Fog Light Dimmer Exerience?

[Aengis]

Has anyone had any experience using either one of these dimmers on their aftermarket fog lights? Seems like a good idea to help make off road lights street legal. Just not sure if it's practical.

Skene Design Motorcycle Visibility Lights

https://extremeledlightbars.com/smart-dimmer-for-led-lights

 

[jkaylen]

Baja Designs Squadron Fog Lights – Dimmer Install!

I love my lights, but they are too bright for me to use if other cars are on the road (yes, I realize the DOT standards are more about the lens, but I figure if they are dim enough, I can use as DRL’s and at half power use as fogs when needed). I wanted a solutions where:
1. I can use my factory fog light switch and get low light levels
2. I can turn on my fog lights without having to turn on my lows
3. I can turn on full brightness

I think some of the intelligent switch controllers can do this, but I like the simplicity of my bussmann relay system that I’ve built.

I wired up a Skene IQ-275 and got the results I was looking for, with only one issue: when the fogs are initially activated (but not when brightness levels change), the lights start low for a few seconds and then blink three times). I wish I could get rid of that, but so long as you run them as DRL and then activate the different brightness levels, you won’t notice it.

So now I can use my factory fog switch, plus two AOB switches, to control the level of my fogs. Read on to find out how.

Parts Required

• Skene IQ-257
• 2 2-wire connectors
• 1 1-wire connector
• Baja Design Squadrons and Fog Mount Kit (I got mine from Rago Fabrication)
• Wire (I used 2-wire 18 gauge to run from the switches to the controller and 16 gauge for the power and ground)
• 3 Diodes (I use 1N4004, rated for 1A, which is more than enough)

Instructions
I won’t cover the full install, as there are lots of videos on that already, I’ll just cover the electrical.

1. On the controller, cut the red, yellow, and white wires, leaving about 3 inches on the white and the yellow and 2 on the red
2. Taking the cut white, yellow, and red wires, cut off 4” and strip one side. Strip one side on the longer leftover pieces
3. Solder the diodes in, connecting the short and long piece for each of the three colors. For all three, have the stripped side of the diode towards the short side. This makes each of these wires one way, allowing current to flow from long to short, but not short to long.

4. Connect the black wire on the controller (ground) to a 2-wire connector and the violet and orange (non-stripped) to the other wire on the 2-wire connector (positive)
5. Shorten the long ends of the yellow and white wire diode setups to as short as you feel comfortable soldering and strip. For both the white and yellow wires, solder one wire from the 2-wire connector to both the newly shortened side of the diode connector and the corresponding colored wire on the controller.
6. Solder the yellow and white wires (coming from the diode, attached to the 2-wire connector) to both the red wire coming from the controller AND the short end of the red wire diode setup, a total of four wires.
7. Take one of the two wire connector sets from the Baja Designs Fog Mount Kit and cut the brown wire. Attach the free end of the red wire to the female connector side and the free end of the violet/white wire to the male side of the brown wire.
8. Connect the one wire connector to the orange/white wire
9. Take other two wire connector sets from the Baja Designs Fog Mount Kit and cut the brown wire. Tape off the female connector side of the brown wire and then solder a length of 16 gauge wire to it (6 feet is more than enough)
10. Install the passenger side fog light, using the connector with the newly added 6 foot wire. Run that wire in front of the radiator and bring it close to the driver side fog light. Solder the one-wire connector to it.
11. Zip tie/tape up the controller close to the driver fog light. Connect the one-wire connector coming from the passenger light. Connect up the two wire connector set from Baja to the driver side fog light.
12. Bring in positive & negative to the correct two-wire connector you added to the controller
13. Use the 2-wire 18 gauge wire to connect two switches (positive) to the other 2 wire connector on the controller.

 

[jkaylen]

I have not yet been flashed running them at 20% at night. Next test will be running them at 50% at night. I am fairly confident I will get flashed at 100% and would prefer to avoid the ticket!! Since the Skene is Programmable, I'll experiment to find out what levels work best for the three switches (the factory plus the two I added).

A fancy spod would be easier I guess...I just like having all of my physical switches.

 

[ElectroBoy]

I have not yet been flashed running them at 20% at night. Next test will be running them at 50% at night. I am fairly confident I will get flashed at 100% and would prefer to avoid the ticket!! Since the Skene is Programmable, I'll experiment to find out what levels work best for the three switches (the factory plus the two I added).

A fancy spod would be easier I guess...I just like having all of my physical switches.

With all due respect, why are you putting so much effort into your fog lights?
Have you reviewed the Daniel Stern article about the effectiveness of fog lights?
Daniel Stern Lighting Consultancy and Supply

Excepts:
“...fog lamps are meant to be used in heavy fog, rain, or snow to help the driver see the edges of the road close to the car so s/he can safely make progress through foul weather at very low speeds. That is all these lamps are designed, intended, and able to do, and most of the ones available as factory or optional equipment or in the aftermarket aren't even capable of doing that...”

“Fog lamps of any type should not be used in dry weather. Leaving the fog lamps on at all times does not actually improve the lighting safety performance or the driver's ability to see, though many people do so in the mistaken belief that they can see better this way at normal road speeds in dry weather. In fact, a systematic study done by one of North America's preëminent traffic safety research institutes shows that in the United States more people inappropriately use their front fog lamps in dry weather than use them properly in poor weather.”

“If the road is wet or slick with ice, but there's no falling precipitation or fog, fog lamps should be used with discretion. Their extra downward light can help compensate for the tendency of water to "soak up" the light on the road from your headlamps. But, this extra downward light hitting a road surface shiny with water or ice will also create high levels of reflected glare for other drivers. Since we're all "other drivers" to everybody else on the road, it's well to think of roadway safety as a cooperative effort. In most driving situations, fog lamps are neither useful nor necessary, but—back to that study linked above—more people use their fog lamps when the prevailing conditions don't call for their use, than use them when the conditions do call for their use. Fact is, it's not helping you, and nobody thinks your car is cool because it has fog lamps, and glare is dangerous, so do yourself and everyone a favor: choose them carefully, aim them properly, use them thoughtfully and sparingly, and leave them off except when they're genuinely necessary.”

 

[jkaylen]

Good info, thanks Electroboy, thanks!

IMO: If you have to start a sentence with "All due respect" or "no offense", probably best unsaid. This is a hobby truck for me and I feel most comfortable with electrical projects, so that's what I play with. But point taken on some of the mods are jumping the shark.