Re: headlight warning

[Michiel van Wessem <jmvw@xxxxxxxxx>]

Hi Bob,

It's not that hard to make it yourself. I made a beep on the '90 Civic of
my wife's son, after he killed his second battery. He never left his lights
on afterwards. Are you any good with a soldering iron? What you need is (12
volt) SPDT relay, a (12 volt) buzzer, some wire, some solder and maybe some
tie-wraps and hot glue. These can all be obtained from your local
electronics store for maybe $10. The schematics could go like this (make
sure your mail reader uses a fixed pitch font)

       power from lights o     o 12V when ignition on
                         |     |
                  relay | |     \
                   coil |/|  .   \.
                         |        |
                         |       | |< buzzer
                         |        |
                         o--------'
                         |
                ground  === 

In words, the buzzer buzzes when the lights are on and the ignition is off.
After I soldered everything together I used gobs of hot glue to give it
strength . Pick your favorite kind of buzzer. High pitch, low pitch,
intermittent, gentle, ultra loud - maybe you'd like a dixie horn. That'll
train you to turn your lights off!

Hope this helps..

Michiel ('87 325es <http://www.vramp.net/~jmvw/cars/BMW> and haven't
drained the battery - yet)

At 01:12 PM 7/29/99 PDT, Robert Sutterfield wrote:
>Because of geography and weather, there's often haze or fog along the way
to work in the morning, so I turn on my headlights to be seen.  Then it's
clear enough around the office (and light enough this time of year) that I
forget to turn them off again.
>
>At 5:00pm it's a familiar drill: pop the hood, remove fuse 21, pop the
trunk, uncover the battery, find someone passing by who has jumper cables.
Endure some comments from the Camry and Taurus drivers about our respective
cars' reliability and suitability for use as a daily driver.  Start the
car, unhook the cables, re-insert fuse 21, and dig out the owner's manual
to reprogram the computer with date/time, miles, and Fahrenheit.  Watch the
"inspection" light in permanent-on mode until the next oil change interval
comes along when my favorite mechanic will reset it.  Sigh...
>
>When the Sentra and Accord drivers tell me how their cars at least have
headlight warning bells, I resist the urge (at least until I'm done with
their jumper cables :-) to point out that a BMW's design presumes a
competent driver, and this problem is the idiot driver's fault, not the car's.
>
>I'm tired of repeating this routine every few weeks.  Is there any such
thing as an aftermarket add-on headlight idiot-warning bell?
>--
>Bob Sutterfield <Bob@domain.elided>
>87 E30 325iS/CA plates "DAS KAR"
>BMWCCA #169277
>
>
>

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