Berlingo Brake light modification

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ChrisB
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Berlingo Brake light modification

Postby ChrisB » Sat Apr 14, 2007 7:06 pm

Well now I'm out and about in it more and more this little problem has reared its ugly head again..............

Has anyone else with a berlingo noticed that due to its quite good regen braking system that driven carefully you dont actually hardly ever need to apply the foot brake or if you do its at the very last few yards.
This is great as you are recovering a fair amount of power BUT I am finding more and more traffic behind me almost runs into the back of me due to the fact the brake lights rarely come on :shock:
Today I had some bloke screech to a halt behind me and shout out of his window at me saying I should get my brake lights checked as they dont work and I nearly smacked you up the ****** ( well thats not exactly what he said but you get the idea :roll: )
I replied yes they do (as I had only just been round checking all the lights) and with that I pressed the pedal and shouted "well" he muttered something and we drove off.

So my idea to start with is to fit a micro switch or similar to the very top end of the throttle pedal so when I completely lift off then the brake lights come on , later I think Ill add a delay to the lights so they come on after a few seconds so they are not for ever going on and off with throttle movement.

ChrisB
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gooroo
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Postby gooroo » Wed Apr 18, 2007 2:21 pm

This idea was actually suggested some time ago for all vehicles. The idea was that using the throttle position sensor it was possible to detect if the driver removed their foot quickly from the accelerator and the ECU could then bring on the brake light fractionally faster than the driver could and was estimated to be able to prevent many accidents a year.

Perhaps the regen should always cause the brake lights to illuminate when providing a certain amount of energy.

Have you thought about fitting LED brake/tail lights btw, consume less power than conventional and last much longer, available on ebay. Although I think they may not be legal at the moment.

regards, Simon

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ChrisB
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Postby ChrisB » Wed Apr 18, 2007 6:02 pm

Good idea , I've never heard of it before and thought I was the first, dam there goes my patent :lol:

The regen idea might be one way of tripping them to come on but my switch idea I felt was slight simpler and less intrusive to the dam blingos fragile control systems :wink:

I haev thought about the LED route but cant say it would save that much off the main traction pack, what brake lights are 21watts each , two makes 42 watts , = 3amps or there abouts , transpose that up to the 166v pack and I doubt the pack even knows they have come on to be honest even with the losses in the DC-DC converter its got to be less than 0.5 amp , is it really worth it ???

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Postby arsharpe » Tue May 29, 2007 6:05 am

With the switch approach, I think you might find that at low speeds (e.g. manouvering and less than say 20 mph the brake lights might be on :-(

A couple of alternatives could be:-

a) Hall-effect sensor

Here some simple electronics could monitor the charge current using a hall-effect sensor clamped around one of the main battery leads. That way the trig point can be adjustable and comes on when there is a significant amount of regen. It also stops the need to play with the charging system.

Although I could design and build it (had an electronics career in a different life), I want to put my time and effort into increasing visibility/charging of EVs. I am happy to give advice though :-)

b) Modifying EvLite

Evan, does EvLite have access to charging current ?
If it does then it might be simpler to take a single wire from the EvLite to the brake lights (or via a relay)

Regards,
Rob

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qdos
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Re: Berlingo Brake light modification

Postby qdos » Tue May 29, 2007 7:24 am

ChrisB wrote:
So my idea to start with is to fit a micro switch or similar to the very top end of the throttle pedal so when I completely lift off then the brake lights come on , later I think Ill add a delay to the lights so they come on after a few seconds so they are not for ever going on and off with throttle movement.

ChrisB


Good Idea I have a similar thing with my Zest, as it uses a CVT gearbox and not much momentum being so lightweight, I seldom ever touch the brakes. It was one of the first things a freind of mine commented on when we took the Zest to Exeter to a show and he was following me in my other car. Although nowadays I left foot brake.
Last edited by qdos on Tue May 29, 2007 7:26 am, edited 1 time in total.

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ChrisB
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Postby ChrisB » Tue May 29, 2007 7:26 am

Must admit Rob my effort was a very heath robinson approach which may well mean they could be on all the time at low speed but I had hoped to make the adjustment fine enough so that this was unlikely to happen.

The electronics route is fine for people with those tendancies but I had hoped for a low tech solution that didnt require any or minimal electronics knowledge as I know there are people who own berlingos that are not that way inclined, not that theres anything wrong with the hall effect route in fact it was something I had forgotton about. 8)

I'm not sure about your EVlite, but mine isnt stable enough to be able to obtain that sort of data reliabley :cry:

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timpootle
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Postby timpootle » Mon Jun 25, 2007 11:23 am

Speaking of patents...

I was googling for a motorcycle gadget I saw long ago (~1993) which was a brake light operated by a pendulum switch, completely independant of the bike's systems. It took the form of a model of a biker, wearing a backpack. The backpack was the brake light, which came on when deceleration was sensed. You stuck the little man to the rear of your bike, like a mini pillion passenger.

However, I don't see the need at all. I took my driving test on a tractor, and have kept the attitude of defensive driving. I'm perfectly happy to bimble along at 25 in a 30 zone, 50mph on a motorway etc. (Especially since I earned 9 penalty points. tum-te-tum...)

Just don't let go of the throttle when someone is sat on your bumper. The re-gen on the Berlingo is very good (not like a fork-lift) and you can slow down gradually. This is actually more energy efficient, too, as re-gen only gives you 25% of the energy back.
Tim Crumpton

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ChrisB
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Postby ChrisB » Mon Jun 25, 2007 11:48 am

timpootle wrote:Just don't let go of the throttle when someone is sat on your bumper.


Thats all very well but if the traffic in front stops you've got no option but to come off the throttle :lol:

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aminorjourney
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Postby aminorjourney » Mon Jun 25, 2007 12:52 pm

Is there any way to detect when the regen is active? If you could tell at the motor that regen was taking place perhaps you could use a logic circuit which operated a relay when regen came on?
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ChrisB
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Postby ChrisB » Mon Jun 25, 2007 1:16 pm

I'm pretty sure there is a way using a current coil around one of the motor wires, then it would just be a case of as you say a small logic circuit to define when and how it came on.

I'm still of the opinion a good old fashion mircoswitch is the way to go, simple nothing techy required and will work, yes theres a likely hood that it might stay on during VERY low speed work but thats not the end of the world.
I would rather the things be on more than less, put it that way :wink:

If this weather would stop raining I might have been tempted to have a play but no chance this week :roll:

ChrisB
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