When you shut it off will it reset to low? (or first)?

 

The LED options look good, only thing I would note is the blue for overdrive. When in overdrive you will be there for a long time most likely. The Blue LED's are very bright and could get annoying. Could always hit it with a coat of tint I guess.

 

What is the plan for returning to normal driving? Do you know if you will have to shift to a certain gear, come to a stop, put it in neutral, etc, before turning the paddles off?

 

Thought about this the other day. Was going to put all of them behind a smoked/tinted piece of plastic, but then would be hard to see in the daytime. Then thinking about a rheostat to adjust brightness, but don't want to have to mess with it all the time. They might go in the cluster somewhere, just don't know at this point.

 

Yeah, not sure where the best place for them would be.

A dimmer could work but LED have a pretty narrow range of dimming generally.

If you are building a circuit board anyways, you could add an input that would dim them whenever you turn on the headlights like the rest of the dash lights.

 

Very cool project!

A question I have: is there a way to prevent downshifts that would cause an over-rev situation? Is that something that could be programmed into the control system?

MadCityRich
2002 4Runner

 

Yes, after the truck is shut off, when started again it will reset to 1st.

Just switch it off whenever, the ECM is still reading vehicle speed, throttle position, all that stuff and still thinks it is controlling the trans, so the correct power/open for each solenoid wire is there, it's just not connected to the solenoid.

But since I haven't actually done any of this yet, I will let you know if it accidentally goes into 1st gear at 80mph.

 

Sweet! I'm going to costco to buy popcorn in bulk! Keep up the good work.

 

ha... haha... nice.

for the dash indication, you might have a hard time viewing it in the sun. might not, but just something to consider when placing the leds

and how will you keep the 'duino from resetting when you turn the ignition off? or is it going to be hooked up 24/7 and vampire off the battery? (edit: "reset" as in re-starting the entire program)

in any case, sweet project!

 

Don't let a woman drive it.

Sure. Won't be in this one, maybe in the future, this is as manual as you can get.

 

It will reset with the ignition, starting in low gear.

 

hmm... the thought that brought that up was the "twitch" that arduino always does on startup. that moment after you apply power where nothing works, yet everything turns on then off. wonder if there's any way to eliminate that...

just my thoughts. i'm sure you've worked everything out just fine, and i just need to sit back and shut my trap haha

 

We will just have to wait and see since at this point it's just on paper.

 

cool. good luck!

 

Got some good news, software is written! The program came to about 150 lines of code and a total of 2496 bytes, only took my partner/megamind 45 minutes to do it. Now just waiting for more parts in the mail to start the breadboard testing and then build it.

 

Wow, got to say you move quick.

Really interested in how this works out! If it works well and price can be kept reasonable I am sure there is a market for it out there.

I know a lot of off-road guys would like to be able to start out in 2nd gear.

 

This thing will work on the A340 and AW4 trans and probably more, and they put them in so many cars and trucks. Not expensive but time consuming to build, guess I could make more if it was worth it, have to wait and see.

Me being one.

 

What are you using as the base electronics? From scratch board or something like an arduino?

At the very least some diagrams of the final setup would be nice so people could DIY it themselves. I know I would be interested in it for the right price.

 

Best solution ever. I know a few guys who I might not let drive, too.

MadCityRich

 

such a cool project. I could be very interested in this once i ditch my 3.0! sure would be fun behind a 1uz/a340e!