VCCA Home Forums TECHNICAL - 1945 AND EARLIER 1929-1932 Headlamp Minder

I have a headlight minder - just a little buzzer with 2 wire leads - that I have installed on my 3 muscle car Chevys. They plug right into the fuse box and do a great job. Simple install.

I just bought a 1931 Independence and want to install one there to because I have forgotten 3 times that I had the driving lamps on in the daytime. The problem is that there is no fuse panel to connect to.

Does anyone have any ideas of where or which wires I should splice this gadget to?

Thanks

I think it would help to post the instruction for installation of the buzzer. At least for me to try to help you.

Is your headlight buzzer for 6 volts or is it for 12 volts?

The buzzer will work with either.

I built and installed a headlight minder on my 40 1/2 ton after killing the battery by leaving the headlights on.

Because the headlight minder needs to monitor two parameters, namely, ignition on/off and headlights on/off, it needs two inputs, i.e., one from the ignition system and one from the headlight switch. The logic is, ignition on, headlights on, buzzer silent, and ignition off, headlights on, buzzer sounding. The other condition is ignition off, headlights off, buzzer silent.

In order to accomplish this you need either a digital logic circuit, or, if you're a geezer like me, a relay logic circuit.

In the relay logic circuit, a feed from the "ignition on" side of the ignition switch connects to one side of the relay coil, the other side of the relay coil being connected to ground. Thus, when the ignition is "on", the relay coil is energized. The normally closed (n.c.) contacts of the relay are closed when the relay coil is de-energized (ignition "off") and are open when the relay coil is energized (ignition "on").

A wire from the tail light terminal on the headlight switch is connected to one side of the relay normally closed (n.c.) contacts, and the other side of the n.c. contacts is connected to the positive (+) side of the buzzer. The negative (-) side of the buzzer is connect to ground. The tail light terminal is used because it is hot whenever either the parking lights or headlights are on.

So, whenever the ignition is "on", the relay coil is energized and the n.c contacts of the relay are open, thus opening the circuit from the headlight switch to the buzzer and preventing it from sounding, whether the lights are on or off. However, if the parking lights or headlights are "on", and the ignition key is turned off, the relay coil de-energizes, closing the relay's n.c. contacts and completing the circuit from the tail light circuit to the buzzer, thus sounding the buzzer. If the lights are then turned off, the buzzer will no longer be fed from the headlight switch and will silence. Alternatively, if the ignition switch is turned back on with the lights on, the buzzer will silence, so that if, for instance, you need to have the headlights on without the motor running, but don't want to listen to the buzzer, you just turn the ignition off till the motor dies, then turn the ignition back on. Note that this defeats the purpose of the buzzer, but it is assumed under this special condition, you would not be likely to leave the lights on for an extended period.

The hardware for this project is relatively cheap and is compact enough to easily fit under the dash out of sight.

If you're interested, I can sketch out the circuit and scan and post it, but it's late tonight. I believe I also have part numbers for the relay and buzzer.

Mark

The easier thing to do would be to power your driving lights off the load side of the ignition switch. When you shut off your ignition, you would also shut off your driving lights. You would still need to shut off your headlights but checking all knobs after shutdown should be the normal routine anyway. I have the feed for both my driving lights (removable for shows) and my heater wired as I described. I can leave my heater on and it will come on and shut off when I run the car.

Shown below is the headlight minder circuit described in my earlier post. The relay and piezo buzzer are available from Newark Electronics, with part numbers shown on the drawing.



While it's true, it would be easy to simply route your headlights, tail lights, and parking lights through the ignition switch, so that when you turn the ignition off, the lights go off, however, you need to make sure your ignition switch can carry the current load safely. On a vintage car with a 6 volt system, the headlights and tail lights require a large amount of current. You might find that with all that current passing through the ignition switch, it could get hot and be damaged, especially if it is not clean and in good condition. You could install a headlight relay, actuated by the ignition switch, which would pass all the lighting current through the relay instead of through the ignition switch, but then you'd be adding more hardware and wiring and complicating the circuit.

Mark