Light electrical question

[DPhillips]

Will this work? These are led lights installed on the entry steps. Need to now if I can just run the wire from the a pillar to the left front step and have all 4 step lights come on when the door is open or if I need some kind of relay connected to my power source? power source is the 4 pole connection from rear bumper. I hope the diagram shows this. any help would be great. thanks in advance.

 

[Prairie Dog]

Exactly where are the positive and negative souces originating from?

 

[DPhillips]

Sorry if I didn't make it clear. I will try again.



the led lights are grounded to the entry steps. the positive power comes from the 4 pole connection at the rear bumper so when the parking/ headlights are on the led lights are on.



I located this on another thread from JD to Rob.



Hey Rob you need to go to the A pillar which is where we normally put our gauges and test for a yellow/lt blue or a yellow/orange wire. It will show positive when the doors are open. However I would use a relay to power the running board lights and use the trigger wire to activate the relay. I can tell you how to wire a relay if you dont know how to. The trigger wire is the feed that powers your interior light so whenever that light goes on the running board lights will go on. Hope this helps you, JD.



I want the led lights to come on when I open a door. JD suggested a relay is is needed?



Is this possible without some type of relay? If a relay is needed what type and how do I wire it.



Or can I just run the wire directly to the left front led light to power all 4 lights?

 

[bighammer]

Hopefully this will clear it up. You need a relay because you have a "trigger" wire from the A pillar and constant power from the rear. Your A pilar wire replaces the switched wire to the relay. The wire from the POS of the battery is replaced by your wire from the rear connector. Wire in your lights (instead of the 100W spotlights#ad
) and you should be in business.

 

[brista]

Sorry if I didn't make it clear. I will try again.



the led lights are grounded to the entry steps. the positive power comes from the 4 pole connection at the rear bumper so when the parking/ headlights are on the led lights are on.



I want the led lights to come on when I open a door. JD suggested a relay is is needed?



Is this possible without some type of relay? If a relay is needed what type and how do I wire it.



Or can I just run the wire directly to the left front led light to power all 4 lights?

If you do not utilize a relay from your dome light circuit, you will be energizing the dome light circuit with 12V whenever your tail/park lights are on as you are tapping the circuit after the door switch. With no relay on the circuit from the 4 pole plug you will also turn on your tail/parks when you open your door. You could use diodes on each circuit to allow power to run only the one direction but I wouldn't know where to send you to get that kind of diode. I would use 12V relays.



Find the wire that was suggested to you and use that as a trigger for a relay. A common 12V relay will have terminals labeled 30, 85, 86, 87a, and 87. Run fused 12V power to terminal 30, run your trigger wire to terminal 85, ground terminal 86, and run a wire from terminal 87 to your running board lights.



You also need to wire in relay from the 4-pole the same way, using the park light wire as a trigger.



When you are pulling power from two sources (for two different functions) you need to stop the power from energizing the circuit that is not wanted at the time. Relays will do this.



I can try to draw a schematic and send it to you if the above description is not clear as mud.

 

[brista]

hmmmm... bighammer and I posted at the same time, maybe I misunderstood but I think he wants the lights on the running boards to work whenever the park lights are on, and also to come on when opening up a door. bighammers instructions will turn on the led when the park/tail is on and the door is open.



If you only want the running board lights to come on when park lights are on and you open a door then use bighammers diagram as it is spot on for that application.

 

[bighammer]

hmmmm... bighammer and I posted at the same time, maybe I misunderstood but I think he wants the lights on the running boards to work whenever the park lights are on, and also to come on when opening up a door. bighammers instructions will turn on the led when the park/tail is on and the door is open.

If you only want the running board lights to come on when park lights are on and you open a door then use bighammers diagram as it is spot on for that application.

Maybe I did read it wrong. I thought they were like courtesy lights on the running boards that would only come on if the lights were on and a door was opened.

 

[brista]

Maybe I did read it wrong. I thought they were like courtesy lights on the running boards that would only come on if the lights were on and a door was opened.

Could be. . I read it again and I'm not sure what he is after... but either way he should be good to go.

 

[brista]

Here is what I had in mind. Sorry about the drawing.



#ad

 

[jelag]

Typically the switch at each door is a single wire that when the switch opens it grounds that wire... when that switch (wire) sees the ground it closes a relay that turns on the dome lights and any interior lights on the truck... . Today, this is done with a computer, so the computer sees the ground and turns on the lights... all the door switches are inputs to this computer... .



I'd open up a door panel, actually under the A-pillar or B-Pillar and tie into this circuit with a relay... using the ground side of the coil to energize the circuit... thus turning on the lights, or what ever the relay will run...

 

[DPhillips]

Thank all of you for the information. I think I will give them a try and see which one works the way I want it to. Again thank you all and I will post which one works so others that want to do this can.

 

[DPhillips]

I forgot that we have a master electrician at work. he said the way to do what i want to do is to use bighammer's diagram. I just hope I dont have the problem jelag describes...



"Typically the switch at each door is a single wire that when the switch opens it grounds that wire... when that switch (wire) sees the ground it closes a relay that turns on the dome lights and any interior lights on the truck... . Today, this is done with a computer, so the computer sees the ground and turns on the lights... all the door switches are inputs to this computer... .



I'd open up a door panel, actually under the A-pillar or B-Pillar and tie into this circuit with a relay... using the ground side of the coil to energize the circuit... thus turning on the lights, or what ever the relay will run... "



I hope I dont have to run wire from each door to get it done the way I want it to.



Thanks again for all the replys... Oo.

 

[bighammer]

I would guess the wire in the A pillar is the dome light. (or it would be easy enough to get to if it's not) By using that wire, when you hit the "unlock" on the remote, your steps would light up with the dome light.

 

[DPhillips]

Answers to questions I didn't even know I had

Well after getting very confused, probably due to me not being able to convey what I wanted to get done. I called my father-in-law, sent him the two different diagrams from bighammer and brista and explained to him what I was trying to get done. He reviewed the diagrams and said I have to go with the two-relay diagram as brista had stated.



Father-in-law said if I only use one relay my dome lights will come on and stay on when the park/tail lights are on. If I turn on the park/tail lights the dome light will come on and stay on.



With the two relay set up I only get one or the other, not both.



I found two very good sources of information while learning how to do this. www.12volt.com and www.classictruckshop.com/clubs/earlyburbs/projects/bosch/relay.htm



I got educated in closed and open circut, coils and magnets. whew! more than I wanted to know right now. I hope this helps others that dont already know how this stuff works.



Thank You again to those that replied to this post. That is one of the reason I am proud to be a member of the TDR.

 

[brista]

Glad to help... plus. . been there done that. . lol.

 

[DPhillips]

It works

I finished my LED light project just in time to watch the start of the Daytona 500 Oo. Heck of a race.



Brista and bighammer thank you again for your assistance. I apologize for not remembering the name of the TDR member that showed me the information about connecting to the wires for the doors. I got lucky and found a yellow with orange stripe under the dash to connect to that is activated when the doors are opened. His name is danavilla. Thanks.



I have posted pics of the completed install in my readers rig area along with other things I have installed on the truck over the last three years. Finally remembered to take the camera and take some photos.



Thanks again to the TDR and its members for the help. Hope it helps others trying the same or similar project. Next project is adding the rear bumper back up lights