Really depressed, need electrical help for LED mod!

Jp7 · Jun 27, 2009, 11:02 AM

I am trying to wire in puddle lights under the doors of my IX. Everything was going perfect until I noticed that the car is wired that it does not know which door is opened when a door is opened.

For example. If you put a multimeter between ground, and the switched side of the door ajar switch (lets say you use the RF door).

With the door closed the circuit is open, the meter reads about 12V
With the door open the circuit is closed, the meter reads 0V

The problem is you can hook the meter to say the RF door, and open the LF door, and the meter still acts like the door is open or closed when the LF door opens or closes.

This leads me to think that all 4 doors are in parallel and they are not wired independently (which sucks)

On my Ford Ranger I did this mod and the doors were wired independently so all I had to do is hook transistors on each set of wires for independently operating puddle lamps on each door.

So if I did this mod on the Evo, they would all be on (all 4 doors) if I open even just 1 door. I think this is kinda lame, can anybody help with this?

LED Curt, thought you could help, tried calling you a number of times...

06WWMR · Jun 28, 2009, 12:35 PM

To be honest I've never messed with the door ajar stuff, but I think thats a cool idea. To me, it sounds like the easiest way to do this would be to add a microswitch on each door and make 4 separate circuits for each door/puddle light combo Since the puddle lights are led's, you could wire the power to go right through the microswitch, it would be a very simple circuit. I can draw you up a quick diagram to show you what I'm talking about but, by the sounds of it, you have enough knowledge to figure it out already. Let me know the outcome, or shoot me a pm if you need more help/ideas. Goodluck.

Jp7 · Jun 28, 2009, 01:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 06WWMR

To be honest I've never messed with the door ajar stuff, but I think thats a cool idea. To me, it sounds like the easiest way to do this would be to add a microswitch on each door and make 4 separate circuits for each door/puddle light combo Since the puddle lights are led's, you could wire the power to go right through the microswitch, it would be a very simple circuit. I can draw you up a quick diagram to show you what I'm talking about but, by the sounds of it, you have enough knowledge to figure it out already. Let me know the outcome, or shoot me a pm if you need more help/ideas. Goodluck.

Actually I solved the problem.

When the car sees one door open, it dosent know which door is open.

To correct this I simply diode isolated between the signal I was using into my transistors and the signal going back to the 12V source. This way when door "A" is opened it supplies ground to all 4 because the switches are in parallel. I cut the signal wires providing the 12V and hooked the base leg of my transistor to the striped side of the diode, preventing feedback from other doors getting into the base for those doors. This method requires 4 transistors, and 4 diodes (one for each door duh lol)

It works perfect so far and I just got the car trimmed up after working on it for 40-50 hours to do all of this (along with adding ambient lighting in my front door panel pockets)

I will do a pictures thread tonight.

Jp7 · Jun 28, 2009, 04:33 PM

I don't mean to sound like a jerk, but come on.. there has to be some of you out there that could have figured that out before me. I'm a total n00b when it comes to electrical. Maybe I'm the only one around here like this, but when I see a thread titled "help" or "problem" or "I can't figure this out", I always read and try to help if I can, because I know what it is to be like in that persons shoes. Most of the point of a forum like this is to collectively solve problems based off of the collective engineering knowledge of the users. If people don't help, what's the point?

Jp7 · Jun 28, 2009, 04:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 06WWMR

To be honest I've never messed with the door ajar stuff, but I think thats a cool idea. To me, it sounds like the easiest way to do this would be to add a microswitch on each door and make 4 separate circuits for each door/puddle light combo Since the puddle lights are led's, you could wire the power to go right through the microswitch, it would be a very simple circuit. I can draw you up a quick diagram to show you what I'm talking about but, by the sounds of it, you have enough knowledge to figure it out already. Let me know the outcome, or shoot me a pm if you need more help/ideas. Goodluck.

BTW, thanks for your suggestions, but adding in additional switches was always out of the question mainly for the fact I can't imaging doing a mod which required modifications to the body like that. Putting switches in new holes that you've just made is really scary, from an erosion & sealing point of view.

Oh, and if you want to do this mod, and have a bit of free time for it, I'll provide a "how to" in order to help the whole site out: watch my threads.

06WWMR · Jul 16, 2009, 06:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jp7

BTW, thanks for your suggestions, but adding in additional switches was always out of the question mainly for the fact I can't imaging doing a mod which required modifications to the body like that. Putting switches in new holes that you've just made is really scary, from an erosion & sealing point of view.

Oh, and if you want to do this mod, and have a bit of free time for it, I'll provide a "how to" in order to help the whole site out: watch my threads.

Not a problem. I always try to help if I can. I love screwing with electrical stuff. To be honest I havn't worked with transistors at all, although I do know how they work. Glad to hear you got your mod working. I would do a write up on it anyways, if you have time that is. I'm sure someone will find this useful.