Extending the Courtesy Light Circuit

[Aussie Frontier]

Ok something a bit out in left field
I have installed a set of LEDs that act as Park, Indicator and courtesy lights on the side of the truck down under the sills
Park and Indicator all good to go but as to the courtesy light I have a bit of an issue. The new lights have pos connections for the Park ,Indicator and the Courtesy lights plus a single earth .
Down side is the Courtesy lights have a constant pos and a switched neg.
Thinking about using a Solid State relay to basically convert the neg switching to pos switching
I know Ill loose the dimming on the exterior courtesy lights and they will either be on or off but thats nothing to worry about
My question is will it work?

This is what I was going to use

 

[bods]

What does the bem output to the current interior light? I'd have thought the light socket in the ceiling would be grounded and get a positive feed from the bem, for the dimming function too...

If you can find that wire and tap into it you will be sorted... then the dimming function should still work too...

 

[Aussie Frontier]

I pulled the fitting down this morning and it has a single pos and 2 x negs ( 1 for maunual operation of the lights and 1 for the open door feature )
The pos is constant and the neg from the door appears to be switched

 

[bods]

Well that's a pita....

Oh well, what you said earlier will work. Put 12v in on the trigger and output sides (the same wire will do, just double up on 1 terminal), neg on the trigger side into somewhere on the door switch wire and output to the new light...

That way they will only come on when you have a door open...

 

[Aussie Frontier]

Yeah i was thinking run a switched neg from the console light and run that through to the SSR .The pos to the SSR from the lighting circuit so when the light comes on it will switch the relay on.Then just run the switched pos from the SSR to the new lights.
Main reason for using an SSR rather than a normal relay is the fact that I dont want the BEM to see the relay and I figure a SSR should do the trick

 

[bods]

Even if you run new constant 12v wiring to the relay it won't "turn on" until you open the door anyway as it won't have a ground. Depends where you want to put the relay though, but it does sound like you're on the right track

 

[bods]

Just out of interest does the bem turn the interior light on when you unlock the car or only when you open one of the doors?

 

[Aussie Frontier]

As soon as you unlock the door or shut off the engine it turns on the interior lights so its definately the BEM supplying the gnd to the console lights

 

[Old.Tony]

In my 2009 the BCM turns on the interior lights when I unlock the car. Interior lights also come on when you turn the ignition off (without opening a door).

Current draw on a typical 12V relay is minimal, I think the Bosch SPST ones pull about 0.16A. I suspect the BCM would ignore such a small draw, there's probably some built-in safeguard for bulb variances.

 

[Aussie Frontier]

I installed some gear ages ago using the power from the center console outlet. just the fact a relay was connected somehow disabled central locking. So since that day I have always tried to do whatever it took to stay away from anything the BCM could see
I dare say I can always just connect a simple relay and see what it does .......

 

[bods]

Yeah I'd give that a crack to start with.
If everything works as normal then hook it up and bobs your aunty...

 

[Aussie Frontier]

Yeah just not sure how its going to go when it dimms out. the normal relay is a 12volt coil so might get funny at lower voltage. Where the SSR is anything from 3volts to 30volts
Ah well am sure ill find out tomorrow lol

 

[Aussie Frontier]

Ok yes it works with just a normal relay but the relay doesnt like it until the voltage reaches 12v ( just chatters ).With the SSR that I have ordered hopefully it wont be as bad as it switches at 3 volts

 

[bods]

Nice.. sounds like it will work well with that one then...

 

[Aussie Frontier]

Yeah just have to wait for the slow boat from China to bring me the SSR lol. Cant find anything here in Aus
Was thinking maybe a 12v regulator would work too . As in wouldnt switch over till the voltage reached 12v or close

 

[bods]

Good old china hey...

I'm waiting for an obd cable from there to see if it will let me have a play with the ecu...

Takes a while hey. Lol...
Oh well, hopefully it works as planned. Got any pics of the lights?

 

[Aussie Frontier]

Well the parts arrived so I now have 1 SSR driven by the courtesy lights and that drives 2 SSR to switch the actual bars.I connected the main SSRdriver to the 2 slave SSR drivers via diodes and then connected a strobe controller as well.

[YT]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wp7SekJZmyY&list=UUpFBD4f5q0yWlgvdZM7H7cg[/YT]

 

[bods]

Dunno if it's just me, but your pic isn't working.. :/

 

[Aussie Frontier]

How about now
[YT]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wp7SekJZmyY[/YT]

 

[75 GRC]

Hey Aussie,
How much in total did the light system cost you???

Looks bloody awesome.
Was thinking of running a LED strip either side just as courtesy lights.but that looks so much nicer.

Cheers Geoff Go the V-6's