Cheap auto-dimming, homelink mirror

[kentsa1]

I want to thank the OP for posting about this mirror. I too bought one and installed it a couple of weeks ago. I did not want to splice wires, so I ran the wires all of the way down to the fusebox on the passenger side of the Maverick. I tied both power wires together and used a micro 2 fuse tap in place of fuse #3(spare fuse that is on when the ignition is on) so that the mirror is completely off when I shut off the truck. I am very happy with the results.

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[dougment]

I want to thank the OP for posting about this mirror. I too bought one and installed it a couple of weeks ago. I did not want to splice wires, so I ran the wires all of the way down to the fusebox on the passenger side of the Maverick. I tied both power wires together and used a micro 2 fuse tap in place of fuse #3(spare fuse that is on when the ignition is on) so that the mirror is completely off when I shut off the truck. I am very happy with the results.

Thanks for this idea... To clarify, with your wiring scheme, are you saying that when you turn the key to the off position (remove key) the Homelink mirror is immediately disabled until you restart the vehicle?

 

[kentsa1]

Thanks for this idea... To clarify, with your wiring scheme, are you saying that when you turn the key to the off position (remove key) the Homelink mirror is immediately disabled until you restart the vehicle?

Yes, When I shut off my truck, The mirror is immediately off also. I just have to remember to press the button to close the garage door before shutting off the truck after I enter the garage.

On a side note, I am really liking the rotary shift knob. Whenever I push the button(Lariat) to shut off the engine, it automatically goes to park.

 

[J-Dub]

No problem, but not everyone is as OCD as others when it comes to how factory tapping into the wires look.

Great! I'm glad we got past that.

Now, however, there is another issue I have with the subject photo. This all started in my (OC) mind (I prefer to drop the "D") when I saw other posters suggesting that they were not getting 12 volts from the "purple" (officially violet-grey on the Maverick wiring diagram) wire. In the photo, this is labelled as "Switch(ed) power". I asked myself, "why would the courtesy light circuit need switched power?" (Actually there are probably a whole lot of folks who, finding their batteries dead in the morning, wish that these lights used switched, instead of constant, power (because one of their kids left the switch on the night before); however, this would defeat the main purpose of these lights which is to illuminate the interior so you don't have to guess at what you'll be sitting on when you get into the car.) The answer is: to provide power to illuminate the light switch for the courtesy lights which helps in locating the switch in the dark WHEN THE VEHICLE IS RUNNING.

In fact, that grey-violet wire (on pin 3) is providing power to the light bulb (probably LED) in the switch in the overhead console and the violet-grey wire (on pin 4, the one identified as "switch power" in the photo) is sending that power onto the "cluster and panel illumination". This power is not only switched, but dimmable, as well. On my Mav, the dimming control is provided by up and down switches to the right of the headlight switch. Thus, the voltage on pins 3 and 4 can vary from 0 (I think) to 12 volts.

The instructions for my Gentex mirror specify a switched, +12 volt in the accessory and run position source for the dimming and compass functions. For some, using the wire suggested to power the auto-dimming mirror may work, but for others who want to dim their cluster and panel (and radio display) illumination, this may NOT work. In my humble (OC) opinion, this wire is not appropriate to use to power the compass and auto-dimming features of the mirror, and I am now happy I wired my connector wrong (based on the subject photo) which led me to this discovery. To be clear, others have also previously suggested that this wire may not work.

The pin-out of the connector pictured is as follows:

Pin 1 -- Yellow-Green - Constant 12V
Pin 2 -- Brown-Violet - A signal wire from the Front Interior Lamp to the Rear Interior Lamp (so they turn on and off at the same time)
Pin 3 -- Grey-Violet - Switched and Variable power in
Pin 4 -- Violet-Grey - Switched and Variable power out to Cluster and Panel Illumination
Pin 8 -- Ground

Again, I do not mean to offend anybody, and I am truly grateful for the thorough and wonderful information and advice that has been shared in this thread. I'm only trying to show that gratitude by helping others if I can.

 

[J-Dub]

I followed this image above and I am only getting 10.3v out of that purple/white left wire on the left...anyone else having a different reading?

If you are still looking for an answer to this question, try pushing the "up" button immediately to the right of your headlight switch and see if you don't get +12V when it's all the way "up". You've wired your mirror into a "switched" but variable voltage lead attached to the cluster and panel illumination circuit that controls the brightness of the "bulb" in your dome light switch (and panel lights and display brightness).

 

[adawalli]

If you are still looking for an answer to this question, try pushing the "up" button immediately to the right of your headlight switch and see if you don't get +12V when it's all the way "up". You've wired your mirror into a "switched" but variable voltage lead attached to the cluster and panel illumination circuit that controls the brightness of the "bulb" in your dome light switch (and panel lights and display brightness).

Thanks yeah, going back up never restored the mirror to working without power cycle. I went ahead and just tapped a constant 12v so that I didn't have to deal with it anymore.

 

[Snowbird]

So does the Yellow/Green wire power turn off after the truck is turned off?

 

[Mabcim]

Pin 4 -- Violet-Grey - Switched and Variable power out to Cluster and Panel Illumination

After playing around with the Auto/Start stop light, I have discovered that the “12v” for it is a PWM signal, not a constant voltage. I am thinking that is probably what is going on with the purple wire at the overhead console light.

 

[Mavreezy]

About goddamntime someone posted a picture of this mirror installed! Good grief . After reading through almost every thread (over 50), I was starting to believe this was a bigger hoax than the Chupacabra.

Anyways, I just went ahead and placed my order. Hope I'm able to install it without any major issues. I installed one in my 2003 Mazda B3000 (picture attached) over a decade ago, and it worked/works as intended. I'm only interested in the dimming functionality and compass. Hope my order doesn't get cancelled as some have experienced...

 

[dougment]

Yes, When I shut off my truck, The mirror is immediately off also. I just have to remember to press the button to close the garage door before shutting off the truck after I enter the garage.

Hi, Kent -

Another question for you - What size fuse did you use in the Fuse Tap that's dedicated to the Homelink mirror? The owners manual for my Hybrid XLT says that the #3 fuse (10 amps) is for the "Autodimming interior mirror, Image processing module A and Automatic Highbeam Control. It's my understanding that the fuse in the tap should be smaller than the original fuse. (5 amps, perhaps?)

Thanks -

 

[kentsa1]

Hi, Kent -

Another question for you - What size fuse did you use in the Fuse Tap that's dedicated to the Homelink mirror? The owners manual for my Hybrid XLT says that the #3 fuse (10 amps) is for the "Autodimming interior mirror, Image processing module A and Automatic Highbeam Control. It's my understanding that the fuse in the tap should be smaller than the original fuse. (5 amps, perhaps?)

Thanks -

That is what I used, 5 amps.

 

[cj99x]

Got my wires ran down the passenger A pillar behind the airbag now gotta figure which spares are always power and which are keyed then order the correct fuse taps

 

[NevergettinMaverick]

I just got my mirror in, but I have four wires - how do I hook this thing up?

 

[MustardTiger]

After playing around with the Auto/Start stop light, I have discovered that the “12v” for it is a PWM signal, not a constant voltage. I am thinking that is probably what is going on with the purple wire at the overhead console light.

Yes you are correct that wire is a PWM signal and should not be used to power anything. I found this out the hard way doing almost the exact same thing on my last car.

Using a PWM to power the mirror may look like it's working without issues, but what you are doing is constantly turning the mirror electronics on and off repeatedly millions possibly billions of times over the course of it's life. Eventually this will cause something to break, probably starting by scrambling the memory in the homelink or the compass or causing other random intermittent issues. It's not going to cause your truck to catch on fire but it's not ideal.

 

[Surfah]

I just got my mirror in, but I have four wires - how do I hook this thing up?

Not sure if you figured it out but thought I'd share since I just got this same mirror.

This is how I wired everything and it is working great:

Black wire in the mirror harness is Ground. Splice it to black wire in the overhead light harness.
Green wire in the mirror harness is your constant 12v (Homelink). Splice it to the yellow wire in the overhead light harness.
White wire on the mirror harness is the intermittent 12v or when keyed on (Compass/Auto Dimming). Splice it to the purple wire in the overhead light harness.

This is what I did and it works as I want it to. The garage buttons work always. The compass comes on when I turn the key to the on position. I know some prefer to have the garage buttons to work only when keyed for safety. But I kept a garage door opener in the truck previously anyway so what is the difference? It's much more convenient to just always be available. But if you wanted to only have the garage door opener work when the truck is keyed on splice the Green and White wires from the mirror harness to the purple wire. I love this mod. About $21 shipped and works perfectly. Took about 15 minutes to complete.

I will add that I have a Sommer Direct Drive garage door opener. The Homelink instructions included with the mirror to program it don't work. It was very frustrating to be following the steps and not get it to work. I found a PDF of the Direct Drive instruction manual online which had different instructions that worked perfectly:

Hold down all three garage door buttons until the lights turn off. Takes approximately 30 seconds. You can verify the garage buttons are in learn mode by pressing them. They should rapidly flash for 2 seconds and then turn solid. Now that Homelink is in learn mode press the learn button on the garage door opener and then go back to your mirror and press and hold the garage door button you wish to pair for approximately 3 seconds. It will rapidly flash and then turn solid. Now press the garage door button you just programmed and it should work. All other methods online got Homelink did not work except for this one. You do not need to program the Homelink buttons to the garage door opener transmitter remotes, just the opener itself.

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