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GReddy turbo timer install - - 4/08/04

Chris just had to have GReddy's new turbo timer because sitting and waiting 90 seconds (which is good for a turbo charged car) just wasn't going to happen every day. in fundamental operation, the turbo timer sits in your car and does nothing until you take the key out. then it keeps the car on, and at idle, for the specified amount of time (i.e. a minute or so), then shuts the car off. this is accomplashed by taping into the wires from the key and tricking the car into thinking the key is still in when it is not. it was $99 for the box, and in total we must have spend about $150 on the whole thing, as well as about 6 hours.

Designed for older japanese vehiacals, it came with fairly simple instructions. besides (constant) power and ground, it had a "run" wire and an "acc" wire. there were also emergency break and spedo wires as safety features, but we decided that we wouldn't use them. the manual that shipped with it was in japanese, so i printed out the english one here. and if your realy curious, the quick install instructions are here.
the volvo has a rather complex ignition system that involves 5 wires, and so i had to make do with some relays. first i got together the ignition diagrams from volvo. the GREAT web site that i got it from was http://www.volvotechinfo.com/. they had detailed (original oem) shcmatics on every part in the car. 3 bucks got me in. it was very specific... yeah RIGHT. this was going to be quite fun.
first things first i drew up my plan... it was quite simple really, just splice in the wires. i kinda figured out the names to make it easier. this took me a long time, i hope it saves someone else the work! what a pain in the butt.

after much trouble removing many body panels, i hooked it up, but alas it did not work! the ecu got very confuzed when half of the switches were on and half of them were off. this resulted in a bizarre combination of error warnings, panel dimming, fuse blowing, and was just genraly bad. looking over the diagrams again, but you had to pull ALL of the lines high. but they couldn't be connected, or they car wouldn't know the difference between off, run, and acc; this is also a bad thing. our little electromagnetic friends once agein come to the rescue. the RELAY, well 3 of them, are connected together to accuate when the key is removed. this allows the "15i" line, the "15" line, and the "x" line to all be pulled high with out cross feeding. this is a good thing. look at the pretty relay box i made:

there's also switches (one for the VALINTINE ONE) for the turbo timer power. when its off, the car behaves normally. when its on, it installation. pretty cool, eh? for complete detales, see the valentine installation. the switch is regular on-off lighted 12 v type, hooked up between the fuse and the turbo timer. it basicly cuts power to the turbo timer when the car is off, preventing it from functioning. this is nessesary in a case where there is an alternate driver or there are special circumstances. and yes, there is 2, count em 2, wires that run from the console to the arm rest. and a phone cord. and a second phone cord. wow.

this is a picture of the installed turbo timer, in the glove box. yes, i took the whole glove box out (8 screws) and put it back (7 screws) and it was a bitch but worth it for the install. there was a small cranny for the optional cell phone package that i took advantage of. the relay box fit about 2 inches away, right behind the radio. with the relay box connected to the turbo timer and powered from an extra fuse (from the fuse box) and running through the switch everything worked perfectly. the only glitch was that you cant lock the doors while the car is running... this is kind of a problem. so about that locking the car thing. theoreticly (we tried it) you can drive the car without the key. this presents a would-be thief with a gone in 60 seconds type scenario. baaad idea.

the first thing we had to do was figure out how the car worked. this may seem stupid, but most people dont know off the top of their head what happens when you lock the car from the outside manualy while it is still running. the conclusion was that the remote did not work when the car was running, and the only way to lock the doors was to press the lock button and then not open any doors. my *proposed* solution is two fold. first, a relay in the lock switch gets wired back to under the steering column, through the door and what not. this is the hard part. the whole cluster of switches is one piece, and it would mean dismantling it. but whatever. next, you need another remote, and you hack into that with a relay so when you give 5 volts on a wire it "presses" the lock button. both of these are then connected to astable 555 timers, one trigerd on the rising edge and the other on the falling edge. on the rising edge, it means that the key has been removed and that the people are getting out of the car. lets give them 10 seconds, and then "press" the lock button to lock the doors. at this point the car is still running, but now the people are out and the doors are locked. now a minute and a half or whatever you set goes by, and the turbo timer finishes. the engine shuts off, and the car sits. now what? now (1500 ms after falling edge) we energize the relay connected to the hacked remote, so that it "presses" the lock button. now the car is locked, the alarm is armed, and the people are a good 91.5 seconds away, without having to worry about a thing.

	starting with this... after a little prying and some moans and groans from the owner, i revield the guts. this is the circut board my friend. its green, etc the point is that after the turbo timer shuts the car off (EXACTLY 1.500 seconds later) were going to lock the car. well, the car is going to lock itself. what great joy? yep. give me a 5 volt relay and a couple minutes and you will be all mine. muhahahaha.
this is my schmatic for the timer. it is quite simple, and uses a capacitor to actuate a low-power relay for a brief moment. the red light indicates that the "button" on the remote is being pressed, and the green light displays the charge state of the capacitor. in operation, when the turbo timer comes on the relay pulls and the capacitor charges. when the turbo timer is done counting, the relay lets go and the capacitor discharges thrugh the relay coils and the red light. i think that this was the simplest way i could do that...
	( click for big picture )	the finished product is truly btruly now lets just see if its functional! were testing it out at noon today...

more to come

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