Linking headlights to interior light

[Meir]

just because i don't like threads that don't end
i just got today the parts i order from fleebay (under a month from china is not bad).



the big board is the timer, that has a NO/NC 30Amp relay.
so i can connect it directly to the fog light wires.
the small board is the photoelectric sensor that will control the timer.
so basically it is going to be connected to the interior lights, and will trigger the timer only when it's dark. the lights will stay on (after i lock the car) for 10 seconds or any other settings i will put in the timer.

so before i start i want to modify the components, and check the power consumption.
if it will be within reasonable values, i will install it.
will keep you posted when i make any progress.

[geraintthomas]

Well that's complicated lol!

I just wanted them to come on and off with the courtesy light lol. Going back to the original question, would that be easy to do? Rather than adding timers and photoelectric sensors? Literally just want the headlights (or parking lights) to mimic the courtesy lights.

Going back to basics: would a 12v feed with a diode from the courtesy lights to the side lights work? So that when the courtesy light turns on, the sidelights turn on, but when the sidelights are manually turned on, it doesn't turn the courtesy lights on.

If that works, that's literally all I originally wanted the only thing I'd need to know is the wattage of the diode. It would be a 12v diode, but what wattage?

[particlewave]

Originally Posted by geraintthomas

Well that's complicated lol!

I just wanted them to come on and off with the courtesy light lol. Going back to the original question, would that be easy to do? Rather than adding timers and photoelectric sensors? Literally just want the headlights (or parking lights) to mimic the courtesy lights.

Going back to basics: would a 12v feed with a diode from the courtesy lights to the side lights work? So that when the courtesy light turns on, the sidelights turn on, but when the sidelights are manually turned on, it doesn't turn the courtesy lights on.

If that works, that's literally all I originally wanted the only thing I'd need to know is the wattage of the diode. It would be a 12v diode, but what wattage?

Unfortunately, it's not that simple due to the side lights being positive voltage actuated and the courtesy lights being negative ground actuated. The circuit I posted won't work, either. You're not going to find a diode big enough. I was rushing.
You would need to use microcontrollers and relays like Meir is doing.

[geraintthomas]

Originally Posted by particlewave

Unfortunately, it's not the simple due to the side lights being positive voltage actuated and the courtesy lights being negative ground actuated. You'd need the diode relay setup that I posted for you.
That's still fairly simple, though. Just use a big a$$ diode to ensure it doesn't break down and cause issues. Forward voltage 20V or more, breakdown (reverse) voltage good and high (30-50V or something).

Watts = volts x amps, so just check the fuse amperage for the circuit you use the diode on and multiply x 15V.

Totally forgot about that relay! That's what I'll have to do

But I'll admit, got quite confused by how you work out the wattage. So, would it be 12v multiply by the amps of the sidelight fuse? :/

[Meir]

Originally Posted by geraintthomas

Well that's complicated lol!

I just wanted them to come on and off with the courtesy light lol. Going back to the original question, would that be easy to do? Rather than adding timers and photoelectric sensors? Literally just want the headlights (or parking lights) to mimic the courtesy lights.

Going back to basics: would a 12v feed with a diode from the courtesy lights to the side lights work? So that when the courtesy light turns on, the sidelights turn on, but when the sidelights are manually turned on, it doesn't turn the courtesy lights on.

If that works, that's literally all I originally wanted the only thing I'd need to know is the wattage of the diode. It would be a 12v diode, but what wattage?

LOL!
no the whole timer and light sensor is my flavor for the idea that you got (and i like).
but you will need a 30 amp (at minimum) relay. two if you want to connect to the runing lights.
when i get to it, i'm going to connect to the fog lights, but will show also the connection to the running light.
just one clarification needed. when you say corner lights, are you referring to the parking lights?

[Meir]

just so we all use the same terms.



so witch one you were thinking to link?

[particlewave]

See my edit. It won't work because you're not going to find a diode big enough. It's late here and my brain is shutting down, lol

[geraintthomas]

Damn it. So there's literally no quick way of doing it?

[geraintthomas]

Parking lights with courtesy lights. When the courtesy lights come on, I wanted the parking lights come on too, so that your tail lights, number plate lights and front parking lights illuminate. But I wouldn't want the switch to turn on the courtesy lights if I switch it to the parking lights position, if you see what I mean. So a diode would be needed.

I just thought "Oh! I'll just bridge the 12v from the courtesy light feed to the parking light feed with a diode, so the parking lights don't switch on the courtesy lights, but the courtesy lights do turn on the parking lights whenever the courtesy light is on". But as particlewave said, the courtesy lights have a switched ground, whereas the parking lights have a switched positive. If they were both the same, it would be that easy.

I thought about jumping the fuses but, there's a separate fuse for each bloody bulb. So that wouldn't work either.

[RichRobby]

Originally Posted by geraintthomas

Parking lights with courtesy lights. When the courtesy lights come on, I wanted the parking lights come on too, so that your tail lights, number plate lights and front parking lights illuminate. But I wouldn't want the switch to turn on the courtesy lights if I switch it to the parking lights position, if you see what I mean. So a diode would be needed.

I just thought "Oh! I'll just bridge the 12v from the courtesy light feed to the parking light feed with a diode, so the parking lights don't switch on the courtesy lights, but the courtesy lights do turn on the parking lights whenever the courtesy light is on". But as particlewave said, the courtesy lights have a switched ground, whereas the parking lights have a switched positive. If they were both the same, it would be that easy.

I thought about jumping the fuses but, there's a separate fuse for each bloody bulb. So that wouldn't work either.

Ger.

I believe you have your new DRL's wired to your parking lights. Having them come on with the courtesy light would be great but have you got a hack where they come on automatically with the ignition?
Seems there is a hack for the foglights to come on as automatic DRL's but could do with a hack for parking / sidelights to come on in this instance.

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[geraintthomas]

Originally Posted by RichRobby

Ger.

I believe you have your new DRL's wired to your parking lights. Having them come on with the courtesy light would be great but have you got a hack where they come on automatically with the ignition?
Seems there is a hack for the foglights to come on as automatic DRL's but could do with a hack for parking / sidelights to come on in this instance.

Sent from my ONE A2003 using Tapatalk

Probably going to do that anyway with the DRL's, but that's not a massive bother for me. It's having them come on when I unlock the car, that's what I'd love. The DRL's are very powerful and light up the road quite well, so they'd also serve a purpose when walking back to the car in the night.

[RichRobby]

Originally Posted by geraintthomas

Probably going to do that anyway with the DRL's, but that's not a massive bother for me. It's having them come on when I unlock the car, that's what I'd love. The DRL's are very powerful and light up the road quite well, so they'd also serve a purpose when walking back to the car in the night.

Yes, I realised that. Can they be tripped on by anything to do with the central locking?

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[geraintthomas]

Originally Posted by RichRobby

Yes, I realised that. Can they be tripped on by anything to do with the central locking?

Sent from my ONE A2003 using Tapatalk

Had an idea (post I just made above), but if the car's unlocked, the courtesy light can turn off to save the car's battery. If you wire them up to the central locking, the lights would permanently stay on for as long as the car is unlocked, which wouldn't be good.

Just trying to figure out if there's a way to wire a relay so that if one pin gets a current (in this case, the courtesy light's ground), then it can switch on another one of its pins (a 12v feed to the sidelights). That's all I'm after, a way to wire that up. It probably sounds easier than to actually do it and it may not be possible, but that's why I started the thread as good as it is, I'm not really after any special light sensors and timers. Just a way to make this work.

[geraintthomas]

Anyway - It's a good project that you're doing with the photometric sensor and all, and I'd be keen to see it work, but for now and for the purpose of the original question and the reason for the thread - is there any way to just simply wire up the parking lights to the courtesy lights?

Even with the use of a 5 pin relay, for example? That's literally all I'd want at the moment - I didn't expect this to get carried away into photometric sensors that leave lights on for 10 seconds after the car is turned off etc etc. Like I said, I massively appreciate it and it sounds amazing (and be sure to show us when you're done), but I'm just interested in turning the parking lights on when the courtesy lights come on.

So is there a way to do this with a simple bit of wiring and relays? This is me talking off the top of my head and probably absolute rubbish, but could the courtesy light's ground wire be wired into a relay, that when given a current, tells the relay to send power to one of its pins, which is the 12v feed for the sidelights? That may not make sense, but it's something like that which I'm thinking of.

Is that not possible?

[RichRobby]

I see that there are relays with timers built in. Would this work

http://www.12voltplanet.co.uk/12v-universal-interior-light-delay-timer-relay-10-sec-delay.html


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[geraintthomas]

No need - the point of the courtesy lights is that, when you open the door in the night, they turn on also. So it kind of needs to be the courtesy lights.

[RichRobby]

I also see that you can convert from positive to negative here

Does this help - I know I am clueless here, just trying to throw in ideas

http://www.the12volt.com/relays/page1.asp

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[geraintthomas]

That actually looks really promising.

ParticleWave, Meir, what do you think? Using a relay in the configuration posted in the link above?

Again, just trying to get the parking lights turn on when the courtesy lights do. No sensors or timers that's all I'm after.

[Meir]

Originally Posted by geraintthomas

Anyway - It's a good project that you're doing with the photometric sensor and all, and I'd be keen to see it work, but for now and for the purpose of the original question and the reason for the thread - is there any way to just simply wire up the parking lights to the courtesy lights?

Even with the use of a 5 pin relay, for example? That's literally all I'd want at the moment - I didn't expect this to get carried away into photometric sensors that leave lights on for 10 seconds after the car is turned off etc etc. Like I said, I massively appreciate it and it sounds amazing (and be sure to show us when you're done), but I'm just interested in turning the parking lights on when the courtesy lights come on.

So is there a way to do this with a simple bit of wiring and relays? This is me talking off the top of my head and probably absolute rubbish, but could the courtesy light's ground wire be wired into a relay, that when given a current, tells the relay to send power to one of its pins, which is the 12v feed for the sidelights? That may not make sense, but it's something like that which I'm thinking of.

Is that not possible?

the short answer to your question is yes.

Originally Posted by geraintthomas

That actually looks really promising.

ParticleWave, Meir, what do you think? Using a relay in the configuration posted in the link above?

Again, just trying to get the parking lights turn on when the courtesy lights do. No sensors or timers that's all I'm after.

First I need to correct PW. As I mentioned in one of my previous posts, the courtesy light trigger is positive.
With that said, it doesn’t really matter.
Once you use a relay (and you must in this case) the polarity of the trigger is irrelevant.
You just need to connect the other side of the solenoid to the opposite polarity.
The solenoids is like a bulb, it will work once it gets positive and ground in the two poles, and it doesn’t matter which pole gets which polarity. (I hope I’m not confusing too much)
If you guys a really interested to understand how a relay works, let me know and I’ll make a short video.
Back to the car.
In our case, we will need to use two relays due to the fact that the lights system is divided to left and right. You have two wires coming out of the switch, and two fuses on the fuse box. So each line needs a relay.
I was working a bit on my car this weekend, completing the installation of an “in dash” in garage opener, and started working on the electrical system of my home made PSE.
So I looked around a little bit, and it looks like the easy way to accomplish this mode, will be doing it behind the light switch. It is really simple project.
I promise to show in detailed how it’s done. I just need to find the time to do it.

[geraintthomas]

Originally Posted by Meir

the short answer to your question is yes.




First I need to correct PW. As I mentioned in one of my previous posts, the courtesy light trigger is positive.
With that said, it doesn’t really matter.
Once you use a relay (and you must in this case) the polarity of the trigger is irrelevant.
You just need to connect the other side of the solenoid to the opposite polarity.
The solenoids is like a bulb, it will work once it gets positive and ground in the two poles, and it doesn’t matter which pole gets which polarity. (I hope I’m not confusing too much)
If you guys a really interested to understand how a relay works, let me know and I’ll make a short video.
Back to the car.
In our case, we will need to use two relays due to the fact that the lights system is divided to left and right. You have two wires coming out of the switch, and two fuses on the fuse box. So each line needs a relay.
I was working a bit on my car this weekend, completing the installation of an “in dash” in garage opener, and started working on the electrical system of my home made PSE.
So I looked around a little bit, and it looks like the easy way to accomplish this mode, will be doing it behind the light switch. It is really simple project.
I promise to show in detailed how it’s done. I just need to find the time to do it.

You're a star.

With the courtesy lights and the parking lights both being 12v, I thought it didn't even need a relay.

I've got footwell lights that come on when the courtesy lights come on, and dimmer ones that come on when the parking lights are on (for ambient night driving). I would have thought that, if both parking and courtesy lights are triggered by positive, then you'd simply splice the two with a diode, so one can turn the other on, but not the other way around.

But, I know very little about electronics and there's probably a very simple explanation to why that doesn't work when you get it working, do tell!

I've also got bypass pipes, and would have loved electronic valves. The electrics aren't worrying me, it's what valves to use. They'd need to be small to fit in the space. What did you use?