Photo: reddit user Garrettthesnail
Comfort blinkers aren’t necessarily something you can’t live without, but they’re certainly helpful, especially when driving on a highway.
But it goes without saying that not every car comes with such a feature, and older models, in particular, are obviously lacking this capability for an obvious reason.
And yet, this doesn’t necessarily mean they can’t have it. The living proof is this rather simple setup that one redditor has managed to create using nothing more than an Arduino board and two relays.
As you can see in the video embedded below, what they did was enable the comfort blinkers on a 2002 Volvo S60, and at first glance, everything seems to be working quite smoothly.
Of course, this isn’t necessarily something that the Average Joe can do, mostly because some electronics skills are required, but redditor Garrettthesnail who created the whole thing says you could technically do the same thing on other models as well.
On the 1987 740, for example, only smaller changes are required, they explain in a post.
“You don't really have to modify the code, maybe change the time value, but that's it. You do require some electronics knowledge, and you need to be able to solder. There is also a big chance your switch is constructed differently, so that would also require some reverse-engineering. It's perfectly do-able, but if it is your first time it could be quite tricky/handy to have a mate with you,” the redditor says.
Basically, manufacturers should be able to enable this on newer car models with just a software update (if the feature is available in the first place), so the Arduino hack would only be required on older car models where updates are no longer possible.
For what it’s worth, the whole thing is rather affordable, as a used Arduino board can be found online for just a few bucks.
And yet, this doesn’t necessarily mean they can’t have it. The living proof is this rather simple setup that one redditor has managed to create using nothing more than an Arduino board and two relays.
As you can see in the video embedded below, what they did was enable the comfort blinkers on a 2002 Volvo S60, and at first glance, everything seems to be working quite smoothly.
Of course, this isn’t necessarily something that the Average Joe can do, mostly because some electronics skills are required, but redditor Garrettthesnail who created the whole thing says you could technically do the same thing on other models as well.
On the 1987 740, for example, only smaller changes are required, they explain in a post.
“You don't really have to modify the code, maybe change the time value, but that's it. You do require some electronics knowledge, and you need to be able to solder. There is also a big chance your switch is constructed differently, so that would also require some reverse-engineering. It's perfectly do-able, but if it is your first time it could be quite tricky/handy to have a mate with you,” the redditor says.
Basically, manufacturers should be able to enable this on newer car models with just a software update (if the feature is available in the first place), so the Arduino hack would only be required on older car models where updates are no longer possible.
For what it’s worth, the whole thing is rather affordable, as a used Arduino board can be found online for just a few bucks.
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