[BennyMaxwell]

And one of the Honey-like coupon minders found and applied coupon code H7FX8R: 15%, $3.50, off first order.

 

[insightbuyer]

I'm confused. This is what I ordered, here is a copy and paste from my invoice.

and I got the clear larger plastic part.

5872960 - Spring Detent Body * Black Professional Plastic 1 $7.88 5872961 - Light Pipe * Smoothest Fine Detail Plastic 1 $7.88

Value $4.99 Sub-Total $20.75 Discount -$0.00 Tax $1.84 Order Total $22.59

I paid $7.88 and 7.88.

I would get the light pipe in the Smoothest Fine Detail Plastic if you want it to be clear.

I did a bit of research into this at the time, forgot most of it now, but I came up with those choices based on that research. My total was only $22.59.

 

[BennyMaxwell]

@insightbuyer
I chose a process and material after reading through the descriptions and seeing the comparative prices.

It was the "high stiffness and dimensional stability" that persuaded me. (Of course, I'm hoping that doesn't include "highly brittle" too.)

 

[BennyMaxwell]

My part [sic] arrived today. A few days ago I received an email informing me I was being credited for half the order :^), but there was no mention they were dropping one of the two parts :^(.

It happened to be the smaller yoke. As there was no comment, I do not know why. (Maybe they ran out of filament...) If it's broken when I get in there which should be in the next day or two, I'm going to see if I can find a local with a printer. If it's not broken... maybe I should still find a local.

 

[BennyMaxwell]

I worked up the courage to try to peel the dash bezel off, and I followed Scott Kulbeck's great youtube vid closely. (I disagreed with "droppIng" the steering column, completely, and so only loosened the nuts to the farthest ends of their travel on the studs, which still left plenty of room to wiggle the bezel off.) (My conclusion is that the danger of cracking it is not as big as I thought. But then, I was doing it at 90 above, not 30 below...)

The most important part of his behavior that I tried emulated was Patience. (And committing the locations of the 3 easily overlooked screws to memory.)

After getting it loose, it was another 3-5 minutes of fussing with the electrical connectors. (I'd recommend starting on the passenger's side 3 which will create more room for dealing with the 3 on the driver's side which are in a tighter space.) After spudging the bottom free with the plastic spudger thing, I grasped the top of the bezel above the speedometer and wiggled it straight forward. There wasn't much resistance.

The switch assembly comes off the back of the bezel with three screws. I followed qwqeh(etc.)'s equally great youtube vid to dismantle it, again working patiently.

Turns out my yoke (the little "vee") was not broken, and although the longer transparent "light pipe" appeared to be fine at first glance, closer inspection revealed a hairline crack which caused the fingers to separate when pressed in one direction (up) instead of activating the switch. However, I had a friend who knocked out the parts on his 3d printer surprisingly quickly, although in cheapo ABS. I replaced the unbroken "vee"/yoke with mudder's sturdier (because the vee is supported by a column standing on the circuit board). The "vee" only serves as a "centering slide" to force the spring-loaded "nose" in the "light pipe" back to center. (That is, when the switch is operated, the nose is forced up one side or the other of the yoke, while one of the "fingers" on the light pipe operates the slide switch on the circuit board. When released, the spring causes the grease-covered nose to slide down the grease-covered yoke back to the bottom (which is also the center position of the switch).

I used my gray "glass-filled" part from Shapeways (the one piece they did make for me), and reassembled it. I had the whole dash back together in under 15 minutes after the switch module was reinstalled. Everything operates smoothly, but as at least one other has reported, it has a different feel but will work.

The bad news is that after driving it with the window in a partially-down-and-taped position for about seven months, the window motor has frozen up. It might only need "the tap treatment," but in any case the door panel has to come off. Scott's got that covered too.

I decided to put tiny hash-marks with Sharpie along the bottom edge of the bezel before re-installing it--to show me where I should pry if I have to do this again, but they also worked well for indicating where to "tap" the bezel for reinstallation.

 

[insightbuyer]

My motor was also frozen, when the switch goes it must force the window to constantly go up or down and cause the motor to burn out.

My switch doesn't have the same nice feel but it works, and has held up for a while now.

Does your auto-down work? That is when you press the button hard it goes all the way down by itself.

 

[BennyMaxwell]

My motor was also frozen, when the switch goes it must force the window to constantly go up or down and cause the motor to burn out.

You may be right, but my theory is that it might be that the contacts may have oxidized or corroded from sitting for so long.

My switch doesn't have the same nice feel but it works, and has held up for a while now.

Does your auto-down work? That is when you press the button hard it goes all the way down by itself.

It does. I studied the yoke (wish I'd studied the switch on the printed-circuit board more) and I couldn't see an obvious place on it where it went into a different mode, so I concluded that the switch must be a 4-position switch (as I recall someone else did). My window is frozen of course, but I can definitely tell there's a fourth position, the auto-down, there.

 

[S Keith]

Both of my switches were flaky in operation. They would sometimes ignore the switch, or it would require a lot of force to get it to operate.

Neither switch was broken. Regulators were fine.

Sprayed down the two electrical switches in question liberally with electric contact cleaner and dried aggressively with compressed air. This dramatically improved operation. Still a little inconsistent, but works 90%+ of the time vs. 10-20%.

Unfortunately, once reassembled and actuating the passenger switch up after lowering it, I heard a snap, and the passenger switch went mostly limp. Will still lower the window, but will not go up. Passenger light pipe is broken. Shortly after, the switch body shattered.

Bright side is I didn't shatter the dash thanks to Scott's fine video. Scott's also sending me the rebuilt instrument cluster switches. With a little luck, I'll have everything buttoned up tomorrow, and this curb queen can go to greener pastures.

EDIT: shatter was my fault. I installed the switch backwards so the forks impinged on the LED rather than the switch.

Whipped up a model for a complete 1-piece switch. Uploaded to 3D printed parts page.

2000-2006 Honda Insight Passenger Window Switch by snoobler

Single piece design. Completely replaces external toggle and light pipe as a single piece.Functional piece printed at .16mm on 5mm raft with supports using Qidi X-PlusDepending on the accuracy of your printer, you may need to re-size the holes, trim the forks and sand the sides.

www.thingiverse.com

 

[Sigma Projects]

nice model. I just had a thought, if you put a hole through the switch a person could fill it with an acrylic.

 

[S Keith]

Yep, but that would have added little value to an already highly iterative process.

Works 99.9% better than a broken switch and about 80% as good as a working one. A small gap shows a sliver of the LED inside, so it's kinda "backlit."

I think I printed about a dozen between HIPS and ABS versions to try and get something that would work. For such a small part, my printer is barely capable of it. A little bit of trimming and sanding was needed on the final version, but it's in and working well.

My entire issue on this was dirty electrical switches. The electric contact cleaner hose-down and compressed air dry has dramatically improved their function.

Additionally, dash was apart, and I had a wife-imposed deadline of getting it on CL this past weekend (I was already into my grace period).

 

[Hybrrrr]

I sent the mudder's file to my library as they have a 3D printer and they are saying that at 100% scale it's "the size of a pin head".
Anyone encountered this issue?

 

[Tynow]

I sent the mudder's file to my library as they have a 3D printer and they are saying that at 100% scale it's "the size of a pin head".
Anyone encountered this issue?

Could it be that their slicer is expecting units in inches and the model's units are in mm, or vice-versa?

 

[Hybrrrr]

Could it be that their slicer is expecting units in inches and the model's units are in mm, or vice-versa?

Could be. I can't open the file to look, not sure what application to install for a .stl files. First time trying 3D printing option.

 

[mudder]

Your library's 3D printer probably isn't going to be good enough. You need an SLS machine, whereas most 'library' printers at FDM. It could be made to work, but would probably require manual sanding. Part is almost certainly in mm; I do everything using the metric system.

 

[Hybrrrr]

My library printed switch with the file from thingiverse.com
Will see later how it works.
Cost $1

Will this be an option for both switches or just for the driver window? The small one is also limp and doesn't work at all.

 

[S Keith]

My library printed switch with the file from thingiverse.com
Will see later how it works.
Cost $1

Will this be an option for both switches or just for the driver window? The small one is also limp and doesn't work at all.

Passenger side only.

Given the visual appearance of those prints, I'm extremely dubious that they'll work.

 

[mudder]

IIRC, this 3DP physible is only for the driver side switch. But yes, otherwise I agree with @S Keith: The print quality is dubious, and even if that printer could be made to work, the print direction will make the shown physible very weak. You really need to print this part on an SLS printer, flat on it's broad side.

 

[DaveF]

For those, like me, looking for an easy buy & install process, this post is (will be) for you. There are two parts:
I - the basics: buy this here.
II - Thread Summary - more detail and history

I - the basics: buy this here.
3D printing file (thx Mudder): View attachment Insight Window Switch.zip The file is in mm.
Get it printed here: 3D Printing Service Online (shapeways . com)
("You need an SLS machine, whereas most 'library' printers at FDM.")
Install it using this video to remove the dash and this video to install your new parts.
The original post is here.

II - Summary - more detail and history
Mudder comments:
"ABS parts"
"FYI: Parts printed in PLA won't hold up to the heat/UV."

"The best prints I've seen are done using an SLA printer, such as Formlab's Form2 printer. Note that the SLA process is UV sensitive, so you'll want to block light from hitting SLA 3DP parts... the simplest method is to paint the part black wherever it's exposed to light (i.e. where the "auto" text is written on the OEM unit)."

"I recommend an SLA print using clear resin, so the OEM light pipe still works (e.g. a Formlabs Form2 or equivalent). Even at QTY20, the unit cost is $20.70 from makeXYZ.com (using a clear SLA resin)."

" For reference, I printed the parts I used to sell on a Stratasys Dimension Elite."

Sigma Products comments:
"Frosted is what you want, you can polish the end to make it really clear and shiny."
"Was able to get the light pipe made in frosted clear and the spring detent body in basic strong white for under $7.50 shipped from shapeways with the free first order shipping."

kraftswerksfit comments:
"Was able to get the light pipe made in frosted clear and the spring detent body in basic strong white for under $7.50 shipped from shapeways.com with the free first order shipping."

insightbuyer comments:
"Here are the sizes I used in shape ways after switching the mm to inches.
Light Pipe X 30.95 mm Y 13.13 mm Z 6.35 mm?
The spring detent is coming up at X 4.57 mm Y 8.38 mm Z 13.62 mm. This didn't need converting."

"My 3d window switch parts I ordered works.
The auto down feature works. Not sure why people had trouble.
The light shines though mine also.
Ordered parts through shape ways and everything works.
It could be possible that I only replaced the light pipe as that was the only thing broken on mine.
I did not replace the spring detent body, I kept the tiny white honda plastic one as it was not broken and figured why replace it as the 3d printed detent body seemed loose and didn't snap into place. I figured this may be the reason why people are having trouble with the auto down. Who knows, but I know my auto down doesn't work and I didn't replace the spring detent.
That being said I would just replace the light pipe if that is all that is broken and the stock white spring detent seems fine, this way your auto down may still work."

"I would get the light pipe in the Smoothest Fine Detail Plastic if you want it to be clear."

 

[rodhower]

For those, like me, looking for an easy buy & install process, this post is (will be) for you. There are two parts:
I - the basics: buy this here.
II - Thread Summary - more detail and history

I - the basics: buy this here.
3D printing file (thx Mudder): View attachment Insight Window Switch.zip The file is in mm.
Get it printed here: 3D Printing Service Online (shapeways . com)
("You need an SLS machine, whereas most 'library' printers at FDM.")
Install it using this video to remove the dash and this video to install your new parts.
The original post is here.

II - Summary - more detail and history
Mudder comments:
"ABS parts"
"FYI: Parts printed in PLA won't hold up to the heat/UV."

"The best prints I've seen are done using an SLA printer, such as Formlab's Form2 printer. Note that the SLA process is UV sensitive, so you'll want to block light from hitting SLA 3DP parts... the simplest method is to paint the part black wherever it's exposed to light (i.e. where the "auto" text is written on the OEM unit)."

"I recommend an SLA print using clear resin, so the OEM light pipe still works (e.g. a Formlabs Form2 or equivalent). Even at QTY20, the unit cost is $20.70 from makeXYZ.com (using a clear SLA resin)."

" For reference, I printed the parts I used to sell on a Stratasys Dimension Elite."

Sigma Products comments:
"Frosted is what you want, you can polish the end to make it really clear and shiny."
"Was able to get the light pipe made in frosted clear and the spring detent body in basic strong white for under $7.50 shipped from shapeways with the free first order shipping."

kraftswerksfit comments:
"Was able to get the light pipe made in frosted clear and the spring detent body in basic strong white for under $7.50 shipped from shapeways.com with the free first order shipping."

insightbuyer comments:
"Here are the sizes I used in shape ways after switching the mm to inches.
Light Pipe X 30.95 mm Y 13.13 mm Z 6.35 mm?
The spring detent is coming up at X 4.57 mm Y 8.38 mm Z 13.62 mm. This didn't need converting."

"My 3d window switch parts I ordered works.
The auto down feature works. Not sure why people had trouble.
The light shines though mine also.
Ordered parts through shape ways and everything works.
It could be possible that I only replaced the light pipe as that was the only thing broken on mine.
I did not replace the spring detent body, I kept the tiny white honda plastic one as it was not broken and figured why replace it as the 3d printed detent body seemed loose and didn't snap into place. I figured this may be the reason why people are having trouble with the auto down. Who knows, but I know my auto down doesn't work and I didn't replace the spring detent.
That being said I would just replace the light pipe if that is all that is broken and the stock white spring detent seems fine, this way your auto down may still work."

"I would get the light pipe in the Smoothest Fine Detail Plastic if you want it to be clear."

I had one of our designers at work print these parts up on our Stratasys F370 using the ABS with Carbon Fiber. You had mentioned somewhere not to use the Carbon Fiber, just wondering why?

 

[jeffffej]

Old thread but for anyone reading, user Micah Peterson on the G1 Facebook group sells a kit of the 4 printed pieces for $45 - you get a new switch body, light pipe, "AUTO" faceplate, and improved saddle. I installed them today and have a working switch again after mine broke not long ago. If you don't want to disassemble and rebuild the switch, he also offers a return-and-repair option if you send him a core.

John's video instructions in post #1 work perfectly all these years later.

The group is called North American G1 Insighters.