I took a quick look at a couple of options such as Cartek and Summit but didn’t want an 8 button layout and I wasn’t too keen on the size of the ‘stalks’ at the top. I settled on the FREEWheel 4 channel device, especially having seen Richard's at the MSG meet during the summer. There was also quite a difference in pricing, especially when I only wanted 4 channels.
So much research and chatting with people later, I took the plunge and set about getting it plumbed in, making some obligatory notes along the way…
Fitting plate to wheel
It arrived nicely packaged with full installation instructions. First off was to insert the supplied battery, said to have a usable life of 5 years. Replacing will be simple in the future and there is promise that the LED on the transmitter will flash red when the battery is getting low.
The button plate fits nicely to the back of the wheel, but needs longer bolts to accommodate the width of the plate between the wheel and quick release boss. BTW, the thickness of the button plate with all the circuitry is about 1cm. I replaced the 12mm bolts with 25mm (any longer and you won’t be able to fully open the quick release mechanism) and opted for matt black to fit the steering wheel finish. The bolts are M6 and easy to get hold of.
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One of the reasons I chose this setup was because the buttons can be configured / reconfigured as need be. This was initially set up for me based on my preference before shipping, which is left and right indicators at the top (next to the thumbs) and momentary headlight flash / hooter at the bottom. I opted for the green / blue and black buttons, but other colours are available.
I then plugged it into the PC and ran through the software configuration just to get familiar with it and play with the options.
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Left / Right indicators
- Push once to activate the signal. You can control how long the signal is active – between 6 and 30 seconds, before the indicator will cancel. I set mine to 15 seconds.
- If you push both indicator buttons together, the hazard lights flash (obviously), but they stay on until deactivated by pressing either (or both) indicator buttons again.
- The control unit also takes a feed of the brake light circuit. So if the brake light is on, the auto-cancel countdown timer is ‘paused’ until the brake light is off. This means that when sitting in traffic waiting to turn with your foot on the brake, the indicator will continue flashing past the designated time until you take your foot off the brake, then the countdown starts again.
- A simple momentary button action that fires the main beam all the time you hold the button down.
- The control unit also caters for a feed of the dipped beam circuit so that If the dipped beam is on, the main beam will come on and stay on with a single push and go off either with another button push or turning off the dipped beam. This didn’t quite work out as I was expected. More to follow…
- A simple momentary button action that gives a toot all the time you hold the button.
- This could be set to ‘latching’ mode which means tooting starts on first press and off on second press, but I’ve kept it as a momentary action; especially given the Awooga noise it makes.
You can push the buttons on the wheel and see the software emulation blinking away. Just for fun, I got the kids to test some of the buttons from 15 meters away in another room, through 2 brick walls, and all seems dandy. The instructions do recommend not placing the unit behind large sheets of metal, but if it can keep the kids entertained 15 meters away, it’ll be right at home ½ metre apart in the car.
Wiring preparation
To plumb this in, you’ll need to tap/splice into existing wires. I didn’t fancy cutting any existing wires – there isn’t much room for soldering / wrapping electrical tape – so opted for a splicing approach in the form of splice connectors. This also means, because you don’t need to cut any wires, it can all be undone if need be.
I also realised that the control channels had pairs of wires. This threw me… I was expecting a single wire for each channel with each being the ‘12V feed’ for each function. From the outset I was against the idea of needing to understand ‘low current and high current circuits’ and diagrams of ‘relay energised V at rest’. I really did not want to get involved in wiring in relays and what-not. My mind is fragile enough.
I laid bare my concern with the good people at Kit Car Electronics who were very accommodating and ran me through it – twice. It’s actually very simple when you don’t overthink it!
Here’s my even simpler explanation…
A switch has a 12V input wire from the battery and, when switched, a 12V output wire to the component; so in essence a single 12V feed when active. The receiver box is even simpler: two wires that become one when a button is pressed – it doesn’t matter which is ‘in’ or ‘out’. So by connecting one wire to the ‘in’ and the other wire to the ‘out’, we now have two sets of switches doing the same thing in parallel: either the dash mounted toggle / rotary / push switches or the FREEWheel steering buttons.
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The most amount of time spent was removing (and reinstalling) the dashboard ‘shelf’ (you know – the big bit of black plastic where you put your gloves, steering wheel and nodding dog) to get to the existing wiring. Not as easy as you may think in a Nomad where you have the windscreen to contend with, but also ‘shelf’ mounted switches for the winch, heated windscreen, wipers and washers etc. The wing mirrors – which of course needed to be removed to take the dash shelf off – have side turn indicators in the mirrors, so more wires to dismantle. The wiring for all these unclipped very easily, but most of my time was spent getting familiar with what wires are what and how to disconnect it all, remembering that at some point I’d need to put it all back together again.
I then removed the 4 bolts securing the dash surround, as well as the remote brake bias knob, to pop the dash surround out by an inch or two, giving plenty of room to get to the back of the switches for the plumbing.
I also took the front fairing off in case I needed access into the wiring loom from the front of the car, but in the end this wasn’t necessary. I wired it all in from ‘inside’ the car – or, to be more accurate – from the driver’s side of the car going in through the pedals and up into the back of the dashboard surround.
Plumbing in
Finding somewhere to cable tie in the receiver box and wiring loom was straightforward, making sure it was close enough to the dashboard for wires to reach without needing to extend them. A couple of strips of fluffy side Velcro where the box nuzzles into the frame will prevent any rattles. I also made sure that the waterproof USB port was facing down so that I can plug a laptop in at a later date if I want to make any config changes (like how long the indicators flash for before auto cancelling).
The part that probably took the longest to plumb in was finding a decent ground connection. As we know, the entire body is powder coated and painted etc., so exposed metal there is not. That said, I discovered that there is a little aluminium stalk about an inch tall, that is used to secure the middle of the dash shelf. I was quite chuffed when this lit up the voltmeter like a Christmas tree. I thought I took a picture of this with the wiring in place, but it seems that the excitement of finding a good earthing point meant I didn’t. Anyway, it is here:
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1: Ignition switched live – switched live at the rear of the ignition toggle on the dash panel
2: Brake light sensor – switched live from the brake pedal sensor that is tied to the loom that runs between the clutch and brake fluid reservoirs
3: Dipped beam sensor – switched live from the back of the rotary light switch on the dash panel. But, as I said above, I ended up not using this, so took it out. The reason why later…
4: 1 x channel for main beam – the dash panel rotary knob has 4 wires:
- 12V in – centre wire. Connect any channel wire
- Sidelights – position 1. Ignore
- Dipped Beam – position 2. Ignore
- Full Beam – position 3. Connect the other channel wire
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- 12V in – centre wire. Connect any channel wire FROM BOTH CHANNELS
- Left position – Connect the other channel wire for RIGHT channel
- Right position – Connect the other channel wire for LEFT channel
- 12V in – connect any channel wire
- 12V out – connect the other channel wire
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- Writing about what I opted for and how I opted to plumb it in is my own personal preference. It’s NOT a ‘recommended’ approach; I’m just trying to be helpful…
- As I mentioned before, I didn’t need to take the front fairing off. That wasted an hour of my life!
- So, about the dipped beam sensor then… The idea here is that if the dipped beam is off, hitting the Full Beam button will activate the full beam lights until you let go of the button. If dipped beam is on, hitting the Full Beam button will activate the full beam lights until you press the button again. The instruction manual says that certain cars (like Caterham cars) don’t allow full beam unless dipped beam is on. Well, it appears Ariel cars work the same way. A blast of the Full Beam switch also sends a signal to the side lights (front only) and dipped beam. So when I thought I was flashing only 6 lights for a full beam flash (4 roof lights and the 2 up front), I’m actually giving a 10 light salute – you’re welcome. Thinking about it further, this makes sense as each switch position is an ‘addition’. Side lights don’t turn off just because dipped beams come on etc. It just hadn’t occurred to me. Apparently, you can do something with relays etc. to make this work as designed, but I’ve opted to forego this function and have settled for ‘just’ a 10 light flash with a single button press. If that doesn’t get your attention, I’ll go around you.
- No, the left / right mapping on the indicator circuit above was not an error. You know how they say “measure twice, cut once”? Well I ‘measured’ like 10 times… When you flick a toggle switch to the left, the back of the switch, where the connections are, moves to the right. So left hand indicator circuitry is on the right side of the back of the switch. I had to write stuff down in a mapping table at this point, just to make sure, but it makes sense.
- Lastly, I think there could be one small modification made to the unit that would help, but I anticipated the issue and worked around it: There are 4 channels that control 4 functions. Each channel has 2 wires. These 8 wires are identical and not bonded (not sure how to explain this bit). You know how with twin flex, the two wires are a single length and to separate them, you need to pull the wires apart? Well that. I had 8 identical and individual wires that represented specific pairs for each channel. At the control box side of the loom, each pair had a label indicating the channel, but once the box was plumbed in and wires were run to the business end of things, I was left with 8 wires with little chance of tracing what was what. Easily overcome by adding my own labels to each pair, but something to anticipate in advance; especially if you opt for the 8 channel / 16 wire configuration…
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The results
Dead chuffed.
It took around 6 hours all in all, but honestly, only about 90 minutes was the actual wiring – probably because I opted not to cut / solder the wires – those splice connectors are fast, secure and ultimately not beyond undoable if needed. The rest of the time was bodywork dismantling / putting back together and figuring out where to locate the box and find a good ground connection.
I can signal without taking my hand off the wheel and know that I’ll never get flashed at again on a club run for leaving my indicators on.
I can thumb one button to execute a 10 light salute without winding through the rotary switch – particularly when the side lights or dipped beam is on; I was never good at remembering how many clicks clockwise / anti-clockwise were needed.
I now have double the opportunity to Awooga old ladies on a drive by, without mistakenly engaging the starter motor
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