AutoTop DIY

[Toddyus]

I was looking into buying the commercial version of this, but it now costs $500. Found this thread and wanted to say thanks to Polaris and all the contributors over the years. This is an excellent mod and works great!

Since not everyone who wants one of these is an electronics wiz, one tip I thought I’d throw out there that might help someone in the future:
I bought a clone Arduino Nano V3 with header pins already soldered. To wire everything up, I used breadboard jumper wires (female to female), like these: https://www.amazon.com/GenBasic-Piece-Female-Jumper-Wires/dp/B01L5ULRUA/ref=mp_s_a_1_3?dchild=1&keywords=breadboard+jumper+female+to+female&qid=1586186495&sr=8-3

The DuPont connectors plug directly onto the pins of the board, but for the connection to the car harness and switch, the bare wire is too high of a gauge to securely crimp to the spade connectors. So instead of stripping the wire for the spade connector, I removed the DuPont housing. The crimped DuPont receiver inside the housing fits securely into a red (18-22ga) spade connector and crimps well.

Then, for the transistors, you can plug those directly into the breadboard wires, put some heat shrink on the transistor and wires and that secures them.

Finally, I soldered the resistors into the corresponding wires rather than directly to the board. The spacing for the pins on the board is just too close for my cludgy soldering abilities.

[Starter986]

Welcome to the forum.

[JayG]

You may also want to contact THSTONE. He bought the robotop company a few years ago and may still have some units for sale

[Toddyus]

Originally Posted by Starter986

Welcome to the forum.

Thanks

Originally Posted by JayG

You may also want to contact THSTONE. He bought the robotop company a few years ago and may still have some units for sale

This is a good tip for anyone who wants this functionality. Even after building POLARIS' design, I would have been comfortable paying $100-$200 for a ready-made solution.

[jpc763]

Originally Posted by JayG

Just swap the wires that come off of pins 8 & 9 on the switch

Hi Jay, I put this project on a back burner and started it up again given the current stay at home orders.

Anyway, I started over from scratch and still cannot seem to do it correctly. I am going to post some pictures of my (crappy) wiring. Something has to be wrong there.


For Nano power, I am pulling power from the cig lighter. It goes from there to one leg of the voltage regulato.
The second leg (center leg) of the voltage regulator is connected to ground. The final leg of the regulator is connected to the 5v power on the Nano. This also shows ground connecting to the harness.

There are also two connectors that connect directly between the harness and switch as in the diagram.


For Nano Pin 2, it is connected through a 1k resistor connect to the center pin of the 547B transitor.
One leg of the 547B transistor is connected to ground
Final leg of the transistor is connected to harness pin
For Nano Pin 3, it is connected through a 1k resistor connect to the center pin of the 547B transitor.
One leg of the 547B transistor is connected to ground
Final leg of the transistor is connected to harness pin


For Nano Pin 8, It is connected to a 10k resistor through to ground AND is connected to the switch
For Nano Pin 9, It is connected to a 10k resistor through to ground AND is connected to the switch

This is the place I believe that I made a mistake. Does the 10k need to be directly between Pin 8 (or 9) and the switch?

Anyway, when installed, I see the power light. I push the switch and nothing happens.

If anyone else knows what I screwed up, please let me know!

[JayG]

From the schematic,
the resistor goes between pin 8 & ground and pin 9 & ground
pins 8 & 9 go to the switch

the resistor does not go from the switch to pin 8 or 9

When I built mine , I soldered the resistors on the andrino. If you look up a bunch of posts, there is a pic I posted

[jpc763]

Originally Posted by JayG

From the schematic,
the resistor goes between pin 8 & ground and pin 9 & ground
pins 8 & 9 go to the switch

the resistor does not go from the switch to pin 8 or 9

When I built mine , I soldered the resistors on the Ardrino. If you look up a bunch of posts, there is a pic I posted

Is the 5v both input and output???

[abc123kazu]

Hi everyone I just got a 986 and working on making it an awesome fun ride.
Very late and i've thoroughly went thru this post. I know it's been a while since anybody wrote here.
I soldered everything up and loaded program and pretty much ready to test this but I don't know where to find the Switched 12V. Can someone advise.

Thanks in advance

[Makrilli]

Originally Posted by abc123kazu

Hi everyone I just got a 986 and working on making it an awesome fun ride.
Very late and i've thoroughly went thru this post. I know it's been a while since anybody wrote here.
I soldered everything up and loaded program and pretty much ready to test this but I don't know where to find the Switched 12V. Can someone advise.

Thanks in advance

Since you have US car you should have the telephone plug somewhere behind the dashboard.
It should have ground, constant 12v and switched 12v.

For my ROW car I had to switch outputs of fuses D5 and E8 to only power my cigarette lighter with ignition.

[JayG]

Originally Posted by abc123kazu

Hi everyone I just got a 986 and working on making it an awesome fun ride.
Very late and i've thoroughly went thru this post. I know it's been a while since anybody wrote here.
I soldered everything up and loaded program and pretty much ready to test this but I don't know where to find the Switched 12V. Can someone advise.

Thanks in advance

Among other places, look under the center armrest.

Do a search

[abc123kazu]

Originally Posted by JayG

Among other places, look under the center armrest.

Do a search

Thank you JayG for the advices and all your contribution. I will take a look this weekend and report back. Thank you Polaris and everyone on this forum.