80 replies to this topic

[Carlos W]

wow, just wow

[silve1999]

Love them, where did you get the switches made up?

[Marcos Controls]

I had them made in china. I will be planning to sell them as complete kit into the new year after I finish a few months of testing. I have a few spare sets due to the minimum order requirements.

[Ethel]

Great work, can we have a pwm controlled heater fan next 

 

Is the fog dependent on the headlights, same as the original? I suppose it will be if it's using the same wiring on the car.

Also, (feel free to ignore this it's your project) many won't often use the sidelights without the headlights so an Android style "long press" might be a more natural way to turn the headlights on. You could use a similar strategy to give the option of a timed delay on lights off for parking up in unlit garages etc.

[Marcos Controls]

Thanks for the feedback, always appreciated. I've already did a prototype pwm control for the heater letting you select 5 different levels of flow with the button colour changing from blue through to red. I've also got a 6 switch panel already made which would suit the SPi/Mpi cars with no need for the choke.

 

Just need to finalise the symbol that goes onto the heater button before I can have it made.

 

Yes the fog light is only programmed to be available when the headlights are on and will automatically switch off if you turn off the headlights but will not automatically come on again unless you push the button again. Although you can toggle the fog light on and off when the headlights are on.

 

As for the long press, I'm not sure what the MOT requirement would be for the side lights. Do you need to be able to turn on only the sidelights if required?

It would be easy to program in a long press for a time delay off on the headlights for parking.

 

I've tried to design a flexible system and most variations would be possible without too much work.

 

Cheers

 

Marc

[miniboy1993]

I love these :) you shouldn't of posted this

[jamesquintin]

I'm always continually amazed what people can come up with. I was thinking about making some sort of box that could connect to the cars internal wiring (using the standard connectors) and add things the little details you get on modern cars like:

Interior light stays on for 30 seconds after the door is shut, or until the car starts

 

Door chime for when the lights are on and the door opens

 

Intermittent wipers for Non MPI (double tap down on the wiper stalk to start/stop intermittent)

 

Would that board be able to do all of those things?

Q
 

[Ethel]

That's the beauty of using a programmable controller like Arduino 

 

Yes, you need a sides only setting, they're supposed to be used for parking on unlit roads - not that anyone probably does that anymore. 

 

My idea was along the lines of:

 

Off

momentary press - sides on

momentary press - sides off

 or...

Off (or sides)

long press - sides & main beam

momentary press would still turn off both, or a long press with either sides of headlight would give a delayed off. You could even use the length of press to control the length of delay, but that's probably adding unnecessary complexity - some feedback (beep or flashing) would be good to say you've made a long press though.

 

 

You've thought the fog light out well, I like that it stays off if you kill the headlights. There is a requirement for a tell tale to show it's on, so some feedback from some MoT testers would be good, sounds like you have something at least as good as the original Delta switch though.

 

I wonder if you could get any extra functionality into the brake test switch? You could program out the bulb test function with an ignition on lighting up of it, or all, the switches.

 

 

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James, you could do all of that in a similar fashion to Marc. Though there are off the shelf solutions already available.

[Marcos Controls]

I'll have a think about, the possibilities are endless   , really depends on how many spare channels I have left once I firm up the initial test panel, but adding buzzers, other timer functions are easy enough

 

As for the tell tale I have the ability to change any of the button colours at any time, to any 16 bit colour.

 

I took this today but the colours don't really show up well on my phone camera but it gives you an idea of what's possible.

 

Marc

 

 

 

 

[pusb]

I'll have a think about, the possibilities are endless   , really depends on how many spare channels I have left once I firm up the initial test panel, but adding buzzers, other timer functions are easy enough

 

As for the tell tale I have the ability to change any of the button colours at any time, to any 16 bit colour.

 

I took this today but the colours don't really show up well on my phone camera but it gives you an idea of what's possible.

 

Marc

 

 

 

 

 

Looks very good, when/where will you be selling these?

 

Also how long till you have the heater pwm's ready to be sold? I would be very interested in one of those with winter coming.

[Marcos Controls]

I don't envisage them being ready until Dec/Jan and only after I've had a chance to thoroughly test them out and iron out any problems that will no doubt arise!    

[Ethel]

I spotted a wee error in my logic, you couldn't have a long press doing a delayed off and turn on main beams when the sidelights are on, but you could have the delayed off just for headlights. I suppose there are also front spot, driving & fogs that need switching, now that is a brain teaser to work out for no extra switches.

 

I was just wondering if testers would accept the colour change as a separate tell tale, the original switch exposes that extra little window to the bulb - though there are other production car fog switches that just get brighter, not sure if they all have a warning light in the instrument panel too.

[Marcos Controls]

It's easy enough to program one switch to register different lengths of presses, or sequences of presses, which is why I went for the sequential lights in the beginning, which also saves the need for 2 light switches as I seem to see with a lot of people who use the 'Savage' switches.

 

I had a quick read through the IVA regs and as long as the backlight and the activated switch colour do not tend to cause confusion there should be no problem, but please people feel free to correct me as it's not my area of expertise.

 

The backlight was only intended more for asthetics than function, without the backlight they would be the same as the original switches.The backlight will be a very dim white or whatever colour is desired but will not conflict with either green, amber or red activated button colours

[jamesquintin]

I'm big into keeping cars looking standard, is it possible to use this system but keep the original switches? I'm imagining something like using the brake test switch housing as the base for the heated window and the fog light, as this switch is a push once (the standard switches stay on until you switch them off)

Eg if you had a brake test switch with the heated rear 'cover' on it, you can push the switch once and the heated screen would stay on for 10 mins (and lit up)

 

Make sense?

Q

[Marcos Controls]

I'm big into keeping cars looking standard, is it possible to use this system but keep the original switches? I'm imagining something like using the brake test switch housing as the base for the heated window and the fog light, as this switch is a push once (the standard switches stay on until you switch them off)

Eg if you had a brake test switch with the heated rear 'cover' on it, you can push the switch once and the heated screen would stay on for 10 mins (and lit up)

 

Make sense?

Q

 

Yes, it makes sense - well to me anyway. If you can doctor the switch into a 'momentary' push button from it's original latching switch then it wouldn't be a problem to use them.

 

I appreciate the wish to keep things standard looking, I've got an old 1950's car which is 100% original and wouldn't want to change a thing on it. 

 

Marc