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Climate control cluster

8K views 37 replies 8 participants last post by  gordo999 
#1 ·
Has anyone had one of these apart and is the rear defrost button salvageable to take out of a unit and add to another unit . I want to use the switch or tap into it for a heated mirror mod.
 
#28 ·
nosxjeep said:
I'll have to double check, but according to the diagram, if you went straight out the back of the cluster, you'd be bypassing the fuse.
Going to put an inline fuse to the mirrors.
 
#29 ·
Rinny said:
I want to use the switch or tap into it for a heated mirror mod.
Why? Why not get the power elsewhere?

The schematic I looked at in this thread seems to have a momentary switch connected to a logic circuit, it does not look like a normal make/break switch.

Does it click into place then click off again with another press? If it just pushes in with no click (latch) then it's a momentary switch and it's operating the logic circuit which does the latching. If that's the case it's not a good circuit to mess with. If you blow that logic circuit you could have some grief.

The logic circuit seems to operate the relay, which supplies heavy duty contacts for the rear heater winding. The rear defogger switch is not switching anything, it seems to be a light duty switch to turn on the logic circuit. How it turns it off is not clear since the logic circuit is not exposed.

If there is a flip-flop circuit inside the logic IC the switch likely toggles the flip-flop when pressed once then releases it when pressed again.
 
#30 ·
it does click and there windings inside the circuit, I was wondering what the heck that was when I dissected and old cluster. You seem to have a good understanding of what it is and does. I am open to your suggestions if you can be specific seeing this is beyond my skill set. I am capable of wiring it but do not have a good understanding of circuits and such. The purple wire that feeds the rear window defroster comes out of that winding thing not out of the switch. Dunno if that helps figure it all out?
 
#31 ·
AstroWill said:
That is a common issue(have to follow the instructions to the letter, and even then it can be picky).
No problem using bitorrent but had to get a good torrent location.'

Problems started after I d/l free vmware vmplayer. Claimed the file had a bad vmx file, which is the ini file. Took me a while to get the cobwebs out. There was a directory with '.lik' in it that needs to be deleted. I think lik means lock. So if the virtual machine was turned off incorrectly it would have created a lik directory which when read would indicate the machine was in use. Therefore it locks new users out.

The file was shipped with a lik directory and it should have been removed first. Also, the mouse wouldn't work. Had to ad a line in the vmx file for the mouse.

Once loaded and running, need to download latest VM Tools through menu then install them.

Everything going swimmingly now.

Thanks AW for link.
 
#32 ·
Rinny said:
You seem to have a good understanding of what it is and does.
nosxjeep seems to have figured it out. I'm terribly bleary-eyed right now and I'd be more help after some sleep.'

On page 1 he has laid out coloured wires connected with arrows. The splice spot he indicated is after a 30 amp fuse and should take your rear defrosters as well as the mirror heater if they are low current devices. Problem is, with the rear defrost switch in the current position it will turn on both the mirror heaters and the rear defroster.

Just make sure when you splice the wires that you make a good physical connection by twisting them with pliers. Don't skimp on the length of the splice, strip the wire a good 3/4" back if you're splicing 3 wires together then preferably solder them. If you can't solder them, use the full 3/4" and twist them tight with good pliers, like linesman's pliers till the splice is good and solid. Then use a splice cap, like a Marette. 3/4" is too long for a Marette so you'll have to cut the splice to suit, depending on the size of the Marette.

The key for the length is to be sure the insulation on all wires is well within the Marette open end. Tape around the Marette then up the wires a bit going back and forth to ensure all bare wires are covered. One layer of electrical tape is rated at 600 volts, so a few layers should due you as long as you have to sharp wire ends sticking through.

Tape the heck out of them. Run the tape well over the ends and back about a couple of inches.

You can do a T-splice where you strip insulation off one wire for 1/2 an inch then wrap another wire around it. Strip the through wire so you get at least 4 or 5 turns of wire around it at the t-splice and turn the turns with pliers to tighten them. You should solder it before taping. Or you could use liquid electrical tape. Be careful not to nick the wire, or wires if they are stranded, when you skin the cable sheath.

There are connectors that take two wires in and one out for a form of T-splice.

You seemed to be worried about getting both mirrors from the B post but there should be a cable feeding the B post from the back of the panel. Nosxjeep's splice point is just below the fuse panel. Find the panel and work it out from there.
 
#33 ·
So after looking at it again, as a correction, the cluster runs to a 30A in the underdash fuse block and then out the passenger side to the rear defrost.
I'm going to tap in to the fuse point to add an additional 15 amp circuit (this should allow the mirrors to work off of the momentary/timed cluster switch and still give me a good location to add a separate switch later if desired), I just need a recommendation on where to ground in the vicinity of the fuse panel.
 
#34 ·
gordo999 said:
AstroWill said:
That is a common issue(have to follow the instructions to the letter, and even then it can be picky).
No problem using bitorrent but had to get a good torrent location.'

Problems started after I d/l free vmware vmplayer. Claimed the file had a bad vmx file, which is the ini file. Took me a while to get the cobwebs out. There was a directory with '.lik' in it that needs to be deleted. I think lik means lock. So if the virtual machine was turned off incorrectly it would have created a lik directory which when read would indicate the machine was in use. Therefore it locks new users out.

The file was shipped with a lik directory and it should have been removed first. Also, the mouse wouldn't work. Had to ad a line in the vmx file for the mouse.

Once loaded and running, need to download latest VM Tools through menu then install them.

Everything going swimmingly now.

Thanks AW for link.
You are most welcome!

Wow, guess I would advise against using vmware player and instead go with Virtualbox. It was as simple as clicking "import appliance", selecting the file, import, and then start. Ran perfectly without issues 100%.

Either way glad that you got it working!
 
#37 ·
Rinny said:
I am sure I will need some type of voltage regulator for the LED
I am coming at this out of context, but why would you need a regulator for an LED?

All you need for any LED is a resistor in series to limit the current. Standard LED's drop 1.6 volts across the diode. If you are running it from a 12 volt source, you subtract 1.6V from 12 volts to get 10.4 volts. You combine 10.4 volts with the required current using ohm's law to derive the required limiting resistance.

When you buy the LED it should indicate the forward bias voltage and the current requirement on the package. Otherwise, look it up on the Net. Be sure to buy a known type of LED so you can reference it by number. A standard red LED with the flat part on it to indicate anode has a forward bias of 1.6 volts but that could vary depending on the manufacturer. I have always used 1.6 volts for standard LEDs.

The current is likely between 1 milliamp and 10 milliamps.

For 1ma, R = E/I = 10.4v/0.001amps = 10,000 ohms. Use a standard 10K resistor.

For, 10ma...R = 10.4v/0.01amps = 1040 ohms. Use a standard 1K resistor.

For power, P = EI = 10.4v x 0.01amps = 0.1 watts. Use an 1/8th watt resistor.

This is just an example for a red LED with a 1.6 volt forward bias. It's vital that you buy an LED where the exact forward voltage and current draw is indicated.

It appears there are LEDs with built in limiting resistors. I'll leave that to you to research.
 
#38 ·
AstroWill said:
Wow, guess I would advise against using vmware player and instead go with Virtualbox.
I would not go that far, vmware and vmplayer are top notch virtual apps. Let's just say if you're going to play with virtual apps you need to have the perseverance to figure out why they are not working.

vmplayer is free and I've had virtual disks with windows 7 loaded playing merrily in a windows 7 host with only 3 gigs of memory.
 
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