My latest project - auto headlights

[Mirez]

Thought I'd share my latest project with you - purely as an exercise to see if it could be done, rather then necessity, but the answer is yes, you can have full automatic headlights on a Mk2 Galaxy, complete with coming home and leaving home option

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Using a Golf Mk6 Headlight switch and mounted the light sensor next to the climate control's sun sensor - clearance of about 1mm lol

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Just a little tidying up to do, I need to swap some LED's about to match the Ford colour scheme and also do something about the "lights-on" buzzer when you open the door but other then that it went really well

[djdigitald]

I was just reading about this on ukmkivs and saw your name appear on there! I was thinking of doing this on the Lambra, where did you get you kit from? What was the cost?

[Mirez]

Yeah there wasn't much help there unfortunately - think its too new.

The Galaxy is loosly based on Bora electronics which is why I suspected it would work, my only problem is still the xenon on/off flick if you have to move from auto to manual quickly - not going to be a problem day-to-day and I still think that can be fixed and switch/logic level.

Got the kit online for Ã,£55 delivered, its not quite as plug and play as it is on a golf mk4 but asy enough

[djdigitald]

I am hoping the Lambra will be as plug and play as the Golf or I may end up pulling out what hair I have left on my poor head!

[Mirez]

It should be, my problems were all to do with the oem xenons and my previous retrofit of the cornering lights to be fair. The only 'problem' I have left is the on/off xenon flick and the 'lights on' buzzer.

[Mirez]

Ok, so I thought I'd update.

Firstly, my unit refuses to calibrate an "on" time. I follow the instructions and it does the headlight flash (really bad for xenons) however it makes no difference to when it turns on. I've manually fixed this by installing a 500K Ohm pot in-line with the photo-diode which allows the sensitivity to be adjusted nicely. I'm still experimenting to get it where I want it but then I'll measure the pot and add that value resistor in its place (pots can hunt as temperature changes)

Secondly, I got so hacked off that I couldn't put the front or rear fogs on without having to flick though the sidelight position and thus flash the xenons, I've fixed that as well. The simplest way here is to trick the module into thinking the switch is still in the still in either the "Auto" position or the "Headlight" position for a second or so after its turned - this is the same behaviour as the OEM lights on the Mk6 golf. The modules quite dumb in that it can have all three positions "live" at the same time without effect. So, to force the signal to stay live for a second just requires a simple capacitor discharge - I used a 480uF cap with a 1KOhm resistor in series for this. You'll need two of each, connect the cap and resistor together (resistor on + leg) and then connect them inside the module (or at the switch) - I don't trust the manufacturer to have used the same colour cables from the switch so I'll give you the pin numbers and not the cable colour.

Pin 6 is the ground, connect both negative ends of your cap here. Then the other side of one of the resistors to pin 2 (the Auto position) and the other resistor to pin 1 - you'll then have a "memory" switch that allows you to flick through the sidelight position without knocking off the headlights - leave it in the sidelight position for more then two seconds and it will change to sides only.

Also fixed the lights on warning, if you pop the door open switch out there are three cables going to it - one for the CCM and one for the dash. Since the dash gets its door open signal from the CCM, the only use for the other cable seems to be to put that warning buzzer on. Simple fix - disconnect it

Switch Pin-Out for reference:
Headlights - Pin 1
Auto - Pin 2
Side/Parking - Pin 3
Switch Illumination - Pin 4
Front Fogs - Pin 5
Ground - Pin 6
Rear Fogs - Pin 7
Switch +V - Pin 8
DRL - Pin 9 (Don't drive them directly from here!)
Ring Illumination - Pin 10