A more detailed explanation would be great. Admittedly, I was just gonna roll the dice and copy picture above. LOL
I have been meaning to do exactly this for a couple months. Its reassuring to see someone else do it so I am not as worried about messing something up.My solution - it can be done in different ways, but this was how I did it on this particular day (I find myself doing things differently every time I attack something)
Some basics - diodes are "check valves" - allowing flow one direction, blocking it the other direction (*I won't get into other types like zener diodes and so on) Basically, for our purposes, they are a one-way valve.
The diode I used has three terminals, 2 input and one output. That allows 2 sources for one device - and neither source can feed back into the other, only to the device being controlled, like a light.
Note that if power from your aux switch tries to follow the path back out to the factory backup light feed, it's blocked, and the power from the factory feed when in reverse, can't get back to the aux switch, either. Either can only go to the bumper mounted backup lights.
This is the Oracle plug and play harness. Mine looks different because I ran the pigtails or wires from the harness to the lights through plastic loom to protect the wires from hanging ice and snow in the winter. This pic, having this in mind is important as this is what you cut and modify, leaving the factory wires intact, untouched!
The harness above has 2 wires to each light - the ground, of course, which "taps into" the factory backup light ground circuit,. and then the power/feed/hot wire going to the Oracle backup lights.
The leads to each light tie into the same places in their plug and play harness, keeping it pretty simple.
I wish I had taken other/better pics but maybe this will help.
You leave the Oracle harness alone where the GROUND wires go to the bumper lights. Don't mess with or cut the black wires that go to the ground in this harness. I used a marker and colored the ground wire in the harness black to keep straight which was which as I worked. It isn't necessary, it was a visual crutch for me. Anyway, leave black wires that connect to the white wire alone.
DO cut the two red wires coming from the lights off the white wire.
In the lower part of the picture below, you might see where I stripped those two red wires (or were they white in the harness? Gee, now I can't recall LOL.
Anyway, they are the wires that aren't block HA.
So again, leave the black wires that go out to the lights alone, cut the other wires off the white wire in the plug and play harness.
Strip those two back a bit and connect BOTH of those to another wire to extend them out, but make them into one wire. That's what goes to the upper right part of the pic below.
I crimped on a female connector that will go to the OUTPUT terminal on the diodes. (2nd pic down)
Now the white wire you snipped the power wires that go to the lights off of, I cut that where the other wires were connected.
I connected red wires to the ends of the now snipped white wire in the harness. That gave me some room to work. I then took those two red wires and combined them into one wire as seen in the pic, and again, another female connector that will go to the other diode input.
I crimped on female connectors (below) and used sealing heat shrink.
You will be dealing with ONLY TWO (2) of the wires in the Oracle harness - #5 and #6
In this pic, 5 is just to the right of 6 which is in the corner. Remember, #6, which is the in the corner, is ground. The ground wire is in the corner, don't need to deal with it or cut it or anything.
5, the feed to the backup lights is right next to it. That is the one you will mess with.
You can buy these on Amazon. The two marked IN - the aux switch goes to one of those, the wire from the plug and play harness (#5) goes to the other.
The out goes to the wire feeding power to the bumper mount LED backup lights.
i WISH i UNDERSTOOD THIS FORIENG LANGIAGE YOU ARE SPEAKII used the Oracle plug and play harness and a diode from Amazon. I was going to use my own military surplus diodes from the 60s, but decided the commercial setup would be neater for wiring.
It all sits behind the right tail light. You can see the diode - two inputs, one output.
One input is the white wire from my aux switch, the other is the red wire I have coming from the Oracle harness.
Output goes to the red wires in the pigtails from the bumper mounted backup lights.
X2 Please and thank you
Thank you for all the detailed descriptions and photos. I'm just (in)competent enough with electrical stuff to get myself into trouble. In this case I wouldn't have known to use the diode. So thanks for saving me those headaches!My solution - it can be done in different ways, but this was how I did it on this particular day (I find myself doing things differently every time I attack something)
Some basics - diodes are "check valves" - allowing flow one direction, blocking it the other direction (*I won't get into other types like zener diodes and so on) Basically, for our purposes, they are a one-way valve.
The diode I used has three terminals, 2 input and one output. That allows 2 sources for one device - and neither source can feed back into the other, only to the device being controlled, like a light.
Note that if power from your aux switch tries to follow the path back out to the factory backup light feed, it's blocked, and the power from the factory feed when in reverse, can't get back to the aux switch, either. Either can only go to the bumper mounted backup lights.
This is the Oracle plug and play harness. Mine looks different because I ran the pigtails or wires from the harness to the lights through plastic loom to protect the wires from hanging ice and snow in the winter. This pic, having this in mind is important as this is what you cut and modify, leaving the factory wires intact, untouched!
The harness above has 2 wires to each light - the ground, of course, which "taps into" the factory backup light ground circuit,. and then the power/feed/hot wire going to the Oracle backup lights.
The leads to each light tie into the same places in their plug and play harness, keeping it pretty simple.
I wish I had taken other/better pics but maybe this will help.
You leave the Oracle harness alone where the GROUND wires go to the bumper lights. Don't mess with or cut the black wires that go to the ground in this harness. I used a marker and colored the ground wire in the harness black to keep straight which was which as I worked. It isn't necessary, it was a visual crutch for me. Anyway, leave black wires that connect to the white wire alone.
DO cut the two red wires coming from the lights off the white wire.
In the lower part of the picture below, you might see where I stripped those two red wires (or were they white in the harness? Gee, now I can't recall LOL.
Anyway, they are the wires that aren't block HA.
So again, leave the black wires that go out to the lights alone, cut the other wires off the white wire in the plug and play harness.
Strip those two back a bit and connect BOTH of those to another wire to extend them out, but make them into one wire. That's what goes to the upper right part of the pic below.
I crimped on a female connector that will go to the OUTPUT terminal on the diodes. (2nd pic down)
Now the white wire you snipped the power wires that go to the lights off of, I cut that where the other wires were connected.
I connected red wires to the ends of the now snipped white wire in the harness. That gave me some room to work. I then took those two red wires and combined them into one wire as seen in the pic, and again, another female connector that will go to the other diode input.
I crimped on female connectors (below) and used sealing heat shrink.
You will be dealing with ONLY TWO (2) of the wires in the Oracle harness - #5 and #6
In this pic, 5 is just to the right of 6 which is in the corner. Remember, #6, which is the in the corner, is ground. The ground wire is in the corner, don't need to deal with it or cut it or anything.
5, the feed to the backup lights is right next to it. That is the one you will mess with.
You can buy these on Amazon. The two marked IN - the aux switch goes to one of those, the wire from the plug and play harness (#5) goes to the other.
The out goes to the wire feeding power to the bumper mount LED backup lights.
No problems. The plug and play harness worked, the lights worked GREAT.
@ShadowsPapa - There's always one or two guys in every auto enthusiast forum I've been on that really goes way above and beyond to help other members, move everyone forward, and share information to all so that "all ships rise"... In the short time I've been part of this community, I get the sense that you're one of those guys.My solution - it can be done in different ways, but this was how I did it on this particular day (I find myself doing things differently every time I attack something)
Some basics - diodes are "check valves" - allowing flow one direction, blocking it the other direction (*I won't get into other types like zener diodes and so on) Basically, for our purposes, they are a one-way valve.
The diode I used has three terminals, 2 input and one output. That allows 2 sources for one device - and neither source can feed back into the other, only to the device being controlled, like a light.
Note that if power from your aux switch tries to follow the path back out to the factory backup light feed, it's blocked, and the power from the factory feed when in reverse, can't get back to the aux switch, either. Either can only go to the bumper mounted backup lights.
This is the Oracle plug and play harness. Mine looks different because I ran the pigtails or wires from the harness to the lights through plastic loom to protect the wires from hanging ice and snow in the winter. This pic, having this in mind is important as this is what you cut and modify, leaving the factory wires intact, untouched!
The harness above has 2 wires to each light - the ground, of course, which "taps into" the factory backup light ground circuit,. and then the power/feed/hot wire going to the Oracle backup lights.
The leads to each light tie into the same places in their plug and play harness, keeping it pretty simple.
I wish I had taken other/better pics but maybe this will help.
You leave the Oracle harness alone where the GROUND wires go to the bumper lights. Don't mess with or cut the black wires that go to the ground in this harness. I used a marker and colored the ground wire in the harness black to keep straight which was which as I worked. It isn't necessary, it was a visual crutch for me. Anyway, leave black wires that connect to the white wire alone.
DO cut the two red wires coming from the lights off the white wire.
In the lower part of the picture below, you might see where I stripped those two red wires (or were they white in the harness? Gee, now I can't recall LOL.
Anyway, they are the wires that aren't block HA.
So again, leave the black wires that go out to the lights alone, cut the other wires off the white wire in the plug and play harness.
Strip those two back a bit and connect BOTH of those to another wire to extend them out, but make them into one wire. That's what goes to the upper right part of the pic below.
I crimped on a female connector that will go to the OUTPUT terminal on the diodes. (2nd pic down)
Now the white wire you snipped the power wires that go to the lights off of, I cut that where the other wires were connected.
I connected red wires to the ends of the now snipped white wire in the harness. That gave me some room to work. I then took those two red wires and combined them into one wire as seen in the pic, and again, another female connector that will go to the other diode input.
I crimped on female connectors (below) and used sealing heat shrink.
You will be dealing with ONLY TWO (2) of the wires in the Oracle harness - #5 and #6
In this pic, 5 is just to the right of 6 which is in the corner. Remember, #6, which is the in the corner, is ground. The ground wire is in the corner, don't need to deal with it or cut it or anything.
5, the feed to the backup lights is right next to it. That is the one you will mess with.
You can buy these on Amazon. The two marked IN - the aux switch goes to one of those, the wire from the plug and play harness (#5) goes to the other.
The out goes to the wire feeding power to the bumper mount LED backup lights.
I think it was Mr_Bill, maybe others, who have used that.
