One More tweak to The Login Screen

I made one more change to the log in screen buttons, I liked the idea of having some variety in the way that the log in code can be made a little more complex without being too complex, if that makes sense ;) I also came across this Keypad on eBay that can easily be used with Arduino and hence ultimately our Knight O.S. Software too. So I added in the A B C D buttons to allow for the use of those character entries also.

New login Buttons

I made a series of new buttons for the log in screen seeing how the monitors are only 5 inch touch screens and the small Space Matt buttons I was using before might well have been a little on the small side for anyone who has "sausage fingers." ;) This new set of buttons is more the classic phone type key pad style of buttons, the beep SFX is still the same just the buttons have changed to make the log in screen a lot more user friendly.

Mini Relays Board For Space Matt Buttons Part 2

I id some more work on my mini relays board for my Space Matt buttons. Thanks to Andrea Lannaccone one of the very electronics savvy Knight Rider people on Face Book who put me hip to using Diodes in my circuit design I can now get away with using half the relays I figured I would be for my Space Matt buttons. He was kind enough to update my original diagram I had made that showed how I was going to use a series of isolated relays to generate the needed ground pulse for the Voice box's DTMF tone generator, and although it would have worked it would have been a lot of relays, thankfully very small mini Songo relays but lots of them. But now thanks to Andrea I can get away with half of what I would have ended up using. He had another method that involved using what is called an "Optocoupler" but it is currently beyond my level of understanding electronics wise so for now I need to stick with what I can understand. Update later as my knowledge base increases, lol well that's the plan anyways. As long as it's safe and wired right I'm happy.

Here is a copy of the newly updated wiring scheme that Andrea was kind enough to do for me. I have done some simple test with my relays board with some Diodes soldered onto the board and it seems like it should work as the Diodes only allow electrical current to flow in one direction so it should work. When I get around to doing a test in the car I'll do a demo video and we'll see how that works. ;)

Lower Console Buttons Wiring Diagram 2

In getting my lower console ready for wiring up to Molex connectors it is important to make sure your switches are wired correctly. The 10 coloured buttons mounted into the solder-less connection board by Jupiter Electronics are pretty simple and may only need a little customization depending on how you want the bulb to light when switch is on or off or if you want the bulb lighted all the time.

These three position white switches are a little more complex as they can turn on two devices (one at a time). So the wiring them to relays is a little more complicated. Better to have it all worked out in my wiring diagrams first to make sure the switches are going to be wired correctly than just start messing around with wires and potentially hook up the switches wrong. These are specialty switches that are a little hard to come by and you REALLY don't need to be blowing them with experimentation's that you are not sure about. So I can't stress the importance of working out good wiring diagrams first and even cross referencing those diagrams with other people in the Knight Rider community who have wired up these types of switches before. I have a lot of great people on the Face Book Knight Rider groups to thanks for all of their help in this.

The above diagram I made with some great help as I say from some awesome people on the Face Book knight Rider Community pages. The one on the left shoes the three position switches connected to common SPST Relays. In this diagram the light inside of the switch remains on at all times

Now with the wiring diagrams worked out the next job will be to start soldering my wires to the switches and connecting them to Molex Connectors in preparation for a future time when I decide what to hook the buttons up to.

Lower Console Switches Installation And Wiring Diagram

With my lower console overlay finally primed and painted and most of the buttons installed it's getting very near time to start thinking about the wiring job. The coloured buttons are from Jupiter Electronics and came with a small overlay which I was originally going to see if I could use but as it turns out it was just getting in the way of my custom switches overlay I had made out of the Lexan plastic so it hot scrapped. The buttons also came with a solderless connection board as you may recall from previous posts. It was a real bear getting all of the pins to fit into the board I can sure tell you, especially since the way I had done this I had to put the whole group of 10 switches into my overlay and insert them through the hole I had pre cut into the fibreglass console and then insert the pins from the switches into the solderless connection board. A very finicky job but I finally managed it.

Next job on my list of things to do was to carefully go over the connections on the switches to make sure they matched up with the markings on the edge of the board for "Common" or ground, "NO," and the two connections for the switch bulb. one of which on the switch is marked as "+" but no marking on the board so I had to make sure I reflect that in my wiring diagram pictured below. At first glance the solderless connection board looks a little confusing but it's not really, if you looks closely at it you'll see it makes perfect sense. I have made my wiring diagram pretty "Idiot Proof" so even I can follow it lol.

I have no real plans at the moment for what I want these buttons to do so for now they are just going to be wired up to a Molex connector which can be run to a relay board at a future time when I do have a much better idea of what to do with them.... lol I'm sure I'll find something ;)

NOTE: I made a change to the diagram as I realized that I had some connections in the wrong place, this latest one is the correct one.

Here is a sample of how you can connect each switch to a Relay in order to turn on any desired device you would like to hook up to the console switches. As you can see in the diagram below that the switch makes a connection to ground completing the circuit through the Relay's magnetic coil to 12V positive energizing the magnetic coil inside of the Relay and activating it's internal switch which completes the circuit from ground to 12V positive of your desired device. Gotta love those Relays ;)