Jon 74 260Z

Hmmmmmm...... three tickets, probation, expired tags, an excuse for everything ("It was lame!") AND looking for advice on avoiding punishment: I think I'm going to take a pass here on handing out pearls of wisdom. Methinks you have more problems than your driving record.

You made your brother ride in the trunk??!? Man, I thought my siblings were bad but I wouldn't consider stuffing them into a trunk. (Tempting, but I think there's laws against that sort of thing...) I'm just glad I'm not related to YOU!

Why do software engineers say "trick or treat" on Christmas? Because Oct31 equals Dec25.

After watching that, I'm having a mental image of some geezer saying, "Let me tell you, young feller -- when I was your age, gas costs 40 cents a gallon and 1:42 was a fast lap at Willow Springs!!"

On a slightly different topic, be careful of simplistic explanations of time-shifting at relativistic speeds -- most of them are dead wrong. The only one that has been proven over and over again is: Ever notice how time slows down right before your Z crashes into something? To the person in the Z, the last few milliseconds before impact take literally minutes (of not hours) to pass in their frame of reference. This could be true for other vehicles as well but I haven't done as much research into this as I have in the Z. And my pain avoidance mechanism prohibits me from doing more of the said research. I'll let others conduct those experiments if they want to...

Nismo covered the places to go so I'll add some things to expect (while I'm avoiding work): -- It's very common to see two women holding hands or walking arm-in-arm. They are not of a uhhhh...... an 'alternative lifestyle.' Costa Rica is a much more affectionate society than the US and that's just something they do there. -- Kinda related to that is that you'll see teenagers making out on every other park bench. "PDA" is pretty much the norm. -- You're supposed to do the peck-on-the-cheek when greeting a female. -- It seemed like every time I bought something, they HAD to wrap it up in a plastic bag. (And usually they taped it shut too.) I think they have a federal law that prohibits customers from leaving a store with their items not securely placed in a plastic baggie... -- You know you're in a small town if there isn't a Chinese restaurant. -- Ticos consider themselves of European descent and not indigineous. Tangent: Saprissa were nat'l champs when I was there. So when I came back and got a puppy, I named her after them. Had to explain the name to everyone...

I lived there for a bit about a decade ago... I agree with the suggestions so far but would also add: -- the hot springs near the resort at Arenal are pretty cool. The lake is a nice place to hang too... -- if you are VERY adventurous, go see a soccer match. Saprissa or La Liga would be good teams to see. (I think it's a boring sport but being at a match would be an experience.) -- One of the parks has some ancient ruins (forgot the name). I thought it was boring but some people like it. -- If you speak Spanish, don't trill your r's or use the second person conjugations. -- There's some very good white-water rafting if you're into that. And -- most importantly -- do NOT under any circumstances refer to a local as a "nica." Don't even think this word around the ticos... "Adios" is used as a greeting; don't use it to say goodbye. You probably already know that "pura vida" is a very common expression... Commit to memory the following Spanish phrase: "Tienen que estar tan apretadas las esposas?" Standing underneath the monkeys to watch them is a really BAD idea, unless you have an umbrella! I'm sure you and your fam will have a great time. Have fun and let us know how it went.

My strategy for RE investments has always been to never listen to advice from someone who cannot master the basic rules of English punctuation. And if they can't spell, run! It's worked pretty well for me so far...

Yep, use the 0/12v signal from the flasher to control a charge/discharge. The ref voltage is simply a bypassed R-divider -- easy (and it would track your charge/discharge). It's been a while since I've had to look at the App Notes for the 3914, but my memory says that they had a lot of good info that would be applicable here... You're right on the voltage range of these devices BUT... you're gonna need some protection circuitry for the hellacious transients that occurr in a car environment. (See comment below.) Linear regulators are pretty robust so in terms of component count and BOM cost, it's a wash as to the choice here. Like I said, I'm certain someone can make this approach work. I wouldn't chose this method. Reading through the automotive requirements that an IC has to withstand makes me chicken to use any kind of clocked circuit. Analog circuits are self-correcting when it comes to noise spikes whereas digital circuits get fatally confused. But then again, I'm an analog guy -- what do you expect me to say?

Errrr...., you can use a microcontroller and all this grey-code nonsense if you want to BUT.... What you really should use is an LM3914. Scrap the 555 and the microcontrollers -- the simplest solution is the best.