It all started when my son wanted a bit of peace and quiet. He said he would like a system that shows when he’s available, busy, and when it’s absolutely not okay to disturb him (oh, the horror of being nine!). I thought it sounded like a traffic light - red, amber and green. A trip to the electronics store, a raid on the Lego box, a bit of soldering, and this is what I came up with:

Mr. Burns controls which light is on, and he lights up the LEDs on both the central unit and the pole. I’m writing about all this in this post for a good reason, as the connectors I used to extend the distance between the pole and the central unit (the pictures show the short version - now the central unit is by the bed and the light - in front of the doors) gave me an idea.

Before we go any further, a disclaimer: those of us more electronically skilled should stop reading now…

We should now be in the company of two electronic left hands. So, here’s how it went. For a while, I had an issue with the oil pressure sensor wire on the side of the Defi central unit. Someone had clearly been there before. The combination of twenty-year-old crumbling plastic, snapping wires at the pins, and the lack of available Defi connectors forced me to use non-standard solutions. This is what it looked like at the beginning:

The oil pressure sensor plug is the black one, second from the left; the middle pin is sticking out - it’s sticking out because the latch is broken, someone tried to secure it with electrical tape. The wires in the red cable are already partially snapped (they will completely break off shortly after taking this photo), and worse, the clamp holding the entire plug in the socket is also broken. A keen eye will spot the turbo cables and plug have been tinkered with before - the plug does not match the socket, it’s been forcefully wedged in. At first, I thought I would use single connectors that came with my breadboard, that I soldered to some wires I scavenged from the door harness I had bought when I was making the folding mirrors.

It looked okay, but of course, it didn’t fit. And since I hadn’t brought the central unit home, I only realized that later.

Even with one “bare” pin, it was useless.

Then I remembered the Lego. Just like about any good hack, this one too starts with a Dremel.

I sanded the top part of the oil pressure and turbo sockets.

Next, I worked on the wires, tinning them.

And soldered them directly to the terminals of the sockets.

It looks like I managed not to melt the contacts on the board.

After that, I just added heat shrink tubing, and the central unit side was ready to go.

To allow for future removal of the central unit, I soldered the same plugs I used in the Lego traffic lights into the cable.

Bada bing bada boom and we have the central unit ready to be soldered into the car’s harness.

And here’s the inspiration along the finished product:

• Impreza
• Gd
• Sti