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auto off lights
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hey, my dad has a 02 aztek, and i kind of like his auto on/off lights, for the exterior.. anyone know of a way i can wire up a system similar to that, for my 95 EJ? i have a habit of turning my lights on, on my way in to work, and leaving them on, once i get there, and am out of my car.. what i'm thinking, is have them on, for, like, 1 minute, then fade off.. and maybe even see if i can get the interior lights to dim off, similarly to GM vehicles, too
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Re: auto off lights
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Thatd be very cool to do. Id like to know also...
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Re: auto off lights
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me and a friend have been working out a system.. what we're gonna do is have it so that the exterior lights stay on until you open the door, and then they dim to off.. as far as getting a UV sensing diode, to have the lights automatically turn themselves on and off.. if you guys want, i'll write up a how to, and get pics, if you want?
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rbf351
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(Post Master Supreme)
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11/17/04 08:13 AM
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Re: auto off lights
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all you need is the proper light sensor
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Re: auto off lights
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Yea, please do. Id really like to see how well this works. Get a vid too if you can
Good luck!
matt
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Re: auto off lights
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sounds pretty interesting. a vid would be cool too
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Re: auto off lights
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Quote:
all you need is the proper light sensor
Care to elaborate Mr. Smartypants...
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Re: auto off lights
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i know what he's talking about, but it'd be expensive to wire, i believe.. you'd need a photovoltaic sensor, preferably in the form of a LED, mountable on, let's say, your dash, (where it is in the aztek), that, when it senses light, opens a circuit wired into your lights. to get them to auto off, you have to wire in either a timer, or a switch that'll wait until you open your door to turn them off. i'm also going to be wiring in a capacitor that will charge while the lights are on, and then make them dim off, once the power to them is cut. if you gimme a few days, i can get all the wiring schematics made up.. might be a week or two, before i find all the parts i need, and figure out someplace to put the new relays and everything
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rbf351
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(Post Master Supreme)
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11/18/04 07:26 AM
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Re: auto off lights
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Quote:
Quote:
all you need is the proper light sensor
Care to elaborate Mr. Smartypants...
i would if you were being an asshat, but since you couldn't ask nicely i will not post the exact parts or instruction on how to do this
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Re: auto off lights
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Haha...I was kidding dude. Settle down...Feel free to post the how:to please!
thanks,
Matt
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Re: auto off lights
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I'd be very interested in this as well 
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Re: auto off lights
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its VERY simple to have the headlights shut off when you remove the key or have it in "off", this has been in cars for 15+yrs, i don't know where you need to use a photovolaic sensor..
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Re: auto off lights
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I think what we mean is take the keys out...lock the car and have the lights fade off like 15 seconds later...
matt
but still, how do ya do it?
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Re: auto off lights
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not only am i talking about it fading off, but i am thinking of setting it up, so i can add in another circuit, so that the lights turn on and off, on their own, therefore introducing the need of the sensor. now, the way it's going to work, right now, is i turn off the car, the lights stay on until i open the door, when i open the door, the lights will stay on for a few more seconds, gotta play with capacitor size to get the time perfect, and then it should dim as the power drains from the cap. i'll have an extra circuit in there, where i should just be able to plug in the extra relay, to get it to use the photovoltaic sensor, and do the lights on it's own.
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SiHatch
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(Jr Member)
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11/19/04 02:06 PM
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Re: auto off lights
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I don't really know how much you've looked into this, but I think you will find that the capacitor will drain much to quickly. I looked into doing something very similar a while ago. I only wanted the interior dome light to fade off. I didn't get very far, because after a few calculations, I found out that I would need a pretty good sized capacitor.
Essentially the idea is you put a capacitor in parallel with the light(s). When they turn on, the battery charges the capacitor as well as lights the light (the charging of the capacitor should take very little time). When the battery is disconnected, the capacitor discharges and lights the light for some time depending on the light (resistance) and the capacitor size.
In my calculations, I used a 20W light (which is fairly small). This gives an approx. resistance of 7.2 ohms. The actual resistance will be slightly different because the light is a complex load (resistive and reactive).
Using a 0.1F capacitor (relatively large), the light (20W) would fade to off in about 1 second. It wouldn't really be a nice fade either. It would fade to half it's brightness in about 0.25 seconds. I haven't really looked into buying large capacitors that much, but generally capacitors that you get at electronic stores are in the microfarad or nanofarad range.
I will post up the graph when I get home.
Anyways, good luck. If you get it to work somewhat reasonably, post how you did it.
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Re: auto off lights
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so.. i'll set up a timer circuit, and i was actually planning on using a bank of capacitors (.05f), but if those won't work, i can always figure out another way to do it..
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SiHatch
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(Jr Member)
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11/19/04 05:17 PM
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Re: auto off lights
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I don't know why you would use a bank of capacitors. I doubt it's any cheaper buying a bunch of small capacitors rather than 1 bigger one.
I found a capacitor that's 100000uF and 16V. It would work well for a small light (<20W like I said earlier). It's only $11, but it's 1.75 in diameter and 2.5 inches in length.
Here's the data sheet if your interested: http://dkc3.digikey.com/PDF/EU042/0499.pdf
I don't think that you will be able to make all of the lights fade out using capacitors though. You will definatly need some sort of timer and most likely some other way to store energy temporarily (instead of a capacitor).
Anyways, like I said good luck (in a non-sarcastic way). I hope you figure it out.
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Re: auto off lights
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You might want to look into a Pulse Stretcher instead of a capacitor..
http://www.davidnavone.com/pulsestretchers.html
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Re: auto off lights
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awesome, dude.. that may just be what i need.. thanks alot!
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Re: auto off lights
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One of these might be useful in your project also...
http://www.rainbowkits.com/kits/lg-2p.html
Edit : Wait, this kit looks better.. In either case ofcourse you'll want to seprate the light sensor from the circut board for a more discreet install.
http://www.ramseyelectronics.com/cgi-bin/commerce.exe?preadd=action&key=MK125
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_vti
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(Post Master Supreme)
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12/16/04 07:54 PM
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Re: auto off lights
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Quote:
Quote:
Quote:
all you need is the proper light sensor
Care to elaborate Mr. Smartypants...
i would if you were being an asshat, but since you couldn't ask nicely i will not post the exact parts or instruction on how to do this
why is everybody such a dick to everybody else here 
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Re: auto off lights
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you only need a light sensor if you want your lights to only come on when it gets darker out
just hook up a relay to your ignition so when your ignition is on your headlights/parkinglights come on..... not hard :/
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SiAdam
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(Post Master Supreme)
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12/28/04 10:56 AM
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Re: auto off lights
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Quote:
Quote:
Quote:
Quote:
all you need is the proper light sensor
Care to elaborate Mr. Smartypants...
i would if you were being an asshat, but since you couldn't ask nicely i will not post the exact parts or instruction on how to do this
why is everybody such a dick to everybody else here
Hey Fuck you..... 
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Re: auto off lights
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my grandmothers 01 accord ex v6 has lights that auto shut off if you leave them on. takes about 15 seconds, just long enough to get to the front door. no sensor, but probably a cheaper way of doing it, and just leave the lights on all the time. kinda want this setup for my car, just never looked into how it is wired. anyone??
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Re: auto off lights
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Quote:
just hook up a relay to your ignition so when your ignition is on your headlights/parkinglights come on..... not hard :/
That would be the way to go, at least in CA. A new law effective 1/1/05 says you need to have your headlights on if it's raining, or if visibility is less than 1000 feet. So unless you get a rain-sensor from your local Mini dealership, you'll still have to turn the lights on manually, which will never happen once it becomes habit to rely on the photovoltaic cell to turn them on automatically.
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HCivic02
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(Post Master Supreme)
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01/08/05 03:23 PM
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Re: auto off lights
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eh, I always turn on my lights anyway while it rains 
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mono
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(Newbie)
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11/21/17 01:18 PM
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Re: auto off lights
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thats a cool post
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