Indicator buzzer

[GREENY1]

Hi Lads and Lasses, well its that time of life and age has caught up with me and i'm a bit deaf.......
can any of you people put me right..how and where do I connect an indicator buzzer to the wiring, I can hear this one just dont know how to connect it....cheers'   let me know but shout

[Gryffindor]

One possible issue with tapping into the car's electrics, especially the supply to the indicators themselves, is that it might make the BSI think there's something wrong and throw a wobbly. Solutions to this usually come under subjects such as how to add trailer or caravan light sockets, and I'm sure others will have elegant solutions on those lines.

In the mean time, a very simple method without touching the car's wiring at all, if you can do very basic electronics and have a small soldering iron, would be to place an LDR (light-dependent resistor) in front of your instrument cluster to detect when the indicator lamps in it flash, and wire it up to a small buzzer. Search the web for 'light triggered buzzer circuit' etc. One example:

http://www.learningaboutelectronics.com/...ircuit.php

All the components can easily be sourced on eBay etc.; as for the 3.5v power supply requirement I would test the circuit with a 5v supply, and if it works then you could power it from a cigarette plug USB outlet.

Other circuits are out there though. Example 2:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iw2N6vrOC6I

Maybe there's even a gadget which does all this already.

If you could find two buzzers with different pitch noises, you could have two units, one for each indicator, so that you know which one is flashing. And of course your hazards would make an even more obvious noise! Which makes me think that you might also want to fit an off switch, for those times when we all have to sit on motorway hard shoulders for hours.

The LDRs themselves could be on long wires so that the rest of the setup can be placed elsewhere without obstructing the view of your instruments. What comes to mind is a small plastic box containing the works and the buzzer (holes drilled in it to let the sound out), with two long cables, one to your USB socket and the other with the LDR on the end. The box could be placed anywhere if the wires are long enough.

Experiment with fitting a tube over the LDR (a bit like the body of a telescope) so that it can only see the light from one indicator lamp in the cluster, to avoid false alarms.

One advantage to this approach is that the gizmo can easily be removed at any time, for instance if you sell your car on and want to put the gizmo in your new car.

[Gryffindor]

A quick look at eBay brings up two kits:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/383674306875

The LDR is the metal thing attached at one end; I would cut its two wires and insert a ling cable. The GND pin is ) volts or batt - , and VCC needs up to 5v (from a USB connector). Then you need to add a buzzer to pins GND and DO and hope it works. You may need to put a small relay there instead if the buzzer needs more power than D0 can supply.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/353162545291

This one has several advantaqes. The LDR is already on a cable; there is a 12v version, and there is already a relay so you could use this to power a car horn or even a klaxon if you wanted to! Or a teensy buzzer.

Both these kits have variable pots as well, allowing you to adjust the amount of light needed to trigger the buzzer.

I found these in a minute or two of searching; there must be many other options on eBay and elsewhere.