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How much? :-P
Also more details - it just dims the lights on/off, rather than a straight on/off?
Dome Light Fade-in and Fade-Out Successful!
Since my buddy and I started working on this project, we've ran into a bunch of issues with various cars. Most of the time it was a problem caused with the car not having "digital friendly" grounds that never really went to 0V, so it made our design problematic. An optoisolator fixed pretty much all trigger issues. But it made the PCB bigger =[
The design is fairly simple. We put it "inline" with the line that powers the dome light when the door is open. We used the input as a trigger and the wire going to the bulb would be controlled by the MOSFET (which is controlled by the MCU). There are pretty much no discrete parts in our design, so we this allowed us to keep it small and adjust the timing to the split-second.
We also made two variations. Low-side and high-side control. Low-side works on cars where the bulbs turn on when a ground is fed. The high-side works on cars where the bulbs turn on when 12Vs if fed to them. Most cars have the low-side variant.
Tested on: Volvo 850 (pre '96, '96+ fade already), previous generation Honda Accords, Civics and Acura Integras.
We received our pre-made PCBs just recently (even though my car still has one of the development protoboard ones) and they are smaller than ever...
Here's what it accomplished:
Video 1
Video 2
Video 3
Doesn't seem like much, but it's a nice little feature
And here's our first REAL PCB... (the pic doesn't have the heatsink shown, I took that off for the photo). I must say, it feels nice having your own PCB...
Comments? Suggestions?
How much? :-P
Also more details - it just dims the lights on/off, rather than a straight on/off?
We're still figuring out expenses and such (considering the we now get real PCBs instead of protoboards $$$). You have no idea how many Atmel AVRs we killedOriginally Posted by KyleYankan
Plus, I don't want to sell them here until I get the okay to do so from the admins.
Yep, it changes the straight on/off to a fade on/off. A small but "comforting" difference. Definitely easier on your eyes at night.
Aren't you already selling these on another forum? :-P
Well, we had the first revision work fine for Volvos, which I offered at a majorly discount price (literally almost at cost) to the VS forum members... Recently we corrected problems for Hondas (power issues, which were problematic!). So now it's all dandy for others to use
This is pretty interesting, although I already have that feature
The coolest thing is that we can adjust the time in the code. We just shorten or lengthen the for() loop that controls the PWMThis is pretty interesting, although I already have that feature
It's one of those features that you truly don't appreciate unless you've been in a car w/o it. Nice little subtle touch.
I can't imagine having a car w/o this feature anymore
Umm... ok... so it fades out. What's so special about that
It fades in and then gradually fades out instead of the instant on/off. To me it's just a nice thing to have. Doesn't have much utility other than for aesthetic purposes. However, it has one benefit: it's a lot easier on the eyes at night when a light goes on gradually instead of just flashing on.Umm... ok... so it fades out. What's so special about that
As mentioned, it's one of those features that you only appreciate if you have it for a while and then it happens to go away
Umm... ok... so it fades out. What's so special about that
You mean that teapot of yours doesn't have this???
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