I am in the early stages of planning a new Haynes roadster project. I am considering designing a programmable board to drive all of the lights on the
car. Something with open load and over current protection. I believe 20 individual high side driver channels should meet the requirements of most
cars, at 6-9 Amps max per channel. My thinking at the moment is to design a ‘shield’ for an Arduino board. Multiple configurable inputs from the
existing switchgear will allow for plenty of customization. Logic changes that would normally require new relays or harness reworks would instead be
changed by a line of code.
The other advantages are of course no relays and fewer fuses as well as compatibility with both incandescent and LED bulbs. This will also allow a
wider range of switchgear to be used as current switching requirements would just be digital logic. Wiring looms would also be much simpler and no
splicing needed.
I would potentially order a batch of PCB’s and parts. As well as posting code and schematics to an open source repository like GitHub.
My question is would anyone be interested? Can you think of any additional requirements you would like to add?
use LED lights....lowers the requirements for the electronics.....
i thought about going that way but in the end used micro toggle switches and relays....even though i have all led lights....
quote:if I were going to that level of complexity/computerisation I would probably use canbus
Originally posted by barbarianbeast
I am in the early stages of planning a new Haynes roadster project. I am considering designing a programmable board to drive all of the lights on the car. Something with open load and over current protection. I believe 20 individual high side driver channels should meet the requirements of most cars, at 6-9 Amps max per channel. My thinking at the moment is to design a ‘shield’ for an Arduino board. Multiple configurable inputs from the existing switchgear will allow for plenty of customization. Logic changes that would normally require new relays or harness reworks would instead be changed by a line of code.
The other advantages are of course no relays and fewer fuses as well as compatibility with both incandescent and LED bulbs. This will also allow a wider range of switchgear to be used as current switching requirements would just be digital logic. Wiring looms would also be much simpler and no splicing needed.
I would potentially order a batch of PCB’s and parts. As well as posting code and schematics to an open source repository like GitHub.
My question is would anyone be interested? Can you think of any additional requirements you would like to add?
If you are going to that effort, have one 12v power circuit all the way round and a bus over which to control each item. An 8 pin pic sitting on the
bus to allow switching power to the electrical.
The who project is total overkill and ovey complex but hey, if we wanted things to be simple we would be sitting in caves watching endless reruns of
coronation street.