Idea: one press up/down windows
Discussion
Seems to me 95% of the time I touch the leccy windows I'm either winding them all the way up or winding them all the way down.
And since they moved the door openers to the radio console I have two unused switches on the leccy windows (i.e. when you press them).
How difficult would it be to have some bit of electrical jiggery pokery that changed this button (which I assume is now totally disconnected from anything) to wind the window all the way up in one(that bit should be easy as alarm does same thing), and down in one (maybe not so easy as nothing does that at the moment.. though door opening does it a bit so probably just needs a pulse applying for X secinds kind of thing).
I'd gladly pay cash for that. The cool factor of farting about with twiddling those knobs at just the right rotational velocity wears out after a while.
stu
And since they moved the door openers to the radio console I have two unused switches on the leccy windows (i.e. when you press them).
How difficult would it be to have some bit of electrical jiggery pokery that changed this button (which I assume is now totally disconnected from anything) to wind the window all the way up in one(that bit should be easy as alarm does same thing), and down in one (maybe not so easy as nothing does that at the moment.. though door opening does it a bit so probably just needs a pulse applying for X secinds kind of thing).
I'd gladly pay cash for that. The cool factor of farting about with twiddling those knobs at just the right rotational velocity wears out after a while.
stu
I doubt it would be that difficult to do. Producing whatever electronics you need is the easy bit. The difficult bit is finding out how the car is wired up.
I might be being thick, but I nosed around on the web and couldn't really find a wiring diagram, although I did find a couple of books that said they had wiring diagrams.
The sure fire way to deal with the problem is to look at the car and trace the wiring. One of the factors being that the wire you need to get at is usually in a place where it's not that practical to get at (i.e. in the door, with electronics in the body of the car).
Usually the wiring diagrams themselves don't tell you that sort of thing.
Once you have figured out the best way to deal with the existing wiring, the actual electronics themselves ought to be a piece of cake.
The best approach is to have a current monitor on the motor, that detects when the window has reached it's endstop. The benefit of this approach is that if something fouls the window as it closes, it doesn't get severed.
The timer approach could also work, but the difficulty with that is that if the mechanisim gets stiffer, the window winds more slowly, and may not fully close. This is really important if the one button that fully closes or opens the window, depends on the window being fully open or closed to start with!
Another problem with the timer approach is that one might be tempted to have a long timeout, and just leave the motor stalled at the endstop. With time this can have the effect of killing the motor, and wiring, because a stalled motor will draw considerable current.
I might be being thick, but I nosed around on the web and couldn't really find a wiring diagram, although I did find a couple of books that said they had wiring diagrams.
The sure fire way to deal with the problem is to look at the car and trace the wiring. One of the factors being that the wire you need to get at is usually in a place where it's not that practical to get at (i.e. in the door, with electronics in the body of the car).
Usually the wiring diagrams themselves don't tell you that sort of thing.
Once you have figured out the best way to deal with the existing wiring, the actual electronics themselves ought to be a piece of cake.
The best approach is to have a current monitor on the motor, that detects when the window has reached it's endstop. The benefit of this approach is that if something fouls the window as it closes, it doesn't get severed.
The timer approach could also work, but the difficulty with that is that if the mechanisim gets stiffer, the window winds more slowly, and may not fully close. This is really important if the one button that fully closes or opens the window, depends on the window being fully open or closed to start with!
Another problem with the timer approach is that one might be tempted to have a long timeout, and just leave the motor stalled at the endstop. With time this can have the effect of killing the motor, and wiring, because a stalled motor will draw considerable current.
I cannot understand why this isn't standard. Even my base model Clio has one touch window winders. Usually, the time that you want the window all the way up or down is when you need to put your arm out the window - such as paying tolls. It's tricky trying to accelerate away through the gears and wind the window up at the same time.
Having a degree in Electrical and Electronic Engineering I feel I should have a better idea of what is required here than I do.. obviously money on education well spent :-(
still, don't seem rocket science.
1) up should be doable as alarm does it anyway (i.e.it interfaces into an input on the window controller that is not pulsed like the winder but must apply a constant 12v to get it to wind up) However it does it, we could do it
2) down is trickier, but a timer or current sensor would work.
Button wise... it used to open the doors. Now it doesn't. I therefore deduce that it ain't connected to anything any more. Even if it is, it does nothing. And the connectors for these buttons are easy to get to as they are just gonna be on the back of the windows controls under the centre console which is a peice of p1ss to remove.
So we have a microswitch... and a wish for it to then cause window up (till stopped by current or timer). Press again causes window down (till stopped by current or timer). So a simple logic circuit will provide this with current sensing or timer on the end.
Not saying I could build it.. but for a 'real' electrical engineer should be a piece of piss.
I'd be suprised if total cost of components more than a couple of quid. But I'd bet LOADS of owners out there would pay say 50 quid for it.
A business opportunity if ever I've seen one.
stu
still, don't seem rocket science.
1) up should be doable as alarm does it anyway (i.e.it interfaces into an input on the window controller that is not pulsed like the winder but must apply a constant 12v to get it to wind up) However it does it, we could do it
2) down is trickier, but a timer or current sensor would work.
Button wise... it used to open the doors. Now it doesn't. I therefore deduce that it ain't connected to anything any more. Even if it is, it does nothing. And the connectors for these buttons are easy to get to as they are just gonna be on the back of the windows controls under the centre console which is a peice of p1ss to remove.
So we have a microswitch... and a wish for it to then cause window up (till stopped by current or timer). Press again causes window down (till stopped by current or timer). So a simple logic circuit will provide this with current sensing or timer on the end.
Not saying I could build it.. but for a 'real' electrical engineer should be a piece of piss.
I'd be suprised if total cost of components more than a couple of quid. But I'd bet LOADS of owners out there would pay say 50 quid for it.
A business opportunity if ever I've seen one.
stu
How does your standard up / down switch work?
You mentioned a rotary knob or something. Is it still just up/down switch contacts, or does it have some variable rate thing going on?
I'd have thought that it would be a normal up/down switch, but I know TVR have a penchant for whizzy electronic stuff.
I have the same problem with my '87 911. I'd thought about this for that before. I have all the wiring diagrams and a reference vehicle, so it's easy for that. It might be possible to devise it in such a way as there is a functional overlap between the different applications.
>> Edited by dilbert on Tuesday 12th April 19:45
You mentioned a rotary knob or something. Is it still just up/down switch contacts, or does it have some variable rate thing going on?
I'd have thought that it would be a normal up/down switch, but I know TVR have a penchant for whizzy electronic stuff.
I have the same problem with my '87 911. I'd thought about this for that before. I have all the wiring diagrams and a reference vehicle, so it's easy for that. It might be possible to devise it in such a way as there is a functional overlap between the different applications.
>> Edited by dilbert on Tuesday 12th April 19:45
perhaps summit like this would work:
www.a1electric.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=530T&Category_Code=
www.a1electric.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=530T&Category_Code=
here's a how to for a kit for a 993 (maybe applicable to your 964?).
So I reckon summit like this would work...
http://p-car.com/diy/ard/kit/
So I reckon summit like this would work...
http://p-car.com/diy/ard/kit/
Nice one, sorts my problem nicely! That was exactly the functionality I was thinking of.
It is American though.
(Support the UK economy)
I'm not sure it would work if you have some kind of rotary control though. I'm still not really all that clear how the Tiv window winders work, but I guess that's not my problem now!
Have fun.
You could try the guy who's just fixed CharlieAlpha66's Chimera alarm. He's just had a really good review. Search on the Chimera forum, TVR meta alarm.
Alternatively:
www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&f=8&t=170643
It is American though.
(Support the UK economy)
I'm not sure it would work if you have some kind of rotary control though. I'm still not really all that clear how the Tiv window winders work, but I guess that's not my problem now!
Have fun.
You could try the guy who's just fixed CharlieAlpha66's Chimera alarm. He's just had a really good review. Search on the Chimera forum, TVR meta alarm.
Alternatively:
www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&f=8&t=170643
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