You continue to blow my mind item9!
Is there anything you haven't taken apart and improved?
Utmost respect, Sir.

B
(2 wires and 12V limit for me )

 

You've got some serious skills. Let us know how much your MPG improves.

Sent from my MB860 using Tapatalk 2

 

:eek2: :hail:
Wow, Item9. Truly amazing.

 

Wow that is pretty incredible, mad respect from me to you brother.

 

Coming from a (perhaps fellow) electrical engineer, I rate this mod: :hail: :hail: :hail: :hail: :hail:

One question for you: How did you go about getting the connectors and stuff needed for this mod? I have been entertaining the thought of adding an aftermarket in-dash navigation system, and I would like to do the mod without splicing into ANY of the wiring at all. That is, if I want to reverse the mod, I can.

 

Coming from a (perhaps fellow) electrical engineer, I rate this mod: :hail: :hail: :hail: :hail: :hail:

Thanks! I'm actually a mechanical engineer who is just OCD about wiring. I HATE messy looking wiring, which forces me to go these great lengths to make my harnesses in the way that I do.

One question for you: How did you go about getting the connectors and stuff needed for this mod? I have been entertaining the thought of adding an aftermarket in-dash navigation system, and I would like to do the mod without splicing into ANY of the wiring at all. That is, if I want to reverse the mod, I can.

My experience with these types of projects has only been with Honda and Mitsubishi vehicles. Neither of these manufacturers will sell you connectors and pins separately; you must buy a harness with what you need and extract them from it. I performed a climate control conversion on my Evo and that required me to buy an entire dash harness to get all the connectors that I needed. As you can imagine I had a ton of leftovers. It just so happened that the brake switch connector is the same between the Evo and the CR-Z. I was lucky in that regard. This is one of the reasons I didn't do a full on DIY, because the connector might be an issue to obtain for anyone else.

Contacting the actual manufacturer of the connectors to get them is even more futile. They won't even talk to you if you aren't associated with a large company, that is if you could even find someone who speaks English. There are also online electronics suppliers like Newark, who supply some things that might be helpful like uncrimped pins and some connectors, but the amount of research it takes to find the parts is extremely time consuming. AND after all that, they probably won't even have what you need anyways.

However, for your situation the aftermarket will probably have an answer. Car audio is perhaps THE most common type of wiring project on the planet, so the connectors for that are way more common and easily attainable. Scosche and Metra make pigtail harnesses for car audio headunits, so I think that's probably your best route to find what you need for a PnP solution.

 

Kudos! That is some serious "out of the box" thinking there!

 

Really proffessional job. Very impressive. But your avitar scares the hell out of me.

 

That's interesting; I thought you were fearless for some reason...

 

I can also get the car to slow down a little bit faster soley by regeneration without any drag from the brakes.

so, does that mean you hit the switch and it fakes the car that you have brake on and Regen all the way until autostop engaged? and if no real brakes applied and autostop engaged without complete stop, the car will keep rolling?

This is awesome!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Right. When in gear, it will regenerate with increased strength as long as you are holding the switch. However, the capacity to regenerate will diminish as you slow down, as normal, so eventually you'll need to either apply real brakes to get more regen out of it or take it out of gear to engage the auto-stop. You can begin auto-stop at 18 mph or less. To stop the car completely you'll still need normal brakes, because at slow speeds the capacity to slow you down purely by regeneration is non-existent.

 

Does the brake light activate, or is that a switch on the pedal?

 

I have it setup EXACTLY like a brake switch, so the brake lights activate when hitting the switch, even with the car off, just as the real brakes do.

 

Ok, so after driving around with this mod for awhile, I have noticed it doesn't work as strongly with the A/C running. The effect of the climate control system on auto-stop is well known to most of us, but the A/C also seems to affect regeneration as well. For some reason, the system will sometimes decide to strengthen regen with brake pressure only and not give any additional IMA boost from the brake switch. I haven't figured out any pattern to when the switch will boost or not; it sometimes will, sometimes it won't and other times it will oscillate between the two within the same press of the switch. Turn off climate control and it goes back to more aggressive and consistent regeneration.

I'm toying with the idea of switching off power to the climate control ECU via an additional relay to get stronger, more consistent regen and auto-stop with the paddle shifter switches. Hopefully, none of the other systems on the CAN lines get upset with the climate control being operated this way...

 

Force engine auto-stop on the right-hand paddle (that can be engaged above 18mph) would be magic.

 

Force engine auto-stop on the right-hand paddle (that can be engaged above 18mph) would be tragic.

Fixed

 

Wow, this is a lot better designed than the one I envisioned.

How is it holding up? Any strange behavior besides just the throttle? (Which presents while left foot braking as well, but if you release the throttle completely, then 'set' it back, it works.)

 

right switch for auxiliary high beam switch ;]

 

I’m not clear on purpose of the relays and diode. Don’t you just want to simulate stepping on the brake pedal to enable regen? Couldn’t you just tap a wire into one side of the brake switch and another to the other side of the switch and then connect those to a momentary switch mounted in the dash or console? That’s what I’ve done to half a dozen 1st gen Insights and I get max regen when coasting and can keep the engine off below 19 mph without having to step on the brake.

 

ITEM9, I'm curious - how much would you charge for one of those harnesses?

I’m not clear on purpose of the relays and diode. Don’t you just want to simulate stepping on the brake pedal to enable regen? Couldn’t you just tap a wire into one side of the brake switch and another to the other side of the switch and then connect those to a momentary switch mounted in the dash or console? That’s what I’ve done to half a dozen 1st gen Insights and I get max regen when coasting and can keep the engine off below 19 mph without having to step on the brake.

The paddle shifters are just fancy momentary switches.

Relays are to reduce the load on the momentary switch, by allowing use of a smaller gauge signal wire to control a higher voltage circuit. Also acts as a safeguard against the additional switches effing up the brake pedal switch. Relays can also allow you to use one switch for the regen, and the other for the auto-off, depending on how it's wired.

Diode is to prevent signal bleed. Keeps juice from going through the momentary switch when you step on the brakes.