Automatic-dip wing mirror

I tend to reverse into most parking spots and I usually end up using the mirror controls to angle the mirror so I can see the kerb etc. This has the anoying side effect of me having to then re-angle them before I drive off - which I often forget to do!

I know a lot of the more modern cars have this feature built-in now, but how difficult would it be to do for the soop?

I'm guessing it would be quite a bit of work, but would make an interesting project...

(waits for someone to tell me that its an existing option)

just do what i do and open the door

i think it would be a lot of work though to get that working when there wouldn't be a huge benefit to it.

I'm thinking more the passenger side wing mirror - which makes the door opening a little less appealing

I'm thinking more the passenger side wing mirror - which makes the door opening a little less appealing

lol, certainly more awkward anyway!

you must park in some strange places to need to do that though mate, either that or you've a little too much oestrogen in your body

where I work the best "out of the way" spot, not under any trees has the kerb on the left, my poor alloys have large enough chunks out of them as they are

I growl (deeply) when I park, to counter balance any excess oestrogen, so it can't be that

My pass mirror is permanently angled down just enough so I can see the wheel arch when reversing into my driveway (1" clearance either side now I've taken the gates off...)

I can still see well enough when overtaking etc.

Should be fairly easy to fudge the signal from the "down" switch for the passenger side mirror. The tricky bit would be getting it to come back up to the right place afterwards.

My friends car did this. I can't remember if it was the M3 or the XKR. Neat trick though. I imagine the logic could be butchered to adapt if you find one in a scrappy.

I have to do this every day with my drivers side w/mirror as well as opening the door - I'd like to see something which, could help

people people what are you all thinking of, what do you think your girlfriend is for

wait till shes your wife

Should be fairly easy to fudge the signal from the "down" switch for the passenger side mirror. The tricky bit would be getting it to come back up to the right place afterwards.

I agree it would be tricky - my knowledge of anything of this nature is miniscule! Looks like I'm going to learn a lot

New BMW's have this. Guess you need to hook up the reverse light signal to some sort of timer chip that sends the down signal (adjustable but pre-set down signal time) to the mirror and stays like that for a fixed time as you may be in and out of reverse if it's tricky parking, Maybe a minute or so after the first reverse light signal (and the countdown timer doesn't start till you're out of reverse) then it switches to the mirror up signal for the same amount of time as it took when it went down so the angle is back to what it was originally

Get an extra caravan towing mirror the you’ll have 1 sq foot of mirror constantly pointing down and be they envy of all your chums! Group buy?

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I had a bit of a think about this last night. The best I could come up with was this:

The circuit would centre around a PIC chip with at least 9 I/O pins. Four input pins would be connected to the up/down/left/right signals for the mirror, and four output pins would be conencted (via power MOSFETS) to the same pins. One more inoput pin would be connected to the reverse light.

To calibrate the unit, you would put the mirror in a known position (i.e fully down and fully right), and then power the system up. The PIC program would then sit there monitoring the status of the mirror. Each time you moved the mirror around, it would time the number of "ups" "downs" "lefts" and "rights" so it could work out where the mirror was from the start position.

When you select reverse, the PIC would work out how far it had to move the mirror from where it was to get it to point at the kerb. The output pins would fire te MOSFETS to actually move the mirror for the right amount of time in the right direction. When reverse was disengaged, after a suitable time delay to allow for parking shuffling, the PIC would make the reverse movement to return the mirror to the original position.

A simpler setup would be to just have two positions: "Normal" and "parking". You have a simple "learn button" could teach the PIC the difference between the two postions, and the chip would simply move the mirror from one to the other each time reverse gear was selected or deselected, without having to monitor whether the mirror was moved in the meantime. Of course, if someone moved the "normal" position it would sod up the "parking" position unless you re-taught the chip.

This all kind of relies on there being separate, easily accessible signal wires for each direction, and separate power wires for each direction. If there is any kind of digital or stepper motor control going on then it probably could not be made to work. It also assumes that there is a direct relationship between the time the button is pressed and how far the mirror moves.

Just a thought, anyway

its allright for all you boys with your fancy electric mirrors

Interesting thoughts...

I guess I really need to get a "donor" wing mirror and look at the internals.

Anyone want to donate one??? - all in the interest of science of course

Cool Digsy - when's the prototype?