Arduino Automotive Conversion Projects

By Mandy Concepcion

Arduino Automotive Conversion Projects

 

This work has been a labor of love. It is meant to compliment and broaden the working knowledge of the automotive driver/enthusiast and DIY Technician. The idea is to provide the way to perform vehicle conversions for those who want to learn these systems or those that need it. Often times the specific component is discontinued and non-replaceable. Other times the vehicle simply needs a complete replacement system.

 

This book is totally based on actual working conditions and real life Arduino conversions. With that intent, special thanks are given to Mr. Gino Ferrulli for his incredible support of my business, especially during the Covid-19 years. This book, including waveform captures and photographs would have been impossible to acquire and assemble without his business support. My gratitude to him and his family. And last, but not least, thanks to my wife Carmen for her support and encouragement. I really needed it at times.

 

But most of all, this book was done for you, "The DIY Mechanic or Tech". The guy (or girl in some cases) who works all day long and studies at night to further his/her career in spite of the stress of the day. This work was done for you. I hope you enjoy and learn from it. Remember, no matter what happens keep building your knowledge.

 

• Language: English
• Publisher: Mandy Concepcion
• Release date: Jun 20, 2024
• ISBN: 9798227564061

Mandy Concepcion

Mandy Concepcion has worked in the electronics engineering and automotive field for over 35 years. He holds a Bachelor's Degree Electronics Engineering, C & Python Programming, as well as an ASE A2, A6, A8 & L1 certification. For the past 29 years he has been exclusively involved in the diagnosis of all the different electronic systems found in today's vehicles. It is here where he draws extensive practical knowledge from his experience and hopes to convey it in this book. He's also actively engaged in developing automotive diagnostic equipment and components. In many ways his circuits are creations do not exists anywhere else, so creating new things is in his DNA. Many of his creative ideas are meant to help extend the life or usability of running vehicles. Others are meant to boost systems usability. The software seen in his created circuits are developed by him, so use them safely, enjoy.

Book preview

Arduino Automotive Conversion Projects

All charts, photos, and signal waveform captures were taken from the author’s file library. This book was written without the sponsoring of any one particular company or organization. No endorsements are made or implied. Any reference to a company or organization is made purely for sake of information. Arduino is an Open-Source project and has no relation to the author.

Copyright © 2018, 2023 By Mandy Concepcion

This book is copyrighted under USA Federal Law and other International jurisdictions, to prevent the unauthorized use or copying of its contents. Under copyright law, no part of this work can be reproduced, copied or transmitted in any way or form without the written permission of its author, Mandy

Concepcion.

The information, schematics diagrams, documentation, and other material in this book are provided as is, without warranty of any kind. No warranty can be made to the testing procedures contained in this book for accuracy or completeness. In no event shall the publisher or author be liable for direct, indirect, incidental, or consequential damages in connection with, or arising out of the performance or other use of the information or materials contained in this book. The acceptance of this manual is conditional on the acceptance of this

disclaimer. ARDUINO is a registered trademark of the Arduino group and no endorsement is implied here.

The Tech-2 is a registered trademark of Vetronix Corp. and GM The DRB III &

Starscan are a registered trademark of DaimlerChrysler The NGS is a registered

trademark of Ford Motor Co. Any other proprietary name used in this book was done

purely for explanatory purposes.

Made in the U.S.A.

Preface & Acknowledgments

This work has been a labor of love. It is meant to compliment and broaden the working knowledge of the automotive driver/enthusiast and DIY Technician. The idea is to provide the way to perform vehicle conversions for those who want to learn these systems or those that need it. Often times the specific component is discontinued and non-replaceable. Other times the vehicle simply needs a complete replacement system.

This book is totally based on actual working conditions and real life Arduino conversions. With that intent, special thanks are given to Mr. Gino Ferrulli for his incredible support of my business, especially during the Covid-19 years. This book, including waveform captures and photographs would have been impossible to acquire and assemble without his business support. My gratitude to him and his family. And last, but not least, thanks to my wife Carmen for her support and encouragement. I really needed it at times.

But most of all, this book was done for you, The DIY Mechanic or Tech. The guy (or girl in some cases) who works all day long and studies at night to further his/her career in spite of the stress of the day. This work was done for you. I hope you enjoy and learn from it. Remember, no matter what happens keep building your knowledge.

(for further insight on automotive sensor testing and oscilloscope waveform analysis see our companion DVD-Videos and book here: http://www.autodiagnosticsandpublishing.com/VideoDownloads.html )

Edition 2.0, Copyright 2018, 2023 All rights reserved

Table of Contents:

Arduino AC Blower Speed Controller: Conversion that shows how to make an Air Conditioning Blower with speed control with Sketch included.

Arduino As Push Button Control: This project explains how to make a simple push button control and is also part of many of the other projects.

Arduino Auto Drive-by-Wire Controller Conversion: Pretty advanced project that shows how to make a drive-by-wire throttle body control system with Sketch. Meant for farm equipment and non street driven vehicles.

Arduino Automotive High Beam Control: this project is an automatic high beam switcher. It looks at incoming traffic and switches to low beam when detected.

Arduino Automotive Motor Control: This is also a project to control DC motors and it's a basis for other projects.

Arduino LCD Headlight OFF Timer: The first in a series of LCD projects. This is a headlight OFF timer that allows you to reach you front door after arriving home.

Arduino LCD Infrared RPM Meter: This a tachometer project with an LCD screen to denote rotational speed. Make a white mark, point and measure.

Arduino LCD Power Door-Locks: This is a power door lock project conversion with LCD display. It also has lock actuator safety features and includes the Sketch.

Arduino LCD Simple Counter-Timer: Simple LCD timer and part of other projects.

Arduino Power Door Lock: Part of the same project, but without LCD display.

Arduino Power Windows Auto OFF: A power window conversion with automatic shut off safety feature meant for the front power windows.

Arduino Power Windows Controller: Power Window controller for the rear windows. Meant to be used with the PW with auto shut off.

Arduino Windshield Wiper: A single motor wiper system meant to be used without a wiper linkage mechanism.

Arduino Automotive Fan Motor with Temp Sensor: Fan motor with temp sensor to control the ON and OFF operation.

Arduino AC Blower Speed Controller

This conversion is going to delve into making an Arduino AC blower motor controller or motor speed controller. This is a completed project, and the sketch or software is available here and upon request on our website. Having said that, if you have an older car or want to put a digital speed controller for the blower or even the radiator motor, this project will help you out. As we usually do in our Arduino conversion series, we'll show you the schematic. This schematic uses the Driver-100 DIY kit, which is the final driver transistor, and a $9 Arduino board. On the left-hand side, you'll see a 10K resistor and a button, which is pretty much all there is to it. The Driver-100 is available as a DIY kit, which you can assemble yourself or buy as a completed unit.

The important part of the schematic is the button and the 10K resistor. We're using the A2 analog input on the Arduino, where you'll have both the button and the resistor connected. The other side of the resistor goes to the 5V reference, while the other side of the button goes to ground. So, when you press the button, you're grounding the circuit. Moving on to the software, we'll go into the setup part, as every Arduino sketch has a setup and loop part. The setup is the same as in our previous conversion, where you set the analog terminal as input or output. On the loop side, we'll delve deep into it in a close-up.

Fig. DRIVER-100 Kit.

THE LOOP HAS TWO SIDES to it, and the first one takes input from the button using the (switchCounter) variable. That's what controls the variable, and that's what gives you the speed. We'll go into that a little bit later. But anyhow, what you see here is that it takes an input where you say, If the value of the sensor is less than 0.1V (which is pretty much ground), then add one to the switchCounter. Everything happens digitally, through software.

Going back to the subroutine, if you push the button (meaning ground terminal A2),