Work on lighting lift gate appliqué begins

[JPP]

Offer accepted Paul I'll be driving cross country with the east coast group. So this time, happily, I'll be there with my own car. Don't know about Danal but as he's in Texas it's a shorter trip for him. As we've never met in person I hope he'll be there.

...oh, good. So no airport pickup and speeding ticket for me this time....

 

[NJ Plugin]

You guys are way smarter than me...so you probably have already thought of this...

For the trigger for charging, have you considered the signal that pops open the charge port door, from a Supercharger, UMC, or HPWC. I believe it was Lolochampcar who made a remote to pop the charge port door...if you can detect that signal, maybe you could at least start the letters charging sequence.

 

[artsci]

...oh, good. So no airport pickup and speeding ticket for me this time....

Speeding ticket?

 

[JPP]

Speeding ticket?

First Teslive--I volunteered for airport pickup/shuttle duties...

 

[artsci]

First Teslive--I volunteered for airport pickup/shuttle duties...

I remember your picking me up but not a speeding ticket. Were you stopped on the way to the airport?

- - - Updated - - -

You guys are way smarter than me...so you probably have already thought of this...

For the trigger for charging, have you considered the signal that pops open the charge port door, from a Supercharger, UMC, or HPWC. I believe it was Lolochampcar who made a remote to pop the charge port door...if you can detect that signal, maybe you could at least start the letters charging sequence.

Good idea. Let's see if we can make it work.

 

[JPP]

I remember your picking me up but not a speeding ticket. Were you stopped on the way to the airport?

I was making pickups at both SFO and SJC and shuttling attendees to the hotel for Teslive. Had my S for 2 months--still new and eerily quiet when going fast. Due to flight schedule changes, I think I was rushing from SFO to SJC, and went over the San Mateo Bridge at 82 in a 65 zone. CHP running a laser enforcement. He would not give me a warning (clean record)...but reduced the speed to 80, thus giving me only 1 point, and allowing me to take driving school. Late to pick you up, as I recall....

 

[Danal]

Sometimes months of work come together quite abruptly.

Our "reset" to increase reliability triggered a lot of different things... and several packages arrived in the last 48 hours. This one photo captures quite a bit of the action. The long boards go in the Applilque itself. There is one with NeoPixels, capacitors, and connector installed, and a couple of bare ones. We do all the "Reflow" SMT/SMD soldering in house.

Also in the photo are the V2 controllers. There are several bare boards, a couple that have had their surface-mount components reflowed on, and one in the case that is complete. Contrast these to the partially complete hand build prototype (the white board). Much, much, much better system. Again, all reflow done in house, as well as all through-hole.


Schedule: I have one of the long boards in the applique on my own car (FINALLY!) running from an old hand-built controller. I'm sending Artsci a long board today. We will run these for a short time to be sure there are no new reliability issues. In parallel with this final quality verification, we will be building the first 'batches' of everything (applique boards and controllers) for volume shipment. I'm not going to promise any specific dates... I'll just say we are getting very close.

Thanks for the patience of everyone on the initial order list.



View attachment 79636

 

[Zextraterrestrial]

wow

Awesome!

:biggrin:

 

[zax123]

OK those look EXTREMELY cool. Can't believe what this project has turned into!

Thank you so much for keeping us posted on all this!

I was wondering... the new white "molex" connector you're using to interface with the existing car electronics, I noticed that not all pins are labeled as you just don't have that many sensory inputs to monitor. But I was wondering if you had wired them into the Arduino anyway (ie. put traces on the board) just in case at some point in the future we find something else to monitor that would need a new input. Just a random question.

Thanks again, this is awesome, can't wait to play with it!

Rob

 

[FLDarren]

:love:

I'm feeling giddy today. Yeah, I said giddy. Between this news and my finished project reveal tomorrow, how can I sleep? :wink: Stay tuned.

 

[Btrflyl8e]

I'm giddy for this applique and your big reveal, too! I feel like such an insider, I might be almost as excited as you!

 

[artsci]

And I've got all of the appliqués ready for the long board electronics -- 3D letters installed and diffuser film and velcro squares attached.

 

[GaryREM]

Truly a professional approach to this.

You guys deserve an applause for the significant effort to reach this point.

 

[Danal]

OK those look EXTREMELY cool. Can't believe what this project has turned into!

Thank you so much for keeping us posted on all this!

I was wondering... the new white "molex" connector you're using to interface with the existing car electronics, I noticed that not all pins are labeled as you just don't have that many sensory inputs to monitor. But I was wondering if you had wired them into the Arduino anyway (ie. put traces on the board) just in case at some point in the future we find something else to monitor that would need a new input. Just a random question.

Thanks again, this is awesome, can't wait to play with it!

Rob

Short answer: No.

Long Answer: There are two spare pins on the Molex. In theory, they could be connected to the Atmel 368P that is at the heart of all of this. However... there is actually only one digital input free on the Atmel... don't forget that in addition to the 6 inputs from the car (RT, Brake, LT, tail, reverse, and charge that we are not really using, yet), the pins on the CPU also must support I2C interface to the G-Sensor, SPI interface to the Bluetooth, Serial interface for diagnostics, and USB interface for field upgradability. That actually uses all but one of the 368P's digital IO pins, and all but two of the "analog" IO pins, of which the rest of the analog pins are forced into double duty.

So... with spare molex and at least one IO, why not connect them? Because there are also 6 "input buffer" circuits on the board, made up of SMT passives, that ensure the 12V wires in the car (which really can be anything from 6V to 24V and are typically very "noisy") can safely enter the 5V world of the CPU, and that those various car circuits are all protected from each other. There is literally not room for a 7th input buffer. In fact, I had to go to layering the modules (G sensor 'overhangs' the Bluetooth) and the power (separate module, lays on top of the main board) to get everything to fit.

Of course, there's always a larger case. And a CPU with more pins. And so forth. But that's a different project...

 

[zax123]

Hehe. Thanks for the comprehensive reply! we'll probably be all set with the inputs we already have anyway.

With respect to the charging unit, could it be as simple as using an analog unit and just looping some wire around the charge cable on the inside of the car? Maybe pass it through a transistor first to boost the signal but maybe you'll get a few mA which the arduino could detect?

 

[artsci]

Just received the the long letter board from Danal and prepped it for installation and testing on my car tomorrow. Here's a shot of the old single letter design and the new long board. It's obvious from this photo that the long board will far less likely to produce errors of any kind. BTW, the greasy looking stuff is silicone sealant for waterproofing, hand applied. Needs to dry overnight before installation.

Assuming the testing goes well, we should start shipping the first completed appliqués in about 10 days.

 

[NoMoGas]

Aghhh waterproofing. Guess who DIDN'T seal the holes for his rear lighted T? Guess who's rear tail light filled with water (once he drove out of California's drought)? Yup. LOL Oh well, live and learn... SEAL THEM HOLES!

 

[artsci]

Aghhh waterproofing. Guess who DIDN'T seal the holes for his rear lighted T? Guess who's rear tail light filled with water (once he drove out of California's drought)? Yup. LOL Oh well, live and learn... SEAL THEM HOLES!

More to worry about

Got the new long letter board version installed today. In this version I've added diffuser film on top of the 3D letters before I added the Velcro squares. Works like a charm -- pixilation is now nearly gone. Here's a photo -- taken with my iPhone, so it's not very good, but it's the best I could do without my good camera. Off to Boston later today to have some fun with my brother flying a 737 flight simulator but more photos will be forthcoming when I return on Monday.

 

[Paul Carter]

More to worry about

Got the new long letter board version installed today. In this version I've added diffuser film on top of the 3D letters before I added the Velcro squares. Works like a charm -- pixilation is now nearly gone. Here's a photo -- taken with my iPhone, so it's not very good, but it's the best I could do without my good camera. Off to Boston later today to have some fun with my brother flying a 737 flight simulator but more photos will be forthcoming when I return on Monday.

View attachment 79837

I don't recall the last time I've been in complete awe! This surely will stick in my head for a long time to come. Simply amazing! Can't say thanks enough, so thanks again!

 

[Btrflyl8e]

This is fantastic. I sure hope mine gets to me in time so I can install it before my road trip to Boston!