Wiring advice

[Carbon]

I am looking to add some lighting in the footwell of my car.

The way I wanted it to work was this:

If you open the door, it would automatically turn on like the normal interior lights. If you turn off the switch for the doors, it would turn off also.

The difference I would like to add is a switch that turns them off altogether from the door opening closing switch. What I mean here is that if the switch is on for lights to come on, I could hit another switch that turns the footwell lights off.

Can this be done? Can someone suggest to me the best way to wire this.

Cheers in advance.

[V8 Calais]

Yeah I would just tap into the door switch and in that same line running to the door switch put a small toggle or push button switch so that you can turn it off when not required.

[BrAdAsS]

Yes it's possible. I have done it to my vx, Im not sure on ve though, but read on..

If it is anything like the vx bcm, thats a bad idea. The door pins are fed a 5 to 6 volt varying digital signal, which if tapped can cause damage to the BCM.

Check your door pins and see if they are single or independant dual pin types. I have replaced my single's with duals, this allows me to easily add my own ground wire to it for earthing the lighting.

I also use a fused-relay to control direct power. If one door opens it will light and will not effect the other doors since the lights complete their circuit when you open the door and they ground out. I have also added a IN4004 diode to relay pins 85 and 86 to deal with the back EMF generated by the field collapse when you turn the relay off - so no nasty 200v spikes that randomly kill shit lol.

pin 85 = Interior light +12v from bcm
pin 86 = to chassis ground
pin 87 = to light's positive wires
pin 30 = direct to battery

Your switch could be placed between pin 86 and ground, so you control when the relay grounds and clicks on.

http://www.bradass.net/mea/dualdoorpin.jpg

http://www.bradass.net/bccc/lightingrelay2.jpg

http://www.bradass.net/bccc/doorpins.jpg

http://www.bradass.net/bccc/doorpins2.jpg

I suggest you do a bit of poking and find out whether this is applicable to your ve

[VP Pursuit]

Hey Adam,

I had this in the VS... (until someone kicked the light under the dash).

If you need a hand let me know.

Have you thought about the type of lights? And if you are wanting them under the back seat?

The other thing is to, is do you only want them to work on the doors or on the interior light?

By fitting a 3way switch you can have them addapted to the light/door switch, turn them off solid or turn them on.

There are numerus ways to do it.

[Carbon]

Cheers guys

Yeah the idea was to have them on with interior lights (if inline switch was on) off if the interior light switch was turned off. Then if you turned the inline switch off they would stay off but interior lights would still work. I would also like the option to turn them on whenever

[lil_miss_vg]

i guess u jus twist a wire with teh door sw active.. then that 2nd wire will run to a switch.. and then will come out the other side n run to teh foot well light.. then on teh other side of teh light u run a wire back 2 earth.. pics r so much easier but i pretty sure thats all u do.. if the sw is on n door open footwell has power.. if teh door is open n teh switch off the power cant run to the footwell
however if u wanna turn teh ft lights on when the door shut u wont b able 2 ay lol
i can draw ia pic if u want:P f u arent in a hurry ill test it on my ute on the w/end n let ya kno how it goes coz its already pulled apart lol

[Carbon]

This is a VE ute but you get the idea

http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s212/ZC_74/DSC_5101.jpg

http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s212/ZC_74/DSC_5098.jpg

[BrAdAsS]

Guessing blows short fuses lol, measure with a multimeter what the voltage of the door pin wire is open/closed this tells you how to wire it.. If it is anything like VX, than its one philips head screw.

Using the door switch BCM Input directly for anything is asking for trouble. It's the classic bodgy way. Also, that 5-6volts along the existing switch wire is earthed through the door switch when open, so anything you tap onto it will have a potential of 5-6volts when the door is closed. nasty. Most standard relays (bosch) have a switching voltage minimum of about 8 volts, so you will be lucky if it even switches a standard relay off the door pin wire.

The benefit of using the 12v interior light output to switch a relay is that it provides all the automatic functions that come with the interior light... Exactly what your looking for Carbon. I would have asked, but the diode across the relay mitigates the problem already...Do VE interior lights fade on and off?

The tricky bit is choosing the right lights for the effect you expect. Trial and error is a bitch lol

[Carbon]

yes, the light do fade off. Would love that to happen also

[Mark]

Not sure what you've got in mind for the actual lights Adam, but at work we do a fair range of LED courtesy lights in various colours too..The beauty with LED'S is they draw stuff all power as well.
Cheers

[Carbon]

What do you do Mark. PM me if you like

[Mark]

What do you do Mark. PM me if you like

Branch Manager for an auto electrical parts wholesaler..Let me know if they are the kind of lights you might be after and we'll see what we can organise..