It's a common frustration. You jump into your car at night,
close the door and fumble around in the dark trying to find the right key and
the ignition barrel. Grrrr. Well put that frustration behind you - the Jaycar
Interior Light Delay for Cars kit is a simple Do-It-Yourself project that makes
life easier. It's cheap therapy at AUD$10.75...
The Jaycar Interior Light Delay for Cars kit (Cat. No. KA 1793)
lets you to install an interior light delay to
any car. This is a proven
kit that's compatible with switched 12V or switched earth interior light systems
and it incorporates a clever headlight override - the interior light delay
terminates as soon as you switch on the headlights. Good thinking, eh?
The Jaycar kit includes all of the components and comprehensive
instructions necessary to build the control unit. If you've never built an
electronics kit before, don't stress - this is about as simple as they come.
There are only 20 components to be soldered onto the printed circuit board (PCB)
and Jaycar suggests an experienced kit assembler can knock it over in 30 minutes
- allow about an hour if you're a newbie.
Note that the kit must be assembled slightly differently
depending whether your vehicle uses an interior lighting system that's switched
to 12V or earth. Follow the instructions carefully and you'll be okay.
In-car installation is pretty simple.
The first step is to locate a permanent 12-volt source and an
earth - your car's audio head unit is usually an easy place to find both.
Connect 12V and earth to the appropriate terminals on the printed circuit board
using the supplied hook-up wire. You may need to extend these wires, depending
where you decide to mount the module. (We mounted the module beneath
the dashboard and the supplied length of hook-up wire was ample.)
Now you need to gain access to the car's door switches. In the
case of our demo car (a Mitsubishi Galant VR4) we first removed a rubber cover
on the driver's door switch - this gave access to the screw that secures the
switch to the body. Remove the screw and slide the door switch from the body.
And now it's time for a little probing. If your car uses a switched earth lighting system you should be able to see that voltage at the switch increases to around 12 volts when the door is opened. This is the wire you need to connect to the output terminal of the module. (If you don't have a multi-meter as pictured here, a test light is fine.
Here you can see the crimp terminal we used to connect the door
switch wire to the module. Space limitations prevented us from make a soldered
connection (soldered connections are much more reliable than crimp-on
connections).
The final connection is to the output of the car's headlight
switch. As mentioned, the interior light delay is terminated as soon as you
switch on the headlights. Again, finding the appropriate wire may require some
probing with a multimeter or test light. A vehicle wiring diagram comes in handy
at this point!
With all four electrical connections finalised you can now tidy
the wiring and permanently mount the module. The instructions suggest slipping
the module inside a 35mm film container, but a neater option is a plastic
bulkhead case complete with mounting tabs. The appropriate size box measures 72
x 44 x 27mm and is sold through Jaycar as Cat. No. HB-6068. Cost is AUD$2.60. We
simply drilled a hole into the plastic case (to let the module's wires pass
through) and cable-tied it to a metal bracket under the Galant's dashboard.
And that's it - we're done!
Wait until it's dark and give the module a trial run. Assuming
all is well (and why shouldn't it be?!) you'll be able to open the door, sit
down, put away your mobile phone, grab the right key and start the engine before
the interior light gradually fades away.
Ahhhh - there's one less frustration for you to contend
with...
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