N8N_99xj
NAXJA Forum User
- Location
- Berwyn Heights, MD
Hi all,
one of the things my XJ *doesn't* have that I really wish it did was an outside temp display. Rather than track down the rare and expensive roof console, I decided to go a different route, I ordered a Cipa 36500 (which is made by Donnelly, who actually made the OEM mirror for my XJ and is one of two major OEMs for rear view mirrors, the other being Gentex) rear view mirror - best price I could find was on $160 on Amazon - which includes outside temp display, compass, and map lights in addition to the cool electrochromic self-dimming feature. Hey, it's a little extraneous, but it's cheaper than a used roof console, requires less work, and it's brand new with a warranty. I chose the Cipa/Donnelly version for two reasons - one, the Gentex models use the mirror for the compass/temp display and the Cipa display is below the mirror, and two, online reviews seem to give the edge to the Cipa for the actual functionality and durability of the electrochromic self-dimming function.
Difficulty: while this mirror uses a standard 7-pin mirror connector, the harness that comes with it only includes four wires. So, if you want to hook up the map lights to your dome lights, you, um, can't. The official response from Cipa tech support was "sure, you can do it, you need to buy another harness and use the wires from that." Well and good but the price for the harness is $50-60 depending on where you find it. Ain't gonna happen, especially after I just dropped $160 on a new mirror!
So for the benefit of you frugal individuals out there, I obsessive-compulsively web searched until I found the following information. The connector is apparently a JST "VH" series connector. Once I found that information, I ordered the following:
DigiKey part no. 455-1181-ND Mfr. PN VHR-7N "Conn Housing VH 7Pos 3.96MM WHT" is IDENTICAL to the connector that came with my Cipa/Donnelly mirror except that it is white and not black. 21 cents apiece.
DigiKey PN 455-1310-1-ND Mfr. PN SVH-41T-P1.1 "Conn Term Crimp VH 16-20AWG Tin" is the matching connector to the above housing. I did verify that it would push onto the header pin on my mirror. 6.8 cents apiece. You will need a weatherpack or "W" type crimp tool to properly install these.
My total for one connector (just for curiosity's sake) and 20 terminals was $4.11 including tax and shipping (USPS 1st class) I ordered them Friday evening and they were waiting for me when I got home today. Booyah. Beats the hell out of trying to find a junkyard that will let you snip one or paying the exorbitant cost for a new harness.
With that information and the pinout for your particular mirror, you can enable all the features that you paid for (or if you have a junkyard that will sell you a mirror for cheap but doesn't want to let you snip the harness, you can roll your own and save some dough. AFAIK a Gentex mirror that has a 7-pin connector will use the same exact physical connector, although the pinout may be different depending on features. Some of them have control outputs for the door mirrors for vehicles that had three electrochromic mirrors from the factory.)
Here is an OCR of the first page of the instructions, shamelessly stolen from another (Toyota) forum where someone's already been through this... this is what prompted the hunt for the connectors
PROCEDURE TO WIRE MIRROR TO FUNCTION AS COURTESY LAMPS
Applications: CIPA part numbers 36300, 36301, 36400, 36401, 36500, 36501
It is possible to connect mirror to your vehicle in a way that the map lamps will come on with the door courtesy lamps.
DOOR SWITCH CONNECTION
1. You will have to find the circuit that controls the door lamp function.
2. This circuit must go to ground when the door opens which is common on many cars but not all. My understanding is that the Corvette is positive 12 V when door is open. If courtesy lamp circuit is +12 Volts then a relay needs to be wired into the mirror harness.
3. A second power harness needs to be purchased (CIPA Part Number 36100WIRE).
4. The fused wire is stripped from the non fused ground wire. The ground lead is thrown away.
5. The fused lead is then tapped into the courtesy lamp control circuit using a wire T-Tap (Scotch Loc).
6. The wire is routed up around the instrument panel, up the ‘A’ pillar to the mirror.
7. The door control wire is connected to pin position 6 on the connector that plugs into the mirror.
The power harness, T-Tap and wire ties should be purchased through your local retailer or
CIPAUSA.com.
CIPA Part Number 36100WIRE contains:
1 Power Harness (Power and ground wires)
1 T-Tap
5 wire ties
We do not offer a ready made relay to make the mirror work with positive door switch systems.
Refer to form “How to add a relay to + 12 V courtesy circuit for mirror light courtesy function"
Pin Function
1 Ignition controlled 12 volts
2 Ground
3 Reverse Inhibit (optional use).
4 Temperature wire 1 (PN 36500 and 36501 only)
5 Temperature wire 2 (PN 36500 and 36501 only)
6 Ground when door is open. Door switch for courtesy light function. (Optional)
7 Ignition controlled 12 V or to battery if courtesy light function is desired.
POWER CONNECTION
Pin 7 needs to go to a constant 12 volt source to have the map lamps function in the courtesy mode when the ignition is turned off. The power harness that comes with your mirror kit has a jumper wire between pin 1 and pin 7 to reduce the number of standard hook ups required.
To wire pin 7 to constant 12 volts;
1. Obtain fused power wire PN 36100WIRE from CIPA.
2. Remove terminal from pin location 7 in the connector.
3. Tape over or cut off short jumper wire that goes from pin 1 to pin 7. Leave pin 1 connected to ignition controlled power source.
4. Locate a 12 volt constant power source. Best if power source is on the battery save circuit so if lights are left on they will shut off after 15 minutes when the car is not turned on.
5. The fused wire is stripped from the non fused ground wire. The ground lead is thrown away.
6. The fused lead is then tapped into the power circuit using a wire T-Tap (Scotch Loc).
7. Run the power wire from the source to the mirror following the other installed mirror wiring.
8. Insert the terminal into position 7 of the black connector.
9. Plug connector into mirror.
10. Test courtesy function of mirror.
---
(end cut 'n' paste)
So now all that remains is to drop the dome light, make sure that it works "conventionally" (that is, it's switching the ground of the bulb to chassis ground and not switching +12V to the dome lights - I don't know; I do know that the switches that I added to the rear doors have two wires on each so it could go either way. I'll have to let Mr. Fluke tell me what's what) and then wire it up, either straight to the dome light or else with a relay if required.
Now I do not know if the newer 16-pin connectors are the same or not. I suspect not... I do have a company car with one of those mirrors but haven't had any reason to look closely at it, as I need OnStar like a hole in my head.
Just figured I'd post this up because while I was able to find the pinout of the mirror simply by asking Cipa tech support (although I found it already posted online before I got their response, even though it was quite fast) I did *not* find specific part numbers or descriptions of the connector posted anywhere on the web, the only thing that got me pointed in the right direction was a blog post that mentioned that they were VH series connectors, otherwise I'd likely still be going through the Digi-Key catalog with the connector and my calipers in front of me.
Hope someone finds this useful...
one of the things my XJ *doesn't* have that I really wish it did was an outside temp display. Rather than track down the rare and expensive roof console, I decided to go a different route, I ordered a Cipa 36500 (which is made by Donnelly, who actually made the OEM mirror for my XJ and is one of two major OEMs for rear view mirrors, the other being Gentex) rear view mirror - best price I could find was on $160 on Amazon - which includes outside temp display, compass, and map lights in addition to the cool electrochromic self-dimming feature. Hey, it's a little extraneous, but it's cheaper than a used roof console, requires less work, and it's brand new with a warranty. I chose the Cipa/Donnelly version for two reasons - one, the Gentex models use the mirror for the compass/temp display and the Cipa display is below the mirror, and two, online reviews seem to give the edge to the Cipa for the actual functionality and durability of the electrochromic self-dimming function.
Difficulty: while this mirror uses a standard 7-pin mirror connector, the harness that comes with it only includes four wires. So, if you want to hook up the map lights to your dome lights, you, um, can't. The official response from Cipa tech support was "sure, you can do it, you need to buy another harness and use the wires from that." Well and good but the price for the harness is $50-60 depending on where you find it. Ain't gonna happen, especially after I just dropped $160 on a new mirror!
So for the benefit of you frugal individuals out there, I obsessive-compulsively web searched until I found the following information. The connector is apparently a JST "VH" series connector. Once I found that information, I ordered the following:
DigiKey part no. 455-1181-ND Mfr. PN VHR-7N "Conn Housing VH 7Pos 3.96MM WHT" is IDENTICAL to the connector that came with my Cipa/Donnelly mirror except that it is white and not black. 21 cents apiece.
DigiKey PN 455-1310-1-ND Mfr. PN SVH-41T-P1.1 "Conn Term Crimp VH 16-20AWG Tin" is the matching connector to the above housing. I did verify that it would push onto the header pin on my mirror. 6.8 cents apiece. You will need a weatherpack or "W" type crimp tool to properly install these.
My total for one connector (just for curiosity's sake) and 20 terminals was $4.11 including tax and shipping (USPS 1st class) I ordered them Friday evening and they were waiting for me when I got home today. Booyah. Beats the hell out of trying to find a junkyard that will let you snip one or paying the exorbitant cost for a new harness.
With that information and the pinout for your particular mirror, you can enable all the features that you paid for (or if you have a junkyard that will sell you a mirror for cheap but doesn't want to let you snip the harness, you can roll your own and save some dough. AFAIK a Gentex mirror that has a 7-pin connector will use the same exact physical connector, although the pinout may be different depending on features. Some of them have control outputs for the door mirrors for vehicles that had three electrochromic mirrors from the factory.)
Here is an OCR of the first page of the instructions, shamelessly stolen from another (Toyota) forum where someone's already been through this... this is what prompted the hunt for the connectors
PROCEDURE TO WIRE MIRROR TO FUNCTION AS COURTESY LAMPS
Applications: CIPA part numbers 36300, 36301, 36400, 36401, 36500, 36501
It is possible to connect mirror to your vehicle in a way that the map lamps will come on with the door courtesy lamps.
DOOR SWITCH CONNECTION
1. You will have to find the circuit that controls the door lamp function.
2. This circuit must go to ground when the door opens which is common on many cars but not all. My understanding is that the Corvette is positive 12 V when door is open. If courtesy lamp circuit is +12 Volts then a relay needs to be wired into the mirror harness.
3. A second power harness needs to be purchased (CIPA Part Number 36100WIRE).
4. The fused wire is stripped from the non fused ground wire. The ground lead is thrown away.
5. The fused lead is then tapped into the courtesy lamp control circuit using a wire T-Tap (Scotch Loc).
6. The wire is routed up around the instrument panel, up the ‘A’ pillar to the mirror.
7. The door control wire is connected to pin position 6 on the connector that plugs into the mirror.
The power harness, T-Tap and wire ties should be purchased through your local retailer or
CIPAUSA.com.
CIPA Part Number 36100WIRE contains:
1 Power Harness (Power and ground wires)
1 T-Tap
5 wire ties
We do not offer a ready made relay to make the mirror work with positive door switch systems.
Refer to form “How to add a relay to + 12 V courtesy circuit for mirror light courtesy function"
Pin Function
1 Ignition controlled 12 volts
2 Ground
3 Reverse Inhibit (optional use).
4 Temperature wire 1 (PN 36500 and 36501 only)
5 Temperature wire 2 (PN 36500 and 36501 only)
6 Ground when door is open. Door switch for courtesy light function. (Optional)
7 Ignition controlled 12 V or to battery if courtesy light function is desired.
POWER CONNECTION
Pin 7 needs to go to a constant 12 volt source to have the map lamps function in the courtesy mode when the ignition is turned off. The power harness that comes with your mirror kit has a jumper wire between pin 1 and pin 7 to reduce the number of standard hook ups required.
To wire pin 7 to constant 12 volts;
1. Obtain fused power wire PN 36100WIRE from CIPA.
2. Remove terminal from pin location 7 in the connector.
3. Tape over or cut off short jumper wire that goes from pin 1 to pin 7. Leave pin 1 connected to ignition controlled power source.
4. Locate a 12 volt constant power source. Best if power source is on the battery save circuit so if lights are left on they will shut off after 15 minutes when the car is not turned on.
5. The fused wire is stripped from the non fused ground wire. The ground lead is thrown away.
6. The fused lead is then tapped into the power circuit using a wire T-Tap (Scotch Loc).
7. Run the power wire from the source to the mirror following the other installed mirror wiring.
8. Insert the terminal into position 7 of the black connector.
9. Plug connector into mirror.
10. Test courtesy function of mirror.
---
(end cut 'n' paste)
So now all that remains is to drop the dome light, make sure that it works "conventionally" (that is, it's switching the ground of the bulb to chassis ground and not switching +12V to the dome lights - I don't know; I do know that the switches that I added to the rear doors have two wires on each so it could go either way. I'll have to let Mr. Fluke tell me what's what) and then wire it up, either straight to the dome light or else with a relay if required.
Now I do not know if the newer 16-pin connectors are the same or not. I suspect not... I do have a company car with one of those mirrors but haven't had any reason to look closely at it, as I need OnStar like a hole in my head.
Just figured I'd post this up because while I was able to find the pinout of the mirror simply by asking Cipa tech support (although I found it already posted online before I got their response, even though it was quite fast) I did *not* find specific part numbers or descriptions of the connector posted anywhere on the web, the only thing that got me pointed in the right direction was a blog post that mentioned that they were VH series connectors, otherwise I'd likely still be going through the Digi-Key catalog with the connector and my calipers in front of me.
Hope someone finds this useful...
I suspect that the wiring may run from the A-pillar base to behind one of the headlights for the temp sensor, but if that is the case I'll have to either use scotch-locks (yuk) or find the correct terminals to add to *those* multi-pin connectors... I haven't done that research yet.