aux lights to dome light/unlock

[decker1]

Hey guys cant seem to find this answer so here it goes. I have some green led strips i want to add to the grill/hood scoop to give it some accent lighting. However i want it to activate when I unlock the car as well as when the dome light is on. I figure adding it to the dome light fuse would do this, however i dont want to blow the fuse. Anyone have any suggestions?

 

[morphious]

Use a Relay.

 

[decker1]

what kind of relay? where would it go?

 

[zopperman]

what kind of relay? where would it go?

yeah tap the fuse for + and use that as your relay trigger.

a standard auto relay (4 pin SPST) should do it. use a 5 pine if you want to add another constant trigger

 

[decker1]

Ok so if I understand it a relay will trigger the power that comes straight from the battery to actually power the LEDs. It doesn't draw from the swith itself. Does it give an relative amount of power for what is actually going to the dome lights? Another words, would the new LEDs dim on like the dome light does?

 

[morphious]

Not sure the relay will give you the dimming effect. You could swap your interior domes to leds which should drop the amp draw and add the ones you want without a relay to achieve the dimming effect while maintaining the total overall amp draw. This is just a thought but I would measure everything with a volt meter before committing to it.

 

[J.A.]

Hey guys cant seem to find this answer so here it goes. I have some green led strips i want to add to the grill/hood scoop to give it some accent lighting. However i want it to activate when I unlock the car as well as when the dome light is on. I figure adding it to the dome light fuse would do this, however i dont want to blow the fuse. Anyone have any suggestions?

A few low power leds in the scoop will not draw enough power to overload that circuit. And as the pervious poster said, you can change the domes over to leds to be extra sure. Use my footwell circuit but rather than footwells, run the wires out to your scoop. The leds will fade in and out just as the factory dome lights do.

Toyota 4Runner Footwell Led Lighting Mod

 

[A/V1]

Simply running the power from the door lamp fuse is not going to get the LEDs to come on and off with the dome lamps, if I'm understanding you right - that that is what you want to do, right???

If you wire it this way, the LEDs will actually be on constantly - 24/7. You can power them from that fuse, or circuit, however, the dimming affect will come from how it's grounded. The body ECU is actually what controls this.

I've included a diagram of the interior lighting circuit. Pin 13 (ILE) is the wire you would tap into. I tapped into this when I did my Lexus overhead mod, and footwell mod. It works great. I'll try to get a pic of the ECU so you have an idea where it is and what color wire to look for.

Cheers

 

[decker1]

This is great news, so the ground controls the dim. Fantastic!
Oh and to J.A Thankyou for that suggestion. I have already thrown LEDs in the dome lights but since I am runnin strips in the scoop I am concerned that the draw will be too much. Thanks for the help guys I will post pics when I am done

Simply running the power from the door lamp fuse is not going to get the LEDs to come on and off with the dome lamps, if I'm understanding you right - that that is what you want to do, right???

If you wire it this way, the LEDs will actually be on constantly - 24/7. You can power them from that fuse, or circuit, however, the dimming affect will come from how it's grounded. The body ECU is actually what controls this.

I've included a diagram of the interior lighting circuit. Pin 13 (ILE) is the wire you would tap into. I tapped into this when I did my Lexus overhead mod, and footwell mod. It works great. I'll try to get a pic of the ECU so you have an idea where it is and what color wire to look for.

Cheers

 

[earthrealm]

pics of the finished work....or it didnt happen!!!

 

[decker1]

Complete

So interesting thing. When i was using a test LED i got the LED to dim in and out with the car locking and unlocking. That was the negative wire. Im not sure what changed, but after hours of not getting the strip to work and blowing the 10Amp fuse, I finally realized the wire in question was positive. So after wiring my LEDs to the positive and ground straight to the battery.
However it doesnt dim like its supposed to. It does however turn off about 5 seconds after locking the truck. Just straight off and on no dim. So for the moment I am satisifed. My
The color looks teal in the pic but rest assured its green. My only other bother is that now I can see my radiator parts lol. This just screems the need for a satoshi. Who wants to help???

also attached another pic of the badboy in Ocatillo, Socal.