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Arteon Style Blind Spot Mirror Cap Installation

mr-fix

Drag Racing Champion
Location
Poland
Car(s)
MK7 2.0TDI Variant
Tested it last evening and I'm sooo happy with how this works. I can just keep my eyes on the road and new indicators are still noticeable without turning my head.

Full brightness when turning the ignition on:
full.gif


Half brightness when there's a vehicle in blind-spot:
half.gif
 

xabhax

Drag Racing Champion
Location
Manchester Township, New Jersey
Car(s)
15 GTI
Perfect! Looks like original (y)
How did you connect it? Do both lights go on? The one in glass is not really visible in the sun.
Ya, the indicator in the glass was horrible. Led modules are so much better. I can see them when they are lite up in my peripheral vision.
 

himi

New member
Location
home
Car(s)
Golf Mk7 GTD Variant
Great work! Very tempted now!
Are the mirror caps the same as for Passat B8 and Arteon?

What's the next step? Dimmable mirrors? ;-) Any special connection needed apart from different glass?
 

Nuje

Go Kart Champion
Location
Island near Vancouver
Car(s)
2015 Sportwagen TDI
Keep in mind, folks, the mirror caps (albeit in any color you like, so long as you like black...or matte chrome) with the BSM indicator LEDs already installed are available pre-assembled.
Unless you want to color-match your mirror caps, buying these is a lot less work.
(But mega-kudos to @mr-fix - first-rate artistry on the cut-outs, and well-shot video, too!)
 

mr-fix

Drag Racing Champion
Location
Poland
Car(s)
MK7 2.0TDI Variant
Great work! Very tempted now!
Are the mirror caps the same as for Passat B8 and Arteon?

What's the next step? Dimmable mirrors? ;-) Any special connection needed apart from different glass?
Caps from Passat/Arteon are not the same. AFAIK, mirror inserts are also not the same, but it's possible to install them in MK7.
Dimmable mirrors will work but require wiring to the rear-view mirror in cabin. No coding.

What's next? Well, I've seen how the blind spot works in Audi Q7 4M and I want it!
In Q7 you have a lot of ambient lights and you can select illumination color. And the blind spot system is working together with ambient lights. When the BSM light turns on, it also changes the door ambient lights from whatever-color-it-was-set-to to bright red.

We know that Golf MK7 does not feature RGB light, and the ambient lights are white (standard), red (GTI), or blue (R).
I don't know if that's an EU-Spec car thing but in my case (standard MK7 with white ambient lights) I can reverse the polarity of ambient strip and it changes color to red. Here's a demo (from 1:33):

So what I want to do? Use something like ATTiny to detect when BSM light is used, power a relay (not sure if this is the way) that will disconnect original wiring from the ambient light and switch it to BSM wiring. So as soon as the BSM light is active, ambient light strip will switch from white to red and will flash together with the BSM light in the mirror. Demo (from 1:45):

So that's my next project ;)
 

quailallstar

WOB DJ496
Location
Florida & our Nation's Capital
Car(s)
MY19 MK7.5 GTI Bunny
So what I want to do? Use something like ATTiny to detect when BSM light is used, power a relay (not sure if this is the way) that will disconnect original wiring from the ambient light and switch it to BSM wiring. So as soon as the BSM light is active, ambient light strip will switch from white to red and will flash together with the BSM light in the mirror. Demo (from 1:45):

So that's my next project ;)

I've been wanting to do this as well on my MK7.5 Golf GTI. Looking forward to following your project progress. :cool:
 

bobloblawGTI

Autocross Champion
Location
DC
Car(s)
19 GTI SE 6MT
Caps from Passat/Arteon are not the same. AFAIK, mirror inserts are also not the same, but it's possible to install them in MK7.
Dimmable mirrors will work but require wiring to the rear-view mirror in cabin. No coding.

What's next? Well, I've seen how the blind spot works in Audi Q7 4M and I want it!
In Q7 you have a lot of ambient lights and you can select illumination color. And the blind spot system is working together with ambient lights. When the BSM light turns on, it also changes the door ambient lights from whatever-color-it-was-set-to to bright red.

We know that Golf MK7 does not feature RGB light, and the ambient lights are white (standard), red (GTI), or blue (R).
I don't know if that's an EU-Spec car thing but in my case (standard MK7 with white ambient lights) I can reverse the polarity of ambient strip and it changes color to red. Here's a demo (from 1:33):

So what I want to do? Use something like ATTiny to detect when BSM light is used, power a relay (not sure if this is the way) that will disconnect original wiring from the ambient light and switch it to BSM wiring. So as soon as the BSM light is active, ambient light strip will switch from white to red and will flash together with the BSM light in the mirror. Demo (from 1:45):

So that's my next project ;)
Paging @Cuzoe , this sounds deeply up his ally! Very cool, looking forward to seeing what comes of it.
 

bobloblawGTI

Autocross Champion
Location
DC
Car(s)
19 GTI SE 6MT
Caps came back from the body shop; hopefully won't chip/flake as I think @Nuje experienced, so we'll see how the Dark Iron Blue holds up:

IMG_5757.jpeg


As someone with very limited electrical experience (i.e. none), is there an idiot-proof guide to splicing in the new wires into the existing BSM wiring? I'd like to retain the functionality in the mirrors as well if at all possible. I saw @mr-fix 's video above looked it removed the existing connector so now I'm a bit confused how it's all supposed to fit together.
 

Cuzoe

Autocross Champion
Location
Los Angeles
Paging @Cuzoe , this sounds deeply up his ally! Very cool, looking forward to seeing what comes of it.
I don't have any experience with ATTiny but as mentioned it could be done with a relay or two. Wouldn't be too difficult to scheme out. Wiring could be annoying, probably easiest to tap into the BSM power wire before it comes into the door. That would mean just adding one wire to the door connector and would avoid messing with the mirror entirely.

That being said... "We know that Golf MK7 does not feature RGB light, and the ambient lights are white (standard), red (GTI), or blue (R)" does not apply to my Golf Mk7 😁. So I don't know why I'm thinking through this modification anyway, haha.
 

Dustinict

New member
Location
Wichita KS
Car(s)
2019 GTI SE 6M
Caps came back from the body shop; hopefully won't chip/flake as I think @Nuje experienced, so we'll see how the Dark Iron Blue holds up:

View attachment 264404

As someone with very limited electrical experience (i.e. none), is there an idiot-proof guide to splicing in the new wires into the existing BSM wiring? I'd like to retain the functionality in the mirrors as well if at all possible. I saw @mr-fix 's video above looked it removed the existing connector so now I'm a bit confused how it's all supposed to fit together.
I just used posi-taps and went to the mirror indicator, in parallel.
 

Nuje

Go Kart Champion
Location
Island near Vancouver
Car(s)
2015 Sportwagen TDI
Caps came back from the body shop; hopefully won't chip/flake as I think @Nuje experienced, so we'll see how the Dark Iron Blue holds up:

View attachment 264404

As someone with very limited electrical experience (i.e. none), is there an idiot-proof guide to splicing in the new wires into the existing BSM wiring? I'd like to retain the functionality in the mirrors as well if at all possible. I saw @mr-fix 's video above looked it removed the existing connector so now I'm a bit confused how it's all supposed to fit together.
Given how fine/thin the wires are, I used Scotch-Lok networking wire splices - Scotchlok UR3. Three "holes" in the connector - two for each end of the existing wire that you cut, one for the wire that goes to the new LED in the mirror cap.
If I was doing it again, to simplify things, I might try the Scotchlok UB2A - which is basically a thin-gauge wire inline tap, but (a) top-quality 3M stuff; and (b) contains moisture-repelling gel so help keep things water-tight.

Make sure you test/confirm which color wire is positive/negative BEFORE you do this (speaking from experience 🤦‍♂️). You might be able to test with just a 9V battery if you don't have a 12V source handy.
 

Cuzoe

Autocross Champion
Location
Los Angeles
I guess this will be a semi-rant aimed towards @bobloblawGTI 😁. I've been thinking about the use of the door strip light for side assist for the better part of a week, haha. For "single color" ambient lighting having it switch to red, as in the video you mentioned, makes sense.

For RGB ambient lighting changing the color isn't feasible... but the same "logic" could be used to have the door strip blink on/off though remaining in whatever color I have chosen. Instead of the logic switching polarity it would just switch the ground for the door strip LED.

But then I got to thinking about a "limitation" that is a bigger concern with my ground switching but could be annoying even for the white to red switching... I don't want my door strip blinking whenever someone is in my blindspot. I assume you likewise wouldn't want your door strip turning red just because someone is passing you.

So that means the logic should also take turn signal as an input. In the case of white to red switching, I would only want the strip to go red if someone is in my Blindspot AND I have my signal on. So only go red when I would be getting the rapid BSM "warning" indication and not the more common BSM "awareness" indication. Same with RGB... don't flash my door strip when someone is in blindspot unless I'm also signalling that direction.

I'll be back when I figure out a "simple" way to use both inputs 😬.
 

bobloblawGTI

Autocross Champion
Location
DC
Car(s)
19 GTI SE 6MT
@Cuzoe Ambitious! I swear by time you’re done the lights in your car are gonna be able flash purple to the beat of the currently playing song when you get a text :ROFLMAO:
 

mr-fix

Drag Racing Champion
Location
Poland
Car(s)
MK7 2.0TDI Variant
Use ATTiny, measure PWM of the BSM light power supply. It will be 100% only if there’s warning (blinking full brightness). If there’s just something in the blind spot, it will not be at 100% PWM so you can ignore it.
 
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