E53 Steering Wheel Gear Change paddles - Current switching.

[X5-D-Sport]

An old topic, but a new sub topic..

I bought some Landrover Evoke gear change up/down paddles to retro fit to my E53 D-Sport,
Done a really nice job re getting a mating surface for the parts to fit the rear of the steering-wheel..
Then decided to check which of the 3 connections to test for continuity ... prior to hooking up to the existing loom where the wires are hooked into the gear shifter...

One does nothing at all & is open circuit.
I was presuming one of the three wires would illuminate the + or- sign on the paddle, but it doesn't illuminate.

PROBLEM..
The Landrover Paddles appear to have a resistor in the switch circuit, so that it only allows a 0.02amp / 20 MilliAmp current to pass when the paddle is operated.....

Will this be enough to give the X5 Gearbox a signal to shift up or down a gear, or are the X5 Manual Tiptronic shift switches at the stick a simple open/closed circuit switch ??

Any one know the technicals here ?

Regards
Grant B

[graemeX5]

Hi

I'm not that good but would it be worth a post on say M3 cutters forum as a the usual paddleshift is via an M3 steering wheel and a different slip ring and someone there might know what sort of signal that sends.

Alternatively pm Raj as I know he put an M3 wheel and slip ring on his old E53 4.8 and is pretty handy and would probably know.

Graeme

[X5-D-Sport]

Re the slip ring....

I've been a bit artful here, as my X5 does not talk to my fone via the steering wheel call/end call buttons,
I'm using these connections thru the slip ring & isolating these buttons in favour of my gear shifter paddles...

[henrym3]

You have been artfull, is this a temporary or permanent solution. Won't it bug you that those buttons aren't being used as intended? 

[X5-D-Sport]

the original steering wheel buttons for the phone calling functions have never worked, probably because I don't have an i-phone device...
... so the buttons will remain redundant, I'm just using the wiring to get thru the slip ring & using the paddles I will fit to the rear of the steering wheel arms soon.

[X5-D-Sport]

My original PROBLEM..
The Landrover Paddles appear to have a resistor in the switch circuit, so that it only allows a 0.02amp / 20 mA current to pass when the paddle is operated.....

Will this be enough to give the X5 Gearbox a signal to shift up or down a gear, or are the X5 Manual Tiptronic shift switches at the stick a simple open/closed circuit switch ??

Any one know the technicals here ?

Regards
Grant B

[X5Sport]

Don't have the schematics, but looking at those figures it suggests the paddles are just sending a low current pulse to a logic controller.  On board systems seem to be working with far lower limits than they used to, especially with steering wheel based controls now being more common.  Large current means larger components = expensive and heavy and needing space.

My guess is that the late 90's tech in the BMWs is highly likely to be a simple switch though there could be limiting resistors in the transmission computer.

It may be a case of developing a small circuit that uses the low current input from the switch to generate a larger current pulse at the box?  I don't know what the manual stick shifter on the tunnel is actually 'driving' - as in is it a control circuit or a relay/ switch unit?  The former should be low current but the latter would need more.

[X5-D-Sport]

I need to get my head into the gear selector set up at the stick me thinks, & see if the switches at the stick that action the Tiptronic gear change are simple contact switches, or the have a limiting resistor in the switch also...

It wont be impossible to strip the retro-fitted paddles & bridge the limiting resistor if necessary, for clean switching, if that's what the original switches at the Gear stick do.
May be safest to leave the limiting resistors in place 1st, & see what happens when activated, as if all the computer needs is a +/Posative edge signal, then they will be fine.

Doing what I'm doing effectively makes a cheap project to convert any E53 to paddle change..
The paddles cost me £45, Milliput epoxy putty to mould the paddle mounts to the rear of the steering-wheel & a bit of spray paint...
the wiring is in place & robbed from 2 redundant switches on the steering wheel, so no fancy steering wheels or slip rings needed...
Just an afternoons fiddling...

Can some one refresh me what necessary to load pictures here please ?

[Horizon]

On my iPad I click the reply button at the bottom of the post, this fetches up the dialog box Scroll to below the dialog box there is an icon that says images, click on this icon.
Then a "tinypic upload box appears click on the " choose file " tab. This then opens another box that says " photo library " this then takes you to your images stored on the IPad, select the image then press the upload button.
It says success . Then add image to post, you may need to scroll down a bit to see the link then press the usual save button as normal at the bottom of the screen.
I think you can only add one image, so when it's loaded go back to modify post and start it all over again.
Not sure this works on laptops, or android as I always use my IPad.

[X5Sport]

Well well, it works....

[X5-D-Sport]

The paddles are now on the steering wheel, cables fed into the wheel too...

I opened up the module behind the dial/end buttons... and ...

disaster..

there are just 4 wires going to these 6 controls... 2 are for voltage to illuminate the buttons, & the other two are digital signal feeds to the computer...
up/down Volume,
up/down channels or tracks,
call/end call.

BUGGER IT.

So, my cheeky plan needs more thought & a way of getting 4 more connections down the slip ring..
I have an idea for this of a secondary slip ring  - space permitting.

[Glen]

[quote="X5Sport"]
Well well, it works....


[/quote]
SELFIE

[X5Sport]