MOTEC RaceGrade Keypads

[Apex Speed Technology]

Wiring switch panels can be a time consuming, and even the best ones are big points of failure on racecars. I should still have nightmares about the Synergy Racing BMW-Doran Grand Am Daytona Prototype, which had this insane relay/breaker panel on the passenger side that had a dozen Bosch 5 pin relays, probably 20 assorted circuit breakers and lots of cascading/interwoven circuits. There were huge bundles of wire going through multiple connectors running to the driver's switch panel and out around the car. It was quite a job to do anything behind that panel.



Later on, we did a restoration on another Synergy Race Car, this one the 993 GT2 Turbo that was the last podium-finishing air-cooled Porsche at Daytona. It was a technological tour-de-force during its time, with ABS, electronic boost control and advanced data logging, but those switch panels were frightening. 3 of our engineers worked on reverse-engineering that panel at different times, and the work to rebuild them was really time consuming.

So these Power-Distribution-Modules have really gotten our attention. They're basically solid-state breaker/relay centers that allow you to laptop-program how things turn on and off, and what the current capabilities are. You eliminate all those relays and breakers - just have switches and wires going to devices. I'm going to do a blog post on those soon, as their prices have gotten into the range where a lot of club-race cars and custom builds (the next Singer Porsches will likely have some sort of PDM) can really benefit. In the meanwhile, MOTEC has come up with something brilliant - CAN keypads. These button pads, which can have custom icons, have 4 wires coming from them - CAN Hi/Lo, power & ground. With 4 wires you can control up to 15 functions, and you can have multiple panels throughout the car. And the panels are priced less than $600!

So as someone who wires race cars for a living, I'm excited about this. Check out our blog post here:

http://www.apexspeedtech.com/motec-r...ts-of-pri-2012



-Neel

[jacobs323i]

sweet buddy! Hope all is well, glad to see you still have time to dig up these innovative items!

[LZH]

That thing is sick.

[Sticky]

Stuff for the serious track boys.

[Itsbrokeagain]

so how can I integrate this into my ancient BMW? lol the list keeps growing..

[Apex Speed Technology]

Stuff for the serious track boys.

Actually, we've sold more PDMs for street cars and resto-mods. If you're ripping the whole electrical system out of a car, this make a lot more sense. The Piper M3 runs a PDM, for example.

so how can I integrate this into my ancient BMW? lol the list keeps growing..

Its pretty much a full re-wire. Not cheap, and not for everyone. But when you're done, your car is thoroughly modernized electrically and you have a lot of functions and creativity open to you.

-Neel

[Itsbrokeagain]

Actually, we've sold more PDMs for street cars and resto-mods. If you're ripping the whole electrical system out of a car, this make a lot more sense. The Piper M3 runs a PDM, for example.



Its pretty much a full re-wire. Not cheap, and not for everyone. But when you're done, your car is thoroughly modernized electrically and you have a lot of functions and creativity open to you.

-Neel

If it would allow my climate control functions to still work, then its an idea. Boy this is going to be one extensive project O_o

[Apex Speed Technology]

If it would allow my climate control functions to still work, then its an idea. Boy this is going to be one extensive project O_o

No problem. And the thing is, its LESS extensive than rewiring a car with fuses/breakers. I like PDMs because once you figure in the labor savings, the overall cost of a rewire is a wash and you get so much more functionality.

-Neel