Permanent Traction Override Switch

[mig86]

Originally Posted by stugray

Awesome! But according to mig86, that was too much trouble so you must have done it wrong

How many lines of code?
And how come you didnt use the Arduino IDE (just curious)

First up, Good job Joshb86! I like seeing people doing things themselves.

I think my comments in this thread have been totally misunderstood by some.
I'll keep it short but try and clear up:
1. It was others telling me I had wasted my time because it only takes a few seconds to hold the button down.
2. The comments about micro vs discrete were based on me already having the PCB's that did the job I needed. I wasn't trying to battle out which was was best, but did feel like my approach was being attacked as sub optimal. I had tested robust hardware on hand that did what I needed, so I used it.

Anyway, I want this to be positive and collaborative.

I'm still interested in the CAN side of things (since this is my day job).
I'll try and get some time to record and share the CAN trace for the peddle dance.

From my work experience I would bet there is a command to engage this mode via CAN that would be used for development purposes, but it would be hit and miss trying to guess it.

[joshb86]

Originally Posted by mig86

First up, Good job Joshb86! I like seeing people doing things themselves.

I think my comments in this thread have been totally misunderstood by some.
I'll keep it short but try and clear up:
1. It was others telling me I had wasted my time because it only takes a few seconds to hold the button down.
2. The comments about micro vs discrete were based on me already having the PCB's that did the job I needed. I wasn't trying to battle out which was was best, but did feel like my approach was being attacked as sub optimal. I had tested robust hardware on hand that did what I needed, so I used it.

Anyway, I want this to be positive and collaborative.

I'm still interested in the CAN side of things (since this is my day job).
I'll try and get some time to record and share the CAN trace for the peddle dance.

From my work experience I would bet there is a command to engage this mode via CAN that would be used for development purposes, but it would be hit and miss trying to guess it.

@mig86 a CAN trace would be fantastic if you get the time. I'll pitch in with what I can to help automate a pedal dance.

About to go finalize my install.

[stugray]

Originally Posted by mig86

2. The comments about micro vs discrete were based on me already having the PCB's that did the job I needed. I wasn't trying to battle out which was was best, but did feel like my approach was being attacked as sub optimal. I had tested robust hardware on hand that did what I needed, so I used it.

Anyway, I want this to be positive and collaborative.
.

Thanks for joining back in.

I think there was just confusion on both sides.
I kept posting more information because from my perspective you did not understand what I was suggesting.
It was your comments about increasing parts count or soldering SMD.

As you can see what I was suggesting just works right out of the box with lower parts count and less soldering (and NO SMD soldering).

So now that josh86 has demonstrated the simplicity, I can stand down now.

I think the beetle could be used to do a TON of things in these cars such as: fancy relay controls, pedal dance, dataogger, CAN bus sniffer, digital gauge etc.
And the beetle is just the tip of the Arduino iceberg.

FWIW - a decent quadcopter will usually have the equivalent of 5-10 of the same chip as the beetle in it.

[joshb86]

Here are a couple more photos. First is of the prototype(not super pretty) pre car install. The second is the unit in the car with VSC wired, automotive step down wired and the toggle switch wired for final testing before the complete install.

I also have a couple videos I'll be uploading soon.

[USN.Spence]

Aurdino is so expensive. Back in high school I programmed picaxe microchips and made my own pcb's by transferring ink to a blank board and etching the traces with mutaric acid. Here's the link to the chips. If I knew what I needed to tap into, I could help get involved with a plug and play. http://www.picaxe.com/Hardware/PICAX...crocontroller/

[joshb86]

Originally Posted by USN.Spence

Aurdino is so expensive. Back in high school I programmed picaxe microchips and made my own pcb's by transferring ink to a blank board and etching the traces with mutaric acid. Here's the link to the chips. If I knew what I needed to tap into, I could help get involved with a plug and play. http://www.picaxe.com/Hardware/PICAX...crocontroller/

@USN.Spence This board was $7... I think you're thinking of the larger boards.

[joshb86]

Here's the first video. Testing in the car before the full install.

[ame="http://youtu.be/UpbIS4W99SI"]http://youtu.be/UpbIS4W99SI[/ame]

[USN.Spence]

Originally Posted by joshb86

@USN.Spence This board was $7... I think you're thinking of the larger boards.

I'm not too familiar with aurdino, I just know that they're fairly pricey. Just throwing an idea out there.

[joshb86]

Originally Posted by USN.Spence

I'm not too familiar with aurdino, I just know that they're fairly pricey. Just throwing an idea out there.

Ah. I don't know anything about picaxe, but looks like it would also do the job.

[USN.Spence]

Originally Posted by joshb86

Ah. I don't know anything about picaxe, but looks like it would also do the job.

If you can write a batch file, you can use picaxe. Super simple programming

[joshb86]

Full install demo!

[ame="http://youtu.be/73TQVR1-mDk"]http://youtu.be/73TQVR1-mDk[/ame]

[USN.Spence]

Originally Posted by joshb86

Full install demo!

Can you post schematics?

[stugray]

Originally Posted by USN.Spence

Can you post schematics?

@joshb86 - Yes please do!

I was curious if we would even need the transistor.
Have you measured how much current flows to ground when the switch is closed?

If it is less than 40mA, then a digital input on the beetle can sink up to 40mA.

[joshb86]

Originally Posted by stugray

@joshb86 - Yes please do!

I was curious if we would even need the transistor.
Have you measured how much current flows to ground when the switch is closed?

If it is less than 40mA, then a digital input on the beetle can sink up to 40mA.

You do need a transistor on the VSC. Without it the digital pin even at low still sets off the VSC mode.

Sadly... I honestly don't know how to do a schematic lol. I can mostly read one now, but until this project I've never used a resistor or transistor nor did I even know what they did : / I just went trial by error and learned along the way reading what I could to figure out what I needed. I can explain it though.....

Toggle switch Post 1 - From switch runs to the ground on the beetle and the digital pin(D9 in my case). I then had to bridge a resistor between the ground and D9 because the fluctuating signal.

Toggle switch Post 2 - From switch runs to +5V on the beetle.

For the VSC side - Transistor base leg on the VSC pin of the beetle(D11 in my case), emitter leg I put to the ground on the power side of the board since it's right next to D11 and the collector leg to the green VSC wire on the car.

For power since I have a switch which cuts ACC to the car during my race events, I bought an automotive 12vDC to 5vDC step down on amazon($7). I pulled power to the step down from the ACC wire to the ignition before where I placed my acc cut off switch.

I'd like to do a detailed how-to which I'll learn how to do a proper schematic for and include some pic heavy instructions.