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Are Winking Headlights Possible?

Started by a tin pan alley · Jun 18, 2009 · 25postsSMF 2010–26

a tin pan alleyJun 18, 2009, 12:36 pm · #1

there's been a few discussions about sleepy eyes and a remark or two about winking but i'd like a for-real-deal answer on this. can anyone help?

i want to wink people through stop signs or out of driveways! like, both lights are up and i can make one of them retract for a second and immediately come back up. doesn't matter which one. if i could choose which one that would be incredible but i'll take what i can get!

edit; backstory: one of my highbeams is out but both headlights work, so it already looks like i'm winking at someone while at a stop sign and such. i just thought i'd go all the way with it :]

edit

firefoxyou guys are over thinking this

you could just run the headlight motor hard wired on a relayed switch for one side (or both).

 that way you can just hit the switch for a second which starts it moving then when you let off it will go back to relay mode and go back upright or down depending on how you have the lights.

if you dont let off it will just keep winking.. its all getting the same voltage so it wouldn't hurt it.

the motors only spin in one direction...  (see the arrow on the cap)    just make sure when you hardwire it, you make sure the motor are spining in the right way... otherwise youll have a short.
i never really thought about having my car wink..  just lowered to lazy eye(which is alot harder)
im doing this in the next few days to wink at people when i drive by
 can you guys sticky this.. ill do a write up for it if you do.
rageJun 18, 2009, 1:08 pm · #2

you'd probably need pretty elaborate switches to power the relays for only that headlight, anything is possible, its just wiring

JackalopeJun 18, 2009, 1:21 pm · #3

cant you just unplug one motor while its up then the switch would only use the une thats plugged in

a tin pan alleyJun 18, 2009, 1:23 pm · #4

if i left my headlights up all the time, somebody would probably just fuck with them.

edit: and the switch turns both headlights off when it retracts them. you can't have the headlights turned on and still be retracted.

cannan89Jun 18, 2009, 1:54 pm · #5

I can wink, if you fiddle with the light switch sometimes you can get only one to go down.  If you twist really slow on the light switch you can do it.

a tin pan alleyJun 18, 2009, 2:31 pm · #6

i'm looking for something more reliable and constant but i'll try doing that when i leave the office.

PraizewoodJun 18, 2009, 3:21 pm · #7

Sounds interesting, want to know as well.

JonBJun 18, 2009, 3:50 pm · #8

I'm sure it can be done. It's just how bad do you want it.

Like Rage said; your gonna have to wire that headlight a little different.

If you really want, you can make it do anything it already does at any time. Gonna have to do work on both I think to get a new button to do a wink on one light and still have the stock switch work both lights as normal.

a tin pan alleyJun 18, 2009, 3:58 pm · #9

I would be willing to do wiring and install new buttons and such; I thought that was implied when I said I wanted something more reliable and constant. Sorry. It's just that I'm inexperienced and probably couldn't figure this out on my own without a massive time investment

ryan206Jun 18, 2009, 5:50 pm · #10

J-Man's S13 would wink at people.. He'd just mash on the headlight button

Obviously, this won't work for our cars, but it is possible

My Sister's S12 has a dead headlight motor so it winks whenever she turns the lights off if she doesn't have the switch on

JonBJun 18, 2009, 7:03 pm · #11

Just a quick GUESS!; You will have to sit down and figure this out for real. This isn't an instruction;

Your gonna need to dig up the schematic for the head lights, at least one relay that's double pole double throw(DPST) I think, and at least two diodes and a momentary push button switch. Just from me thinkin' about it. Probably more. Ask one of your electrical engineer buddies.

It looks like the the exisiting relay on the up/down has two power sources that alternate with up and down. Guess you'll have to tap your new DPST relay with power source and the momentary push button you'll use to "wink" to those sources and install the diodes to not send power to the opposing lights motor or actual lights while allowing your original switch to work.

It looks like the DPST relay your after is one that bridges current across two poles when off and not the second two. When you charge the relay it cuts current from the first two poles and bridges the second two. There are nissan relays like this. I've seen them.

You may even need more diodes in the circut between your up/down motor assembly and new relay as to not short with original factory circut opperation.

Good luck!

Edit; I wish I could tell you how to do it, but the more I think about it the worse and harder it gets. Like you said about the lights being on only when the light is up. This may add even more problems like seperating the function during the wink to switch power to down the light while leaving the light on(sure you'll just wink for a short time). Or making that single winking light go out while it winks and leaving the other one on and... Seems kinda complicated.

firefoxJun 19, 2009, 2:42 am · #12

you guys are over thinking this

you could just run the headlight motor hard wired on a relayed switch for one side (or both).

 that way you can just hit the switch for a second which starts it moving then when you let off it will go back to relay mode and go back upright or down depending on how you have the lights.

if you dont let off it will just keep winking.. its all getting the same voltage so it wouldn't hurt it.

the motors only spin in one direction...  (see the arrow on the cap)    just make sure when you hardwire it, you make sure the motor are spining in the right way... otherwise youll have a short.

i never really thought about having my car wink..  just lowered to lazy eye(which is alot harder)
im doing this in the next few days to wink at people when i drive by

 can you guys sticky this.. ill do a write up for it if you do.

PraizewoodJun 19, 2009, 7:56 am · #13

Go go man! Agree on it not being that advanced and I'm definitely going to be doing this. It's going to be a +1 for the ladies mod lol.

a tin pan alleyJun 19, 2009, 8:08 am · #14

well good. i'm glad someone else said it before me: my girlfriend thinks it would be hilarious/awesome/hilariously awesome. i think she loves my car more than i do.

firefoxJun 21, 2009, 2:02 am · #15
a tin pan alleywell good. i'm glad someone else said it before me: my girlfriend thinks it would be hilarious/awesome/hilariously awesome. i think she loves my car more than i do.
 

will you put a quote of what i said at the top in your post.   this just got stickied
a tin pan alleyJul 21, 2009, 7:52 pm · #16

any progress on this, firefox?

sideways_s12Jul 22, 2009, 1:02 am · #17

Here you go...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YsRptwHicxY

a tin pan alleyJul 22, 2009, 7:07 am · #18

i remember the vid, but i'm still waiting for a writeup!

SlickS12Oct 31, 2011, 3:35 pm · #19

Its Halloween so I guess its appropriate to do a little gravedigging... *palmface* 

This kinda bugged me being a sticky and all and not having a definite answer, but I could have swore Justin, EightySix200sx, had a thread for this little mod but couldn't find it.  Wonder if such a thread exists or if maybe he could share his secret? ;)  If I recall it wasnt any harder than running an interrupter switch in between the headlight up/down switch

sideways_s12Nov 4, 2011, 12:22 am · #20

Lol sorry mine wasn't a legit winking light because the bumper was off I plugged the wrong plug lol so it went off my blinkers.....

SlickS12Nov 10, 2011, 11:50 am · #21

BUMP.... Ahemm, JUSTIN!

cutter67Nov 15, 2011, 12:07 pm · #22

i think it could be done with just two switches. one conected to the down side of the headlight you want to stay up. wire it so it breaks the circuit (so no power gets to the motor to run it down) the other switch is to trick the headlights that they are on. what you are doing is feeding power to the headlights themselves. so when you wink you throw both switches and use you headlight switch to wink with.

SlickS12Nov 15, 2011, 4:34 pm · #23

I think justin did just that, but with only ONE switch that controls BOTH headlights to move up and down.  Just wish he would speak up about it!!!

MDS12Dec 22, 2011, 5:12 pm · #24

FIREFOX>you could just run the headlight motor hard wired on a relayed switch for one side (or both).
HOW DO YOU HARD WIRE ITON A RELAYED SWITCH?

Feint S12Sep 24, 2012, 7:00 pm · #25

well i was just looking at the headlight motor, there are two different plugs for the motor where i figure one is to bring the lights up and the other to lower the light. couldnt exactly disconnect the two due to being stuck together for some reason... and i dont feel like replacing it-just left it alone..  but if you could find the wiring that connects directly to the switch on the dash, you could have two seperate switches for each headlight. really looking forward to someone who could get'r'done lol.