For some god awful reason my headlights do not go up nor down. However, after much experimenting with the relays, I can say that the motors are still good, as are the relays and fuses. Which sucks, since I can not figure out why the whole system together doesn't work. So, being a computer science major (lazy), I have decided rather than go over the entire electrical system, I should just get a controller that works directly off of the headlight motors themselves. Now don't start flaming yet, I have no intentions of spending 100+ on that stupid pivot thing. Heres my idea:
Start with say 5 switchs. 1 for up, 1 for down, 1 for wink left light, 1 for wink right light, and 1 for lazy eyes (at most switches + wire == 10$). Then, I want to wire these up into a microcontroller (like what, 1-2 bucks?) that has a clock. To my understanding, the factory system relies on time to run the motor, I.E. run it for (lets say) 9 seconds and the motor goes 180 degrees and the headlights change state (up/down). So, the microcontroller, if the sleepy eye switch is thrown, would run the motor 25% of the time to go up (if they are down), or 75% the time to go down (if they are down).
Assuming each head light has an "up" wire and "down" wire", the winking could also be done very simply. Give power to the up wire for the total duration and then power the down wire. Since up/down on each light is seperate, this would probably be the easiest part.
Now I am thinking I will need at least 6 inputs (all the switches + aux for an alarm or something), and 4 outputs (left_motor_up,left_motor_down,right_motor_up,right_motor_down). Also I figure since most microcontrollers run at 6V, I will also have to restep up the voltage on the way to the motor. I think that is about it, and guess what, it will only cost about 15$ at most, and maybe a few hours of assembly coding.
So I was wondering, anyone think this idea will work ? Or better yet, has anyone done this before and care to offer some nice hints ^_^? Thanks for any advice!
Start with say 5 switchs. 1 for up, 1 for down, 1 for wink left light, 1 for wink right light, and 1 for lazy eyes (at most switches + wire == 10$). Then, I want to wire these up into a microcontroller (like what, 1-2 bucks?) that has a clock. To my understanding, the factory system relies on time to run the motor, I.E. run it for (lets say) 9 seconds and the motor goes 180 degrees and the headlights change state (up/down). So, the microcontroller, if the sleepy eye switch is thrown, would run the motor 25% of the time to go up (if they are down), or 75% the time to go down (if they are down).
Assuming each head light has an "up" wire and "down" wire", the winking could also be done very simply. Give power to the up wire for the total duration and then power the down wire. Since up/down on each light is seperate, this would probably be the easiest part.
Now I am thinking I will need at least 6 inputs (all the switches + aux for an alarm or something), and 4 outputs (left_motor_up,left_motor_down,right_motor_up,right_motor_down). Also I figure since most microcontrollers run at 6V, I will also have to restep up the voltage on the way to the motor. I think that is about it, and guess what, it will only cost about 15$ at most, and maybe a few hours of assembly coding.
So I was wondering, anyone think this idea will work ? Or better yet, has anyone done this before and care to offer some nice hints ^_^? Thanks for any advice!
