Hi Folks,

Just joined this site after looking around for a quality electronics forum.

I am not an electrical engineer, in fact my day job is as an office worker, but I have a passion for restoring classic cars, tech and gadetry.

What I don't have a passion for is replacing twenty year old electronics, with twenty old electronics, and not being able to fix the possibly easy to fix faults that occur in the various modules of older and classic cars.

With that in mind I am starting two projects, 1) finding excellent resources to help me learn the finer points of print circuit board fault finding and repair.

And project 2) design and build a universal window control module for a classic car. the module would initially be for a two door coupe car, without the need to have the window drop on door opening (although have that as an option that can be activated) and have one touch open and close functionality, be expandable for additional opening and closing functions like rear doors and/or sunroofs.

Yeah its ambitious but I've been staring at circuit diagrams and breadboards for two long, trying to find a decent resource for the project just throws up a multitude of "fix" websites which concentrate more on the wiring loom repairs or greasing the runners, and not the actual pcb or solenoids in the control module, so I want to get stuck into building.

Can anyone advise of a good starting point.

Ps the reason for not just wanting to learn how to diagnose and repair but to also build a replacement is, replacements are becoming scarce and expensive, and more often than not are some of the first electrical component to be taken from the car, also I like replacing old for new, and really want to expand my knowledge in this field as well.

Any help and direction would be awesome, thanks.

Dave

 

You would have been more likely to succeed if you had started 25 years ago when printed circuit boards still had through hole components and the tools consisted of a soldering iron, some solder wick, and a Sold-a-Pulit. Now a days printed circuit boards have surface mount components, and it takes fancy equipment to fabricate and repair boards. To make matters worse the number of skilled technicians who can repair boards is dwindling at a rapidly accelerating pace.

The basics are not that hard to learn and you can start with the electronic textbook associated with this site. Start slow and build a solid foundation, experiment, gather tools, and before you know it you'll start seeing rewards. Tell us about your progress and ask for help when you get stuck. There are a number of auto enthusiasts here.

One of the things to pay attention to is developing the ability to specify your requirements.

 

Thank you for the reply Papabravo, luckily these control modules are the through hole component type, and certainly I take your point about modern boards being increasingly more complicated and decreasingly easy to work with.

I will have a look at the book, but certainly if there is anyone else out there considering a similar project I would be interested in hearing from them.

 

Didja know?...interval wipers were first invented by a hack like me.
So, get specific about what you want, collect some parts, and start with the voltage and current required by those parts.
Post one question at a time.
Keep your verbiage short.
I don't care why. I just want enough information to do the calculations.

 

"2) design and build a universal window control module for a classic car. the module would initially be for a two door coupe car, without the need to have the window drop on door opening (although have that as an option that can be activated) and have one touch open and close functionality, be expandable for additional opening and closing functions like rear doors and/or sunroofs.

Yeah its ambitious but I've been staring at circuit diagrams and breadboards for two long, trying to find a decent resource for the project just throws up a multitude of "fix" websites which concentrate more on the wiring loom repairs or greasing the runners, and not the actual pcb or solenoids in the control module, so I want to get stuck into building."

I am 35 years working as an auto electrician and one piece of advice I will give you is to avoid electronics as far as possible in electric window controls.
Glass seals fail over time , particularly in older classic cars and moisture in door panels will always be a problem.
Most modern cars have problems with window controls due to, electronic modules fitted in the door panel and controlled over either CANBus or LINBus networks getting wet over time. I would strongly advise you to use a pair of relays in H bridge configuration. You can configure the relays to self latching for auto up and down. By fitting resistors in the latching circuit you can stop the motors using overload current sensing when the window is fully opened or closed. Alternatively you can use limit switches .
Using relays will mean you will only need one pair of heavy wires (2.5mm2) in each door and the control wires can be considerably lighter. interfacing multiple door controls can be tricky, but still very simple once you understand how interlocks work. I would suggest you have a look at a wiring diagram of a C. early 1990's vehicle to see how windows were controlled either by direct switching or using relays before electronics became widespread.

 

63 bucks.

http://www.amazon.com/Biltek®-COMPLETE-WINDOW-AUTOMATIC-SWITCHES/dp/B003XWG7R2