Bongo Fury

I'm curious whether anybody has fitted an alternative clock to the usual BMW 3 series one? The advantage off the BMW seems to be three wires rather than 4 or more. Can anybody suggest how a clock with 4 wires could be plumbed in (with aWillington leisure battery set up) and if there are any problems I could face?

The Ford ka clocks look nice.

Ta

I did have a Mazda clock from a saloon car cant remember which one though, didnt use it in the end and sold it to some one on here, from memory the extra wire is possibly to do with dimming the light when the vehicle lights are switched on

Ask Simon Jones on here. He did a great little matching clock, fits in the overhead lining a treat, I have one.

Not sure if he still does them..


Derek

I've got a few clocks pending conversion as per this: http://www.igmaynard.co.uk/bongo/forum/ ... ck#p524480.

If you're interested, drop me a pm & I'll send further details. I probably won't have any ready for a few weeks as I've got a few DIY projects on the go so the shed is full of stuff so I can't get to my work bench.

I'm liking Simon Jones' solution, but I've also looked into the BMW Mini clock option. It too has three wires, which to a naive electrical brain, suggests that it's a similar level of simplicity to install as the much used BMW clock. A bit of Googling later, I found this site http://www.northamericanmotoring.com/fo ... iring.html which suggests the third wire is DCU, but falls short of explaining what that is. Any idea if that's what you'd connect to a power supply that only switches on when the main side/headlights are turned on (e.g. the ashtray lamp +ve) and would act to dim the clock LCD screen?

Most clocks have 4 wires:

12v permanent live
12v ignition switched
Feed from side lights to dim when lights on
Ground

No idea what DCU is but I might get one and have a play with it.

The Dashboard Control Unit is also referred to as the DCU, thankfully you don't need to worry about this unit.

They have a habit of Crashing.

I've taken a bit of a leap and purchased one of these http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/BMW-E36-3-SER ... 3a8b21214f
plus 4 core cable t plumb it in. I may well be back for advice on this, especially in identifying the switched live cable to tap into! .

I'll need to design and machine/3D print a holder, which I can do at work.

It'll be a bit of an experiment and I'll report back.

Cheers.

Wont it fit in this type of surround?

It's hard to tell if it will fit in the neat surround, but I'm presuming not. This ebay listing http://www.ebay.com/itm/BMW-E36-318ti-C ... 0852428196 provides god quality images that suggest it's too narrow. I am hoping it will still fit in the spare dash space above the stereo by trimming the existing cubby hole and fabricating a snug fitting face plate.

12v permanent live
12v ignition switched
Feed from side lights to dim when lights on
Ground

I have a Willington LB set up and a coolant alarm. The coolant alarm is wired to one of the unused fuse blades freed up by the LB powering the stereo etc.. I was hoping to take a perm live from the LB, a switched live from the same as the coolant alarm, ground anywhere suitable, but I'm not sure about the side lights. Is the side light feed a simple +12v when the lights are switched on? If so, could it be from the ash tray light feed?

Cheers.

jaybeeonline wrote:In my Freda and my Eunos, I used the clock assembly from a 90's Mazda 626.

The photo below is from someone elses Bongo, but it shows how well they fit and they also are coloured matched to the dial illuminations.



There are a couple of types, one is a basic clock whilst the other has some form of computer functions, which could maybe be linked up to work if you were a wizard with electronics.


J.

I've got that one too. It glows the same colour green as the rest of the dash and doesn't tick, which of course is a bonus in a campervan at nighty night time! It dims when headlights are on. I've also installed an ignition switched 12v socket in the cubby on the left and mounted my TomTom in there. (clock mounted above radio so it doesn't get obscured by satnav.)

I did look at those, which seem like another neat solution. I'll see how the bmw option goes...

The Clock cubby combo from a MK2 MX5 works as well, same illumination as the bongo dash

Did anyone progress their project ti fit a Mini One clock into their headlining?