merlin
Leaving Skid Marks
Hi Guys, I had a HDi boost controller fitted on saturday by Damo at MEEK - This is because I hate getting under the dash and Im bone lazy...
Set the boost level on the way home on the M2, very easy to do.
However, there are two issues with the unit.
1. The unit is supposed to have the red wire permanently wired to the battery, and the blue wire connected to ignition or the ECU power.
I had read that the VR4 guys were having their batterys go flat if left for two weeks or so, when wired like this.
So I got Damo to wire both to the ECU ignition power.
The unit works when connected this way, but beeps loudly when you swith the ignition on. Not nice!
2. The gauge display is bright, I mean to bright for dark streets at night bright.
So a dimmer is needed but there is none in the standard setup.
The following day, I measured the battery current draw from the red wire, 95mA. This will get the battery down as described.
I also discovered if the two wires (red/blue) are connected "almost" simultaneously, you dont get the beep.
Then I started experimenting with a variable resistor in the blue wire to limit the voltage and thus dimm the display.
That worked, a 200 ohm potentiometer worked well there.
Then I added a 470uF capacitor from the potentiometer out to ground, thus creating a switch-on delay for the blue wire.
This worked too. Then I refined the setup a bit with a fixed 100 ohm resistor in series with the 200 ohm potentiometer. The capacitor is connected after the 100 ohm resistor, giving a fixed switch-on delay, the pot then does the dimming.
So there is a simple fix with cheap parts from J-Car.
I will buy some better parts and a little box to fit them in tomorrow and have the dimmer box in the glove box.
After I worked all this out, I read on the gauge document that there is some dimmer cable you can buy!
But I dont know if that fixex the battery drain and/or switch-on beep issue.
edit_1:
It appears the power feed to the solenoid is taken from the blue wire.
This causes the voltage to colapse when the solenoid is energised if the resistors are fitted.
The next move will be to open the wiring loom and tap the solenoid red wire to the main power feed red wire.
Hopefully this will fix the problem while keeping the dimmer and switch-on delay still working. Later...
Set the boost level on the way home on the M2, very easy to do.
However, there are two issues with the unit.
1. The unit is supposed to have the red wire permanently wired to the battery, and the blue wire connected to ignition or the ECU power.
I had read that the VR4 guys were having their batterys go flat if left for two weeks or so, when wired like this.
So I got Damo to wire both to the ECU ignition power.
The unit works when connected this way, but beeps loudly when you swith the ignition on. Not nice!
2. The gauge display is bright, I mean to bright for dark streets at night bright.
So a dimmer is needed but there is none in the standard setup.
The following day, I measured the battery current draw from the red wire, 95mA. This will get the battery down as described.
I also discovered if the two wires (red/blue) are connected "almost" simultaneously, you dont get the beep.
Then I started experimenting with a variable resistor in the blue wire to limit the voltage and thus dimm the display.
That worked, a 200 ohm potentiometer worked well there.
Then I added a 470uF capacitor from the potentiometer out to ground, thus creating a switch-on delay for the blue wire.
This worked too. Then I refined the setup a bit with a fixed 100 ohm resistor in series with the 200 ohm potentiometer. The capacitor is connected after the 100 ohm resistor, giving a fixed switch-on delay, the pot then does the dimming.
So there is a simple fix with cheap parts from J-Car.
I will buy some better parts and a little box to fit them in tomorrow and have the dimmer box in the glove box.
After I worked all this out, I read on the gauge document that there is some dimmer cable you can buy!
But I dont know if that fixex the battery drain and/or switch-on beep issue.
edit_1:
It appears the power feed to the solenoid is taken from the blue wire.
This causes the voltage to colapse when the solenoid is energised if the resistors are fitted.
The next move will be to open the wiring loom and tap the solenoid red wire to the main power feed red wire.
Hopefully this will fix the problem while keeping the dimmer and switch-on delay still working. Later...
