Digitel monitoring system

[mikebulriss]

David has been discussing Sensor Area Networks, and it reminded me about a really neat feature on the older Birds - the Digitel monitoring system. Additionally, I was speaking with a prospective Bird owner about a week ago and when I mentioned it to him, he responded that he had been reading all the forums for several years and looking at older Birds and he had never heard of such a thing. I assured him it was real, whether he had heard of it or not, and I had one in my 1983 PT40 and it worked pretty well. Because of those two items, I am going to make this a new thread so that prospective owners might find this information easier.

The Digitel system was a really cool voice chip system on the late 70s-early 80s Birds (I don't know exactly how many years it spanned; perhaps Ralph can jump in here with some clarification). I believe (from memory, so cut me some slack here!) that it may have been from PMMI, the same folks that did the musical horns. Basically, in addition to time and temperature, it was tied into many of the bus systems and it actually spoke to you to warn you about various items on the Bird. It reminded us of the robot on Lost in Space, and we referred to it as "The Little Man" (as in turn the Little Man on or off). The main switch was in the dinette control panel.

The first time the Little Man spoke to me was after about a week of ownership. We had gone down to Mustang Island (aka Upper Padre Island) for a weekend. We had just started up and over a really steep and really narrow ship channel bridge. As a new owner, the lanes seemed like they were only about 9 feet wide with a concrete railing right on the line on either side. Well, about halfway up this bridge, out of no where, in the speaker above my head comes this "WARNING! There is water in the fuel! Please stop and rectify." And, he usually repeated everything he said twice, just so you would not miss it! Well, I did manage not to hit anything, but I nearly ruined the seat covering. Needless to say I stopped as soon as I got off the bridge and ran for the blue box. Turns out, the Little Man was wired into the sensor in the sump in the fuel tank, the one that turns on the water in the fuel light on the dash. As we went upward, the water that had settled in that sump went back to touch the sensor and the Little Man was there to warn me, even before the light on the dash went on. Scared me silly. Turned out there was about 4-6 ounces of water in the fuel sump when I figured out what to do next and drained it. A little sensitive, but useful information nonetheless.

Mostly, we kept the Little Man turned off, because our 83 was built during the 55mph speed limit, so in today's 70 or more speed limits, it was kind of annoying, albeit pretty funny. As soon as you got past 60mph, he came on in the speaker over the driver with a gentle "Warning, you are exceeding the speed limit". A little after 65, it was more of a "WARNING! You are exceeding the speed limit, please slow down". Once you crossed 70, he got downright apoplectic and started screaming at you "WARNING! YOU ARE EXCEEDING THE SPEED LIMIT. SLOW DOWN IMMEDIATELY!" I couldn't get much past 72mph in the 83, so I don't know if he started crying for help at 75 or 80, or if he just sulked. It was pretty funny how they seemingly had programmed in a personality.

"He" also helped identify annoying warning buzzers. I was going down the road and this annoying warning buzzer would start growling and then stop. There were no dash warning lights on. After about 100+ miles of that, we stopped and the first words were "Turn the Little Man on please". In about 20 seconds, here he comes with a nice "Please check leveling jacks." I looked down at the levers. They were all in neutral and no leveling lights were on, so I scoffed, but hit the levers to retract anyway. As soon as I touched the front drivers jack, I heard an immediate thunk. That jack must have slipped down on that rough road by a whopping quarter of an inch or so. Anyway, the Little Man was then happy, I was happy and we proceeded on without an annoying buzzer.

He also had a great "WARNING! Intruder Alert! Warning, Intruder Alert!", but that's a story for another time, if my wife will let me tell it! LOL

In summary, I am hoping David's SAN work can reproduce a new version of the Little Man. Maybe some of you guys with older coaches with a functioning Digitel can fill David in on some of the other features that this system monitored.

FWIW,

Mike Bulriss
1991 WB40 "Texas Minivan"
San Antonio, TX