uphill might be in the sun and the downhill not, so there's a big difference in the surface temperature compared to the air 3 feet above it. But I'm no John Kettley.
Fitz666 said:
Or this, although Vaisala stuff is extraordinarily expensive:https://www.vaisala.com/en/products/instruments-se...
I find them completely pointless.
In modern cars, you get a load of warnings for ice if the air temperature is below 3C - which you learn to ignore. The state of the road surface has a greater bearing than the temperature sensed 30 seconds ago by your car.
If you're on a moderately well trafficked road, you can ignore all the warnings until you see a car in the ditch ahead of you.
I go with the simpler approach: be careful if it was cold when you got in your car and you're going down country lanes early in the morning.
In modern cars, you get a load of warnings for ice if the air temperature is below 3C - which you learn to ignore. The state of the road surface has a greater bearing than the temperature sensed 30 seconds ago by your car.
If you're on a moderately well trafficked road, you can ignore all the warnings until you see a car in the ditch ahead of you.
I go with the simpler approach: be careful if it was cold when you got in your car and you're going down country lanes early in the morning.
Thermometers in cars read air temperature and have a time constant (based on thermal mass) as well as are filtered by the controlling module.
You're thinking of some sort of Infrared "vision" thermometer. On a country road you might have 200m max visibility from seat height. At grille height to get a decent angle of incidence with the road you might have 100m.
At 50mph you cover 100m in 4 seconds. By the time your thermometer has told you what's going on and you have reacted to it, you're already there.
You're thinking of some sort of Infrared "vision" thermometer. On a country road you might have 200m max visibility from seat height. At grille height to get a decent angle of incidence with the road you might have 100m.
At 50mph you cover 100m in 4 seconds. By the time your thermometer has told you what's going on and you have reacted to it, you're already there.
Not too sure about them being a waste of time.
One journey a few years ago was on the A5033 into Knutsford, the whole journey showed the temperature around 2deg C, fairly normal winter driving conditions. As the road went over the M6 the temperature dropped to -20C that was an early warning to me to drive with due regard to the outside temperature.
One journey a few years ago was on the A5033 into Knutsford, the whole journey showed the temperature around 2deg C, fairly normal winter driving conditions. As the road went over the M6 the temperature dropped to -20C that was an early warning to me to drive with due regard to the outside temperature.
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