Golf mk7: Auto Start/Stop disable switch - who wants to help?

[wookie_666]

Hi Paul

I have picked up my Mk7.5 wolfs wagon. Whats the best way to check if this is active or not? I mean the having to press individual mode when you start the car?

We have stop-start on both our cars. Neither of us use it. Turning it off is just part of the (many) button pressing routine at start up. The longest and most annoying of these being having to press race mode (or in my case Individual mode because I like the suspension in normal) every single time to open the outer exhaust flaps. I’m looking forward to not having to do that on my wagon when it arrives

I wonder if every R owner is aware of the flap reset issue. I drove past one yesterday and the outer exhaust tips looked like new while the inboard two were black like all four of mine are. Maybe they just never change the drive mode.

[wookie_666]

Stop start does not work in Sport mode(pulling down on the gear stick). or race mode. Individual it still works. Unless you have drive set to race mode.

I read somewhere that the Stop/Start annoyance is only enabled in "Normal" mode.
So if "Individual" mode is programmed with same settings as normal mode, and individual mode is selected, does the Stop/Start thingy stay deactivated ?
When I get my car back, I'll try this out.
Meanwhile, thanks for any tips or clues.

[Paul_R]

Hi wookie,
the wagons don't have exhaust flaps. They are just loud all the time - totally different exhaust setup. You don't need to worry about selecting your drive mode every time you start up. Just get in and drive

The hatch has electronically controlled flaps that open the outer pipes when the engine is in sport mode. The problem is that they close when you shut off the engine and don't re open on start up until the sport mode is selected again. They may have fixed it in the 7.5 hatches but I haven't heard anything about it.

[ozmale]

We have stop-start on both our cars. Neither of us use it. Turning it off is just part of the (many) button pressing routine at start up. The longest and most annoying of these being having to press race mode (or in my case Individual mode because I like the suspension in normal) every single time to open the outer exhaust flaps. I’m looking forward to not having to do that on my wagon when it arrives

I wonder if every R owner is aware of the flap reset issue. I drove past one yesterday and the outer exhaust tips looked like new while the inboard two were black like all four of mine are. Maybe they just never change the drive mode.

A common mod on Mk6 "R" was "The flap mod" involved plugging the vacuum line to the rear of the car. thus making sure the flap or flap are always open

[wookie_666]

So i ended up making one of these yesterday

Using an arduino pro nano
A logic level relay (which is basically a 5v relay)
a Polulu voltage regulator

I mounted it all to a perf board, did the 3 connections (+ve, -ve, and sensor), and mounted it in behind the shifter,
Connect it to the 3 wires noted on the page 1 and page 6 of this thread.

It works flawlessly. Thanks for all who are involved.

(ps, arduino is probably overkill, but the ability to be able to code it to do exactly what i want makes it much easier. And the pro nano isn't much bigger than some of the other modules i have seen in this thread).

[DV52]

So i ended up making one of these yesterday

Using an arduino pro nano
A logic level relay (which is basically a 5v relay)
a Polulu voltage regulator

I mounted it all to a perf board, did the 3 connections (+ve, -ve, and sensor), and mounted it in behind the shifter,
Connect it to the 3 wires noted on the page 1 and page 6 of this thread.

It works flawlessly. Thanks for all who are involved.

(ps, arduino is probably overkill, but the ability to be able to code it to do exactly what i want makes it much easier. And the pro nano isn't much bigger than some of the other modules i have seen in this thread).

wookie: well done! So why didn't VW make this simple modification at the factory? Not sure if you read my arduino version of the Auto SS kill switch earlier in this thread. I used a Digispark which has an AT-tiny version of Arduino.

I chose the Digispark because it already has a (simple) 3 x pin voltage regulator mounted on the shield. Just to jaz-up the design, I made a closed-loop design the confirms the status of the SS-off LED inside the console switch.

Anyhow, as you say- the beauty of the adruino "over-kill" is its flexibility and I suspect that your code was less than 10 lines. At the time that I designed my version of the switch, there was only the Digispark, but now there is a Digispark Pro which has an EEPROM fitted. As you will doubtless know, the advantage of the EEPROM is that the switch can remember its own state at the previous ignition cycle.

If you are the type that likes to "embellish", try changing the code so that a long press of the SS console button when the ignition is switched-on disengages the Auto kill switch entirely (and vica-versa). This can be useful when you take your car for a service. I now tell the service manager that the switch is fitted so that he doesn't try to fault find the SS behavior in my car - so a disabling facility is useful!

I have an intention to do this on my arduino version when I get the time!

Don

[wookie_666]

Excellent,

Thanks for the reply Don

I had a chat with a workmate today and he mentioned the same thing about long press to disable/enable. And I thought to myself what would work, you have just answered my question.

So far, i used the arduino as its what i had lying around, and the polulu voltage reg was also part of a redundant pcb i had too.

I have mistakenly wired the power to the wire that turns the white light on and off with the headlights, so it was funny realising today why it wouldn't work when i started the car outside, and it was because the headlights didn't turn on. I couldn't get a constant 12v from the black/yellow wire, but i probably rushed, or wasn't checking properly.

Regarding my code Im using one pin out (2), delay for 2 seconds, High for 1 second then Low indefinitely. So the code was very simple.

Just wanted to say thanks for the research put into this, Once i had my head around it, its brilliant. I was also weary of hacking into my 7 day old wolfs wagon.

Cheers.

[wookie_666]

For the life of me, i cant think of how to sense if the button is pressed, The only thing i can think of is connecting an I/O of the arduino to the black/blue wire (which usually runs about 2v when not pressed.) The arduino would recognize this voltage and realise its not pressed. when the button is pressed, the black/blue is grounded, meaning the arduino would recognize zero voltage and know its pressed.

Would I connect that Black/blue to an analog pin or digital pin. Im not sure if that voltage is AC Or DC as i have read before in this thread something about AC voltage.

[DV52]

For the life of me, i cant think of how to sense if the button is pressed, The only thing i can think of is connecting an I/O of the arduino to the black/blue wire (which usually runs about 2v when not pressed.) The arduino would recognize this voltage and realise its not pressed. when the button is pressed, the black/blue is grounded, meaning the arduino would recognize zero voltage and know its pressed.

Would I connect that Black/blue to an analog pin or digital pin. Im not sure if that voltage is AC Or DC as i have read before in this thread something about AC voltage.

wookie: hm............... very good question indeed! Why not do as you suggest but make the black/blue wire perform both input and output functions - connected to separate ports. I have always preferred to electrically insulate the BCM away from any add-on new circuitry, so an opto-isolator seems ideal. perhaps something like this:




So- the black/blue wire becomes an input (via the opto-isolator) to P3 for the purposes of sensing whether the console switch is pressed and the black/blue wire also becomes an output (via the other opto) via P2 for the sending the actual SS kill signal.

I've deliberately tied P3 to the 5 volt rail (via the 4.7K resistor), so this input has a digital state (not analogue). Also I'm guessing about the 1 K current limiting resistor on the input of the opto-coupler. I'm not sure about the capability of BCM pin to source 14 millamps as a parasitic current for the LED in the opto - so you might need to use a different resistor (again, I'm not sure). I'm assuming that the BCM pin is an open-collector circuit. I'm not sure about your 2 Volt reference, but I haven't actually measured the open switch voltage on pin #60. If it's really 2 volts, then you might need to consider an ultra-low voltage switch. The in-line diode simply stops P2 from turning-on the P3 opto (P2's only role is to ground the blue/black wire when the SS kill pulse is sent).

Of course you can arrange your program commands anyway that you want, but I suspect that the first part of the routine will be to look at the state of P3 immediately after ignition switch-on:

• if P3 is HIGH, the button isn't pressed and the normal Kill pulse can be initiated.
• If P3 is LOW, the kill switch sub-routine is bypassed and a flag is set to indicate that the device is in disabling mode.
• Of course if the disabling flag is already set and P3 is LOW, then the pressed button means that you want to re-enable the SS kill function - hope this makes sense!
• Probably wise to make sure that the button is pressed for at least a certain amount of time (perhaps 5 seconds) to make sure that the sub-routine doesn't catch an inadvertent button press.

Good luck - you will probably be the first to make one of these!!
Don

[wookie_666]

Damn Don, youve lost me mate.

But I think i get the gyst of it.

When you say optocoupler, what module are you thinking, my current setup is using a logic level relay from jaycar to do the switching, but obviously 2v from black/blue is not enough for that, I guess i could either use an op-amp, or a different relay. Or did you have something else in mind.

Regarding the 1k resistor, could you please explain why thats needed. Couldn't i just leave it out.

with the coding, ill have the loop check for p3 being high/low, and then ill run different functions when it changes.