Unused buttons from options
 

I have, as I suspect many of you do, a few unused buttons in my boxster (2000). For instance, I don't have the heated seats option so I have two blank buttons where my ash tray is. Is there a button you have to buy (which has an electrical switch attached) to replace the old one if you want to install something, or can you use the buttons there but something is locking it from moving (in which case, how do you make a switch connect to it)?

They're just blanking plugs, not switches. You can buy the switches for under $30@

:cheers:

Either here or on Ren there is a post where I person bought the momentary switch and cut these to make them work. Looks fairly simple if you can solder, may try a search on both sites.

Course as LB says, you can just buy them as well.

Hmm.. I'll look around for that post. Specifically I'm trying to hook up a push button with two positions so that only one side of the switch will be used. That way hitting once will activate and hitting again will deactivate. Thanks.

The switch you are describing is the same one used for the defroster on the dash. That has one side on and the other side turning it off. Sunset sells them.

I may have been unclear. I'm looking for a two sided switch, whereby only using one side will turn on and off the circuit (like a pushbutton). The other side will control something else.

Gotcha!

I thought the top switch might be your solution if wired right, but if you need whatever it is turned off with the same side of the switch it probably wouldn't work.

You've created quite the switch dream there, friend. We need us an electrical engineer to chime in on this thread. I'm just a minister! What do I know about switch design? :dance:

If it turns out to be a big deal I may just make a separate switch somewhere else even though it would be nice to integrate it into the premade ones. Push buttons are really simple, but attaching to the unused buttons may prove difficult.

I did end up using an aftermarket MOMO switch for my garage door opener and just drilled it into the switch blank... looks 'almost' stock.

:cheers:

I may do something like that. Can you take a pic? I'd like to know how it turned out

Randall, could you design me a switch that turns the devil me on and off, you know since your a minister and all. hahahaha

It's called a boost switch. :troll:

Here you are. It's a switch wired to a standard garage door opener hiding under the center console w/ velcro. I also added a red LED to indicate that it's working (battery powered). I'm not certain, but I probably got the switch and LED at Radio Shack.

:cheers:

I write this from memory but as far as I recall all switches in the dashboard and the center console are (except for their labeling) pretty much the same (with the added exception that some of them have a built in LED and some do not):

All of them are rocker switches which can close one circuit at a time by either pressing the raised part or the lowered part.
If you want the switch to operate in a way that you switch something on by pressing and then switch it off again by pressing again you will need a bit of electronics behind it, something like this:

http://www.discovercircuits.com/H-Corner/on-off-switch.htm

I have a Targa top switch wired to operate my garage door opener. One side opens closes the garage door. On Targas one side opens and the other closes the top.

I meant to put the other garage door on the other side of the switch, but a small current leak in the second garage door opener remote killed that plan.

I have another remote, but I lost enthusiasm after modifying two remotes to run off the Box's 12VDC and one failed. Someday. :rolleyes:

Suncoast sells these switches. They have

http://e-partssales.com/Merchant2/gr...ARGASWITCH.jpg
-garage door
-exhaust
-heated seat
-window
-footwell lighting
-spoiler

scroll toward the bottom


I installed the Radio Shack hack button first a couple years ago and it just looked like a hack. So I bought the one from Suncoast and rigged it to my garage door opener with a little soldering. I haven't rigged the spoiler switch yet. Anyway, nice way to swap the switch plugs

http://i226.photobucket.com/albums/d...inw/switch.jpg

Is that black connector that you have the 2 orange wires going into included as well?

Quote:

"Suncoast sells these switches. They have...garage door (etc.)"

Posted by TimAustinW.

How difficult and time consuming was it to: 1) get the console apart to get access to the switches, and 2) figure out/accomplish the soldering?

(ie, can a dummy like me figure it out? :rolleyes: )

It is really duck soup. I did little soldering, but I did buy the harness connector from Becker to tap power from the cell phone connector without cutting or splicing original wires.

The hardest part is figuring out the garage door remote's printed circuit board (PCB) wiring if you want to use vehicle power. I just followed the circuits from the battery connectors to the microswitch that triggers the remote.

I pulled the switch out and soldered (using very small soldering iron and tiny bit of solder) +12V and brown ground wire into the PCB where the switch had been. (Make sure your remote is 12V, not 9V.) So when I press the Targa switch in the dash the circuit is closed and power is applied.

You can always use battery power as they seem to last for years.

A 12v test lamp is very helpful.