The DIP Switch Mod.

[ph2t]

For ages I’ve been looking for a switch that is
small enough to be able to put on my little beasts
to be able to turn them ON and OFF.

I know that the car doesn’t really NEED a switch,
but hey! that’s never stopped me before. 😉

Basically the goal is to be able to take the
battery out of circuit and charge it without any
excess current drain from the PCB/lights.

Theoretically you should get a slightly increased
runtime from the extra charge the battery would
get but I believe this difference would only be small.
Another advantage is to be able to turn the car off
and pick up later with no issues of battery loss.

So here it is, my DIP Switch mod.

Find the right switch

Here’s a DIP switch, not much to look at hey.

This is obviously too big, but you can saw off
a single switch! I used a metal saw to do this
since the cutting blade is finer and causes less
damage to the surrounding area. If everything works
you should have some pieces like this.

The flywheel helps give you an idea of the switch?s
size.

Where do I mount the bloody thing?

The best place I found was underneath the engine well.
This means the switch is out of sight, out of mind.
I’ve drilled two holes in the vertical part of the
chassis adjacent to the engine well. This is where
I’ll feed to wires back to the battery.

Here’s a side view to help give you an idea of how
the switch is mounted. You can see from this side profile
that the clearance to the ground is juuuuuuuust fine, yeah!

The little metal ends of the switch were cut back till only
2mm long. I then soldered some enamelled wire to the ends.
I use this wire ’cause it’s flexible and small.

If you want to use normal insulated wire that’s fine but find some
that is thin enough ’cause the wires could rub against the rear
axle causing all sorts of problems.

Here’s two pictures showing the bugger all clearance between
the wire and rear axle.

Now feed the wires up and over one of the notches in the chassis
as shown below. These notches are on all classes of legit bits.

Solder time!

Ok, first thing to do now is to remove the -VE/GND/NEGATIVE power
wire from the PCB and battery terminal.

Now solder one of the wires from the switch (doesn’t matter which one)to the battery terminal and the other wire to the -VE terminal on
the PCB.

Below you can see (barely!) where I soldered the wire from the DIP
switch.

Once that is done put the car back together and all should be cool.

Q.E.D

ph2t.

[jamiekulhanek]

Nice work, I thought if you could get DIP switches in single form it would be great, never knew they could be sawn 🙂

That wire you used looks just a bit high resistance for me, but great mod anyway 🙂

[barto_85]

great job ph2t. What exactly does it do again? How do you switch the lights on and off? I’m confused. Sounds good though.

[ph2t]

Yeah, you can’t get them in single form, from the “research” I’ve done anyway.

The resistance of the wire is fine. It’s gauge is ?? (I’ll find out tonight), I got it from Jaycar, there’s no problem with using it.

ph2t.

[ph2t]

Quote:

great job ph2t. What exactly does it do again? How do you switch the lights on and off? I’m confused. Sounds good though.

It turns the battery off, removes it from the circuit. Like a normal on/off switch. Since my lights/kitt lights are connected straight to the car’s PCB, it turns them off as well.

ph2t.

[barto_85]

smart bastard.

[DaveF]

Aren’t there smaller switches for computer boards and stuff, or am I just not picking up the true scale of that switch. I know you know your stuff ph2t and it’s a great mod. I’m just wonderring if there’s room to have a seperate switch for battery and lights.

[ph2t]

Dave, i think the DIP switches are the same thing you are referring to. You might be able to stack two in the same area but I dunno.

ph2t.

[micro_Amps]

ph2t, they DO come in a single switch.
Check your RS-Components catalogue,
part No. 204-7865, or even 352-4818
they look neat too.
Nice mod though, I like the idea of being able to switch off a car when its not being used, stops it running when I’m using another car on the same freq and stops the battery running down low too.

:)uA

[leonli17]

does the mod really effective on saving the battery. lets say u left car turned off for 1 hour, will it still run after that?

[ph2t]

yes

[jamiekulhanek]

The other issue that this mod adresses:

NiMH batteries will have less performance if they are fully discharged, and the Rx in the car will fully discharge the battery, damaging it.
This will leave a small charge in the battery and promote longer battery life and better performance.

[barto_85]

ahhh, I didn’t know you were smart in this area jamie.

[jamiekulhanek]

Leon li 17, If you use a NiCd battery (stock one) you will find no difference in charge, even if you leave it for days.

If you use NiMH’s its a different kettle of fish.
They discharge at a rate of around 2% per day, which really is stuff-all. They will eventually decay in performance.

Barto, not smart, just read lots.

[leonli17]

thanks for the info guys. i just wish i have the skill to do this mod. better use a clone chassis for experiment

[jamiekulhanek]

Maybe ph2t (for a cost) could do it for you…

Ask him 🙂

[Admin]

leonli17
why dont you get the switch and wire and stuff and just cut the ground wire to the pcb board and strip some of the insulation off the ends of the ground wire then solder the wires from the dip switch to the ends of the wires saving you from being on the board and saves money

Edited by – maximan on 22 August 2003 12:35:15

[ph2t]

My tutorial pretty much states the same thing………

[leonli17]

I’ve done the DIP switch mod on my car now. It’s a easy mod, only took me about 20mins.

It’s really good for Dual Cell cars because of the more longer run time.

Use a hobby knife to cut one DIP switch off is fine because the plastic on the switch is pretty tough and they won’t crack like other plastics.

Thanks for the tutorial ph2t.

[Author]

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