Parking Sensors - Front & Back

[ryzlee]

Hi all,

I'm wanting to get parking sensors installed on my VE Series 2 SV6.
I know for the front sensors, as far as I'm aware they're usually activated by pushing a button above the gear stick, however if you get sensors installed after market, does anyone know how front sensors would work exactly?

I'm interested in getting front and rear sensors installed.

Also, I know in the Caprice, the sensors are integrated with the iQ system, a picture of a car comes up showing how close you are, if there any way to have this feature aftermarket?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Tasmaniak]

rylzee, when I install front sensors I install switch also when the switch is on, the front sensors fire up. Some people wire them up through the brake pedal. But I just wire them up directly with the ignition power and then through a switch. This seems to be the most user friendly way.

As for intergration with the headunit... good question! Would love to know the answer myself.

 

[ryzlee]

rylzee, when I install front sensors I install switch also when the switch is on, the front sensors fire up. Some people wire them up through the brake pedal. But I just wire them up directly with the ignition power and then through a switch. This seems to be the most user friendly way.

As for intergration with the headunit... good question! Would love to know the answer myself.

Hmmm.. I'm wondering if I could buy the park assist and traction control button from a Statesman WM or Caprice, and chuck it in where my current traction control button is and somehow wire it up to that.

 

[Tasmaniak]

yeahbutnobut.... The buttons in a commodore are momentary, so the moment you push them, they make contact but when you release them, they break contact. Works great for sending a brief pulse to a computer but not so good for running accessories off of them.... now with that being said, using some relays and a couple of diodes you can convert a momentary to a latched. So push once for on and push again for off.

Like such...

 

[Zerone_V]

The genuine park assist module (Front back / CalaisV, Statesman/Caprice) craps out pretty easily on these models, which is a real shame.
(It looks like poor SMD soldering by Bosch), so these modules are pretty hard (and expensive) to come by.
Mine failed over a year ago, and I ended up fitting a reverse camera to get myself out of trouble.

These modules connect up the the SW Can bus on the car (So if you are retrofitting the module, you will need to run cabling for the sensors, power for the module, and a SW Can bus connection for the Data).
The other downside is the module needs to be programmed to your cars VIN number (Which is a Tech2 only option as far as I can tell).

The upside though is,
1) For series I models with the colour LCD screen, the park assist overlay (and front park assist sound) is supported for all colour LCD screens.
(So you dont need to upgrade the screen, or get it programmed).
2) For Series II models, the IQ unit supports the overlay as well. (So again, no need to upgrade or enable the feature on the screen to get it working.

The other upside is a couple guys were playing around with the SW Can bus, and we worked out how to trigger the park assist screen, and select what bars we wanted to flash red.
Soooo if you were so inclined, you could use something like an arduino, check out some of the ultrasonic parking sensor projects out thee, then add a SW Can shield, and pummel the SW Can bus with the data bits to enable the display, and do things....
(The gear position and vehicle speed data has also been worked out, so everything in terms of data is there to replicate the factory park assist system).

Its a project that I have always wanted to try, but I think such a project is much too big for just one person.
(Hardware design, software, etc)...

 

[Tasmaniak]

Well it wouldn't be to hard to retrofit a universal kit to give you the desired output right?

Universal kits that have a cheesy display on them send a signal to the display and it can process between left and right. Now I have tons of sensors kits... what data do you need? I'm happy to sit down with a kit and measure outputs with a multimeter if it would be of any help.

 

[Zerone_V]

The main problem if you want to use the display is you need to insert raw can data on to the single wire can bus.
(The same Can bus which connects stuff like HVAC, Cluster, Radio, etc, etc).

If you would like some "light reading" on the 29Bit SW Can bus, have a look at this post.
www.carmodder.com • View topic - GM Lan Single Wire CAN Bus Sniffing

I have skipped up to the point where the Park Assist data was sniffed (along with other data as well).

And here is the GMLan bible for 29Bit Single Wire Can stuff (Specifically for VEs, but some of this information is applicable to other late model Gm vehicles)
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0Aud1vACFe1cUdGM2WklKWnJQN0JqVkQwWEN5cDIzMXc

There are already working circuits (using arduino) for sniffing and injecting packets on the SW Can, so that part isnt too hard.
There are also Arduino circuits that people have made for park assist type stuff for Arduino. (So there is some basic code, and a basic circuit for this side of things).

The final part is shifting any Outputs that other people mayhave been using on the arduino side, and injecting the correct packets to turn the screen in to park assist mode, and tell it what bar colours to display. (As well as send the chime command to the front or back of the car).

 

[Tasmaniak]

aww ****, see now why did you have to go and give me that? I love stuff I don't understand. I'm gonna be up all night reading this...

 

[Reaper]

I know it's not on topic but blow me.

I have front and rear parkers on my car and it shits me to tiers. I'd actually pay extra to spec a car without them . I also have a rear camera and IMO every car should have one. far far far better idea.

The day people need a front park sensor is the day they should stop driving. As for rear - a picture is worth a gazillion parker beeps.