atcfixer

iTrader: (1)

I have a ton of wire diagram books and I'm thinking about making a pinout website for Toyotas in general, but of course first target is the pickups and 4runners.

Just for a simple example, instead of this:



And having to look up connector T1



It would be something like this (just a rough example)



I think there would be plenty of demand for a site like this, and as a side effect I sell pig tails, some sub harnesses, possible adapters, etc so besides some ads (not a ton of them), I can cross promote my products on it too. Anyway, not focusing on the money side of things too much. I figured I'd post this idea up and see what kind of ideas and feedback I'd get on it. I normally make very simple and direct to the point type of websites (no bs, junk background crap making the pages slow, etc).

Besides the very raw idea of the site of pinout data, I'm thinking about adding a feature to compare pinouts on different vehicles side by side. The data to build the site would be the same for that feature, so just making the pages is all I'd have to do (simple in concept, but takes a lot of time to build).

Another idea I had was a way to upload images of the connector, community powered improvements basically. I'd like "real" connector photos besides the drawings, it makes identifying them a lot easier.

I'm sure one of the main uses for the site would be engine related pinouts for engine swaps and such. It might not be too hard to document how to make harnesses of different years and such to work on the different engines. Like the common 5vz-fe swap into a 3vz-e truck/4runner/t100.

Anyway, feedback is always great. Not super sure if this matches this forum section, but I figured it would be a solid place to get some eyes on the topic and this is the generation of trucks/4runners I'd be targeting first. I have a site name in mind, but open to ideas on that too, simple and memorable is desired and of course the .com being available, but that's bonus points xD.

For an example of my style of website, check out https://atvmanual.com, it's basically a spec site for atvs (mainly Honda's atm). The redesign I need to do to the site makes the pinout site possible to run on the same basic software I built.

If the site takes off well, once I get the basic concept up and working well, I could probably expand to adding tech specs on the page too for the part related to the connector, for the example above, this is the tech info from the EWD. It probably wouldn't be too hard to write up test procedures and such, like how to test a relay and such.




A little background on the site idea, since I'm getting more serious about making Toyota pigtails and such, I have to find a connector to get, find the pinout details for the target vehicle, then search a ton of other vehicles to see which ones match up for interchange details. Building a database of this info makes sense and just search it and it tells me the info. The website can run on the same database with a little extra data logged for the function/description. I figured if I'm going through the effort of converting wiring diagrams to pinouts in a database, I should just post the info on the site. I shouldn't have any copyright issues, raw tech details cannot be copyrighted, that's why aftermarket service manuals exist. They make all of their own tables, images, write ups, but the tech details can be exactly the same as the toyota manuals, unless I'm misunderstanding the law (not a law expert). The drawing image I used on this post I'll have to redraw, as long as it's not a direct copy I should be ok. Maybe I can find the cad drawing for the connector from the manufacture and ask permission to use it, or just take a physical photo of connectors (I have quite a few parts trucks).

Note: The IDL description I've already figured out a better description, Idle Switch (it acts as a switch, on or off logic).

coryc85

I'm glad you are making some harnesses for these trucks, even if I don't have a need for the parts just yet. As for the pinout website, more information out there is always good, I lot of people have questions on engine swaps, so clearly there is a need for that information.

wyoming9

iTrader: (1)

I can see it could be a big help to those just starting out!

I am used to the schematics so when i look at the print my brain does the work without giving it much thought .

I would find your way different and confusing if I just came across your site by chance .

atcfixer

iTrader: (1)

Thanks for the encouragement, I know engine swaps are a pretty big deal. I've seen the adapters and the prices are nuts. I asked my connector supplier about them and he said sometimes those ECU connectors are like $100 to buy so I guess that makes them make sense why atleast some are super expensive. I'm sure my site won't do much at slowing down people's questions on engine swaps, but it might be a solid resource to link to, to answer their questions, atleast as far as pinout data goes.


Yea, I came from the Honda atv manuals, the Toyota ones are a bit confusing to me xD, I've learning them slowly and they provide actual pin out data, the Honda ones don't! I kind of want to make pinout pages for my atv site too, but I have to buy the physical harnesses because I can't get people to take pics of what they have and tell me the wire colors even if I pay them. Eaiser to just buy them, and I'll have the harness on hand if I want to make a reproduction, if not I have cold hard physical examples of the pin outs. I have all of the Honda 3 wheeler harnesses from the early 70's to 87 besides like 2 machines that are super uncommon and hard to get parts for a reasonable price. I don't need them to be in great shape, just complete for my needs. I've started doing the same for the Toyotas since I've parted out a few trucks, but the tail light harness I had to combine like 3 harnesses to figure out the right lengths to reproduce, kind of crazy how bad cheap/junker vehicles are like that, 86-87 was extra bad (never had 85 and older, or 88, or the 89 4runner.



__________________________________________________ ______________________


I started building the bare bones of the site. I build my stuff from the ground up, so there's a little more involved to getting something tangible for my efforts, but I think the end product is better that way too. I might be a bit oldschool which makes my dev cycle slow vs some others, but my stuff seems to work way better and faster, but with less features and such (less animations, and fancy stuff that's just bloatware in my eyes).

Side topic, I've thought about making a site similar to my atv tech info site but for vehicles, or just toyotas. yotatech is a great name for a site like that, sadly it's taken xD. Not sure if I want to make the site 100% pinout data only, so the name would reflect that, or make it more generic like "YotaManual.com", that doesn't roll off the tongue too well though, I guess AtvManual.com doesn't either though. Ironically... yotamanual.com is open, could continue the site name pattern as my atv site. My other ideas were YotaCon (connectors), and YotaPin (for pinouts). Most people know yota = toyota. I'm not too creative with names though lol, it's the same as my website design, right to the point type of thinking lol.

atcfixer

iTrader: (1)

Small update on this, I've been digging through some wire diagrams and building up the database to have something to work with. Not sure if anyone is interested in the background work involved with a site like this, but here's my current application list. Some of the exact cases for a given connector gets real confusing real fast in the newer stuff.




Here's the connectors and their application counts (the number in the ()'s).



Here's an example pinout, clearly not formatted or anything fancy done to the page. I have to add the fitment list to the page yet.




I've targeted just the TPS connector, man there's a lot of changes lol. I have a lot more models to dig through, but most of them should use the same connectors based on the patterns I've seen so far. I'm targeting TPS and Distributor pigtails first, so that's why I'm hitting just one connector across a ton of models. Sadly, the wire colors aren't standard at all, it does seem like the pinout functions generally don't change though.

maxvp01

Awesome idea you have. If you need any diagrams for anything I can see if I can pull any diagrams if they have them here at work.

I know the Toyota Supra would be almost as popular as these trucks too if you plan on that being in there.

atcfixer

iTrader: (1)

Yep, supra is on the list, I can access 1990+ data, but the 89 and older I don't have access and have to buy the physical books. If you can get any data from that era, supra would be a great start =). My latest target has been pigtails for TPS and Distributor, so engine control for each year and engine would be great assuming you can get that kind of data. I'd need the connector info too which changed location a lot in the 80's in the manuals. Super early ones the wire diagram and connector diagram was on the same foldout (talking like 1979), around 88/89 they went to color.

I have a bit of another idea which is like a step back from the pinout diagram. I have an atv tech specs site too (https://atvmanual.com) and I want to rebuild wire diagrams on the site (can't do an exact copy, but tech data can't be copyrighted for the raw data). If I build a good enough program to make that process pretty easy, it shouldn't be too hard to tie it into the pinout data and tech specs to make a really advanced interactive wire diagram. I've had the interactive wire diagram idea around for a while, just figuring out the little details is challenging. I have a very basic prototype made, but it looks like it's from the 80's/90's xD.

I've bought quite a few of the 4runner/truck EWD books, they really cost a lot at around $100 each though. I have 79, 83, 86, 87, 89 4Runner, that's about $350 investment so far, probably won't see a profit on the site for quite a while unless I can find some dealership closing up that has what I need for cheap. Of course if the site blows up, I'll have the opposite issue, growing pains (server upgrades, trying to keep up with traffic demand etc). I doubt that will be an issue though for quite a while. Besides, I'm making the site very efficient so load times are about as fast as possible which also means it can run on the cheapest servers.

Here's a bit of a status update on the database process so far. I'm not sure how well that will translate to the general public, but basically it's 45 pinout diagrams like I showed before. Also, I'm not limiting the site to Toyota only, it's just my main focus (and Honda Atv's). Anything I can get solid wire diagrams on with pinout data I could target adding to the site. It will probably be years to populate, but if I start running out of stuff, I just have to look at other brands xD.



For the pigtail side of things, I have everything I've ordered except the special wire colors I didn't have on hand. Still can start making a lot of pigtails with what colors I have on hand.

Here's a couple pinouts for the people trying to get AC in their trucks. Currently only have the 86 and 89 4runner figured out, different packages might have different pinouts (tow package, 22r vs 22re vs 3vz, etc). Worth noting the 86 has a green connector while 89 is white/natural.

maxvp01

So I have access to Alldata and Pro-Demand.

I have wiring diagrams that go back to 1974 for toyota pickup trucks I saw.

I do have wiring diagrams for all the other toyota’s that date back pretty far too. There is connector information too, but it takes a while to find it, but most of it is there (on pro demand right now, alldata most likely has it too)

It might take a long time, and it would all just be pictures from my phone but I can take pictures of whatever you need

atcfixer

iTrader: (1)

I'll shoot ya a pm.

swampedout

im really into this idea. I can read wiring diagrams but its one of the last things I want to do on the weekend. Please design it for dummies and I should be able to use it.

atcfixer

iTrader: (1)

Yea, the whole process of looking at the box labeled ECU across 3 pages and matching the A B C to the connector number to find the connector pic to get the pinout, to try to make sense of what you're looking is a pain. I'm shocked the books don't have a simple pinout diagram in them to make it easier. My target audience is the average joe that's willing to turn a wrench, so dumbing it down is kind of part of the process with otu making it stupid where a real tech can't find anything.

For a sample of what I've done, check out my other site for atv data. It's mainly factory specs atm, but it has a ton of data on the specs page. For example, try Honda -> TRX400EX -> 2003 -> Specs. The pinout site would be based on how I made the atv site.

https://atvmanual.com/

I'm trying to get ECU pin out data compiled, and working out how I need to make the site so it's not confusing to use and the data isn't too condensed to be hard to follow. Targeting the 3VZ-FE first for the 4runner/pickup. I also want to make the site so you can search for the data in several different ways. Like pinout -> connector image -> applications, or year/make/model system (ecu for example) then it shows you what connector should be + pin out, stuff like that. I think it would be really neat to search based on like brand/make/model + wire color to find all connectors that used say Green/White wires. Also a search for signal type, like rpm would be handy to so you can find the wire color. Making 4+ ways to search for stuff in a simple to use interface might be a bit complicated for me, but I'll see what I can do xD.

swampedout

The Ford Forum Im on has a huge list of Wire colors from the manufacturer that reads every wire used in every Ford in the 80s. Its a lot to scroll thru but as a pdf you can search the text for a specific color and see what it might be. If you know your vehicle application, it narrows things down pretty well.

Another idea Ive seen is a basic writeup on the common systems- charging, starting, ignition, accesories, with those wires explained. Basically like an FAQ for people who are new to a platform.

atcfixer

iTrader: (1)

Yea on forums you're more or less hoping the members made good content, the pdf is nice, but it's hard to monetize it (to pay for my efforts basically). A web version of the pdf is probably somewhat similar to what I'm looking to do, but less data on a single page. Like I'm thinking for the ECU pinout data, I'll focus on just those 3 connectors and give the details per year of what changed and such and it would have to focus on a single engine and sometimes auto vs manual.

I just found out there's a good demand for "stand alone" harnesses for toyota cars, they are commonly used in demos and being able to strip out 99% of the harness is desirable (less things to blow the fuses). For now, I'm adding a bunch of the car ECU pinout details in the system so I can see what all is required and how easy/hard it is to build one. Besides demo derbies, just someone that has an engine laying around and wants to swap it into something else, or like a dune buggy could use the same harness, even if it's just for testing the engine (like junk yards). Toyota made it pretty simple since the engine harness goes directly to the ecu on most models.

Anyway, once I get a fair bit of data added to the database, I can work on restructoring it so it works well for the site. Core focus on the db is being able to log all of the pinout type of data, fitment etc gets to be broken down more so it's searchable. Color data is already searchable, and by connectors is how my admin system is based on.

I know adapter harnesses for engine swaps are desired too, not sure if I can get the right connectors to make that happen though.

swampedout

I was thinking one big application is people doing swaps. But theres also always a thread on here where someones asking where do this wire go? So Im sure youre site will get plenty of traffic

atcfixer

iTrader: (1)

Yea, the url already has 19 hits today and I don't even have anything on it or the url published anywhere. Really weird for a site that never existed before. I don't normally look up the harness to harness pinouts, but these standalone harnesses uses them, so that's a fun adventure to find the right connector lol. I have 92-96 data logged and those look pretty easy to build, currently working on 2001, and man there's a million exceptions on wire colors/functions, etc. Got a guy that needs the info, so trying to get something together for him.

swampedout

In my experience, Toys are much more standardized and have fewer options than American trucks which can have so many different trim levels in one model year. At least for the older stuff. Theyre all like that now.

I like how Toys are wired, although it took me a while to realize they use switched negative/grounds.

atcfixer

iTrader: (1)

Yea, toyota used to use 1 harness that would fit several options. Back then you could order the trucks how YOU wanted, so there's a TON of versions, but they lined up under 3 trim levels. That's why some DLX's have the SR5 tach and such. I think they quit that around the mid 90's, you had a lot more limited option for what you could buy, and I think the Tacomas only had 2 maybe 3 trim levels with auto/manual for each, like 6 or so variations, the older trucks I think had something like 50 variants but they ran all standard harnesses and such so it wasn't a problem.

I think toyota also sticks with the same basic design for their circuits too, like the headlight wiring design matches a ton of models. There's probably blinker switches that interchange with other vehicles pretty easily, might just have to adapt the connectors.