Driving Lights controlled from Toggle Switch Panel

Posted on by Ian C.

Today, for Nathan, I customized a MINI circuit so that he can control his MINI driving lights from the (unused) rear fog toggle switch instead of the standard switch installed under the steering wheel:

Nathan bought a full toggle switch panel so that he had the extra unused switch; I cut two tracks on the back of the MINI circuit, to isolate the rear fog toggle signal and indicator LED, and then ran two wires from the MINI circuit to a small connector which plugs into the driving light harness, in place of the standard switch.
Now Nathan will be able to turn the driving lights on/off using the toggle switch, and the tip of the switch will indicate when the lights are “armed” (this modification does not change the functionality of the driving lights, which still only come on with high beam headlights).
UPDATE: Nathan did a write-up on NAM, complete with pics of his installation – nice & thanks!

MINI Circuits Everywhere!

Posted on by Ian C.

Tomorrow I will be shipping my 400th auto up windows MINI circuit! I had this crazy idea to produce a USA map showing where they all have been shipped – so I gathered the ZIP code of every shipment into a spreadsheet, then tried to find a way to plot them on a map.
I was stumped, so called for help on MINI2 and quickly got a very useful reply from Jason (snid on MINI2). He directed me to TIGER Map and a couple of pages which gave enough hints to get the job done:


Producing this map is not difficult with TIGER Map – but that service is now gone …

Anyway the map unsurprisingly shows a concentration of MINI circuits to the east and west coast of USA, especially Boston, New York, Washington DC, Miami, San Francisco and Los Angeles. But there is also a cluster around Atlanta and around Dallas – I presume there is a MINI dealership at each location.
The Boston area is also (negatively) skewed because of the MINI circuits I have personally installed or delivered; I don’t have a ZIP code for those people!
In addition to the US mainland, there are MINI circuits in Hawaii, Puerto Rico, Canada, England, Germany, Switzerland and Austria!