How a car works (2012) • Hacker News Board

Re: How a car works (2012)

#91

Post by AlexMuir » Fri, Jul 17, 2015, 3:06 PM UTC

justjimmy wrote: post #90

AlexMuir wrote: post #19

This is my site! This was a pleasant surprise to find my own site on HN this morning! I wondered why it was getting a few more FB likes than usual today. I'm happy to answer any questions. I finished this redesign last week so any feedback is welcome. The main task was to recreate labels and annotations on the illustrations in SVG format, and to reformat the articles in a way that flows nicely and is responsive, but…

That's some nice Adsense income! My site gets about 13k visitors daily and I can't even average $5 from Adsense :(

That seems extremely low - what's the site?

Re: How a car works (2012)

#92

Post by netfire » Fri, Jul 17, 2015, 3:08 PM UTC

AlexMuir wrote: post #19

This is my site! This was a pleasant surprise to find my own site on HN this morning! I wondered why it was getting a few more FB likes than usual today. I'm happy to answer any questions. I finished this redesign last week so any feedback is welcome. The main task was to recreate labels and annotations on the illustrations in SVG format, and to reformat the articles in a way that flows nicely and is responsive, but…

Nice site.

Suggestion: It would be nice to have some sort of search box at the top that would instantly filter the list of articles as you type. Instead of having to dig through the "more articles" links to find what you are looking for, you could just type "oil", "air filter", or other terms and see the corresponding articles immediately.

Also, sometimes the ads cover page content and when this happens sometimes you can't close them. I'm using Chrome on a Mac.

Re: How a car works (2012)

#93

Post by matrix » Fri, Jul 17, 2015, 3:28 PM UTC

AlexMuir wrote: post #20

Lorento wrote: post #3

Seems to be very dated. Plenty on adjusting carburetors, in fact adjusting all sorts of no-longer-needing-adjusting parts.

Yeah, it's getting dated now and I'm planning on creating some new content shortly. That said, it's still highly relevant for most classic car owners, and large amounts of the developing world.

The old content is awesome and is never going to stop being relevant. I think the key to address the criticisms would be

1) Navigation - perhaps some sort of timeline that accompanies each article so that you can easily see the context that technology is in (e.g. direct injection 2) Edit the copy to ensure that old technology isn't identified as new. A quick glance turned up examples like: "Some high-performance engines do not have carburettors...".

Good stuff overall though!

Re: How a car works (2012)

#94

Post by ZeWaren » Fri, Jul 17, 2015, 3:30 PM UTC

I love the fact that you can buy the pdf using bitcoins.

Re: How a car works (2012)

#95

Post by eightofdiamonds » Fri, Jul 17, 2015, 4:09 PM UTC

AlexMuir wrote: post #19

This is my site! This was a pleasant surprise to find my own site on HN this morning! I wondered why it was getting a few more FB likes than usual today. I'm happy to answer any questions. I finished this redesign last week so any feedback is welcome. The main task was to recreate labels and annotations on the illustrations in SVG format, and to reformat the articles in a way that flows nicely and is responsive, but…

Just a heads up. While it may have changed Google is pretty strict on publishing Adsense income with traffic figures. I'd just read up to make sure so you don't run into troubles.

Re: How a car works (2012)

#96

Post by abakker » Fri, Jul 17, 2015, 4:38 PM UTC

gshrikant wrote: post #47

AlexMuir wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks! I'm curious - did you just find the site on Google? Over the past two months I've re-mastered the old illustrations with a few filters and the difference is incredible. There's still a little more to do but I'm pleased you find it useful. The next step is to update the iOS app with new versions of the pics. Here's a comparison of the pics: Old - http://www.howacarworks.com/images/846/leaf-spring-suspensio...…

Yes! It was the top result for 'car damper working' and a bunch of other search terms.

I love when people are interested in suspension. Its both one of the most ignored (in standard cars) and most important parts of a car.

Re: How a car works (2012)

#97

Post by abakker » Fri, Jul 17, 2015, 4:49 PM UTC

A few pieces of feedback. In the suspension section, it would be worth explaining a few things about truck suspension, also. Like solid axle, front and rear suspension, both with Coil and Leaf springs. Also, dampers are incredibly important in large trucks/SUVs because if they fail, body roll has much higher likelihood of causing you to lose control. Finally, a "bounce test" really won't work with many SUVs or truck where there is simply no way to compress the suspension to any meaningful degree with your hands.

personally, with trucks, I like the "speed bump test" where you drive into a speed bump and if the truck/SUV continues to oscillate upon returning to the correct height, your dampers probably need work. Additionally, since most trucks/SUVs use similar oil volume dampers to cars, the life of their dampers is frequently lower than in cars. The ones in my TRD Tundra lasted about 40K miles.

Re: How a car works (2012)

#98

Post by bcohen5055 » Fri, Jul 17, 2015, 5:21 PM UTC

thom801 wrote: post #41

higherpurpose wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe do a "How an electric car works" site/page in the future. I imagine it would have quite a bit less content, though.

Exactly what I was thinking. Basically it is just this connected to a drive shaft. http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/magnetic/mothow.h...

Although yes "connected to the drive shaft" in a sense is how it works but there can be some great discussions of 3 phase motor design, torque demand motor control systems, power electronics, regenerative breaking... The list goes on and on

Re: How a car works (2012)

#99

Post by Kluny » Fri, Jul 17, 2015, 5:31 PM UTC

Great site! I'm going to add it to my car fixing workflow. Ie, thing breaks -> read relevant article so I understand how the system works -> find a good tutorial -> source parts -> fix.

If you are looking for article suggestions:

- Article about different fluids and their properties. I'm betting that you've covered oil weights already, but how about coolants? Regular coolant has a lower freezing temp than water, but does it have a higher boiling point as well? Exactly how poisonous is it and what things will it damage when spilled? Same for trans fluid.

- Possibly out of scope, but an article about how to source parts for older cars. This has always been a tough problem for me! I go with something like: look up parts schematic from manufacturer's website -> search for part by part number -> try to find the cheapest generic part (though sometimes it's worth it to pay for quality) -> find that generic parts don't exist -> go on a merry hunt for used parts on ebay and at scrapyards.

Re: How a car works (2012)

#100

Post by Kluny » Fri, Jul 17, 2015, 5:37 PM UTC

higherpurpose wrote: post #38

AlexMuir wrote: post #19

This is my site! This was a pleasant surprise to find my own site on HN this morning! I wondered why it was getting a few more FB likes than usual today. I'm happy to answer any questions. I finished this redesign last week so any feedback is welcome. The main task was to recreate labels and annotations on the illustrations in SVG format, and to reformat the articles in a way that flows nicely and is responsive, but…

Maybe do a "How an electric car works" site/page in the future. I imagine it would have quite a bit less content, though.

I've heard stories of almost-new Priuses being sold for a pittance or given away because the battery went - batteries are expensive to replace, but they're not quite as scary as some people think. They can be replaced with generics for $2000 and installed at home, and an article about how to do that would be an awesome idea.