College Engineering Project Survey: S13 Fixed Sleepy Eye

[twofizzle912]

Hey hey everyone, I'm an Engineering student. We're doing a design project. My group has opted to attempt to make a Fixed Sleepy Eye conversion kit for under $150 that would allow you to fix your sleepy eyes so that they are drive-able at night. It would be great if you guys could answer a few questions for me. They are designed as a drop in application that is easily reverted back to stock. There is no wire cutting and all components use the stock hardware.

1) If this product were available, would you buy it? (Y/N)

2) Do you agree that the sleepy eye is a stylish modification to the S13 180SX/240SX? (Y/N)

3) Do you feel that $150 is a fair price for a drop in application? The lights are provided as well as wiring instructions. (Y/N)

Thanks in advanced guys.

[blacksrjdm]

Hey hey everyone, I'm an Engineering student. We're doing a design project. My group has opted to attempt to make a Fixed Sleepy Eye conversion kit for under $150 that would allow you to fix your sleepy eyes so that they are drive-able at night. It would be great if you guys could answer a few questions for me. They are designed as a drop in application that is easily reverted back to stock. There is no wire cutting and all components use the stock hardware.

1) If this product were available, would you buy it? (Y/N)

2) Do you agree that the sleepy eye is a stylish modification to the S13 180SX/240SX? (Y/N)

3) Do you feel that $150 is a fair price for a drop in application? The lights are provided as well as wiring instructions. (Y/N)

Thanks in advanced guys.

To start, you can do a sleepy eye conversion for less than 25 bucks in parts and about a half hour labor, so to answer your questions.

1. No, to easy to DIY.2. Yes, but can DIY for about 25 bucks.3. No, too much money and no need to replace my lights. Also, there are 5 or 6 threads explaining in detail how to DIY.

Good idea, just not really thought out.

[n240sxfnatic]

1) N02) Yes3) No

You can do a sleepy eye conversion/thing for like 6 bucks off a write-up on here. $150 is ghey as AIDS.

[TroubleBound]

^^ What they said. It's semi stylish some cars can pull it off and some can't, but if i were ever to do this to mine (i prob will soon), i would also do it myself for less than 10 dollars, with my stock lights, and have lit sleepy eyes when i want and fully stock lights when i don't. So maybe you'll get an A for the project but i agree with:

1) No 2) Yes (sometimes)3) Hell no.

[maj Andres]

Although I have an S14, I would not pay $150 for something that I could do myself for way cheaper. Besides, it's no fun if I don't cut and solder wires when I do any electrical work on my car. That's so great about a 240, you learn alot as you do these type of mods.

[S13Joe]

1. No, the DIY is too easy2. Barely3. Never

[bware113]

I wish the folk in my Eng. Dept. were this cool. Are you guys learning Six Sigma Design? To answer the Survey:

1. Yes, to take the hassle out of doing the steps everytime. 2. Yes3. No, the DIY is to easy an accessible for 150 bucks.

Honestly with a small amount of wiring, this could be available for probably like 20-40 bucks. Assuming most of the work is done by the person installing the kit.

[xX RB Xx]

just cut the brown wire

[gregfarz78]

Mech engineer here, no offense but pick a better idea for your senior project...99% of the people in that class will have no idea what you're talking about and/or not care

[pj]

dude, you are an engineering student...think of somthing better!i feel where your coming from and it is kindof cool BUT, it takes anyone with the slightest bit of mechanical interest to do this.although i do understand your coming at it from a diff angle, with it being fixed and re angleing the lights to function properly at that "sleepy" height, its a cool thought, just too easy.but by all means, do it if its in your heart to do it and it wont be wasted time if you yourself are pleased and happy with the product because at least some people will feel the same way as you.

[twofizzle912]

This is a freshman project ha, not to mention i'm not even a Engineering Student really, its just an engineering class i'm d!ck around. I'm a physics major. The kit provides the brackets and a new bezzel (finisher thing). $150 is the high end, so far the project has costed $50 and is more of a 1-2-3 step thing. Its an Introduction to Engineering class.

[blacksrjdm]

Why would you need either new brackets or bezels???? They go without modification, no need in the world to modify the bracket or the bezel. I am very confused. I would like to see the plans for this.

[twofizzle912]

we're doing this...

[blacksrjdm]

we're doing this...

That sure as hell isnt sleepy eyes, those are headlights made by a company called supermade. Already been done, find a new project. Those are or were mass produced pieces at one time. And, uh, that isnt engineering, it would be called a fabrication. Although, the supermade if you can find them are around 350 for the set, some come without lights. So, if you can do that for about 150 bucks, I still am not sure if I would be interested, because it looks like I could make them too. Just cut your lense covers at that angle, remove the headlight bulb, buy two sets of fogs, and mount them to some sort of custom bracket. Wire up, and go. But those are not sleepy eyes. I would search the site and figure out what your talking about, because this sort of thing shouldnt be confused, people have been doing the sleepy eye look for 20 years, probably longer on older models, and that isnt it.

[S13xCrazy]

we'll s***, you didn't tell us that.

HAHA, now things are a little different.Any pictures of how its coming along?

[KoopaTroopa]

lol, yea he did

My group has opted to attempt to make a Fixed Sleepy Eye conversion kit

I want to see progress pics too, and your tech report.

j/k on the report, i'm an engr student know how bad they suck.

[twofizzle912]

That sure as hell isnt sleepy eyes, those are headlights made by a company called supermade. Already been done, find a new project. Those are or were mass produced pieces at one time. And, uh, that isnt engineering, it would be called a fabrication. Although, the supermade if you can find them are around 350 for the set, some come without lights. So, if you can do that for about 150 bucks, I still am not sure if I would be interested, because it looks like I could make them too. Just cut your lense covers at that angle, remove the headlight bulb, buy two sets of fogs, and mount them to some sort of custom bracket. Wire up, and go. But those are not sleepy eyes. I would search the site and figure out what your talking about, because this sort of thing shouldnt be confused, people have been doing the sleepy eye look for 20 years, probably longer on older models, and that isnt it.

yeah okay, fabrication is part of a engineering process. And yes those aren't sleepy eyes, congratulations, but the process is very similar, its just different angles for the mounting and s***. The point of the process is to make an affordable product that can be mass produced and aimed at a particular market. If you feel you can fabricate your own brackets and everything, then you're obviously not the demographic we're aiming for.

Pictures soon though. I'll keep you all posted.

[TroubleBound]

I think thread title should've been, "Who wants to buy my supermade knockoffs." It would've been less misleading.

[S13Joe]

we're doing this...

If I wanted this I would just get a s13 silvia hood and fix some lights in the gaps where the popups used to be. I vote next idea, good luck.

[bware113]

Why not create a headlight beam aiming mechanism. It would mimic the BMW, but you could use the setup already provided by the S13. Using a accelerometer to calculate G's during turning to activate a motor which would allow sight around corners would be interesting. Have you taken any EE courses? Here it is required but could be challenging to get right and may be able to pull off to show everyone in class. A while back a few guys did that with motorcycle beam aiming so this should prove to be interesting on the S.

[XXtaZy]

What I would think instead of a fixed sleepy eye project, maybe one that actually opens and shuts but only opens to sleepy eye height. vs cut the brown wire and have to play the push button game every time. Just turn on your lights and drive. Means you'd have to redesign the light housing or make an insert where you could take out the bulb... That I'd pay $150 for. But fixed.. Naw.. DIY would be the way to go. The set it to the heigth you like and forget about it.

[Darkness and Light]

Something I would be interested is a kit to add adjustable mounting points to the headlight arm and a threaded adjustable length rod to the headlight cover. Basically a completely mechanical approach to a sleepy eye mod.

By changing the the adjustable length rod's mounting point and the length of the rod you can change the headlight cover's range of motion without changing the motor's range of motion. The headlight can have sleepy eyes in the down position and move to a fully open position for night driving. The headlight could also be adjusted to have a fully-closed to sleepy eye range of motion, although the headlights would no longer be functional for night driving, or returned to normal range of motion.

Total material costs would be about $5 so it could be sold cheaply and still have a huge profit margin.