agentdr8
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Posts posted by agentdr8
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On 21/10/2018 at 05:35, Foxy said:
Sorry guys, not been around for a while - I'm happy to distribute as long as I'm not out of pocket!
Re. Import duty - may be worth noting a nominal or low value on the paperwork to a void a big duty hit.
Based on an import duty calculator site I found, if I set a relatively low value for the items, the duty comes out to 3.06 GBP for the whole shipment. I have no problem covering that cost for whoever would be receiving the shipment.
So if everyone is in agreement with @Foxy distributing the kits locally, I would just invoice individually, with the shipping divided evenly amongst the group.
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So I have 2 additional kits built and ready to send out. I had contacted those next on the list, but haven't heard back. Wasn't sure if everyone was hoping for a single batch to be sent over to the UK to reduce S&P costs or if the interest had just waned.
Before I spend more time on the final 2, what say everyone? I'm ok shipping them all at once, and let @Foxy sort out local distribution, or send them individually.
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1 hour ago, Colin P said:
Personally I don’t see the point. The mirrors are only 2 inches wider than the car and I’d rather lose a mirror than the rear wing. Never used the function on my NA and would quite like to stop it on the 400 as it looks rubbish in pictures.
Maybe the parking situation over there is better, but here in the states, the spots at many places are barely wide enough for the car itself, and when you get people who park on/near the lines, there are times where you might avoid a door ding, but instead they smack the mirror when shimmying out between the cars and either fold it backwards (assuming it can fold that way) or they just break it off.
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I've updated the installation guide with the feedback from @Brendonian, and included his picture of the roof harness 2 location.
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On 07/10/2018 at 05:20, trcm said:
I didn't realise there were lights under that part of the dash and glovebox !?
I think the ambient lighting is part of the Premium pack, and it's an all-or-nothing option. So if you have door lighting, you likely have dash lighting as well. There's different LED segments though, each with their own LED light source. So it's possible the one for the dash/glovebox area is out or disconnected.
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1 hour ago, Brendonian said:
More importantly, one of the mounting points for the passenger seat is missing the captive nut, so the seat is now held down by only 3 bolts. I had a feel about in the space underneath too try to find the missing nut, but all I found was a decorative polished stone 😀
I had intended to run the wire across the rear of the back seat, but it's not long enough, so I ran it across the front edge of the back seat, tucked behind the carpet. Even that way, it's only just long enough. It may be worth making future kits a couple of inches longer!
My difficulties were all centred around my car, and my own mistakes. The kit, and the instructions are truly excellent. Thanks @agentdr8 you've done a great job 👌
I think I had one of those captive nuts disappear as well when I removed a seat. It took fishing around for about an hour til I located it and was able to grab it with a flexible pickup tool. I think the seat will be fine with 3 bolts, but I'd probably fish around for it at some point, just so it isn't rattling around under the flooring.
Thanks for the feedback on the kit! I wasn't sure if 10ft was going to be sufficient, as the run on LHD cars is only about 5ft, if that. Plus the spools of wire I order are nicely divided by 10. But I'll keep that in mind and make it 15ft for RHD vehicles. You can also extend the wire with a butt connector or strip the end and solder it and a small length of wire.
Glad to hear it worked out in the end though. You did an amazing job with the install photos and now you know your vehicle even more intimately
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2 hours ago, Brendonian said:
And whist the car is in pieces, this seems a good opportunity to clean this disgraceful B pillar trim piece 😲
Wow. Now I feel like I should probably pull mine to see if they need a thorough cleaning. 😮 😮
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7 hours ago, Brendonian said:
Ok, I have a question for you, @agentdr8. Am I expecting to find the roof harness connector behind the rear quarter panel? If so, which side? The basic diagram I found on the DeRoure site suggests it might be on the right of the car, even on a RHD model. Does this mean I should remove the RHS sill panel? I wonder whether I've removed the wrong seat....
The roof harness 2 connector should be behind the RHS rear quarter panel. But since the RHD front fuse panel area is on the LHS of the vehicle, you can choose to either run the wire along the back seat (I'd tuck it under the carpet near the leading edge of the back seat) and over to the LHS of the vehicle and go up under that sill cover, or you can remove the RHS sill cover and then somehow get the wire across the driver's footwell into the passenger's footwell.
Since the RHS rear quarter panel is tucked under the RHS sill cover, that cover has to be removed either way. Whether you choose to use that side to run the wire or not is up to you.
As for removing the wrong seat, I think given the limited space to access the fuse panel area, removing the LHS seat makes sense, even if you run the wire along the RHS of the vehicle. I would rather take the ~10 mins to remove both seats when working on the interior vs. contorting into the "lotus" position when trying to access various areas. Your back will thank you
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I was quite surprised how much sound deadening the rear seat bottom and back pad provide. Without them, the interior noise is pretty unbearable, especially if you have a loud exhaust like a Plack
Looking good so far @Brendonian.
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4 minutes ago, Brendonian said:
That's interesting, but I'm far from desperate for it. I really like it as it is, especially if I can fix the light leaking around the steering column.
If you've ever had the center console surround off, like for a headunit swap, it's possible the LED that drives the light strip has either rotated or is not seated properly. I don't recall ever seeing light bleed near my steering column.
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5 minutes ago, Brendonian said:
Get you trying to bamboozle us with science 😀 I'm guessing that's Pulse Width Modulation. Easy to implement?
Probably. The ambient lighting is all driven off the same source (fuse C12), so it would be a matter of isolating just the LED connections to avoid also dimming the dome light, which shares the same source.
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7 hours ago, pete757 said:
I am not a sparky... but can a potentiometer (resistor) be added so the lights can be dimmed according to taste?
In theory, yes. But using a pot to reduce current will incur heat, and while most pots are tolerant to some degree, it would be better to do this via PWM.
Also, to update everyone on progress, I've got 2 more kits built and should have the remaining 2 done by week's end.
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Removing the sill panel is probably the easiest way, although you could also run the wire down the center tunnel and under the back seat. It's possible to remove the rear inside RH quarter panel without pulling the sill panel, but there's about a 2/3" of side panel that sits underneath the sill cover.
Having done many car audio installs over the years, pulling panels and carpeting to hide wiring is rather second-nature for me. The ultimate goal (from my perspective and experience) is really just to hide wiring to make the install "cleaner" looking. Unfortunately there's no easy way to achieve that without removing at least some of the interior panels.
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Thanks for the feedback on the bolt location. I wasn't sure if it was reversed on the RHD cars; but now that I know I can update the install guide accordingly.
Great job on the install and posting the pic. If you have any questions about the second "phase" let me know and I'll do my best to help out.
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If you've never removed the trim, it can definitely feel like a daunting task. The great thing is the material Lotus used for the base of these trim pieces (SRIM) is extremely strong, so there should be less concern about causing damage.
That said, the majority of the install can be done without removing any of the trim. In fact, if one were to choose to defer hooking up the dome light wire pass-thru harness, you'll have the first "stage" of the mod completed, in which case the mood lighting will come on with the headlights, but the dome light will as well if it's in the Auto position.
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Here is the install guide. Please let me know if there are any questions, or if any steps need to be more in-depth. I forgot to take a picture of the roof harness 2 pass-thru connector plugged in, but it should look exactly like the existing connector.
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Check fuses C39 and C40 in the passenger footwell fuse panel. If those are fine, check the 2 relays in the same area along the right-hand side of the relay block. Middle and bottom relays are for heated seats.
If all those are present and fine, then it's possible heated seats didn't get enabled in your ECU. TechCentre is needed to turn that feature on, otherwise the EMS won't ever send the on signal. See this thread for more details.
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8 hours ago, Foxy said:
Yes, I definitely want one please! Would be a little churlish if I didn’t seeing as I ‘started it’!
Re. Distribution- I’m not looking to make anything out of it. But if you wanted to send all the UK ones to me I could collect money and ship from here. Sounds like that could save $15 to 20 per kit?
How many are you up for making? Would you want to open this up to the Facebook group?
I'm not sure how large the FB group is, or how many would be interested. Since there's only one of me, building any large quantities is likely untenable in a part-time hobby capacity.
Let's get through this first TLF batch and see how it goes from there. I've placed the order for 5 more sets of components and will begin assembling when I return from a business trip on Friday.
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Paypal is fine.
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Just now, pete757 said:
May I ask if the 'kit' could come with a set of step by step instructions/photographs so that electrical phobics such as myself can get it installed simply!
Also, can you confirm that the footwell light is not on... just the door lights? I would imagine the footwell light could be distracting...?
Great stuff :>)
Yep, I'll be posting an install guide, full of pictures. I'll probably reference the service notes for some, and other how-to articles for others, but it should be easily installable by most with just a few hand tools.
And the footwell lights are not part of the mood lighting; they're driven off a different ICM input.
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8 hours ago, Techyd said:
I’ll definitely be taking one of these kits!
Don't worry Dean, I haven't forgotten about PM conversation. I actually had already started on the one for you before I finished the first kit.
Here's the list so far. I'll probably just place an order for parts with this quantity plus a few extras, and work on building them all as a single batch.
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1 hour ago, Brendonian said:$75 is more than reasonable 👍
I'd be more than happy to take the first one before any other distribution arrangements, and be the guinea pig in case there are any weird issues with RHD/UK/early cars.
Sounds good. I'll PM you details.
Off to go test the kit on my car, and take some install pics while I'm at it.
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12 hours ago, Brendonian said:
Awesome work! How much do you want for these? I'm really excited to get one.
I'm right around $75USD including P&P to most of the UK. Hopefully that's reasonable.
10 hours ago, Foxy said:That’s fantastic @agentdr8 !!
There are probably a few in the UK who’ll want one. Happy to distribute this end for you if you want to do batches?!
That would definitely lower the P&P costs significantly, as the cheapest I could find is via USPS at around $25 per. Of course there would be a delay for the entire lot, as it takes me a day or two to build a set, and a few days to a week to receive the parts.
7 hours ago, trcm said:Oooh yes, count me in for one too please!
Can you look into switching the door LEDs to multicolour ones too so they're a red colour at night to go with the dash
Swapping the LED color to something else wouldn't be hard, but incorporating multicolored ones might be, as there's only a single pair of wires going to the LEDs. Need at least another wire to be able to control which color is being shown.
4 hours ago, pete757 said:I am 'in' as well please!
VEEY nice mod that utilises the existing lights... yes, lets show these off 👍
I think maybe a list is in order. I'll start one in another post to keep track.
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🤷♂️ at least over here, there were regulations for the longest time around sealed beam headlights. Of course none of those squares, circles, or squircles were very elegant compared to today's modern composite headlight assemblies.
While I don't have any specifics, I think the US finally got rid of mandating sealed beam headlights due to safety concerns during collisions. And after accidents, broken headlamp glass would always end up on the road, causing tire punctures, and probably even more accidents.
Evora S1 ambient lighting
in Interior/Exterior/Lights/Glass/Alarms/ICE/HVAC/Other
Posted
Yes, sorry for that. I was busy with a home sale, and then more travel, and this effort slipped my mind. I do still have a few completed kits ready, but based on the import duties, it makes sense to ship as many as possible all at once, rather that individual shipments. In order to do that, I'd need to know exactly how many kits to include in the shipment.