Gadgetory

hello and welcome to see nets to fix the show about do-it-yourself tech and how to's from Donald Bell and I'm Eric Franklin car tech is a really cool thing and these days we're connected in just about every way imaginable definitely and if you're into stats are you into the cool car sets sure look my rpms rpms MPGs that stuff yeah that's her if you're into that kind of stuff we've got an app in a device that tracks your car's performance as well as your driving habits any car built after 1996 is considered obd2 compliant meaning you can grab all of your cars diagnostics through a port that's a lot like a USB port for your car in most cases though only mechanics have access to this port but more and more apps are allowing the user to put all of that data into your pocket in this case I'll show you how to use an app called dash which is free for both iOS and Android with it you can turn any dumb card into a smart car so you can see diagnostics like fuel economy rpm engine temperature and a lot more plus you can even diagnose the check engine light all on your own here's how it works first you'll need an OPD - device these cost anywhere from $15 to $100 depending on what the brand is and what features it has you can go to Dash's website for recommendations on both iOS and Android in this case I already have my obd for an android phone and i'll plug it into my car in most cases it's underneath the steering wheel now we're ready to pair the obd with my phone so the first thing i want to do is turn the car on to give power to the obd then I'll go into my bluetooth settings find the obd link it up then we'll launch - and in a few seconds the app should find the obd that's it we're set so let's take it for a test drive as I'm driving all these Diagnostics are updating in real-time so I could see my fuel economy rpm temperature engine load if you don't know what one of these means you can actually just tap the square and it'll give you a really nice explanation it becomes a little bit addicting because the goal is to get as many of these squares into the green zone as possible it's not always in your control but often times you can prevent it from going into red by controlling how fast you accelerate or how hard you break so here's how it works from the moment I start my car to the point that I take my key out of the ignition that's considered one trip and at the end of every trip I get a driver's score from - that's dependent on how fast I was accelerating how hard I was braking and if I was idling for too long so let's see how I did go to my trips so I see here that I got a score of 81 a lot of that is because I was idling too much probably because of some San Francisco traffic but it says I have some great fuel efficiency and I avoided hard accelerations luckily my overall score is still a nice 93 all right that dash is only working with gasoline-powered cars right now so if you have a hybrid car or all-electric car or diesel car or a moon buggy it's not going to accurately measure those okay that's too bad yeah I have a moon buggy yes that's kind of designed alone it's time for a quick break and when we come back we've got a do-it-yourself project that'll work with any smartphone in your car you welcome back Eric Franklin yes there are two things you should know about me all right I am cheap yes and I'm crafty both true statements and in this next segment you put both those skills to good use I do the turn-by-turn navigation in your smartphone has become an indispensable part of getting around by car you probably already have some kind of mount in your car to help keep your phone in view and out of your hands but what if you're not driving your car what if you're driving some kind of rental car and you're crazy summer road trip what do you do then well I'm gonna show you how to make your own DIY Universal smartphone mount using supplies you can probably just pick up around the office all right so here's what you're gonna need you're gonna need a large binder clip then need some rubber bands and at least one wrench to is better now let's talk about the large binder clip now if you can shop around for binder clips which is a lot of fun try to find the binder clips that have this rubberized handle that rubberized bit it's gonna hold your phone in place a lot better so that's going to be a lot easier on your hands when you're trying to bend this thing back and that's the next step grab your wrenches clamp one bit and then get the other half to bend the little tips of the arms down these are going to act as fingers to kind of hold the phone in place they're really tough if either a Franklin I can do this by hand they're gonna flip it around bend the other arm if you can get these practically touching each other that'd be great because that bend is what's going to help hold the phone in play it's not just horizontally but vertically - that's pretty good the reason why we're doing that is because your phone is going to go in here and when it's gonna clamp down on you you want these ends to be kind of gripping like a pair of fingers that's pretty good now when adding the rubber bands any rubber band will do but if you really want to kick it up a notch you should try a plasti band but a lot stronger and that strength is gonna help hold your phone in place a lot better I just wrapped it on to the arms here until all the slack was taken out that should be good enough to help keep some tension to keep my phone in place now the next part is tricky placing this thing in your car sometimes you've got a nice horizontal air-conditioning vent that you can latch this thing on not the case here I've got these vertical vents they aren't turning here's a good spot right up here about the clock a little place I can pinch onto that's gonna be in my field of view but not too far to be out of reach look at that perfect so there you go it's holding my phone staying in place doing everything a car mount needs to do for next to nothing I mean I've practically stole the materials for this thing cost me maybe a few bucks at most very well done dude thank you I can kind of take stuff from around the house and you want to buy a bunch of expensive cars yeah not the best looking thing but it gets the job done yeah for sure I have a question yes do you use your phones virtual assistant all the time of course you do because whether you're out and about or in your car or virtual assistant can help make life a little bit easier Siri can be a really effective way to send text messages especially if you're walking down the street in a high-traffic area you're trying to have to bump into a bunch of people you get a lot of stuff going on or you're carrying a bunch of groceries you only have one hand free or possibly you just get into a back of a car I'm going to show you some really useful tips all right first thing you want to do is turn Siri on you do that by holding down the home button for about a second or go to Settings General Siri and then turn on raise to speak that means every time I hold my phone to my ear Siri would turn on once you hear that chimes Siri is listening to you and it'll take your commands so to send a text you say send a text or send a text followed by the name of a person in your contact list send a text to Jonathan which Jonathan okay so in this case I have a couple of Jonathan's in my contact list Siri just wants me to be more specific so I can make sure it sends the text to the correct person Jonathan Stein okay what do you want to say to jonathan stein see after she asked a question for confirmation you'll hear a little chime that means she's ready to listen to your commands make sure you don't start talking till you hear that time or else you may miss your message so now you're ready to send your message you want to make sure you don't pause for too long while you're saying your message or else Siri will interpret that as the end of your message and you'll get cut off send a message to Jonathan Stein okay what do you want to say to jonathan stein if you're going to the store I need eggs milk popcorn so Siri interpreted my pause as the end of my message now there's two ways to handle that one is to not pause to think about what you're going to say before you're going to say get your thoughts clear before you actually send your message the other way is to hold down the microphone button for the duration of your message this way Siri will keep listening as long as you have that button held down so let me show you what the difference is like send a message to Jonathan Stein okay what do you want to say to jonathan stein okay so now I'm gonna hold down the microphone button for the duration of my message hey man if you go into the store I need eggs milk sausage steak avocados and some kale ready two second okay that looks right so I'm gonna send it on okay I'll send it now if you want to use punctuation in your message you will have to say the actual punctuation you want to use let me show you hey man period sorry I can't make it tonight period thanks for the invite though period later exclamation point okay that looks good it looks correct now that goes for all punctuation that's periods commas question marks exclamation points and even semicolons if you're the type of person to use semicolons in the text message now one last tip if you want to send a message one sentence at a time you can totally do that you don't have to worry about pausing or Siri cutting you off or anything like that I'll show you how that's done yo ready to send it send I'm coming over now period don't eat all the pizza exclamation point descendant send so one of the biggest takeaways with using Siri well the first thing is to speak very slowly and clearly so that Siri has a better chance of understanding you next plan your text in your head that way you don't get cut off mid-sentence if you're not holding down the microphone and finally it's best not the text if you're driving however in emergency situations Siri is a pretty good hands-free option let's go back to the office I don't know your work address now of course it's not a good idea to text and drive definitely not we always advocate safety first safety first yes that's it for this week's show all right thanks so much for watching you can reach out to us on twitter i'm at donald and i'm at me doable and then please use our email address where the fix at CIMMYT comm we want to hear from you we definitely do see you next time guys right here on the fix