Geoffers

Sorry - didn't realise you needed to know by tomorrow. I would go for it, especially with the kind offer of LEX 3G's help. I think the provided speaker isn't that good - it's sounds ok in normal driving but shooting down the motorway I think it's awful - you will definately hear the improvement. £30 does seem excessive for install, especially as they will be on site already.

This is going to be my next project...... G

The mirrors don't use current sensing or timing - there's no need. They have very definate start and stop points. (Actually that's a lie, they do limit the current if it draws too much, but not to find the home positions) They have a microsswitch - not disimilar to windscreen wiper point when you just flick the switch for a single wipe. All you need is to apply power for the circuit itself, and then signal the open/close for the mirrors. The mirrors shut off automatically when the switch point is hit. I would have a timed circuit to shut the power off completely, but well after the time it takes the mirrors to close, only because I want absolutely no standby current drain.

A-HA - this is the million dollar question at the moment. Mirror and power feeds are by the drivers kick plate, alarm ARM feed I don't know yet. It's dark when I finish work so I can't trace it until the weekend. Annoying thing is, I've made the circuit up, I just need to find this and - voilla job done!

Toreknudsen, you could put a relay powered from your ignition switch-on feed across the headlight switch. You would need to use a double pole relay to switch both side/main lights on or your backlights won't light if you just short main beam. Don't be tempted to take the feed from the ignition straight to the headlight relay - this will bypass the column fuse.

It should be undetectable on any routine service, etc. and would easily be removed if need be. The way I was going to do it only has 4 connectors. +v Ground Alarm ARM sig. Output to Mirror This can be connected using scotchblocks (not something I particularly like, but the simplest and easiest to remove) without even breaking into a cable and it would have a small switch on to disable it. When you set your alarm on the keyfob, the unit would be triggered by the arm signal, apply power output to the mirror and then switch itself and the mirror power off. When you return to the car, simply switching on your ignition Acc. would extend the mirror back to it's outward position (providing the mirror close switch wasn't depressed) So, it's just like you had closed your mirror yourself before you left the car - you would need to put your keys in to extend it again. I'm doing it this way so there is absolutely no current drain after the mirror has closed and it can have no affect on the alarm. Everybody agree with this method? I'm still after any feedback or if anybody can think of a better way of doing it.

I've not had them switch off. (I've had the same as you under bridges, etc.) When I pull into my drive, I've got a 500w halogen that shines right onto the car and they've stayed on ok.

Thanks for all the feedback. It's well enough to get me going - I'll make a start this week. The majority of decent alarms have an ARM signal, so there's no reason why it can't be attached to any make. You'd need to trace it though - some are pos but most are neg. It just goes high or low when the alarm is set. I was thinking about using the indicator flasher as the arm, but it would need more circuitry as the indicators flash twice (or more depending how you are arming it), so it would receive multiple signals. The other concern using that method is if the signal gets 'back fed' (i.e. the dioide is in the alarm itself where they usually are) then the signal would trigger the mirrors when you indicate or have your hazards on and the alarm set. We could put a diode in ourselves but I don't want to cut into the line, simply attach to it (just to keep connections to the car itself to a minimum). I'll check this line out though. As for total closure, I'll need to look more into this. The passenger and rear windows use current sensing on the power windows, not a sensor for when they are fully closed. (Try and close all the windows when they are already closed - you'll see your dash lights dim dramatically - same thing would happen if closure power is applied by an external circuit). As the system won't know if the windows are closed or not, it would still send the power to them for a pre-determined time - I'll need to spend some time on it but I'm just a bit concened on the current drain. I could build a secondary current sensor in myself that would stop the power if the current pulled was greater than a set amount. This would also take care of the safety issue but I would be worried that if there was something that caused any friction and the windows pulled more current than normal, then they wouldn't close as the power would shut off to them and leave the windows open. For now, I'm going to keep it simple and cost effective. I'll just do the mirrors and look into the total closure when that's complete. It should be a quite easy to add on as it will have most of the signalling and control circuitry already in place.

As a guesstimate, it should be less than £20 for the componants. I wouldn't be selling it as a kit or anything. I'd be posting all the info here to make it up yourself so all you would really need is some soldering experience to make the circuit up. Thinking about it, I could do it as a kit as well if people enough people were interested. My main problem is finding the arm signal for the alarm (just as a trigger to start the close sequence - it won't draw any power). Anyone know to save me some time tracing it? We could take it a step further and get it to close the windows as well, but I'm just thinking about the mirrors for now - mine have been smacked twice because I forget to close them....

Would anybody be interested in their mirrors folding in when the alarm is set from the keyfob? I'm thinking of developing a small circuit to do this. Although the circuit is relatively simple, it will take quite a bit of thought (Getting arm signal from alarm, applying power to the mirrors, sending close signal for predetermined time, cutting power again, etc) It would be handy, but it's whether I can be bothered to do it just for myself!!! If others would be interested and benefit, then it would be worth it. I'd just post the diagram here. Let me know what you think.

IS300.net Geoff