Functions
Because event recorders are integrated with most car-borne systems, they are an attractive target for enhanced diagnostic and control functions. Some event recorders feature outputs controlling penalty brake or emergency brake (train) systems, and speedometers.
Data storage can be provided by magnetic tape, battery-backed RAM and, more recently, non-volatile EEPROM or Flash Memory overwritten in a FIFO continuous loop. The data is intended for use in the investigation of accidents and incidents but is also used to monitor traction unit performance, the competence of drivers, and general state of the train over a period of time.
Read more about this topic: Train Event Recorder
Famous quotes containing the word functions:
“Mark the babe
Not long accustomed to this breathing world;
One that hath barely learned to shape a smile,
Though yet irrational of soul, to grasp
With tiny finger—to let fall a tear;
And, as the heavy cloud of sleep dissolves,
To stretch his limbs, bemocking, as might seem,
The outward functions of intelligent man.”
—William Wordsworth (1770–1850)
“If photography is allowed to stand in for art in some of its functions it will soon supplant or corrupt it completely thanks to the natural support it will find in the stupidity of the multitude. It must return to its real task, which is to be the servant of the sciences and the arts, but the very humble servant, like printing and shorthand which have neither created nor supplanted literature.”
—Charles Baudelaire (1821–1867)