If you'd love to know how to simply and effectively modify the electronic systems in your car, this book is for you.In Section 1 you'll find a step-by-step introduction to the world of car electronics. The section starts with very simple circuits but as the pages progress, you'll be introduced to volts, ohms and amps, be shown how to use a multimeter, meet analog and digital signals - and a whole lot more. And at each of these stages, there are real-world car modifications used as examples. Section 2 covers specific modifications to cars. These are wide-ranging - everything from fitting and tuning a commercial engine management signal interceptor, to adding new cabin lights, to cheaply wiring a tow-bar on a CAN bus car, to modifying electric power steering and electronic stability control. Even, the electronic modification of regen braking on a Toyota Prius!Along the way you'll find a host of interesting snippets covering things as diverse as stopping turbo boost cuts, a prebuilt module that will improve your fuel economy, upgrading to LED interior lighting, what's inside poor quality relays - and lots more.The modifications that are down-to-earth, practical, cheap and achievable - this a book that should be on every car modifier's shelf.
About the Author: Julian Edgar started his working life freelancing for photography magazines. He then worked as a secondary school teacher for eight years, teaching humanities, before leaving teaching and becoming a full-time automotive writer. He edited a national Australian automotive print magazine before becoming editor of AutoSpeed, an online car magazine. Along the way he wrote extensively for Silicon Chip, an electronics hobbyist magazine, while contributing articles to publications in Australia, the UK and the US. He has owned cars with two, three, four, five, six and eight cylinder engines; diesel, petrol and hybrid petrol/electric drivelines; front-wheel drive, rear-wheel drive and all-wheel drive configurations; and cars with single turbos, twin turbos and superchargers. He has been electronically modifying his cars for about 25 years, usually by very cheap and effective means. Over that time he has modified engine management systems, engine cooling systems, turbo boost controls, electric power steering systems, auto transmission controls, all-wheel drive torque split controls, stability controls, hybrid car regenerative braking controls, and lighting and sound systems. Julian lives in a hamlet 80 kilometres north of Canberra, Australia. He spends much of the week playing in his home workshop - for the rest of the time, he trains government Public Servants in high level writing skills.