Reproduction mirror switch project

[bigmac]

Awesome update. Can’t wait for the new switch.


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[D Knight]

Cool. Thanks for the update. Can’t wait to see the final product. You get a chance to work on the switch caps for defog and heated seats?


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[Rhye]

Cool. Thanks for the update. Can’t wait to see the final product. You get a chance to work on the switch caps for defog and heated seats?

I owe you all my apologies for another delay. My private life affairs have become extremely time consuming recently and I almost didn't have a chance to work on the project since my last update. The only good thing is that the PCB and connectors assembly is almost finished:

IMG_20200510_204934243.jpg

Yes, your eyes are not mistaking - there are 9 wires instead of 8. The extra blue wire is for a parking lights backlit decal option - just in case someone wants to route this signal to the driver's door (or already did it). A tiny selector switch is installed on a back side of PCB to choose a light source (ignition switch/parking lights). An extra female pin for door's side connector will be included.

So I'm not going to set another deadline this time - I'll just let you know when the first 4 switches are ready for shipping.

As for the switch cap, here's how the raw 3D print looks compared with OEM part:

IMG_20200510_220928745.jpg IMG_20200510_220952506.jpg

Design needs a bit of refinement (edge blend radii are obviously too small) and it still waits for filling the decal and some brushing. The clip-on joint has to be improved as well (it works but is a bit too loose).

[bigmac]

Looks great. I can’t wait.


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[Patrick C]

Can’t wait!

[Rhye]

Just a little update on what's currently going on. I'm still struggling with that illumination feature and after countless trials I finally developed a method that gives acceptable results, but daylight appearance suffered a bit - decal is slightly darker than the rest of the switch housing. Since the 3D print is not exactly as dark as OEM anyway, I've ordered a special black dye for polyamide (2 weeks delivery time). I expect it'll penetrate the porous surface of the part giving it a permanent deep black tone - I'll try to match it with the decal resin tone so it'll "disappear" as originally intended.

[bigmac]

Can’t wait to see it.


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[Rhye]

Polyamide dye wasn't enough to make the switch body look same as decal area. So I coated the switch with same clear epoxy I'm casting the pictogram to make it deeper black. Here's the result:

day.jpg night.jpg

It still doesn't satisfy me - in daylight, you can easily spot where the decal is. The problem is that the surface of the decal is much less grainy than the rest of the switch body. Now I'm probably going to try to "copy" this surface grain by making a tiny silicone mould and placing it on a decal cut-out when pouring the epoxy. This unfortunately means another half month of development, at best.

If only I'd known this would slow the project down so much I'd have made first switches w/o that backlight...

[bigmac]

Looks awesome


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[Patrick C]

Great work!!! This will be worth the wait!