Hatzenbach

Unfortunately not. I went down every possible avenue and couldn't fix that.
That was one of the reasons why I eventually decided on the complete redesign.

But I don't want to let everyone who bought a V1 hanging.
I decided to offer every buyer of V1 an upgrade to V2 for $67.50 (shipped). That's 50% off the price of V2 + (US domestic) shipping.
You can keep your V1, no need to ship it back.
V2 is so much better and I appreciate everyone who bought V1
No pressure, the offer does not expire, and I am currently out of stock anyways.

MrMoose

Eh, honestly I was staring at it for a while trying to remember if it had been lighted or not before, lol.

Seems so weird to me: why would the PCM have a different light trigger than the rest of the interior? Anyway, if you need help testing or something let me know.

Hatzenbach

OK here's the promised update. I have good news (for you) and not so good news (for me):
Good news: I figured out why this happens and it's a very easy fix
Bad news: Unless you're comfortable with soldering electronics, I need to do it, which means I have to do a "recall"

Here's my plan: In the next couple of days I will send each one of you a new and "upgraded" black box. You swap it with your existing box and then send the box back to me (I'll reimburse you for the shipping charges - it's my mistake after all).
You will only need to swap the black box, the sensor can stay in place. Fortunately I had the foresight to make it detachable.
The other good news is that I have the "black boxes" in stock, all I'm waiting for are the sensors (which you don't need to replace).
Should be a 5 minute swap for you guys.

But before I do that I definitely want to do some more testing...

And here's the explanation of what happened:
As they say, assumption is the mother of all f***ups. My box only controls the wire that turns the headlights on/off.
Initially I also wanted to control the side-markers, but hey they come on with the headlights, so no need to do that and keep it simple - right?
Well apparently, the lights on the center console only come on if the actual wire for the side-markers goes live...
And that's what my fix does now. Needless to say, all new units won't have this problem.

Just in case anyone wants to do the fix yourself: All you have to do is to solder a garden-variety diode between two soldering points on the circuit board.
If you want to give it a try, e-mail me at czulrich@gmail.com and I'll send you instructions.

to be continued....

TerrestrialFlyte

That was quick!! I wish I could do it myself but playing around with electronics on any scale is not my thing. Glad you got it sorted out and will be able to get a fix out. And way to stand behind your product! For what it’s worth I’ve been thoroughly impressed with the whole process.

MauritsK

Very interesting product!

Am I correct in understanding that after installation in essence has the same effect as splicing into the the wires of the lights (when in Home mode) and some related items such as the lighting control of the original PSM unit? If correct, does that mean that unless the light sensor is triggered, the signal going through these cables is interrupted (by hardware operation)?

Reason for asking is the following: previous owner set the PCM settings for the lights (headlights and tail lights) at always on (this applies no matter the position of the light switch, thus also in position 0), then replaced the PCM unit by an aftermarket Kenwood DAB / carplay unit, leaving me with no (PCM) control on the lights (other than fog lights) anymore. As far as I am aware of no additional hardware has been applied, both the rear side of the light switch (when pulled out) and the cabling look stock.

Would you say that installing this unit could " overrule" my car's always on setting (of course for the Home position of the light switch only) by interrupting the signal of the cables if sufficient light shines on the sensor?

And does this nifty device only control headlights, or also tail lights?

Hatzenbach

My device goes in between the lightswitch and the wiring harness that plugs into the light switch.
But it does not connect to the PCM, so I don't think it can overrule what the previous owner did. It sounds to me that what you have in your pretty much ignores what comes from the lightswitch
Think of it that I added some "intelligence" to the light switch itself

And of course it not only switches on the headlights, but also the taillights and the sidemarkers

MauritsK

Okay, thanks for the quick follow-up! Unfortunately likely no use to me then.

MrMoose

I soldered in an additional diode per the instructions you sent and it's working correctly now. Thanks again!

FYI, it looks like the connector to the headlight switch is a TE Connectivity AMP 1-1534170-2. The -2 brown version looks like it's discontinued but the -1 black version is available. Unfortunately it appears to be a non-stocked part at most places with large minimum quantities. If you look lower on the page you can find the female terminal housing that goes in it, and the male terminal that it connects to.

https://www.te.com/usa-en/product-1-1534170-2.html

https://www.te.com/usa-en/product-1-1534170-1.html

Hatzenbach

Update: I now have a limited number of devices back in stock (I only got a partial delivery of one essential part)
More will be in stock after Thanksgiving.
Get them while you can.

Hatzenbach

I still have (some) product in stock.
All the new orders will ship today. My last shipping day before Thanksgiving will be Monday 11/20.
After that I will resume shipping on 11/29

aasilvia

People drive their 911's at night?

Jabamusic

LOL - but when you live above latitude 55’ you do!

unlike those of you who live in Cali 😀

Hatzenbach

some of us even drive in the rain 😂

Emc2design

Excellent solution @Hatzenbach

Just the kind of thing that makes this community great!
Sent you a PM - would like to order one for my 997.2.

secondshot

Sent pm.