Lotus Elan and Lotus Elan Plus 2 Forums

billwill wrote:That's not topic drift.. it's WAY off topic (to headlamp lifters) & deserves its own topic, should you actually want people to read it.

You're right. Apologies. The devil made me do it.

Nick

Here's my home made system working smoothly https://www.dropbox.com/s/gb00zs0j15ler ... 7.mp4?dl=0

Very similar to the Spyder system, total cost ?45 plus a lot of fiddling fabricating and faffing.

The spyder system in the "fitted" photo shows a spring , as fitted to the vacuum pods,is it necessary ?

http://www.spydercars.co.uk/electricy-h ... an-elan-2/

John

Yes, the spring is necessary to provide smooth damping on the closing cycle. The Spyder system is actually based on my very amateur design but with proper brackets and a new balance bar as well as proper electrics. One of the upsides of the MX5 motors is that they are quite strong and very quick, so can easily raise 2 Elan pods quick enough to flash other road users ( USA: to say thanks, or come through or whatever) the downside is that the pods close a bit quick and the geometry can't be made precise enough to avoid a sort of "free fall" resulting in a bit of a bounce that won't do the pods any good and could cause gel cracks over time.

You can adjust the control box to make the pods open quicker or slower to suit whatever you want. They work very smoothly.

Edit: The spring is actually off the standard failsafe pod (the weaker one) or use one of the non failsafe springs.

...or..if the motors are wired as I think ,insert a dropper resistor in the down wire and reduce the voltage to a lower level to achieve slower "droop"?

John

john.p.clegg wrote:...or..if the motors are wired as I think ,insert a dropper resistor in the down wire and reduce the voltage to a lower level to achieve slower "droop"?

John

Nope! We tried that and they still bounce, the spring is the solution and quite elegant in that it assists up and damps down. The geometry as mentioned is not precise and the angles involved mean the pods are in free fall unless arrested by the spring. Hope that's perfectly clear now, I know you guys are a bit slow up North

But I'm being unkind to not explain a bit further in that the MX5 motor doesn't do an up and down cycle, rather it does a 180 degree circular motion up in a clockwise direction and a 180 degree down motion in a clockwise direction. The rod connected to the balance bar lever therefore does slightly different things Going up versus going down. If it were a case of 180 degree up in clockwise and 180 degree down in anti clockwise it would be a simple affair to control things with a motor controlling resistor.

No doubt one of the clever electrical people on here like BillWill could fathom a way of using a reverse polarity switch to make up and down the same mechanical movement, but the spring and motor speed controller works well and given the spring makes the detente of force more central in the mechanical movement it actually assists with balance and smoothness throughout the operation.

I rarely drive the Sprint in the dark but night fell as I was coming back from Oulton Park yesterday. I found that the driver's side light was bouncing up and down a bit, there is obviously some play in my home-made system. I was an absolute swine to adjust by trial and error but works really quickly and I'm well-pleased with it.
I guess I just need to fit an effective soft stop at the end of each up and down limit.

No diodes - and easy wiring (relatively), and still working after 7 years and 20000 miles.

elan-f15/electric-popup-headlight-pods-t15846.html

P

P, fix your link please?

Sorry.... fat fingers!
Try this:

lotus-twincam-f39/electric-popup-headlight-pods-t15846.html