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Fobo Tire Pressure monitor for smart phones

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Looks interesting, but would want to see some actual reviews (especially from an indiegogo). Also, if the data is there, I would assume Tesla would be able to make it available via the touch screen fairly simply in the future.
 
Interesting, thanks. Curious as to what the price will be.

A few days ago I had a low tire. Car alerted me but of course didn't tell me which tire. I went out and looked and it was obviously the right rear. Could see a large flat bolt head flush with the tire. Checked pressure and it was only 20psi. Used my compressor to pump it up to 45 and waited 20 minutes. Still 45. Decided it was safe to drive 5 miles to my favorite tire shop and got it plugged for $20. It's holding so far.

The S really should show individual tire pressures.
 
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Just pre-ordered. I don't want to wait for Tesla to make this change. I've been burned twice already with low pressure readings that then require me to put a pressure gauge on each tire to find the culprit -- one incident was late a night at the airport.
 
Did anyone see any info on wheel (re)balance with these new valve stem caps? The weight listed is 10 grams--sure, low, but still significant. BTW I assume that the caps open the valve and if there is any leak or bad seal on the cap, you will lose air pressure.
 
Interesting, thanks. Curious as to what the price will be.

A few days ago I had a low tire. Car alerted me but of course didn't tell me which tire. I went out and looked and it was obviously the right rear. Could see a large flat bolt head flush with the tire. Checked pressure and it was only 20psi. Used my compressor to pump it up to 45 and waited 20 minutes. Still 45. Decided it was safe to drive 5 miles to my favorite tire shop and got it plugged for $20. It's holding so far.

The S really should show individual tire pressures.

Why though? You got out and it was clear to you which tire was the problem. The sensors are only good for warning you if the pressure is low. It's no good telling pressures in the say 45-53 psi range with any precision. For that you need a good gauge.
 
Answer to my question on when it is available below. And to the question of costs, somewhere I was reading 90 $.

We will be launching on our web-store (www.my-fobo.com) starting Nov’14. For the retail market, depending on your country, it may take another few months to arrive at local stores.
 
Why though? You got out and it was clear to you which tire was the problem. The sensors are only good for warning you if the pressure is low. It's no good telling pressures in the say 45-53 psi range with any precision. For that you need a good gauge.

Because most of the time a low tire cannot be identified by visual inspection. If a tire is down 5 to 10psi compared to the other three you can't see that difference. The car should tell me which tire is low because each tire has a sensor. It's not something new: many cars have for years had a display of the pressure of each tire.
 
Fobo feedback

I received my Fobo tire kit a couple days ago, and just tried to install it on my S85. The installation failed and I gave up after multiple attempts because the sensors do not seem to communicate reliably with the phone. I had several mail exchanges with a support agent, and they do seem responsive, but I am not going to waste any more time on that, and I asked to send it back because, even if I could make it work, I would never trust it.
Some of the other issues I had:
- You have to create an account with the company and register your car with them. Then you have to allow their app to use your phone location, which means that the company (in Malaysia) can now track your phone. I was not comfortable with that.
- The app asks you to set the recommended tire pressure for your car, but the maximum is 44 PSI. For my tires, the recommended pressure is 45 PSI, when cold. I am not sure what that means for the sensor ability to read pressure above 44 PSI, but I am sure that my tires, when hot should read well above 50 PSI. It is not clear to me that the app can compensate for that.
Of course, I may be unlucky, over protective of my privacy, lack patience, and worry too much, so your experience may be different.
 
I received my Fobo tire kit a couple days ago, and just tried to install it on my S85. The installation failed and I gave up after multiple attempts because the sensors do not seem to communicate reliably with the phone. I had several mail exchanges with a support agent, and they do seem responsive, but I am not going to waste any more time on that, and I asked to send it back because, even if I could make it work, I would never trust it.
Some of the other issues I had:
- You have to create an account with the company and register your car with them. Then you have to allow their app to use your phone location, which means that the company (in Malaysia) can now track your phone. I was not comfortable with that.
- The app asks you to set the recommended tire pressure for your car, but the maximum is 44 PSI. For my tires, the recommended pressure is 45 PSI, when cold. I am not sure what that means for the sensor ability to read pressure above 44 PSI, but I am sure that my tires, when hot should read well above 50 PSI. It is not clear to me that the app can compensate for that.
Of course, I may be unlucky, over protective of my privacy, lack patience, and worry too much, so your experience may be different.

I had no issues with the set up -- got it all done in about two minutes. As for Fobo tracking me, Tesla's already doing that along with about 15 other vendors, so I just added another to a growing list. Escaping this is an impossibility in today's world. I can't stand Facebook and Twitter and want both to drop me off the radar screen. Wish me luck with that:)
 
I had trouble installing the first sensor for whatever reason. The app just kept saying installing but would never finish. Not sure what exactly fixed it but I turned wifi off my phone and turned my phone completely off and then back on and voila. The succeeding sensor installation went flawlessly. I'm liking it and I trust these more than the cheap gauge.
 
Some new information just came from FoboTire re pressure reading and setting up. This is what they reported:

1. Fobotire sensor will 'wake' up once it senses pressure and goes into pairing mode when a sensor is being installed onto the tire valve. We now discovered many valves are either blocked or partially defective resulting in pairing difficulty! Fobotire has potentially prevented mishap due to faulty valves in the field.


Users can either check their valves by releasing some air to detect 'hissing' sound, or a 'poop' sound when installing Fobotire sensor. If neither happen, please visit your mechanic and change the defective valves before starting your installation.


2. Fobotire works on Absolute Pressure principle whereas majority of handheld gauges work on Gauge Pressure principle. A user in Denver, Colorado should not attempt to 'calibrate' Fobotire readings using a handheld gauge which will now read a higher offset error due to a lower atmospheric pressure! Fobotire sensor has an internal formulation coupled with Absolute Pressure reading to display readings as if users are at sea-level, even though Fobo readings are taken at ANY altitudes, be it 5000 ft or 10000 ft! Hence users just need to fill air until Fobotire readings matches the placard pressure. Obviously at a higher altitude with lower ambient temperature, more air will need to be pumped into the tire to achieve the placard pressure, just like during winter. Users do not need, and must not offset Fobotire readings due to altitude changes since these readings will read as if the vehicle is at sea-level given a constant temperature. Try it!


3. During pairing process (1 incar + 4 sensors), phones that display bluetooth instability may encounter difficulty in pairing. Some phones work like a breeze as well. A quick countermeasure if to turn off and then turn on the phone bluetooth. Certain phones may even need a hard reboot to achieve a successful installation (we received this feedback from some iphone6 users). Fobotire will do more research into this phenomena (sounds like boiling the ocean!) and will provide future updates if a nice solution is found.
 
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