Installing The Molex Connectors For The Switch Pod Buttons

To help make installing the Knight Rider 2 TV Dash a lot easier I started adding in a 12 Pin Molex Connector for connecting my Switch Pod Button wires to the Mini Relays board that will be installed under the OEM plastic dash in the car.


This Molex Connector will be for the left hand Switch Pod Buttons, the right hand buttons will be on a separate Molex Connector depending on what is being hooked up to them. Whatever it may be I can still see them needing to go through a Relay so another Molex Connector will be the logical choice. I still need to add the wires to the connector for the other buttons but I'll do that tomorrow sometime. I'll need to pick up another Molex Connector just to have on hand for when I get around to adding a little extra length to the right hand Switch pod Buttons wires and running them to the Relay board when I figure out what I want them to activate.

Using A Switch Pod Button For Message Centre Cycle Option

After I had conducted my Multimeter test yesterday to determine if those red wires I had soldered onto the Switch Pod individual button terminals were power wires I realized I needed to make a minor change to this other diagram I had done for an option of using one of the Switch Pod Buttons to cycle through the Message Centre messages. The Momentary Button on the Pod closes power to ground which energizes the magnetic coil of the Relay closing the Relay's internal switch and this then if hooked up as a switch between the GND and CYC should cycle the message on the Message Centre.

Switch Pods Update

I have soldered in my wires onto the connection points on the back of the right hand side Switch Pod buttons board. I went with an 18 AWG wire even though I could have gotten away with something as thin as telephone wire. I didn't have anything that thin kicking around so I went with what I had which was the 18 gauge. I was still able to solder the wires onto the back of the board with ease. I certainly won't have to worry about the wires being able to handle the load from those tiny little tactile buttons that the Knight Rider Switch Pods use, that's for sure. ;) 

I used my Multimeter every time I completed the soldering of two wires to be sure I was still getting a continuity reading through my newly soldered wires when the button was pressed. All was good so I proceeded with the other connections.

Once all the wires were soldered onto the board I tested them again with the Multimeter, all was good so I tucked the wires up through the tube I had secured into the back of the Switch Pod Unit. I did them one at a time being careful to make a label for each wire corresponding to it's respective push button on the pod. Once all of the wires were fed through the tube and properly labeled for easy identification later I bundled then up with Zip Ties nice and neat.

I used perhaps a unique form of labelling to identify each wire to it's respective and corresponding button. I used a series of dots to indicate the buttons singling out one with a red circle to show it's location on the button pad. I marked each label at the top with "R-Pod" to signify Right Pod the other side which I will do tomorrow will be labeled "L-Pod" along with the red dot among the black dots, this way there is little chance if any of mucking up which wire is for which button.