In the Netherlands, City councils usually forbid to put charging cables for electric vehicles on public pavements.
And- to charge your electric car, of course you want to use your solar panels and connect your EV directly to your own domestic power grid.
But what do you do when your municipality forbids you to lay the charging cable across the sidewalk to your car?
My municipality has passed a council resolution whereby you can order a charging station through an external party, and so then you can have a public charging station installed nearby. Provided there isn’t already a charging point within a reasonable distance. In my neighborhood there are hardly any charging points, and the only one I have been able to find niche about 400 meters away, consisting of 2 AC charging points where two cars are always charging.
In my search for possible solutions to still make it possible to get to the car via the public sidewalk so that I do get to charge the car at home, I have come across several solutions. Of those solutions, only one is really useful, because all solutions with cable trays or cable protection over the sidewalk can still lead to liability issues if someone trips over the cable or is otherwise inconvenienced by the cable over the sidewalk.
The solution of using a hinged cable tree placed high on your facade to get the cable across the public sidewalk directly to your car is a pretty eye-catching solution. But- the sidewalk remains free of obstacles and no one is bothered by it. Except perhaps for the fact that it doesn’t look very pretty. I wonder how the municipality would want to and can- prevent this solution. After all, similar things like flags on the public sidewalk at a sufficient height are not enforced either. If that is even possible by law.
In terms of principle, it looks like this:
The lever can be moved upwards after use. Then the whole tree falls away into the vertical holder. Very nice, just a pity that the link to the supplier doesn’t seem to work anymore.
For my home situation, I prefer to place the lever on the facade. With a hinge point, the lever can then be moved away nicely against the facade after use, where you can attach the lever.
Below is an example of a company that makes these levers for hanging welding shields in factory halls. They also exist in extendable versions up to a length of 6 meters.
When you create such a solution, it must of course comply with all the rules and regulations, and the design must be such that it fits in with the surroundings. The choice of color and material is also a matter of concern, and it must not cause any inconvenience, such as clattering against the facade, etc. And the structure must be professionally grounded.
I do expect resistance from the local authority because they assume that electric vehicles are still in the minority and that there is therefore no need for a serious solution for home charging in public parking spaces.
The world is changing so fast towards electric personal transport, the sale of new cars already consists for 10% of electric cars. Of course the subsidy schemes help with this too, but all those cars sold are just going to drive and need charging spots.
Given the fact that people that already installed solar panels at their home are also the first people to drive electric cars, these people also want to use their installed solar panels for their electric transport. And as long as the net metering regulation for the return of energy is still in force in the Netherlands, the pressure on necessarily wanting to charge the electric car at home will not be very great. But with the rising energy prices suddenly making public charging much more expensive than charging at home, the pressure on wanting to charge at home using one’s own solar panels could become much greater.
VEHICLE TO LOAD
In addition, the latest development to run your home on your car battery is suddenly serious, because all brands now supply electric cars with a vehicle to load connection, which means that you can also use your charging cable to feed energy back into your home. This means that during the day you can charge your car from your solar panels and in the evening you can use the energy from your car battery. An average family consumes 8kWh in the evening and the car usually has about 50-70 kWh available. Most private solar panel installations start at 8 panels and that is exactly enough to fully recharge the car for the use of 8kWh per day on an average day during the 8 so-called sunny months of the year. And the months of November through February? You will still have to ‘buy’ electric energy during these 4 months. Preferably with wind energy from a green supplier, of course. When you drive your electric car to and from work every day, recharging your EV from your solar panels for those days is obviously not true. But when you regularly work at home, the story does apply for those days, as well as the periods during the weekends when you are plugged in at home.
Due to growing demand of raw materials, required to produce large capacity batteries for electric vehicles, prices are rising and the development of batteries that require less expensive materials is growing.
Lithium-Ion is almost always the basic component for existing EV-batteries.
The way that the current is brought to the Lithium is via a cathode and an anode. The used materials for these cathode and anode differs, and this has great impact on stability, life span, kw/gram thus maximum current and deterioration behaviour of the batteries.
LFP batteries
Recently a new type of battery has been developed, using another type of materials for the anode and cathode than NMC batteries:
The difference between NMC and LFP anodes
The lithium iron phosphate battery (LiFePO4 battery) or LFP battery (lithium ferrophosphate) is a type of lithium-ion battery using lithium iron phosphate (LiFePO4) as the cathode material, and a graphitic carbon electrode with a metallic backing as the anode.
LFP can be cycle-charged to 100% at least 2000x.
But LFP batteries (and -by the way- NMC532 as well) are less compact than NMC811 and NCA batteries. That is because LFP batteries have less electrical capacity per volumetric unit than NMC811 and NCA batteries.
The result is that smaller to medium sized cars will not be able to carry more than an 50-55 kWh LFP battery pack.
It is expected that LFP batteries will become cheaper than NMC type of batteries in the long run because iron phosphate can be made without material availability restrictions, while the required raw materials for NMC and NCA batteries will become even more expensive over time.
NMC (or NCM) and NCA batteries
The mainstream of Li-ion batteries, however, is currently NMC (and Tesla’s NCA long range and LFP standard range), with different types of battery composition.
Tesla’s NCA development of batteries for the Tesla3 long range and new Tesla model S long range types has its own kind of composition for the batteries as is also shown in the below raw materials overview:
Raw materials per type of battery: Lithium, Nickel, Copper, Manganese, Aluminium
NMC811 batteries
The latest development within the NMC type of batteries is NMC811, which has more power in a smaller pack but requires a very strict producing method and a very tight Battery Managment System.
NMC811 batteries will deteriorate quickly if they are repeatedly charged at their max power capacity and it is recommended to charge the battery pack as little as possible above 80% of its maximum capacity.
And- it is recommended to only charge to maximum capacity when the charge will be used immediately after charged. For instance when a large trip is made, before heading off and in between the trip.
NMC811 has a maximum full charge cycle of 200-300x, when performed according to the recommendations. This might be the main problem with these type of batteries, but in practice it might mean a lifespan of over 8 years. Provided that you only charge to 100% for the holiday trips.
NMC811 makes it possible to equip a small/medium sized EV(SUV) like the MG ZS EV (2022 version) long range with a 74 kWh NMC811 battery pack.
Capacity versus weight (and also related to volume) of NMC type of EV batteries
Solid state batteries
Solid state batteries are also becoming available, and these batteries provide the best performance in a similar – or possibly even smaller build volume than NMC811 batteries.
But Solid state batteries are still quite expensive and are not commonly available.
Toyota is one of the main developers of solid state batteries and will equip their hybrid cars with these batteries.
It will be interesting to find out wether solid state batteries will outperform the older//existing type of batteries in the long run, since hybrid cars make maximum use of the charge/recharge cycles.
Summary
For small EV’s, LFP will be the best choice. (less range required, usually city cars. USP of LFP: 2000+ times possible to chargecycle @ 100% full capacity.
For the mid-to higher segment, NMC811 and/or NCA will be the best fit. USP of NMC811: more capacity makes longer range possible, with requirement of a very good BMS. Due to less usage of expensive materials in NMC811 (less cobalt&manganese) the price for NMC811 is within affordable range.
For the highest segment EV’s, solid state will be the best option. Solid state is more expensive, smaller, more capacity, recycling to full power is no problem.
For Hybrid EV’s either LFP or solid state can be applied, but not NMC811.
THIS POST WAS UPDATED AFTER THE 2023-2-20 S/W UPDATE!!!,
please also read the epilogue at the end of this post
My Atto 3 is doing very well, had no problems or crazy things from mid-November 2022 until now, Feb. 3, 2023. And I don’t expect to have any problems with the car either….
On weekdays I usually drive 100 to 200 kilometers with the Atto 3 and therefore my 12Volt battery is always charged. But I also store the car sometimes for longer periods in the parking garage.
This electric Atto 3 only charges the 12V battery when the car is started, as most EV’s do- so I have understood.
When the car has not been started, the 12V battery is not charged and can slowly drain the 12V battery, even when you are actiively connected to the car’s charger.
The issue is how much that 12Volt battery drains, because there is only a relatively small battery in the Atto 3, since there is no need to operate a heavy starter motor.
As a precaution, I installed a measuring system on the 12 Volt battery in early February. With that I measured the voltage and discharge.
The discharge seemed to be a bit on the high side but I never had any problems with this myself.
Below my experience and measurement data is shown before and after the latest software update of 20-2-2023.
EXPERIENCES AFTER THE SOFTWARE UPDATE OF 20-2-2023:
Above the updated screen in my Atto shows the new software revision.
On the left on the SOC (state of Charge) printout above from my Battery measurement system you can see that BEFORE the software update the battery still runs down quite a bit in 1 day.
But AFTER the software update which I did at 8am 20-2-2-23 the battery runs down much less and much slower.
You can see that very well in the above picture of 3 days with the old software on the left and the new software on the right.
This is the voltage chart, this shows even more clearly what has changed.
My conclusion is that the 12 V battery will discharge slower after this update.
This will result in better 12V battery oerformence and will certainly prevent starting problems which could have occured with the old software.
The old article on the how and why of 12Volt battery discharge with graphs and explanation is still available below and at the end our epilogue is added:
Possible problems I would like to avoid. Therefore, among other things, I provided a spare tire in the Atto 3 and made a battery guard ( Battery Guard)) on the 12 Volt battery voltage.
According to Autoweek.nl, ADAC has the following experience with failures in EVs gained in 2020: “The breakdown statistics of the German roadside assistance organization ADAC for the year 2020 revealed that even in an electric car, a faulty starter battery is responsible for 1 in 2 breakdowns. ”
Believe it or not, but the 12 Volt battery is very important in the EV because all on-board functions are provided from that 12 Volt on-board voltage. Actually, the high voltage traction battery is only used to power the car.
Everything else you see that moves or makes noise, everything else is powered by that 12 Volt. For example, even the power steering and power brakes, heat pump (air conditioning), seat heater, all fans and yes, even the battery management system (BMS) of the traction battery is powered from the 12 Volt voltage supply.
So-when that 12 Volt battery is dead nothing really works anymore.
You often can’t even get in then, unless you also got a regular key with the car. I think the BYD Atto 3 luckily has such a key, although I don’t really remember where I put it. Probably still in the dealer folder. Hmm. just put it on the big key ring anyway and don’t leave it in the car.
I once saw on Youtube how that works on an old model Tesla S, when the 12V battery is dead. There are then pull wires under the car to be able to open the hood and charge the 12V battery, then you can operate the doors again.
I am going to make a standard charging cable for my Atto 3 under the car as I did with my motorcycle. At least then you can easily charge the battery. At least when you have a suitable cable to the (external) battery charger.
Anyway, I have recently installed a mini sweater pack 12Volt in the back. With that you can always jump start an empty battery on the road. These packs do not run empty because they are Lifepo batteries. So minimal self-discharge.
A battery measuring system on the 12V battery
As a precaution, I mounted a Battery Guard with bluetooth on the 12V battery. Via bluetooth you can have diagnostic signals pushed to your phone via the app but you can also see for yourself at any time what the status of the battery is. Of course, you have to be within the bluetooth range of the device of about 5 meters.
This Battery Guard is cheap and easy to install. Costs about 20 Euros and it always keeps track of the battery voltage so you can read it with your phone whenever you want. In addition, it gives alarms via the app on your phone when the battery voltage is too low or has been too low. You can also get and/or view graphs from it: This way you will know in time when your battery needs replacement!
Above you can see the daily summary of the voltage of the 12V battery of my Atto3 after I mounted it at 1:00 pm, 2-2-2023. (recorded at 8:00 pm). The first small peak on the far left is from my spare battery, in my garage. That one doesn’t count. (12:00-12:30)
What I notice is that the car charges the 12V battery with 13.8 Volts (left peak while I started the car) and at rest with spikes every hour the car discharges the 12V battery slightly. 13.8 Volts seems on the low side as a charging voltage for a lead-acid battery but is OK in principle, if indeed the battery is already reasonably fully charged. This differs per type of battery.
It is a SCEM-3703010 battery and it has another number on it: 38B20L. According to the sticker, it is a regular 35 Amp-hour (Ah) lead-acid battery. This battery costs about 75 Euro from VMF, among others.
“This battery is also often used in the Suzuki Vitara, Kia Picanto, Honda Jazz, Nissan Figaro, etc. for example to replace the original battery Suzuki 38B20L”.
A word about battery discharge when not driving the car: I am of course very curious as to the reason that this discharge occurs every hour as a kind of peak charge. I have now turned off all communications in the car overnight (sim/OTA, wifi, bluetooth) to see what the effect is. The car is always on the charger in the evening and at night, and during the day I usually drive about 100-200 km. Enough to charge the battery, it seems to me. Next morning there was no difference from before so I just turned the communication back on.
The voltage curve was like this without wifi, bluetooth and OTA SIM:
And (below) as of 07:00 after parking Feb 3, 2023 it looks very much the same with OTA connection enabled, and wifi and bluetooth all on.
Between 06:10 and 07:05 I drove the car, then the system charges the battery nicely. That gives the voltage range between 13.6 and 13.8 volts. Then parked and then the 12V battery discharged so again a bit between 07:05 and 15:20. During the return trip home between 15:15 and 16:05, of course, the 12V battery is charging again.
This weekend I am not driving the car, curious to see what it will look like then in terms of discharging the 12V battery: See below.
The car is discharging quite a bit and the voltage is almost to 12 volts.
Driven for hour in the afternoon of Friday, Feb. 3, the battery charged quite a bit and then idled for over 2 days and discharged to almost 12 Volts. Then hit the road a few times on Monday, Feb. 6, and parked again overnight, as shown on the right on the graph below.
A shame in itself that at this rate the car discharges the battery when stationary, but it is all still good enough to get the car back on after 2 days.
No worries
By the way, I experienced with our Christmas vacation of 2022/2023 that the car also just turns on after 20 days of idling without any problem.
So I’m not worried at all. Nice to see what all is going on in terms of 12 Volt battery usage of course.
Why does the voltage level of the 12V battery actually drop?
Of course, it is normal for a 12V battery to lose charge. This already happens because of the self-discharge of these lead-acid batteries but also because of all the bells and whistles we need in modern cars.
There is actually always about 5 milli-amps to 20 milli-amps running from the battery to an average modern car at idle. I have no idea (yet) how that is with the Atto3, I’m going to measure that.
My 2010 Volvo V70 had a resting current of 20 mill-Amps and after half an hour it dropped to 8 milli-amps.
That caused a self-discharge where after 5 to 6 weeks of idling you could no longer start the car with its own battery.
I then put a manually operated ground switch between them for longer idle periods.
I’m going to do the same with the Atto 3.
As a precaution, for times when we travel by other means and are away for a few weeks.
That idle current is caused by such things as the internet connection, key receiving system, alarm and so on. So on average, within a month to 6 weeks, the 12V battery of a modern car is so depleted that successful starting becomes questionable.
In the case of an EV, the idle battery drains even faster simply because it is relatively small.
How does your EV charge the 12V battery?
In an EV there is a DC-DC converter that converts the voltage from the high-voltage traction battery back to a charging voltage of 14-15 volts for the 12V battery.
In almost all EVs, the 12V battery only charges when the car is “on.
That seems to have been copied from ICE ‘traditional’ cars. Those also charge only when the engine is running.
But with the EV, you have to have the car turned on, either with the START button or the ON button.
This means that an EV at rest does charge and maintain the high voltage traction battery but the 12V battery is NOT charged at all in that situation, indeed: The charge of the 12V battery is NOT controlled at all when the car is at rest and/or being charged. Actually, this is very similar to a conventional ICE car.
If you do not drive your EV very often and/or only for short distances and you have many electrical devices on such as 2x seat heating, rear window heating, heating and air conditioning, windshield wipers and so on, then you will experience the problem with a flat 12V battery sooner than if you regularly drive longer distances.
In that sense an EV is somewhat similar to traditional ICE cars, where a dead battery is also more common with more short trips on average.
The Solution
The solution to this possible 12V battery problem in EVs does not exist (yet). The easiest way, of course, is to add a ground switch to the ground connection of your 12V battery when not using the car for long periods of time. But I never really know in advance when that will occur.
The best solution would be to have a circuit available that automatically disconnects the battery just like a ground switch but when the battery voltage drops below a critical value.
Then you can still start but the battery will not drain further.
Maybe I should develop something like that myself… Or maybe from Aliexpress?
EPILOGUE FROM THE AUTHOR 2023-02-28
IS IT GOOD ENOUGH?:
With the latest software update of 20-2-2023, there does not seem to be a problem anymore, except maybe when the car is not used for a long time. Then it is indeed better to disconnect the battery, but it is still unclear when you should do that.
The logging below shows that the battery does still discharge quite a bit.
I left the car for 4 days (etmalen) after the 12V battery was completely full. Well at the charging station but that does not benefit the 12V battery.
In those 4 days, the battery voltage dropped to about 12.3 volts, enough to start the car again.
But- the State of Charge gives an indication of just above 40% starting capacity after 4 days of downtime. And personally, I do not think that is good enough.
I had already made my decision to install the ground switch “just to be sure” so I am definitely going to do that. The switch will be under the front of the car on the bulkhead, so I can just reach it and don’t have to open the hood. It’s a waterproof surface-mounted switch that can handle 250 amps, with thick ground cables pre-mounted to it.
And I’m assuming I’m only going to use the ground switch when we don’t use the car for more than 1 week, like when we’re on vacation and don’t need the car locally for longer than a week.
As is shown in the graphs above, the 12V battery discharge after 4 days of downtime is too much to get the 12V battery back to normal (12.8-12.9V) discharging starting voltage after a 1-hour drive.
The discharge voltage directly after stopping with charging is then as the graph indicates only 85% at 12.6-12.7 Volts. After 1 day, the SOC now already reads 60%.
Under these specific conditions, the 12V battery may discharge somewhat faster than when the 12V battery was fully charged.
Driving a bit more every day will make the charging results better, obviously.
NB: All measurements are done in my parking garage where the car is always parked which is at -2 levels, where the temperature is always between 8 and 15 deg C.
TIP OF THE DAY:
If you are worried that your 12V battery may discharge during long periods of not using the car, the following will be possible as precaution:
You can remotely turn on your start button with the app by starting up the A/C system. This will also start recharging your 12V battery.
This can not be automated, but it is a way to actively prevent draining the 12V battery.
I have tried this, and it is only helpfull if you have preset set the A/C period at the longest possible period.
Do this daily (after the initial 1 week of not-using the car) and it will certainly help conditioning your 12V battery.
It might also work if you do it every other day, I did not test this for all possible intervals.
Only do this of your car is continuously connected to a charger OR when you have charged the car at more than 80% when parked.
Above the original filling of the space at the bottom of the trunk of the Atto3 is shown, with a.o. the tire ‘repair kit’.
I like to drive around with a spare tire because I drive on construction sites quite often, and so far I have had 2x tire damage because of that. And such a damage is not always fixable with a fluid repair kit.
My new spare is a home-bringer also used on a Toyota RAV4 : R17 165/80/17 tire and a 5X114.3X60.1 rim with the same circumference, pitch and center hole as the BYD Atto3. The RAV4 weighs a bit more than the Atto3, so it should be fine.
At the bottom of the trunk the available space for a home-bringer is only 57 centimeters in diameter for a spare tire.
This means that the spare tire will be slightly higher mounted, on a mounting bracket. Under the spare tire there is then room for the jack and the likes.
The trunk cover had 2 positions, and this shelf at the bottom of the trunk therefore only comes to one possible mounting depth, i.e. in the highest position.
So- that’s how I positioned the spare tyre (from a Toyota RAV4, 17 inch) in the boot of the car. Not the nicest way but it works OK. The shelf that comes with the car can be positioned in the upper position no problem. I added a hydraulic mini jack and a wheel bolt wrench, since this was not part of the car’s accessories.
To hold the tire down, I made a mounting bracket from square iron tubing 20-20-2mm with 3 holes: 2 to tie it with M6 nuts to 2 of the 4 already available threaded M6 bolts and 1 hole in the center of the square stock to carry an M10 bolt going UP with a washer and a wing nut. The M10 bolt goes through 1 of the boltholes of the rim. I welded the M10 bolt in the center of the square steel and made the rear part almost flush with the square steel. Then, I mounted the bracket down on the floor of the boot with 6mm tubed M6 IKEA nuts that I had lying around from an old double children’s bed. These nuts are about 15mm in length with a large flathead on top and an Inbus insert in the top. This is ideal, because the M6 steel bolt-ends that stick up from the boot are only around 18mm in length and don’t stick through the 20mm square stock.
BTW: I shortened the 2 not-used standing M6 bolts to the height that they just carry one M6 nut each, might be useful in the future.
After the spare tire was mounted and secured with the washer and M10 wing nut on the bracket I used the bag that came with the removable part of the pulling rod to store all loose components like the puller for the plastic boltcovers that are mounte in the wheels and o on. This is placed in the inner part of the spare tire.
Unfortunately, I forgot to take some pictures of the setup of the spare tire mounting bracket, will do that when I can and present this here, later!
In the Netherlands, Burghof trekhaken has developed a detachable lockable BOSSTOW tow bar for the Atto3, only to be used for carrying bikes or a towbox on the ball of the bar.
Not to be used for pulling anything.
UPDATE 2023-05-13: Message received from an Atto3 driver from Belgium that the BYD Ato3 will definitely NOT get homologation for a towbar, neither in NL nor in BE. This probably means that there will be no homologation for the tow bar anywhere in Europe. In Belgium there will also be NO homologation for a tow bar for a bike carrier. In the Netherlands, the regulations are not entirely clear, but tow bars approved according to Tüv (DE) standard are tolerated as tow bars for bike carriers on cars without tow bar homologation.
The tow bar can be taken off vertically and the cable box can be pushed up, so nothing reveals the presence of a tow bar installation when is has been dismounted.
Available for deliveries end of April 2023.
Can be ordered at Burghof trekhaken.
I have the prototype mounted on my car (2023-3-30):
.
Interestingly enough, as expected I have a German Tüv allowance paper that came with the pulling bar that states that the towbar is intended only for mounting a bike carrier or a towbox with a max vertical pressure of 60kg.
AND you should know that the BOSSTOW towbar hitch as a whole is approved for pulling 11.6 kiloNewton (1160 kg) which is more than the Atto3’s (in NZ) allowed 750kg. The maximal vertical pressure that the BOSSTOW hitch can handle is 140 kg. This hitch is well-oversized which is OK by me.
I am not worried at all about the sturdiness of the hitch, it appears to be a strong enough construction that is capable of handling much more than I will ever need.
After over six months of driving my Atto3, I still have 2 “residual” issues that bother me. (2023-05-12)
1) The climate control.
It is still not as I would like it to be. The temperature in the car still varies, despite a fixed temperature setting. But it thankfully no longer varies as much as it did when the car was delivered. I always have the car set at 19 degrees Celsius, and the interior temperature varies between 16 and 22 degrees with that. Interestingly, when driving at longer constant speeds, the temperature does stabilize after about 5 minutes at the set temperature. But when I leave the highway or get in a traffic jam, the temperature rises immediately and then it takes about 3 minutes before the temperature returns to the set temperature. If I then drive faster again for a few minutes or more, it gets about 3 degrees colder than the set temperature and only then does the temperature stabilize back to the set value.
After I figured out this “behavior” of the heat pump system, I never adjust the temperature again and learn to live with the increases and decreases because the temperature will eventually be readjusted. But the way this works is very annoying. It has been filed as a complaint with BYD Amsterdam, also because of the constant fogging on the inside of the car’s windows after parking at outside temperatures below 10 degrees Celsius.
2. The lack of an automatic rain sensitive wiper controller.
Due to the lack of automatic wiper control, I am going to fix this myself. So far I have done that with my cars on which no sensor or control of the rain sensitive automatic wiper control was installed off-factory.
Previously I used the rain tracker RT-50A kit from Hydreon/Sonic for this purpose and since it is no longer available I use similar systems that are available in the market.
29-07-2010 Pont de Normandie, France with the Rain Sensor sticker. The installation is neatly concealed and the sensor sits against the inside of the windshield of the DS, just behind the mirror….
Actually, I would prefer to install an OBD2 system, but so far I have not been able to find an after market system for that. And building something like that all by myself will be too much work for me, also because I am not sure if the BYD Atto3’s wipers are indeed controlled with an addressable proprietary OBD2 control module.
Therefore, I will go for the old school solution with standard wiring and an installation on the existing wiper switches. But then in the wiring harness under the dash. I know it’s not practical to “hack” such a drastic solution into the car in a relatively new auo but my irritation with the absence of this option is so high that at one point I seriously considered trading in the BYD Atto 3 for a Hyundai Kona or the like for this alone.
The standard wiring requires, in addition to the power supply from the switched 12V on-board voltage, an intervention in the connections between the wiper switches and the wiper motor. I am going for the simplest solution where I use the new module as an assistant for the existing installation. Then I can activate the new module with 1 extra switch that I neatly tuck away flat in the underside of the steering column. And then all the functions of the existing switches will remain intact. The new module then works in parallel with the original ‘single-wipe’ switch. So that means I will NOT have the ‘HIGH SPEED’ option automatically activated by the new module, and the new module will only use the default wipe speed for both single-wipe and continuous wipe.
This is the new module I ordered from FRUUGO (China):
As shown in the above wiring scheme for a system where the wiper motor is used in the ‘positive’ power ON way (*and the motor’s common connection is towards GROUND), the connections of the following wires need to be made in the car:
CUT the existing connection from the interim controller to the wiper switch (that is on the steering column) AND connect the wire you just cut (that comes from the INT switch) to the new module’s BROWN wire. This is the main connection that sends a 12V pulse whenever rain is detected by the newly installed rain sensor.
Furthermore, connect the Grey and Red wires from the new control box to the switched 12Volts so the new module receives working power supply voltage.
Also, connect the Black wire to Ground, anywhere on the car.
Tham CUT the connection between the steering column’s wiper switch that is responsible for the SLKOW connection to the wiper’s motor an conne ct both cut ends to the White and Yellow wire from the new controlmodule. Be aware to connect the in the right way, i.e. YELLOW towards the wiper motor and WHITE towards the wiper switch!
Lastly, the GREEN wire from the new connection box needs to be connected to the HIGH speed wiper cable.
Since there is no on/off switch in the setup, the rain sensor will always be active as long as you set the existing wiper switch to the setting where the INT (or a chosen INT position, as for the Atto3 has multiple INT settings) position is connected to the module’s active pulse wire (BROWN).
Hopefully the wiper switch will not be based on OBD2, since this will make it a bit more difficult to get the rain sensor module installed because it will then need to be hacked into the wiring of the wiper motor directly, and will require a to be installed hardware switch to choose between the old and new situation.
For the Atto3, I will make a dedicated wiring scheme for the above whenever I will get to install the new system, that will probably be during my summer holidays 2023 July/ August.
All in all, this is not a difficult installation BUT if you don’t get it right, you could damage the car’s electronics and I will not hold any responsibility for any damage fiollowing my setup for this or any other install.
