Automobile Battery : The Power Supply

With this post I am highlighting the very basic part of an automobile, the Battery. Battery is the power house of an automobile, be it a car or a truck or a motorcycle. Batteries act as a power source for the vehicle, they provide power from sparking of the engine to lighting up the headlights. By this post you'll get to know what is a battery, what it is made of, and how it works. Lets have a look..

What is an automobile battery ??

A typical lead-acid automobile battery

First of all let's have a look at the technical definition of an automobile battery and it states that "An automobile battery is a type of rechargeable battery that supplies electric energy to an automobile." The sole purpose of the battery is igniting the engine so that the vehicle can start off and in addition to that the battery provides power to different parts of the car like stereo, headlamps, inner illumination etc.

What it is made of ??

Inside of an lead-acid battery

The most common type of batteries are lead-acid batteries where the lead part is the electrodes and the acid part is the electrolyte. The batteries contains a series of plates dipped inside the electrolyte which is Sulpuric Acid, you must have heard this name before in chemistry classes. There are partitions inside the battery which are called cells and the batteries are mostly defined by the no. of cells present in it. Most common ones used in automobiles are 6 cells batteries.
          Every battery has two terminals one is positive and another one is negative. Here in this case the negative terminal is formed by pure Lead plate and the positive one is formed lead oxide and these two terminals are present dipped inside the acid part which is sulphuric acid. each cell contains the positive and negative terminals and these series of six cells is covered up with the hard casing inside which the whole reaction takes place.

How it works ??

For this part you must scratch your mind and think about the chemistry part that you learnt in school. Think about ions, charge, current etc. Here are the equations involved:

The overall chemical reaction is:

At the negative terminal the charge and discharge reactions are:

At the positive terminal the charge and discharge reactions are:

Discharging:

Discharging a battery causes the formation of lead sulfate crystals (PbSO₄) at both the negative and positive terminals, as well as the release of electrons (e^-) due to the change in valence charge of the lead. The formation of this lead sulfate uses sulfate from the sulfuric acid (H₂SO₄) electrolyte surrounding the battery. As a result the electrolyte becomes less concentrated. Full discharge would result in both electrodes being covered with lead sulfate and water rather than sulfuric acid surrounding the electrodes. At full discharge the two electrodes are the same material, and there is no chemical potential or voltage between the two electrodes. In practice, however, discharging stops at the cutoff voltage, long before this point. The battery should not therefore be discharged below this voltage.

A amaron battery placed inside a car.

Charging:

The charging reaction converts the lead sulfate  (PbSO₄) at the negative electrode to lead. At the positive terminal the reaction converts the lead to lead oxide (PbO₂) . As a by-product of this reaction, hydrogen is evolved. During the first part of the charging cycle, the conversion of lead sulfate to lead and lead oxide is the dominant reaction. However, as charging proceeds and most of the lead sulfate is converted to either lead or lead dioxide, the charging current electrolyzes the water from the electrolyte and both hydrogen and oxygen gas are evolved, a process known as the "gassing" of the battery. If current is being provided to the battery faster than lead sulfate can be converted, then gassing begins before all the lead sulfate is converted, that is, before the battery is fully charged.

This is it about the Automobile Battery...Hope you liked the post..will come up with other interesting posts. Stay tuned to KnowTheAuto.com...Happy Reading!!!

Keyless Entry : Smart Key

This post of mine is about a technology that is a part of the higher end segment of automobiles, the technology is Keyless Entry which is realized with the help of Smart Key. Although this feature is mainly present in the costlier versions of automobiles but few car makers are introducing this feature in their lower segments. In this post we will discuss about what is keyless entry, how its done and what are its advantages.

What is Keyless Entry:

As the name suggests this technology gives the convenience to the car owners  to move into their cars without actually inserting the key into it. Some of you might be thinking that i am talking about the central locking system that is present in the car, but you are wrong. Yes, keyless entry systems have remote just like the regular central locking remotes but here the difference is that the remote doesn't have a key attached to it. Now that's the reason why the technology is called keyless entry as there is no key present.

     These days the remote present in these cars are called smart key as the remote is smart enough to recognize you and allow you to enter inside the car and do what you want. If you wonder that if there is no key then how the engine is going to start. For this read the next section Push Start /Stop button.

Keyless entry : A smart key from Nissan's Car

Push Start/Stop button:

For a keyless entry to be literally keyless the car should be equipped with such a technology that allows the owner of the car to start the engine without the key, for this the solution is push start/stop button. 

         Its a normal button present below the steering wheel near by the position where actually ignition keys are inserted. The sole purpose of this button is to start the engine if user presses it once and to turn off the engine when the user press it again. Its like a toggle switch with on/off functionality and thus eliminating the need of key to start. Shown below is a push start stop button present in the cars. In india the car which first introduced Push start stop function is Nissan's Micra.

Keyless Entry : Push Start Stop Button

How it works:

The keyless entry systems depend upon infrared signals to function. These signals are sent by the smart key (actually the remote)  to the infrared receiver present in the car which receives the signals and check the signals if they are from the right smart key. The signals sent are encrypted so that nobody can tweak the signals in case of stealing. When the owner reaches near the car, the receiver matches the signals and unlock the car.  The range of keyless entry is restricted to few inches and that's why the car unlocks only when the  user is close enough to enter the car and preventing the car unlocking unnecessarily. 

         Now lets see how the Push Start Stop Button works. The button has a spark triggering mechanism which gets activated when the button is pushed for start. The spark burns the fuel and engine starts but there is a catch. The Start-stop button doesn't work without getting the signals from the smart key. Nobody can start engine just by sitting inside the car. The car checks the infrared signals and then only starts the engine thus increasing the security strength of the technology. The smart key sends a different code every time to improve security and integration.

It's Advantages:

• You can enter and start driving without looking for key in your pocket.
• The car cant be started without having the Smart Key and due to coded signals the security is add-on.
• Easy locking and unlocking.
• You have less chances of loosing it as you don't take it out.
• And yes Style to flaunt :)

This is it for Keyless Entry : Smart Key...Have a look at the other interesting posts on KnowtheAuto.

Stay tuned to KnowtheAuto and for suggestions you can comment or Contact Me. Happy Reading!!!

Dashcam in Cars : Your Third Eye

This post of mine is about a car accessory which you might not be aware of but its quite popular in the other side of world. The accessory is popularized as DASHCAM. Dashcams in the cars act as your third eye..which means it can see what you can't or would miss with those two eyes of yours.. In this post I will tell you what is  Dashcam, why these are used, where these are used and what are its specifications...

What is a Dashcam??

Dashcam is the word made up by shortening of two words " Dashboard & Camera " which adds up to Dash-Cam. Dashcam is just another camera with varied specifications from different brands and customized to be suitable for your cars. The Dashcam is placed in the middle of the dashboard so that it can take the frontal footage of the events that is happening in the path ahead. Have a look at the image below to see what exactly it looks like...

A dashcam installed in a car

A type of Dashcam

Why dashcams are used??

The dashcams were first introduced by U.S. Law enforcement to capture the Chase events and the On-Road live criminal events. Although the  videos taken by the Law enforcing vehicles were not accessible to the general public and were only used in the criminal proceedings. Sooner this accessory became a rage in the US as the public started liking the usage of these devices. These dashcams installed in the cars can actually capture a fraud event or it can capture the accidental mis-hapening to help out the users and the law agencies in some way .

    You can actually have a proof if somebody hit your car and the fault was not yours in this case it behaves as your third eye. In another case these dashcams are loved by the storm chasers who can freely capture the nature's destruction without worrying about holding the cameras. So, you can wonder how differently these cams can be used. You can see these footage at your own convenient place just by transferring the data or you can delete the not needed data and clear off the memory.  

A thunder Storm Caught by Dashcam in a car

A tornado captured by a dashcam 

What are the specifications??

As its an accessory, in this ever evolving technology world the specifications keep on changing or you can say upgrading. There are few specifications which you should keep in mind for clarity and safe storage of your footage..Here are some of the few specifications to check before owning one:

• Camera Resolution : Mega Pixels 
• Video Definition : Standard or High Definition (HD)
• USB Interface to easy data transfer
• External Memory Support : Just in case you run out of memory
• Swivel Angle : Camera should be able to rotate at max to capture at varied  angles.
• Continuous Recording
• Modes : Camera and Video recording
• Memory Type : Disk Drives or Memory Cards
• Capturing Memory Limit

The costlier the Dashcam is , more would be the specifications and features. But even a normal one would serve the purpose of capturing an event.

Buy from Amazon:

This is it about the Dashcam in Cars : Your Third Eye..hope you like it..

Stay Tuned to Knowtheauto..Share your view and comments or you can Contact Me..Happy Reading!!!

Exhaust System : Why and How??

In this post I will discuss about the Exhaust System which many of you might not be interested in. But since you have started reading this , let me tell you the exhaust system is not that boring. In this post you will get to know why we need an exhaust system and how it functions in an automobile. So first let us know whats basically a Exhaust System...

Whats an Exhaust System:

Firstly, Let's digest the definition and it says that "An Exhaust system is usually piping used to guide reaction exhaust gases away from a controlled combustion inside an engine". The definition is quite understandable and the exhaust system is basically the pipes that you see at the lower back end of a car or in a bike. These pipes can be seen smoking out the hazardous gases from the engine which causes pollution. Now lets see why we need it and is it really necessary.

A Car Exhaust System

Why an Exhaust System:

The question arises to our mind that why we need this whole pipe structure, the gases can be easily passed out from a valve. The answer to this is that the gases that an engine emits out are so hazardous that it can make you sleep forever if inhaled directly, So a proper system is needed for these gases to be made less hazardous. The gases that comes out of the exhaust system are very much safer than the actual ones thanks to this Exhaust system. The other main advantage of these exhaust are that they reduce the noise that compressed engine gases make while coming out. These Exhaust give those gases much space to travel and thus the pressure of gases is reduced and so is the noise level.

How it Works:

A detailed Anatomy of a car  exhaust system

Shown above is the detailed anatomy of the exhaust system. I'll start from the top where the flange is mentioned. Flange connects the exhaust system with the main engine from where all the gases are coming out. Coming from there the gases meet the catalytic converter where different chemical reactions occur to convert the highly toxic gases to the less toxic ones. Here the hazardous CO(carbon Mono oxide)  gas is converted into less toxic CO₂(carbon dioxide)..I'll not go into the chemical equations now. Also here the NO₂ (Nitrogen Dioxide)gas is broken into Nitrogen and oxygen parts so that the gases which goes into atmosphere are less harmful.Then the gases comes into the middle chamber where the unburnt fuel particles are trapped into the perforated pipes and then in the end there's resonator which reduces the pressure of the gases further and thus reducing the noise caused.
  In the end what we get is the gases which are cleaner for environment, although not as clean as they should be but at-least the system makes the gases less dangerous.

This is it about the exhaust system...will come up with some other interesting topic.

Stay tuned to Auto-Gyaan and let me remind you that the blog is open for suggestions. You can comment or Contact Me for any suggestions. Happy Reading!!

How fighter jets land on aircraft carriers ???

In this post of mine the automobile featured is the fighter jets and the topic for you is "How the fighter jets land on aircraft carriers ??? ". These machines are so fascinating that people of all age group love and respect them. Here I will tell you about the mechanism used by which these high speed fighter jets land in the short area runway of aircraft carrier. Before knowing the mechanism involved you guys need to know about three things:

1. Whats an Aircraft Carrier??
2. Whats Tail Hook??
3. Whats Arresting gear??

So first we will discuss What exactly is an Aircraft carrier:

Aircraft carriers are warships that are used as a seagoing carrier ship which acts as an portable airbase for the naval operations. It has a large top over which airbase is made having runway strips and fighter jets parked over. Have a look on the picture to understand:

A typical Aircraft Carrier

What exactly is Tail hook:

Its a landing accessory fitted at the rear end of the fighter jets which comes out at the time of landing. Its a fixed metal part flattened at the rear end to make it a claw like hook. It is mechanically pulled in/out through the aircraft. Have a look at the pic below.

A Tail Hook 

What exactly is Arresting Gear:

Arresting gear consist of one or more steel cables (arresting cables) which are stretched from both the end of the runway where the fighter jet is going to land. These cables are controlled by the retractable holders which keep the wires stretchable to a certain limit. See the pic below:

Arresting cables

Why a mechanism is needed:

Although the fighter jets are capable enough to stop by themselves  in normal conditions but when there is lack of space like in aircraft carriers, then the use of tail-hook and arresting gear comes into picture. Since the space is less and speed is high, the jets are force fully stopped onto the carrier.

How its done:

When a fighter jet is landing on the carrier the pilot lowers down the Tail-hook of the jet and that tailhook touches the surface of the carrier and comes into contact with the arresting gear. When arresting gear get hold of the tailhook, all the inertia of the jet gets transferred to the cables and the resistance from the cables stop the aircraft at shorter distance.

   However sometimes the tailhook miss out the arresting gear and the this case of failure is know as "Boltered". To prevent the process to be boltered two three arresting gear are placed one after the another so that if the tailhook misses first stretched cable  then there's a possibility that it come in contact with the other cables following.

A landing in action

What if the Tailhook gets faulty:

In that case the jet has a bad luck. For this case the the jets are diverted to some nearby runways or if there's some limitations then the aircraft can be halted by erecting net barricades in its path. But this approach is least used as the tailhook and arresting gears are checked prior to the landings. Have a look at the Barricaded Instance.

A barricade for emergency landing

This is it about how fighter jets land on the aircraft carriers..Read other interesting posts on the blog.

Stay tuned to knowtheauto.com and let me remind you that the blog is open for suggestions. You can comment or Contact Me for any suggestions. Happy Reading!!