RE: Automatic Up/Down Window Module

["Buchholz, Steven" <Steven.Buchholz@kla-tencor.com>]

>     If you really need this full up & full down,  do away with using the
> existing switch in the conventional manner.  Keep it hooked up but not
> plugged into the door module.  Replace the switch in the door module with
> a
> two way toggle switch which would be spliced into the wiring harness.  By
> reversing the polarity, you achieve the switching to the motor and in
> turn,
> have a full up or full down, depending upon your need.
> 
Thanks for the info on rebuilding the winders Wayne!  Of course you are
correct about the possibility of adding a switch to reverse the sense of the
car's auto-down function.  AAMOF you can do that very simply at the door
panel itself without a bunch of wiring.  To my mind it seems to complicate
things and defeat the purpose of the automatic function though.  I would
want auto-up/down so that I can hit the button and not have to worry about
the window.  I can do that pretty much without even having to look down at
the switch.  If there is another switch which determines if the auto
function is up or down, then you are going to have to look at the switch to
see which way it is set ...

The other thing to note is that the module that I am now investigating
operates in a slightly different fashion from the one that is stock on the
cars.  The module that Audi supplies goes into automatic mode independently
of how long the switch is depressed.  If you want to only roll the window
down part way you need to hit the switch again to get it to stop.  

>     I'm assuming that the reason the motor stops is that an overload to
> the
> motor closes down the circuit when the "full travel" of the "slider" is
> reached.  This may shorten the life of the motor, shorten the life of the
> wiring harness or a variety of other fire related problems.  But. .  you
> will have that full up/down feature that you are striving for.
> 
This is exactly what happens when the window rolls down as well.  I am
pretty sure that the only shutdown mechanism is when the overload causes the
thermal breaker to open the circuit.  While this is fine for rolling the
window down I'm thinking that a little more sensitive and faster acting
protection circuit is necessary.  It turns out that the way the car is wired
for auto-down brings the motor terminals directly to the control module.  

BTW, Chris Miller passed along a link to a company that sells an automatic
up/down module that you can buy right now.  It is a generic module, which
means that you'll need to splice it into the existing wiring ... and if you
were adding it to a window that had auto-down already I'd think you'd need
to find some way to disable it as well.  The price is in the same ballpark
as the responses I've gotten indicate.  Here it is:

	 http://www.autoloc.com/Window.html#anchor2734601

If anyone happens to have experience with this module I'd be interested in
hearing back.  It sounds like it operates like the Audi module ... you have
to hit the switch again to get it to stop, but if it actually functions
exactly the way that the module I am designing will it sort of makes it
unnecessary to follow through.

Steve Buchholz
San Jose, CA (USA)