I’m reasonably competent in math and reading comprehension (maybe not memory) but I’ve had three Acuras over ten years and I still find their info system confusing. When I had to review it, I said to just make it intuitive like GM does. No problem with my Pontiac, Olds, Buick, but Acura? I do think the culture of the software designers comes into it somewhat. Some cultures like gadgets and others want things simple. That’s why I don’t like cameras.
IT’S FINALLY FIXED! Keith was correct. In his comments he included pics of page 3-33 of his op. manual which just happens to be just like mine. The switches inside the lower left quadrant of the steering wheel solved it. They are recessed and must be pulled up to actuate them. They have a number of functions and it is necessary to read very carefully to even find out that they can even change the Avg MPG display. **
** That same display screen can show a lot of different things besides MPG. The manual (in my opinion) was written by people who know a lot but don’t really convey their knowledge very well to people like myself who aren’t already informed on the subject which seems kinda counter-productive to me. ('nuf sed). So…I wish to once again say a big “THANK YOU” to all who responded and were kind enough to try to help. … I was around when the pocket calculator was invented… Now if I can just find the Op Manual for that thing…
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Lee, it was never broke. It would be nice if you marked your problem as solved . Maybe Keith will gain cyber points.
Speaking off topic of pocket calculators, when I first started work in 1974, I had a cost breakdown project every month. I did the 13 column work by hand for a month or so, then borrowed an adding machine from the accounting department. Tiring of that I bought my own TI small calculator. It cost me $80. Now they are about $2 with a solar charger. I appreciate technology.
That $80 in today’s money is $511! That was one expensive calculator. I waited for the HP engineering calculator to drop from $395 to $295 in 1972. That’s $1778 today. A whole lot of money, but the Reverse Polish Notation was worth it. I really appreciated RPN at the time. No need for it today, but you gotta respect the math prowess of the Poles.
And how many cyber points will I need to get a cup of coffee?
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Bing. I got a chuckle out of your comment. About '73-'74 I graduated to a desktop calculator to do my expense reports with. But…I was one of those (yes there are others) who used a calculator and then checked it’s calculations by hand because I didn’t fully trust technology.
I was teaching a class in telephone technology and covering the previous days homework. It was a simple math problem, one you would do in your head, but most of the students got it wrong, and all that got it wrong had the same wrong answer.
They were doing a study group after school and when they got to this problem, one student used a calculator. I don’t remember the details but he made an error when entering the data. Because he showed everyone else in the group how he got this answer, they all accepted it, even though all the rest of them thought it was wrong. They just didn’t want to argue with a calculator.
My daughters were not allowed to use a calculator until high school so that they would learn how to do the math without aids.
They hadn’t invented calculators when I was in high school so we did everything by hand. Even in college there was only one computer on campus for the science department. Once a month business majors got to use it to run cost scenarios. No word processors either so we typed everything on a “typewriter” (google it). No push button phones either, or cell phones. Wow. We did have cars though and running water. To my credit I was an early adopter on WP, desk tops etc. and bought as many as I could, and a buddy and I set up the first lan, fighting the main frame computer folks all the way. We won. Those were the years my friend.
We used slide rules in high school math and science classes, but in 1971 calculators started appearing. The teacher wanted to spend 2 weeks teaching us how to become experts at slide rules, but I couldn’t see how that made sense, giving the direction technology was heading. Of course this was lost on the teacher and we wasted 2 weeks learning slide rule expertise anyway. hmmmm … I wonder where my slide rule went? … lol .
I graduated HS in 1970. Most of that sounds very familiar. My 8th grade typing class was on fully manual typewriters! In 6th grade I was placed in advanced education. 5 students with 1 teacher. We were taught how to use a slide rule. If you handed me one now I would not know which end was which. Somewhat similar to the E6B manual aviation computer I was required to operate during my military flight training in 1978 as a aerial surveillance sensor operator/navigator.
The E6B flight computer, nicknamed the “whiz wheel” or “prayer wheel”, is a form of circular slide rule used in aviation and one of the very few analog calculating devices in widespread use in the 21st century. They are mostly used in flight training, because these flight computers have been replaced with electronic planning tools or software and websites that make these calculations for the pilots. These flight computers are used during flight planning (on the ground before takeoff) to aid in calculating fuel burn, wind correction, time en route, and other items. In the air, the flight computer can be used to calculate ground speed, estimated fuel burn and updated estimated time of arrival. The back is designed for wind vector solutions, i.e., determining how much the wind is affecting one’s speed and course.
Like the slide rule, another “if you don’t use it you lose it” skill.
I’m happy OP was able to solve their display problem with Keith’s assistance. Back in May 2010 I could not find instructions in the owner manual for resetting average MPG for my new Kia. I discovered after my first fill-up that it automatically reset. I’m not sure if the reset is triggered by the fuel tank float or the gauge but it works every time. I was momentarily confused when I left that gas station. It was located on a busy state highway with average speed of 60mph. I accelerated fairly hard to 60mph and the average MPG was about 5! Once I was cruising at 60mph/2,000rpm it increased, reading 33 MPG in about 6 miles. When I arrived at my destination with 4 miles of city driving it was 28 MPG. I manually checked MPG 4 times and it was to close to the display to worry about.
I find all of the memories mentioned in this thread about early calculators both interesting and amusing. Just look at all the things that have happened and are happening since then. Not to mention the price factor. Amazing. As a boy I bought a 2N107 transistor to make a single transistor radio to replace my crystal set. I paid over a dollar for it which was day’s pay on my paper route. I worked at Texas Instruments in Dallas in the Gov. Products division labs from Nov 1968 to Oct. 1973 on various airborne radar projects… A friend there bought one of the first handheld calculators and we were all really inspired. It had the tiny red LED dots for the readout. I can’t remember what he paid for it but it was well over $100 employee price, making it rather expensive in today’s dollars. I actually used to use a slide rule and I still have it but I’m sure I couldn’t do much with it now. Jack Kilby who pretty much was responsible for the invention of the integrated circuit was still at TI then. They built a new building there and hung a big banner on it that said “The house that Jack built”. Oh well. Aren’t memories fun?
Daughter born in 92, had to buy an expensive graphing calculator, then an ibook or whatever, There were no options, remember buying a dwell meter by choice, and one could still set points by gap if you did not want to upgrade.
@sgtrock21 Back to cars. I do believe that our Acura has a setting that will reset the mileage calculator every time. There is a whole host of stuff you have to set the way you want it like how long the lights will stay on and I think that’s part of it. It’s kind of a pain actually because you have to do it for both driver 1 and driver 2, so you get done with one and then can’t remember how to do it again for the other one. I want to reset my own though when I want to.
Back to planes. I was cleaning out my back garage and in the box with the Boy Scout stuff was my aeronautics materials. I took ground school in college for a physics credit. I didn’t have the money to actually do any flight training though after that. I 'spose I ought to at least look at it again but doubt if I’d be able to plot a flight. I think I did it to impress my dad.
OK that reminds me so I’ll go off the deep end. My dad had his pilots license and flew with the CAP in Wisconsin during the war when he worked in the ship yard. Back in the 30’s he drove a beer truck for a while and would save on hotels by sleeping in the truck. He read everything on flying and when he had enough money he took a lesson in Winona, MN. The instructor was Max Conrad, yeah the famous one but not yet famous. At any rate they were in the air and my dad was doing pretty good handling the plane, and Max asked him how long he had been flying. He looked at his watch and said about 5 minutes now. So Max pointed down at the ground where he had that tri-motor Ford and said if you come to work for me I’ll teach you how to fly that. Max went on to start an airline for a while but my mother was deathly afraid of flying and made him quit flying except for the CAP and an occasional flight around town with guys he worked for with a plane. Later in life Max wrote a book called “Into the Wind” about his life in the air. I did manage to get a copy from the library and was kind of fun reading about him. Seeing how many times he crashed it was probably a good thing my dad never hooked up with him.
My 2017 Accord resets the trip mileage meter every time I fill up and resets the cumulative mileage meter when I reset both trip odometers.
I still have my dwell meter, feeler gauges and timing light as well as a brake adjusting tool. “Good ole days” … (that I am now happy to live without) ** **
Living large you were, I still have the bent screwdriver for adjusting brakes. Wonder if you can even bend screwdrivers these days, 
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