There is a guy on Roadfly who designed and built a circuit that would allow you to have auto-up windows on your MINI. It is designed so that a quick double flip up of the toggle switch will roll up the window for either driver or passenger.

He is also thinking of adding a circuit that would allow a built-in garage door opener that is activated through the door lock toggle and powered by the board, so no battery replacement ever!

He thinks that he can build these boards for $40-50 in small quantity "hand built". If he gets enough interest, he could have a short production run done and the cost would be even less.

Here is the link to his web blog about this subject:
http://www.gbmini.net/MINIcircuit/index.html

Please contact him directly if you are interested.

 

Very nice! About time someone went to work on that. I'd have to hear some pretty convincing testimonials about ease of install before I ordered, though. The brake light mod was by far the most involved electronic meddling that I've ever done!

 

As for ease of installation, it appears from his description that all you have to do is pull the plug off the back of the switch toggle assembly and plug in the new cable and plug both into the board that comes in the kit. That should all be accessible through the little panel in front of the cup holders which is held on by 1 screw. No real electronics knowlege needed for the window function. The garage door opener function would require some more in depth mods, but should not be anything difficult. It really depends on how your garage door opener is built.

 

Chris,
Since you and I are pretty close to each other, install for you would perhaps be as easy as driving up to Essex or Gloucester one day :smile:

I guess you did not see the circuit I gave Gavin on Sunday ...

 

iancull,
Read your blog last evening. Great stuff. I am intersested in a pair of window magic boards.

 

That's an extremely interesting idea. I would to see more info on the garage door opener function after it has been fit tested. I'm glad that someone with some circuit experience is working on such things. I'd give it a shot but don't have enough health insurance to cover me for my foolish attempts at electricity

 

Thanks, Ian. :smile: I'm thinking of trading up for a 2005 Cooper, but if I decide against it, this will be something I'd like to do soon.
Chris

 

Count me in -- especially if I can get a garage door opener with it.

 

ChrisNL,
easy to remove as well as fit :smile:

Everyone,
The garage door opener function is easy to do electronically - but I don't know how easily the average MINI owner can handle attaching circuit to garage door opener.

Eric says he has one with a 9V battery that has a clip - this would be great because I could easily put the same (mating) clip on the circuit. Assumes of course that the garage door opener works when down behind the toggle switch panel (do they need line of sight? I don't own a garage door opener - or a garage!)

If anyone has serious (ie: ready to drop $50) interest, please email me directly (GBMINI@MINIsOnTop.com or IanCull@usa.net) so I can keep a count.

Thank you.


PS:
Just reread the previous post.
This circuit does NOT *include* a garage door opener.
It simply could allow you to trigger one that YOU OWN using a MINI toggle switch.

_________________
Ian C. Gloucester, MA
<A href="http://www.gbmini.net">"GBMINI"</a>...uot;</a>

CWFFC member. Indi Blue / Lapis Blue MCS ... body color exterior trim, chrome grille, painted roof Union Jack, Euro shelf and working rear fogs

 

Sorry if my original post was not clear on the Garage Door Opener thing. I think Ian cleared it up with his post. The circuit board would supply power to the opener that you already have. At this point the discussion Ian and I had was that the button on the opener would have to be held in the "pushed" position at all times and the circuit would send power to the opener when the MINI toggle switch was held in the up position for a couple seconds.

Ian - an important note, at least for me and I think most others, is that the opener needs to send a signal for 1 second or maybe even longer. So, I think the best solution would be to keep sending the power to the opener for as long as the toggle is held. In my case, I press the button on my opener as I am turning into my drive and hold it until I see the door move. I don't think that timing is the way to do this, because some openers might interpret the continuous signal as first an open and then a close command. This could also happen if the RF reception gets interuppted during the timed cycle..

Garage door opener remotes work on RF, so line of sight is not necessary. I keep my opener on the Euro shelf and it works fine.

I hope this is clear.
Eric

 

Eric,
Very clear - thanks.
The current programming of the module waits 1/2s when it sees the unlock toggle, allowing normal use of the switch to only release the doors.
After 1/2s if the switch is still closed, the garage door opener output is energized and remains so, as you suggest, until the switch is released.

Slightly defeats the idea embodied in the auto-up windows, where you don't have to hold the switch all the time to achieve something ... no doubt I could program versions that trigger an output for a fixed time instead of requiring the switch to be held.
By the way, that is all the module does for auto-up ... after seeing the fast double-click trigger, it simply drives the up switch signal for 5s ...

I have had a few responses to this thread and my web page, but no more than 10. It looks like I might end up just making a few more circuits for "special" people ...

 

Ian,

I will bring this up at the Karting event this Sunday in Chicago. Maybe that will drum up more interest.

How many do you need for a "production" run?

Eric

 

The power-up windows option does not interest me much, don't see that as much of a problem. But, the garage door-opener toggle. Now that's a circuit I would purchase (especially if it came with an additional toggle switch to fill in that missing one on the panel). :smile:

 

g3,
If you are quick to contact me ... I currently have a removed toggle switch panel with five toggles - if you are skiled at drilling you can mount the toggle into your panel and fill the gap.

As for the circuit.
Missing out the auto-up circuits will save a couple of dollars. My BOM estimates today for a quantity of 25 shows a final price of $60 rather than $50

 

Ian -- count me in as very interested. A kit would be fine with me. Looks like a great project. One suggestion -- if you are going to have a batch of boards done, have a solder mask added. From PCB kits I've designed, I find it minimizes user problems (those who think that solder and slaughter are synonyms!)

One question: are you willing to provide the PIC source code so that others of us can do some more "value added" tweaks?

One such "value added" idea: I presume that the the 100 mil connector has pins for other functions on the switch panel -- things like the DSC ON/MORON switch. I'd love to be able to make the default be DSC OFF.

Thanks -- Tom

 

W3IWI,
Please email me direct if you are interested - although presumably Eric will keep people informed if I forget.

No need to educate me on PCBs :smile:
See One of my companys products ... we have been making industrial lift controls since 1996 and they are regularly PRESSURE WASHED so they have to survive everything!

I used BareBonesPCB for the proto batch since each previous time I did a design, some MINI circuit "feature" caught me out - for example, would you expect the fog toggle switch LEDs to be hard-clamped to 0V when not being turned on (enough to blow a 5A fuse!)

Also, the circuit is Humiseal conformal coated (you can just see the shine in the pictures) - better protection that solder resist, which is really useful to prevent wave soldering problems (and I don't think I will have enough of a batch for wave soldering!)


As for supplying the design to others ... I guess that is going to be something I can do - once I get famous :smile:
Already my PIC code has a few optional features - I could easily customise specific modules. To kill the DSC the circuit simply needs to send a toggle pulse to that switch after power-on. Might need to experiment to see if the pulse is ignored if it comes too quickly ... or maybe just do a "wait 3s then pulse".

This latest one I built today:

has the highside driver which can turn the fog light LEDs on/off - it would be needed to pulse DSC too, since the DSC switch, unlike the others, is a 12V active signal. Would need a track cut & link too.


The biggest pain at the moment is making an 18way to 18way harness; it would be so much better if MINI had used a (standard) 20way ...


Thanks for the input. Keep the ideas coming.

 

OK.
I guess that I have seen all the interest that there will be for this circuit.
I have committed to making at least one more (for Jerseygirl).
I have found that our companies cable manufacturer can do cables for me at below $10 which helps with the headache :smile:

I think I will buy parts to make about 20 circuits. I have had "interested" emails from between 5 and 10 people. So those people should expect to hear from me in a few weeks. My price target of $50 is achievable.

PS #1: There are now two installed circuits in USA :smile:
PS #2: If anyone is still interested and did not email me direct, then I don't know!

 

Ian,

I don't know if you are still checking this thread or not, but here goes. Just wondering what the progress is? I haven't heard anything from you in a while.

Eric

 

Eric,
Still checking ... though a direct email to me is the best way.
Latest update - third circuit installed recently:
MINI circuit installed by GadgetGav

I have been waiting for my cable people to get back to me about the 18way harness.

It seems still that a very few (<20) people are interested. So I do plan still to make a batch - if nothing else, I owe "JerseyGirl" a circuit!

Thanks for asking ...

 

I'm interested in a circuit for the auto up windows. Count me in!

 

I'am also interested . Count me in. Thanks,mval

 

I know this is a little off topic, but is there any way to make an auto closing sun roof? My sisters 94 corolla had a feature when you take out the key, the sun roof closed ALL THE WAY. It also closed on one flick of the switch. I hate how minis you have to hit it once, it closes but is still popped up, then you have to hit it a 2nd time to close it all the way. They say its a safety feature, but c'mon now...

so yeah, anyway to rig an auto close sun roof? or atleast a one touch close ALL THE WAY sun roof? Or am I just missing some secret?

help!

 

>>My sisters 94 corolla had a feature when you take out the key, the sun roof closed ALL THE WAY. It also closed on one flick of the switch.

Is it an OEM sunroof or aftermarket install? From the sounds of it, it might be aftermarket, which is a common feature. :smile:

I experience the same issue with MINI's sunroof as I often forget that it remainds tilted after hitting the one-touch close. NRX, to get more exposure, it might be a good idea to start a new thread regarding this topic. :smile:

 

Ian, don't forget about my order! :smile:

 

I just saw this thread. Please count me in as well!