Automatic Headlights

Status
Not open for further replies.

caudex

New Member
Hi I am new here and don’t really have any experience with electronics but I have a question I was hoping someone might be able to help me with.

Last week I rented a car while mine was in the body shop. Something I really like about the rental was its automatic headlights. You may be familiar with them; they turn on when it gets dark and off when it’s light. They also remain on approximately 30 seconds after shutting off the car.

I thought this was a really cool idea, so I started looking around the web for a way to do this. The only schematic I could find was the one on this site:
https://www.electronics-lab.com/projects/oscillators_timers/013/

I didn’t really like it because it did not have a way of sensing light.
Then I came across a little device made by DesignTech. It says it turns the headlights on and off automatically and also has a headlight timer feature.

Now I'll get to the point...According to the directions, in order for the timer feature to work you have to turn off the ignition and then within 2 seconds back on and then off again.
I am trying to figure out if there is a way to avoid this process but still have the headlight timer work.

In the last picture the blue wire is the one that connects to the ignition switch...
I was thinking about cutting the blue wire and putting a capacitor in. That way when I turn off the ignition the box would still think that the car is on and so the headlights would remain on until the capacitor runs out. This way I could completely avoid the whole on...off...on...off thing.

Does this sound like it would work???
Thanks for your help, Zac

**broken link removed**

**broken link removed**

**broken link removed**
 
adding a cap will not help u.. the unit want a pulse sequence as u said.. if ur not going to build ur own control unit..then u may have to build a unit that sends the reqd pulse seq.

HTH
akg
 
If the blue wire draws very little current, a diode from the ignition and large cap to ground might work.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Cookies are required to use this site. You must accept them to continue using the site. Learn more…