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View my fuel log 2015 Mirage ES 1.2 automatic: 40.5 mpg (US) ... 17.2 km/L ... 5.8 L/100 km ... 48.6 mpg (Imp)
stevedmc (11-15-2018)
I got the new circuit soldered up tonight. Its messy but will work for testing purposes. The two capacitors are normally added when using 7805 chips.
Custom Mirage products: Cruise control kit, Glove box light, MAF sensor housing, Rear sway bar, Upper grill block
Current project: DIY Nitrous oxide setup for ~$100
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View my fuel log 2015 Mirage DE 1.2 manual: 47.2 mpg (US) ... 20.1 km/L ... 5.0 L/100 km ... 56.7 mpg (Imp)
Isn't it fun living in the digital IC age where you can find an IC to do almost anything, and not have to build complicated circuits out of discrete components? Just think of all the hoops you'd have to go through to get 12v to a stable 5v, and then up it to 14v if you had to do it from scratch!
Simplify and add lightness.
Yes, modern electronics are a wonderful thing. They're also pretty ridiculously cheap to mess with too. This is great when you are learning and fry components when unexpected things happen.
Custom Mirage products: Cruise control kit, Glove box light, MAF sensor housing, Rear sway bar, Upper grill block
Current project: DIY Nitrous oxide setup for ~$100
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View my fuel log 2015 Mirage DE 1.2 manual: 47.2 mpg (US) ... 20.1 km/L ... 5.0 L/100 km ... 56.7 mpg (Imp)
I tried installing the mod again over the weekend. It only takes a minute to install, but I found the switch being finicky again. It would work if the switch was halfway to one side, but not if it was all the way to either side. This is very odd since its only a 2 position switch. So, I took it back inside and removed the switch from the circuit all together. The reasoning being if I need to revert back to normal use again, I can just unplug the circuit and plug the OE fuse back in vs flipping a switch. Not a big deal, and I wouldn't have to deal with a switch that isn't acting as its supposed to. However, once I reinstalled it, it simply didn't work at all. It was charging to 15.4V the same as if the fuse was still removed. It was cold and I didn't feel like dinking around with it anymore, so its again sitting on the desk until I feel motivated to work on it and test out what is going on. The next step is to bench test the circuit to make sure its doing what it is supposed to.
Custom Mirage products: Cruise control kit, Glove box light, MAF sensor housing, Rear sway bar, Upper grill block
Current project: DIY Nitrous oxide setup for ~$100
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View my fuel log 2015 Mirage DE 1.2 manual: 47.2 mpg (US) ... 20.1 km/L ... 5.0 L/100 km ... 56.7 mpg (Imp)
I took some time today and bench tested the alternator disabling circuit. What I noticed is everything seemed to be working great except one thing. The DC-DC converter was putting out 24V instead of 15V. I wondered if this was because there was no load on the circuit, so I put a 1.5K resistor on it as a load. This pulled the output voltage down to 15.8V. Sounds close enough for me. So, I soldered the 1.5k resistor in place and tried it out on the car. It is now installed and working perfectly. My guess is the load that the car creates also wasn't enough to pull the dc-dc output voltage down to 15V. In the past I had measured the current draw of the sense line and it was only 1 mA which is a pretty low load.
This makes me wonder if my previous version did actually fry. It also was putting out a very high voltage with the circuit open. However, I still think this is a far superior design and will be sticking with it going forward. There will be no question about 'will it die' with the current components.
So, here is the new circuit diagram for those following along.
Custom Mirage products: Cruise control kit, Glove box light, MAF sensor housing, Rear sway bar, Upper grill block
Current project: DIY Nitrous oxide setup for ~$100
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View my fuel log 2015 Mirage DE 1.2 manual: 47.2 mpg (US) ... 20.1 km/L ... 5.0 L/100 km ... 56.7 mpg (Imp)
I wanted to post an update on this project. The new circuit still does not work. Thus, I haven't been using the alternator disable mod at all. When its warmer, I'll have to figure out what is going on with it and why the ECU won't just bend to my wishes...
Custom Mirage products: Cruise control kit, Glove box light, MAF sensor housing, Rear sway bar, Upper grill block
Current project: DIY Nitrous oxide setup for ~$100
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View my fuel log 2015 Mirage DE 1.2 manual: 47.2 mpg (US) ... 20.1 km/L ... 5.0 L/100 km ... 56.7 mpg (Imp)
Alex1a1f (04-17-2019),LetItMarinate (05-02-2019)
I really haven't worked on it since the last post. I do plan on getting back to it once summer rolls around. At the moment, I'm driving a different car to troubleshoot and fix it before selling it. Once I get back in the Mirage, I will hopefully be finishing a bunch of projects that I've started (nitrous kit, alt delete, new trans oil, I think thats all...).
Custom Mirage products: Cruise control kit, Glove box light, MAF sensor housing, Rear sway bar, Upper grill block
Current project: DIY Nitrous oxide setup for ~$100
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View my fuel log 2015 Mirage DE 1.2 manual: 47.2 mpg (US) ... 20.1 km/L ... 5.0 L/100 km ... 56.7 mpg (Imp)