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Quad Headlights on a Trailblazer

With the Trailblazer, the lowbeams shut off if the highbeams are enabled. This is due to several state laws that only allow 2 high beams and no other lights at the same time. The BCM will receive the low beam on signal and high beam on signal from the instrument panel, but due to settings on the BCM will turn off the low beam relay signal and enable the high beam relay signal. However, some people want to have more light when they are driving in the middle of no where. The flash-to-pass option on the car will actually allow you to turn on your high beams without turning off any other lights. This, then, will give us the option of setting up the normal high beam operation the same way.

What you need:

SPDT switch
T-tap
Soldering iron with solder, or fastons

ECE4007 Senior Design Project - P.A.C.M.A.N.

As a senior design project for ECE4007 at the Georgia Institute of Technology we designed an autonomous path following convoy, where the leading vehicle was manually controlled and the trailing vehicles were autonomous. The system was placed on a Redcat Racing Lightning EPX DRIFT 1/10 Scale On Road RC car and was controlled by an Altera DE2 FPGA Development Board which was connected to a custom I/O Daughter Board with 3 Pixart Infrared Cameras from Nintendo Wii Remotes and custom rear wheel encoders.

The Path-following Autonomous Convoy with Multiple Asynchronous Nodes (PACMAN) consists of two or more Autonomous Convoy Vehicles (ACVs) that follow the path designated by a lead vehicle without any form of communication between leader and followers. Each ACV employs infrared cameras to detect IR LEDs on the vehicle it follows; tracking information from the camera pair is processed by an FPGA control unit and dictates where the ACV should be driven. The PACMAN project utilizes adapted remote-controlled cars as convenient and inexpensive ACVs, but is meant to serve as a proof of concept for future use in full-size military convoy vehicles.

To read more about it click here or go to: http://www.ewoutvb.com/4007/

Firmware in Minneapolis

I've finished my first year as an Electrical & Computer Engineering graduate student at the Georgia Institute of Technology. For the summer I've accepted an internship with Medtronic in Minneapolis, MN for a firmware engineering internship with the CRDM NT&D Firmware Development group. I should be graduating this upcoming Fall (2011) in December.

Jeep Update (Summer 2011)

Recently I've spent more time helping a friend out in fixing up a 2002 Subaru Impreza WRX. We've had quite a bit of fun trying to find all of the missing parts, repairing damage, upgrading the suspension and exhaust, and updating the interior.

The Grand Cherokee hasn't had too many issues. I had a seal break on the side of the radiator which caused a nice waterfall of coolant. After getting the radiator replaced I was pleasantly surprised how much better the AC was performing (apparently the radiator was full of crud blocking most airflow to the AC's condenser). The paint I had put on the bumpers and cladding (Duplicolor Bumper Coating -- FB 109 Dark Charcoal) is starting to flake off. I thought I had prepped the bumper relatively well but the paint still coming off. I'm considering getting either painted limited bumpers and cladding or putting a truck bed coating on them. I also had an issue with the fuel pump relay. The engine was erratically running terrible--idle jumped all over and giving extra throttle only made it worse. I wasn't sure what the issue was so I consulted a friend who is a Jeep mechanic and he suggested I check whether the contacts were bad on the fuel pump relay. I replaced the relay and I haven't had any issues since.

How to install an Overhead console in 93-95 Jeep Grand Cherokees (ZJ)

Some of the 1993-1995 Jeep Grand Cherokees came with the overhead console. Mine definitely didn't. Yet, I figured I'd be fun and a learning experience to pick a cheap one up from a wrecked Jeep and see if I could install it. There are 2 kinds, the short and the long overhead console. If you have a sunroof then you need the short overhead console, otherwise you need the long type. However, if you have a sunroof I believe the overhead console came with it so this guide most likely would not apply anyway. Now you could install a short overhead console in a Jeep without a sunroof, but you'd have a switch on there that would not be wired to anything. Also the color of the fabric of the overhead console does not matter too much as you can always change it with some headliner material and contact cement (I suggest Weldwood's).

This project requires quite some time and wiring.