A bit about me and Tap Turn

A bit about me and Tap Turn

Postby scottmcphee » Wed Aug 14, 2013 7:38 am

I bought a Liberty wagon (Legacy here in Canada) in 2006, when my VW Passat wagon 1.8T gasser engine decided it needed replacing, with only 176K on the clock. No way, I'd had enough of VW repairs already on that car.. I sold the VW to a wholesale car lot and literally walked across the street and bought the Subaru to replace it. Never looked back!! Totally happy with the Liberty.

But did miss a few electronic features on the VW, which were missing on the Subaru. Plus, I had invented some electronics for the VW and I wanted those too on the Subaru. So I adapted some old designs and invented some new things, and now my Subaru is what it should be.

Here's the electronics mods I've made:

I call it "Trippy". Embedded a microcontroller in the dash clock info cluster that "pushes buttons" for me (hands free), to cycle through all the information screens. It's programmable, and can spend more time on one certain display before moving onto the next. If you hit a button manually, it stops doing its rotation thing and lets you navigate through the screens pushing the button yourself. Next time the car is started it begins cycling again, or if you want to start cycling sooner, press and hold the display button for 2 seconds. This is the next best thing to seeing all the screens at the same time... Trippy is not easy to install, so I don't sell it.

I call the next one "RRAP" for "Retained and Resumeable Accessory Power". When you turn off the engine and take the key out you should be able to operate windows and radio and other accessory powered features in the car for a short while, right? At least until you open the driver's door. Subaru doesn't have this feature for my car either. RRAP does this and more. It has the timed Accessory power with door open cut-off as well. But also an option to hookup so unlocking the car by remote starts Accessory power without putting key in switch. You can also configure it to ignore the door opening and keep on supplying power so you can get it, close a forgotten window, and leave again without having to use the key. And a feature that when you press remote lock, it cuts Accessory power. Along with this kit comes a tip on how to cut and move one wire under the dash so that all windows will work when Accessory power is on, instead of having to depend on Ignition power being on - the factory default. I never did get the reason for that.

I made an earlier version of Tap Turn. This added one-touch convenience signaling to get 3 blinks just by tapping the signal stalk. This early module installed by the stock flasher and attached with 4 wires, using wire taps. At some point I started bundling RRAP and Tap Turn as one package with lots of wires to accomplish both tasks.

I invented "AutoWindow" remote window control for my VW, and my wife really likes this one. You can read all about these on the http://www.autowindow.com web site. So I adapted the design to work on Subaru. This was a bit tricky because I needed to add ready-powered up/down control and wanted the obstruction / blockage safety cut out. It turns out a company called DEI (huge in the aftermarket OEM supply business, alarms, car starters, etc.) makes a nifty module called DEI530T, which adds one-touch up/down windows from interior switches. With this added, it was now possible to laminate AutoWindow remote window control onto the Subaru. I decided to keep all the possible features of AutoWindow Classic and Cool+ models and make them "Universal Fit" modules for "any car" that has DEI530T added as well. Certainly works well in my Liberty and have sold this for a wide range of makes and models...

I updated Tap Turn recently in the last year, to make a generation 2 product. This is the only one I sell now. To make it dead-simple to install it comes as a plug-and-play drop in replacement for the 8-pin Denso flasher relay in the car. And this one is microcontroller based, so it was possible to do a bunch more stuff with it. Keep in mind, no new switches or controls are added to the car, all of the Tap Turn features are accessible from using the signal stalk and the hazard switch. It's always been a design challenge for me to make do with what's in the car, for switches and controls, and just use them in new ways that are easy for people to get.

Tap Turn is now the best selling thing I offer. And that is why I thought I'd put it out here as the leader in my vendor sub group.

Anyway, that's a little history about me and how I got to Tap Turn.

Cheers
Scott
Last edited by scottmcphee on Thu Oct 24, 2013 3:16 pm, edited 1 time in total.
scottmcphee
 
Posts: 82
Joined: Tue Aug 13, 2013 1:04 am
Location: Canada, eh.
Car: 2006 Legacy wagon 2.5i
Real name: Scott McPhee
Profile URL: http://www.autowindow.com/orderTAP.html

Re: A bit about me and Tap Turn

Postby DownUnder » Thu Aug 15, 2013 3:13 pm

How did you get into electronics? Are you a tinkerer or an electronics engineer or technician? Do you make the units locally or do you get them mass produced?

Sorry for all the questions. You just sound like an interesting person. I'm currently studying Mechanical Engineering myself and would love to find a way to support something I love (cars) in my future career. :)
TOM

2004 MY04 2.5i Liberty Wagon (5MT)
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Re: A bit about me and Tap Turn

Postby scottmcphee » Fri Aug 16, 2013 5:03 am

Oh, I'm fascinating alright, 'specially in my own mind! :roll:

Lifelong passion for learning how things work, self taught in electronics. Have a degree in computer science. Writing software comes easily to me but in my day job using the culmination of all my computer experience over the last 25 years I don't get to do any code. So microcontroller projects of my own are a natural outlet that combines electronics and software. Always been very curious about user interfaces and human interaction with the things I make. I enjoy cars... so sticking electronic inventions into cars has been a rich playground.

All my stuff is hand made by me. Parts come from all over the world, of course. But all designs in h/w and s/w are mine.

So I do this for fun, but maybe it's a hobby that's gotten out of control now?!

Stick with your ME studies! This is just the start of a greater you.
scottmcphee
 
Posts: 82
Joined: Tue Aug 13, 2013 1:04 am
Location: Canada, eh.
Car: 2006 Legacy wagon 2.5i
Real name: Scott McPhee
Profile URL: http://www.autowindow.com/orderTAP.html


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