gearbox

iTrader: (95)

anyone know the easiest way to hook this thing up? i still have the timer from a while back so might as well throw it on for a 60 second delay or something. i wanna hook it to the headlight switch wire, but i dont know where it is. im hoping somewhere in the dash cause the timer is just an open circuit board and needs to be mounted inside the car. any help would be great, thanks.

electric130

iTrader: (44)

what's it for?

christmaspie

Headlight wire is blue/red (- trigger) running from the headlight switch, down the steering column, and ending @ the driver side fuse box.
The wire is also @ the factory alarm plug on the passenger side underdash area.

gearbox

iTrader: (95)

thanks! hmm - trigger doesnt sound like it would work. i need a + for this thing, cause it basically is wired to constant power, and when the input power is cut, it keeps the circuit hot by supplying power for set amount of time. i need to read the instructions again tho cause maybe it has a way to use - input.

christmaspie

Worst case scenario you can use a relay to invert it to positive.

gearbox

iTrader: (95)

yeah thats true, lemme look into this and get back to you. have a pic of the passenger side plug? that would be easiet to mount it under there somewhere. heres another question, would it be okay to turn the car off while the hid is still on, im guessing it wont hurt, since they are already warmed up and drawing 50w. i only plan to delay it one minute to avoid having them flashed on and off cause these ballast need alot of warmup time, at least a minute if not more. but i think two minutes might be too long?

CivicHatch9one

iTrader: (2)

my car from the factory has a delay. i believe its 30-45 seconds. i can double check but its hooked up to auto switch. and when the car goes off the hids dont flicker or dim or anything. i like it

christmaspie

I've got a bigger version of the picture but I'd have to email it to you.

I'm gonna leave that other question to you since I know nothing about HIDs/lighting.

gearbox

iTrader: (95)

what about passenger side?

christmaspie

Ha, I'm retarded. Driver kick area, duh. Long day of tech support today.

gearbox

iTrader: (95)

okay. well theres a jumper for + or - switch trigger, so thats fine. but im having trouble figuring out how to hook up everything lol. looks very complicated.

WhiteRabbit

sounds easy enough. can you clarify some of the basics?

Your lights flicker at startup? does this mean we can delay for just a couple seconds to eliminate that flicker then everything is good to go?

Do the ballasts begin warmup with ACC or the headlight switch? can some warmup time be reduced by linking that to ACC?

Can you tell me more about the HID functional process so I can create a mental model of the system?

does the delay device you speak of have a model number? DEI part? I'd also like to know what kind of operation it's capable of.

gearbox

iTrader: (95)

i can post some pics, i still have the thing sitting around. there is nothing wrong with these new hids, but here is how they work. relay harness is wired off the 12v headlight wire, so they flash on only when the switch is on the "headlight" position just like the stock headlights. the first few seconds or so is arc ignition and a bright flash, then they go very dim and gradually (over a minute or two) come back to full brightness. now the thing with hids is, you need to leave them running for at least a few minutes before power down. and also once you turn them off, you need to wait a few minutes before turning back on, as to avoid "hot restriking" the bulbs and ruining ballast/bulb equipment. now what i wanted to do is hook up the timer so that when i turn the headlight switch off, the headlights remain ON for prolly 2 minutes to be safe. this is to prevent other people from rapidly flashing them on and off, but also to guard against "accidental" use of the flash to pass feature by pulling on the switch. instead of flashing them on and off, the timer will keep them on for the full 2 min warmup time and then they will go off. this is just like a safety thing i guess.

WhiteRabbit

I don't need pictures. Pictures are for the un-creative.

This reply is only for a delay off feature, which is the easiest part:

You will need one TO-220 NPN transistor (recommended part), one large capacitor, and one standard bosch relay. I recommend a relay socket too, cause relays only last so long under high power apps.

I recommend research into transistors that dont leak too much either because that will allow you to use a smaller capacitor. a standard bipolar transistor will need a pretty big cap. 100 uF per second (VERY approximate) is OK for 2-3 seconds, but cumbersome if you need a 12,000 uF cap to give you a 2 minute delay.

The transistor has three pins, a base, collector, and emitter. The collector gets 12 volts constant, the emitter gets one side of the relay coil, the other side of the coil is grounded. The base is linked through a diode to the headlight switch. ALSO hooked up to the base is the capacitor (standard electrolytic will do and is cheapest). negative cap terminal is grounded.

All this will fit in a project box the size of two or three lifesavers minus the relay.

This relay will allow current to flow to the ballast or however you want to switch on your headlights. If your ballast already has a contactor and you only need small currents to activate the headlights, you can get away with a smaller relay. This will also reduce the cap size requirement as well as make the whole assembly fit in a VERY small space.
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It's simple. activating the headlights pulls the base high instantly, simultaneously charging the cap and more importantly switching on the transistor which allows current to flow from the collector to the emittor, closing the relay. This turns on your headlights.

When the headlights are turned off, the base remains high because the cap is charged but start discharging immediately. the size dictates how long it takes to drop to a low enough voltage to open the relay.

This is a nice way to do it for two reasons. The first is there are FEW parts and all are cheap. The second thing that is nice is that if the headlights are turned BACK on within your two minute window, the cap is instantly recharged and turning the headlights off will result in another 2 minute delay.

This is half your system. Let me think about interlocking out turning the headlights back on for a couple minutes after they finally shut off.

for the followers of the thread who need a visual.

WhiteRabbit

by the way. use a PNP transistor and flip ALL + and - indicators and you have a circuit that will delay-off deactivate that relay using a negative input (say, from the steering column.)

Of course the relay contacts can still switch 12Vdc if needed.

Keep in mind this isn't a refined way to accomplish this. You won't impress any EE's with this wild west way of hacking together signal processing, but it works and is reliable. The actual delay will be variable but we do not need accuracy to the pico-second here.

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I don't understand though why you need the lights to remain on for a time after the switch is turned off. Doesn't that simply delay when the lights are actually switched off, not allow any sort of cool off?

Are these HID's your high beams only?

gearbox

iTrader: (95)

wow thanks lol that is way beyond what i was asking since i already have a delay timer built. thats what i was gonna post pics of. i just dont know how to hook it up from the inside of the car. its an elk 960 timer. its mainly so that if you flip the light on and then off immediately, it will keep it on til they warmup. idk, i guess its not really that important now that i think about it. since im the only one driving the car, its not like im gonna do something wrong with it. and for shops i can pull the relay so they dont play with them. its lo beam only, i dont have hi beams but open to suggestions if you have any on adding some hi beam. i dont really need em tho.

WhiteRabbit

No suggestions, other than to install it regardless of who you think will be driving the car or not.

Things happen. And worse, People happen.

And if you can determine a way to interlock out the lights for two minutes when shut off as stated, even better.

And TEST that timer you have first. If its like the DEI timer relay, its no good. (My circuit is.) a DEI timer relay will deactivate on command as it is counting down if the latch command is sent again.

simply put: if you set it for two minutes, then shut the lights off the timer starts. 60 seconds into it you turn your headlights back on, but that doesnt reset the timer, it actually shuts it OFF. Turning the headlights off at THAT point resets the timer and it resumes normal operation.

So always test. 555 timers can be weird when it comes to robust operation in the hands of a switch pushing tweaker (your local mechanic or nephew).

gearbox

iTrader: (95)

ah okay thanks for the tips. what i really wanted to do is disable flash to pass function, but there is no way of doing this without messing up the way the lo beams work. short of taking open the switch and messing with the circuits, i dont know of a way. i tried cutting flash to pass wire going to the fuse box, and the lo beams wouldnt work lol.