to the electrical guys..

[etlsport]

so I have a mod in mind.. but not sure how to pull it off, was hoping someone here would be able to help

nobody can ever find my door handles at night.. so what I want to do is install LEDs inside the door handles so they are lit up.. thats the easy part and its already done.. the hard part is im not sure how to wire them so that when i take the vx out of acc mode (ie turn the car off) the lights turn on for 30-60 seconds and then turn back off

i have a fuse box thats controlled by the ignition so it would be easy enough to set up a relay where power to it opens the circuit and taking the power from it (pulling the key) will close the circuit.. but i dont know how to control the length of time... i can make my own circuit boards and such.. just not sure what i would need to do to make it work..

any ideas?

[twistedsymphony]

ok so you basically want the LEDs to turn on for 30 seconds after you've turned the car off correct?

That shouldn't be too difficult.

You can use the always fun, easy to find and incredibly cheap 555 timer and then wire it up in "Monostable" mode

for more information you can look here: http://www.kpsec.freeuk.com/555timer.htm

you can use the ACC line as your trigger and then the output can go straight to your LEDs...

Depending on how robust the specific 555 chip is the voltage supplied by your cars battery might be too much for it, in which case you might want to consider some small bit of additional circuitry such as a transformer or power regulator to absorb any spikes and dips the electrical system might experience.

You can get a 555 timer and probably everything else you need at your local radio shack for a couple bucks... (you can get it for pennies online).

Feel free to shoot me a PM if you have any other questions, I do electronics stuff all the time. the 555 is a great beginners tool for electronics, nearly every class on electronics will have you using a 555 and an LED in various configurations, even that link I posted above is from a highschool electronics club

[circmand]

If you have the lights go off after 30 seconds how do your passenfers find the handles when you all come back to the car from dinner etc? I mean when they get out they do not need the handles they need it when they are coming back so I do not see what the lights accomplish unless you wire them to your remote and they turn on when you unlock the car doors.

[Ldub]

Get a couple VX/Trooper domelights from a salvage yard & use the guts out of those to stay on, then stage down...the only drawback would be creating a dummy load or leaving the bulb in, so it would work properly.

[etlsport]

i meant the interior door handles.. exterior is no problem because i know where it is and i always open it for my ladies anyway


dub.. thats an idea i could probably come up with a way to use a stock circuit board from the dome lights.. only downside to them is i know for a fact that those dimmers are really rough on LEDs.. but i could look around for other cars that have similar timers without dimming.. then tie it in.. hmmmm

[Techy-D]

I'm not sure what size of capacitor you would need, but if these LED's are drawing low enough current, you could just put a capacitor in parallel with your LED/Resistor. When the 12VDC goes away, the capacitor would continue to feed the LED till it ran out of juice (It would even give you the slow fade effect). Just an idea.

I also you could check out this idea: Just look under "Power off time delay".
http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homep...wden/page2.htm

[twistedsymphony]

for a fade effect you'd need to use a capacitor and transistor. that's pretty easy to do as well.

it's a more simplified version of this circuit

I also you could check out this idea: Just look under "Power off time delay".
http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homep...wden/page2.htm

That wouldn't be bad if his desire was for the LEDs to be on 100% of the time while the VX is running and then just stay on for X amount of time after he shuts it off.

If the intent is for the LEDs to turn on when the VX is shut off and remain on for a minute then the 555 is the more appropriate option.

As for Dome lights.... most of the time the timer is built into a special relay that controls all of the interior lights, not just the dome light.

[Knigh7s]

I'm not sure what size of capacitor you would need, but if these LED's are drawing low enough current, you could just put a capacitor in parallel with your LED/Resistor. When the 12VDC goes away, the capacitor would continue to feed the LED till it ran out of juice (It would even give you the slow fade effect). Just an idea.

I also you could check out this idea: Just look under "Power off time delay".
http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homep...wden/page2.htm

The cap is what I was going to suggest, It would be the easiest and prolly the cheapest route to take...

[tom4bren]

Eric,

Why don't you just drive the door handle LEDs from the circuit you installed for your Dome LEDs? They come on with the Dome & off with the Dome. Isn't that delay adequate? I know it'll be a pain to run the wires but it would save the effort of circuit design.

Tom

[Ldub]

As for Dome lights.... most of the time the timer is built into a special relay that controls all of the interior lights, not just the dome light.

Last I checked, unless aftermarket bits have been added, the dome light is "all of the interior lights"...
With the exception of the instrument cluster, glove box & ash tray, none of which dim wit da dome.

[twistedsymphony]

Last I checked, unless aftermarket bits have been added, the dome light is "all of the interior lights"...
With the exception of the instrument cluster, glove box & ash tray, none of which dim wit da dome.

I just checked the FSM (18D-13 and 18D-14) and it look like the "Room Lamp" assembly on the VX does actually have the timing relay built into it.

This is different from other cars I've worked on where kick panel and, map lights, or a 2nd dome light would illuminate as well.

Looking at the circuit the dome lights get triggered from the PRESCIENCE of Power. when you hit your keyless entry button or open a door it sends power to the dome light which will stay on for as long as there is power and fade out when the power disappears. If you use a dome light you'll have to figure out a way to emulate the keyless entry module which looks to have it's own timer to provide power to the dome for a few sections before allowing it to fade off.

if you were to make this work for the door handles you would have to find some way to emulate the timed pulse that the keyless entry provides (or as if you opened the door for a few seconds then closed it). Really it'd only be useful for the fade effect as you still need to create a "pulse" with something else to trigger it after the car is turned off and before you open the door.

I don't know why everyone is ignoring my 555 timer suggestion, it would serously take a beginner less than 10 minutes to solder it together

[Ldub]

I just checked the FSM (18D-13 and 18D-14) and it look like the "Room Lamp" assembly on the VX does actually have the timing relay built into it.

This is different from other cars I've worked on where kick panel and, map lights, or a 2nd dome light would illuminate as well.

That's where our techniques vary, you look at the manual, while I have had mine apart & modded it to work in my overhead console, while also powering the transformer for the blue "rope light" that accents the perimeter of the console. Now both the dome, & the rope light, stage down when the door is closed...
Not saying either technique is better, just different ways of approaching the same set of circumstances.

if you were to make this work for the door handles you would have to find some way to emulate the timed pulse that the keyless entry provides (or as if you opened the door for a few seconds then closed it). Really it'd only be useful for the fade effect as you still need to create a "pulse" with something else to trigger it after the car is turned off and before you open the door.

Very true, I hadn't realized ETL was talking about the interior mechanism when I first brought this up.

I don't know why everyone is ignoring my 555 timer suggestion, it would serously take a beginner less than 10 minutes to solder it together

I don't think anyone is intentionally ignoring your 555 suggestion, the fact is, many of us (I include myself in this statement) don't have anywhere NEAR your depth of expertise & experience in matters pertaining to electronics...
The schematic you posted could just as well be in Chinese or any number of other languages I'm illiterate in...
I can barely solder wiring extensions onto the harness under the hood in half an hour, I can only imagine the mess I could make of a circuit board.

[twistedsymphony]

Soldering some chips and other components to a small proto-board is actually EASIER than doing stuff like harness work. It look more difficult but really it's not.

If you don't mind spending a little more you can buy whats called a "bread-board" which will let you build a prototype of your circuit by just plugging in the parts. NO SOLDERING REQUIRED



it's as easy as building stuff with legos.

Electronics are easy once you understand the basics. If you simply learn to read a circuit diagram you can build just about anything, you don't even need to understand the math behind it or why it works... All the diagram tells you is what parts are used and how they all connect together.

a 555 timer circuit is quite simple and if you're even slightly interested in learning to build circuits or other little electronic projects then buying yourself a bread board a pack of resistor, a pac of capacitors, a pack of LEDs and a couple of 555 timers you'll have a lot of fun and realize just how easy this stuff is.

I didn't even get into electronics until I was in college and I had a friend who was an EE, I had him explain what the different symbols were in circuit diagrams and it was a total eureka moment. spending $15 on a bread board and some pre-cut wire I stared building all kinds of stuff..


That site I linked up top is awesome for beginners...
check out this page for a quick list of basic components... http://www.kpsec.freeuk.com/symbol.htm

you can also go here: http://www.kpsec.freeuk.com/compon.htm
to see a comparison of what the symbols look like compared to the real life components (in most cases they're very similar)

after looking at that, take a look at the diagram I posted again... it's really very simple.

I'm happy to help answer questions on this stuff. Knowing how to read circuit diagrams will open up a world of possibilities for modifying your car.

[Ldub]

Soldering some chips and other components to a small proto-board is actually EASIER than doing stuff like harness work. It look more difficult but really it's not.

If you don't mind spending a little more you can buy whats called a "bread-board" which will let you build a prototype of your circuit by just plugging in the parts. NO SOLDERING REQUIRED



it's as easy as building stuff with legos.

Electronics are easy once you understand the basics. If you simply learn to read a circuit diagram you can build just about anything, you don't even need to understand the math behind it or why it works... All the diagram tells you is what parts are used and how they all connect together.

a 555 timer circuit is quite simple and if you're even slightly interested in learning to build circuits or other little electronic projects then buying yourself a bread board a pack of resistor, a pac of capacitors, a pack of LEDs and a couple of 555 timers you'll have a lot of fun and realize just how easy this stuff is.

I didn't even get into electronics until I was in college and I had a friend who was an EE, I had him explain what the different symbols were in circuit diagrams and it was a total eureka moment. spending $15 on a bread board and some pre-cut wire I stared building all kinds of stuff..


That site I linked up top is awesome for beginners...
check out this page for a quick list of basic components... http://www.kpsec.freeuk.com/symbol.htm

you can also go here: http://www.kpsec.freeuk.com/compon.htm
to see a comparison of what the symbols look like compared to the real life components (in most cases they're very similar)

after looking at that, take a look at the diagram I posted again... it's really very simple.

I'm happy to help answer questions on this stuff. Knowing how to read circuit diagrams will open up a world of possibilities for modifying your car.

COOL !...Thanks, I'll look into that later, gotta go work now.

[twistedsymphony]

If you're interested in picking this stuff up here's what you can get from RadioShack to get you Started.

looking at radioshack's website you can pickup a bread board for about $8
http://www.radioshack.com/product/in...entPage=search

you'll also want to buy a set of pre-cut wires for the board another $7
http://www.radioshack.com/product/in...entPage=search

this will give you oodles of wires pre-cut and stripped for easy use on a bread-board, trust me, it's worth it.

Then pickup a battery holder of some sort (need to power your circuit), I recommend one that holds 4 AA batteries since that will give you roughly 5V of power which is perfect for most projects. http://www.radioshack.com/product/in...entPage=search

If you're building car circuits you'll also want to pick up a "7805" power regulator. Which will take the 12V from the car as an input and output 5V for your circuit. http://www.radioshack.com/search/ind...regulator&sr=1

you'll only need to use this part when hooking it up to your car, this component is very popular more info here: http://www.kpsec.freeuk.com/powersup.htm#regulator One thing to be weary of is this part can get hot since it burns off the extra energy as heat. The 555 circuit probably wont draw much though so it might not even be a concern for this project.

Then just pickup whatever other parts you need for your particular project and go to town plugging stuff in and experimenting.

if you really want you could just leave the bread board right in your car, lots of people leave their projects like that and most bread boards have double sided sticky tape on the bottom for just such an occasion. I would recommend transferring your circuit to a regard proto-board and soldering it in place once you're happy with it though, since it's a lot more permanent and you don't have to worry about things falling out, then you can re-use your bread board for your next project.