Dynamic Fog Light
 

Dear members,

I have made a dynamic rear fog light circuit for the 370z and I would like to gauge your interest in it. I want to know it if is worthwhile making it into a kit you guys can purchase.

This is how it works:

The module has a built in accelerometer. And so depending on how hard you break, the fog lamp will react differently. It is fully programmable, but at the moment, it does the following:

Very gentle breaking or holding the break while stationary: The fog lamp is OFF , but of course your actual break lights will turn on and are unaffected.

Light breaking: The rear fog lamp will come on with half brightness.

Moderate breaking: The rear fog lamp will come on with full brightness.

Heavy breaking: The rear fog lamp will blink at 3Hz and full brightness.

Currently, the firmware supports the above conditions. But the module is capable of doing more. It has a three dimensional accelerometer, so it can also detect up/down and left/right movements. Other things like logging your acceleration for a trip can also be implemented.

Estimated labor hours to install for noobs?

No more than installing a regular fog lamp on its own. The module requires power (constant 12V) and outputs the two wires that should go to the fog lamp. It should then be installed somewhere in the car so that the X direction of the accelerometer points forward!

So you can set it up to only read the X-axis in the positive direction (relatively speaking)? Otherwise this thing will flash under acceleration too.

The ECU should have an input on brake pedal actuation %. Now I have no idea how to tap into this, but it would be a sexy way to control the fog lamp. If the accelerometer is accurate though, then that's a nice alternative.

Better check with your local laws. Here in Alberta, that would be illegal. Only a high-mount stop-light is legal (besides the side lamps). We have had this discussion here with our local group and after looking into our local law, it was decided not to persue this type of arrangement for the fog lamp.

BTW, where are you located? Milky Way (?)

if your going to custom make everything, make the lights LED's. it looks weird having a incandescent light come on with LED lights, doesnt match.

Yeah i don't thats legal, you would get stopped left and right here with that.

Braking!

To answer some questions,

Yes, the accelerometer would register in the X direction only.

The bulb can be changed to be made from LEDs.

I live in NJ.

I am not sure about the legal issues to be honest. This is something everyone should look into for their states. One can also have a switch to enable this functionality only in bad weather conditions if desired.

If someone is aware of the regulation in NJ, I would love to know.

fog lights here are illegale to have on when well....its not foggy or raining hard

Both Mercedes and BMW have already developed this system, and a few years back BMW actually put a few mule 7 series on the roads of Southern California (there was an article in one of the major automotive magazines about it, but I've forgotten which one). I had the privilege of meeting up with one of the mules on I5 and we played tag for several miles. I have to say that I was extremely impressed with this system. Their intensity model was based on several more steps regarding the brightness aspect.

California law allows a series of three flashes, but I do not think that intensity stepping has been approved on a Federal level yet. Anyway, the idea in real-life is a life saver and our Zs' can benefit from such a measure. I have a theory that I adverted to in the past here of why other drivers' tailgate the 370Z and intensity braking would resolve my theory.

BMW calls it Adaptive Brake Lights.

I'm dating myself here, but this was before YouTube's time, among others, and this system was based on the rapidity of flashes (what the OP is trying to do). The harder the braking the more flashes versus the intensity of the light that BMW is presently touting. The system was brilliant and really drove the point home. I could see where it would obnoxious after a while, but if you were to base the flashing activation only upon hard, and quick deceleration, then you would have a winner.

I agree, :tiphat:

While I don't have a "dynamic" fog light cum brake light system, I did get my fog light hooked up to my brake lights, and installed a flasher to achieve the flashing/"blinking" effect that you described under the third scenario of hard braking. My system is switched on and off through the OEM (or, rather JDM) wiring harness that the Zstore sells (a relay was also needed in the install; bigaudiofanat helped me do it). A couple of members here have seen my fog/brake light in person and have remarked about how effective the flashing is, especially at night.

I've also drove with it on while in front of cops and other law enforcement officials and have not been pulled over for it; the legality here is kind of iffy - you can only have 'X' amount of flashes in succession, but the new Mustang turn signals are sequential brake light flashes, so...? If you could produce such a dynamic system for the Z, I'd be more than willing to buy/test one from you.

Thanks for the reply.

I can program the unit to do whatever you want. If you want more gradient of intensity, more flashes, less flashes, rapid or slow, all is programmable. It is also possible to make it come on at any level of breaking intensity.

Thanks again for showing interest in this project.

Can the unit work with the taillights to give us a sequential turn signal or progressive brake lights? That would be neat... Btw I'm just thinkin out loud.

Wow - that sounds amazing, actually. How difficult would it be to re-program if the settings weren't to the user's liking, or if the user wanted to experiment? Let me know if you want to further pursue this project; this is something I would have no problem supporting. Where in NJ are you located?

In order to reprogram it, you would need to recompile the code and use a PIC programmer to download the code back into the unit. I could also make it have a whole array of configurations and then you can just set it to what you want with a bunch of switches.