Cool Hidden Switch panel thing Options

[korban]

I decided I wanted some switches available in my car to do... well stuff. I thought about all kinds of locations, glove box, dash, under the headunit. Then I remembered the coin box in the center console. This seemed like a great place to put some switches.



First I needed to make a little panel to sit inside to mount the switches on. So I made a template from cardboard, and then used the template to cut a piece from perspex (Any metal or plastic would do). I put some measurements on a piece of paper next to the final panel. I'd make it a little bigger and file/sand to fit if you want a perfect fit, mine was almost perfect, but I had to glue it anyways.



I bought 4 switches, a blue 'duckbill' type, 12mm mounting holes. They look pretty good all mounted up.



And then placed them into the coin box for a test fit.



Drilled a hole for wires and threaded the wires through.



Next I needed to wireup all the switches, 4 wires to each center pole, power to one side, and ground to the other. All these I put into a 6 way connector, with heatshrink and some plastic tubing.



After connecting 6 wires, I then needed power and ground rails to join them all together.



I then needed a hole in the center console for the plug to fit through. One side has a clip to hold the unit in, so I made a hole on the other side.



The all I had to do was put it in placed, connect to the other wiring that I ran to my Link programmable ECU and viola!



Now I can control stuff, I have launch control on one switch, datalogging on another, I've set ACIS on another one to try turning it on earlier. Not sure what i'll use the fourth one for, maybe a speed limit. Now of course this doesn't seem very useful for people without an aftermarket ECU but you could use them to turn your amp on/off, aerial up down. I want to add a switch elsewhere for garage door remote even.

I'll try and get some night photos as well as they light up when on.

[jason]

Looks very nice!

im with azian as far as the soldering goes though... i was always told (dont know how much water this holds) that solder is to make a connection in a circuit and is not to hold any weight - aka should twist wires together first to hold the tension/weight, and then solder to make it permanate - instead of just over lapping two wires and soldering

but unless you get seriously pissed one day and start beating the switches you wont have any problems

:thumbsup for the great idea! i use that slot for change and often thought it would be cool for switches, but never thought it was deep enough to fit anything nice

my switch box is mounted to the side of the console, in between the drivers seat and the console, down about 2" so its "hidden" unless you are the driver and look down