Any Interest in One-Touch Windows?

[bmwman91]

IronCAD.  Probably THE easiest modeling program I have EVER used.  Beats Pro/E, SDRC I-Deas, Solid Works and AutoCAD by a long shot as far as ease of use.

[AL GReeNeRy]

those CADs are sick! i cant wait for the product to come out.. im startin to think your a f**ken genious!!!

[bmwman91]

Haha no, I just like making things.  My big secret is not watching TV (or as little as possible).  I get bored.  I resist the urge to watch it or play games.  I wind up doing stuff like this instead lol.  Well, that and I am not married nor do I have kids.  Maybe I will consider getting hitched in the next 5-6 years!  30 sounds like a safe age to give up my freedom.

Honestly, all the stuff regarding electronics I have done was from internet research.  The internet is seriously the greatest tool ever.  My father has helped me out as well with some of the basics.  Once you get those, part datasheets make sense, and you can get a good idea of what you need.  This is MY hobby.  I suck horribly at playing musical instruments (I tried guitar and piano), and others are naturals at it.  Everyone has their calling I suppose.  Mine happens to be nerdy lol.

[bmwman91]

OK, update time!

I finished the controller code tonight.  Talk about a beast (for what it does anyway).  Friggin 450+ lines of instructions.  It has a lot of over-current protection built in, to protect itself and the car.  Needless to say, it should ensure that nothing will overheat and it will work for a long long time.  I have to revise the PCB design a bit, but the code was the hardest part of it.  Initial testing is a breadboard with LED lights to simulate the windows lol.  Hopfully I can see about pricing and interest by mid next-week.

[bmwman91]

The test-circuit in action lol.  Kinda blurry, but meh it is past my bedtime.  The LED's behave properly, so I guess it is time to see if they make the actual windows work.  More to come.......
A bare-ended wire acted as the "finger" pressing "buttons" to trigger activity.  Simple = good, especially in electronics.

[nickmpower]

so do you just tap it to activate the one touch or what?

[ak96ss]

I'm guessing it is similar to the Autoloc WC1000, yes?

Press once to go all the way down, press again to stop it midway. Press once to go all the way up.

I've been running the Autolocs for about two years now, love them dearly. I still have a hard time when I get into my wife's car and the windows don't roll all the way up.

Will you have additional inputs available, so that the windows will roll up with a trigger from the alarm 'arm' circuit, for example?

[bmwman91]

Yup, 1-tap for auto-movement like the newer ones.

For the moment this is just a basic deal.  Depending on how the alarm system is wired in, it might work with it.  The AutoLoc kit is pretty cool, and cheaply priced.  It would not be too hard to add the alarm-arm functionality in, but that depends a bit on other factors...like bypassing the main relay....lol.  I could not tell if the WC1000 had window-up mode with an alarm.

[bmwman91]

Alrighty, I installed the test module and it works great.  I will probbaly break my window motors from playing with them too much now.  I will work on getting all the material lists worked out and a price up here for those that want my super-duper special unit.

[ose30]

This sounds like a great product to have, especially if it can handle both windows. I suppose this can easily be adopted also for other vechiles as well. I have an old Porsche 944 Turbo and it has same kind of window functions like E30's have. I'll have to check out how does the window switches differ. At least both cars use same window motors.

[nickmpower]

yay

[dude8383]

can't wait for this

[M42Iberia]

Any updates??

[bmwman91]

Sorry, I have been busy.

I am thinking of a couple things to keep costs down for everyone, but will also deter some buyers.  I COULD sell one of 2 things:

A) A complete kit, assembled and ready to go.  It would cost more than the AutoLoc one though because I cannot afford to produce it in the quantites they do.

B) A kit with the programmed controller and printed circuit board.  The user would purchase the rest of the parts (PN's I would provide) from digikey and solder it/drill the palstic case themselves.  I could probably do a kit for ~$30 that way, with another ~$15/20 in parts needing to be purchased.  I would MUCH prefer this for the sake of simplicity, and not having to drop $1k of my own $ on a complete batch of parts.  But soldering it yourself is FUN right?  lol

To go along with this, I am debating making this sort of open-source.  I am tempted to make the code available, as well as wiring schematics and stuff.  A PIC programmer costs more than the whole kit would anyway, but open-source leads to new innovations.  I just do not want someone taking it, running off with the code and marketing it as their own.  Doing the wiring by hand (as opposed to a PCB) is awful, let me tell you.  Trying to set up a circuit capable of dealign with 15-20A on a solderboard sucks, so I am sure I could make back my development costs.  

I am also thinking of doing the same with the MAF conversion.  Since there really is no $ in  it for me anymore, why not let it out right?  Again though, I do not want someone taking it all, saying it is theirs on some other forum and making $ off of it at all of our expense (not saying anyone here would, but maybe a random person who got wind of it from elsewhere).  I AM exploring OE replacement type stuff with it now though.

What would people prefer?  If I have to do the labor myself the overall cost increases a bit because I am extraordinarily busy with my new job and staying sane as it is.

[AL GReeNeRy]

if you could do it like a diy and try and make it as simple as possible i would be down for that.  i enjoy doing projects on my car myself.  it helps me understand how everything works under all that plastic