Rock light tapped courtesy lights blink

[Robert May]

I have some amber strip lights under my running boards that switch to white when you unlock the doors. So I ran into the same situation. I installed and wired mine when the doors were off and they worked fine. When you hit unlock with the doors off you always get 12 volts but with the doors on its 6 volts. The extra load will cause the BCM to protect the circuit by cutting power.
I made up a little circuit with switching transistors capacitors and a smaller relay but if you have the lights on for a long time like in a rock light situation then the little relay would burn up. I even tried just using the smaller 6 volt relay to pull in the bigger rely but the little guys just give up after a little while.
I got some small step up converters to try. https://a.co/d/3Hzjaan I am happy to report that they work well with a full size relay but I am not gonna say perfect. It's not the circuit its the BCM on the Gladiator.
So anyway take your trigger wire from the drivers floor well light yellow/violet via a diode this will be your trigger wire. Run that to the positive input on your step up converter and ground your negative input on the converter. Run the out positive and ground out to your 12 volt relay coil. 85 and 86, You can even tie in your aux switch with 2 more diodes if you want to trigger that way as well.
Supply 12 volts to 30 and run 87 to the LED ROCK LIGHTS. Open door and adjust step up until the relay triggers and holds in. If you get chatter from the relay go a little higher on your adjustment. There is a happy medium that doesn't make the BCM go into protection mode and turn off the dome lights.
Hope this helps.

Here is a simple schematic for you to follow and you can also use your aux switch to trigger.
When I say not perfect. Every once in a while I hit unlock when walking up to the truck and the lights do not come on even the dome lights do not trigger. This seems to happen when the truck has been turned off for 12 hours and the temps are in the mid 80s.I hit start then I hit unlock and it lights up unless its been 12 hours and hot. Once I open the door and hit the start button the doom lights come on and every thing will work flawlessly every stop I make that night.

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[charliez]

You probably are getting 12 volts on the flash, but your meter like most is not fast enough to catch it

 

[sharpsicle]

What I find interesting is that there are plenty of videos out there installing rock lights on JTs and JLs, but none of them required a relay to work. Why would this case be different?

 

[aprez27]

I did this mod a few months ago and sorry I don't remember which wire I tapped into, but it was on the passenger side footwell. All I needed was a diode, no relays. So you must either have the wrong wire, or your diode is no good or connected wrong.

 

[JRobes]

What I find interesting is that there are plenty of videos out there installing rock lights on JTs and JLs, but none of them required a relay to work. Why would this case be different?

Could be several things:
- different rock lights brands, qty of lights, and how you wire them (series/parallel) can draw vastly different loads on the circuit.
- different vehicle trim levels have different available wires to tap (sport/sport S don't have the courtesy lights at all)
- vehicle design/programming that may be different trim to trim and year to year due to engineering design changes

 

[sharpsicle]

Could be several things:
- different rock lights brands, qty of lights, and how you wire them (series/parallel) can draw vastly different loads on the circuit.
- different vehicle trim levels have different available wires to tap (sport/sport S don't have the courtesy lights at all)
- vehicle design/programming that may be different trim to trim and year to year due to engineering design changes

Those are all fair points. Unfortunately it makes it a real pain in the a$$ for us to help him out if those differences exist. At that point, you'd really need an experienced pair of boots on the ground to verify it's all working correctly, and not just masking an issue.

 

[culdbbi]

I have some amber strip lights under my running boards that switch to white when you unlock the doors. So I ran into the same situation. I installed and wired mine when the doors were off and they worked fine. When you hit unlock with the doors off you always get 12 volts but with the doors on its 6 volts. The extra load will cause the BCM to protect the circuit by cutting power.
I made up a little circuit with switching transistors capacitors and a smaller relay but if you have the lights on for a long time like in a rock light situation then the little relay would burn up. I even tried just using the smaller 6 volt relay to pull in the bigger rely but the little guys just give up after a little while.
I got some small step up converters to try. https://a.co/d/3Hzjaan I am happy to report that they work well with a full size relay but I am not gonna say perfect. It's not the circuit its the BCM on the Gladiator.
So anyway take your trigger wire from the drivers floor well light yellow/violet via a diode this will be your trigger wire. Run that to the positive input on your step up converter and ground your negative input on the converter. Run the out positive and ground out to your 12 volt relay coil. 85 and 86, You can even tie in your aux switch with 2 more diodes if you want to trigger that way as well.
Supply 12 volts to 30 and run 87 to the LED ROCK LIGHTS. Open door and adjust step up until the relay triggers and holds in. If you get chatter from the relay go a little higher on your adjustment. There is a happy medium that doesn't make the BCM go into protection mode and turn off the dome lights.
Hope this helps.

Here is a simple schematic for you to follow and you can also use your aux switch to trigger.
When I say not perfect. Every once in a while I hit unlock when walking up to the truck and the lights do not come on even the dome lights do not trigger. This seems to happen when the truck has been turned off for 12 hours and the temps are in the mid 80s.I hit start then I hit unlock and it lights up unless its been 12 hours and hot. Once I open the door and hit the start button the doom lights come on and every thing will work flawlessly every stop I make that night.

Thanks for all this information. It might be a bit much for me at the moment, but I'll keep reading and learning.

I found a solid state relay last night that I was going to look into, to see if it will trigger at 6v, but not fry on seeing the 12v.

 

[culdbbi]

By the way, which rock lights do you have? How many amps do they require?

They are a cheap Chinese version on Amazon, called Dr. Car, I only have 4 lights. They look decently made as far as waterproofing and such, but all the wires go into a Blackbox with the bluetooth controller, so I have no clue how they are wired. There also isn't much information on Amazon, nor the box.

My kids got them for me for Xmas. I don't have to have them hooked up to unlock, just thought based on what other people had posted that it wasn't too much more difficult to do, but this is stretching my structural engineering mind, as I avoided electrical engineering in vollege for a reason.

 

[culdbbi]

I did this mod a few months ago and sorry I don't remember which wire I tapped into, but it was on the passenger side footwell. All I needed was a diode, no relays. So you must either have the wrong wire, or your diode is no good or connected wrong.

I will look at the passenger side to see what it's over there. I just had all the wiring coming in the driver's side, so I thought that might easier. I'm not sure the diode is the problem, but I didn't take that out of the equation, so I can't say for sure.

 

[RJinPV]

Any reason not to put the diode and switch on the line feeding into pin 86? That will reduce the power going through the switch as well.

The diode's purpose is isolate the two power sources. If the relay gets stuck closed, then you would want it where I have it in the diagram. Besides, the diode is rated to 85 amps so it can handle the amperage

 

[RJinPV]

I have some amber strip lights under my running boards that switch to white when you unlock the doors. So I ran into the same situation. I installed and wired mine when the doors were off and they worked fine. When you hit unlock with the doors off you always get 12 volts but with the doors on its 6 volts. The extra load will cause the BCM to protect the circuit by cutting power.
I made up a little circuit with switching transistors capacitors and a smaller relay but if you have the lights on for a long time like in a rock light situation then the little relay would burn up. I even tried just using the smaller 6 volt relay to pull in the bigger rely but the little guys just give up after a little while.
I got some small step up converters to try. https://a.co/d/3Hzjaan I am happy to report that they work well with a full size relay but I am not gonna say perfect. It's not the circuit its the BCM on the Gladiator.
So anyway take your trigger wire from the drivers floor well light yellow/violet via a diode this will be your trigger wire. Run that to the positive input on your step up converter and ground your negative input on the converter. Run the out positive and ground out to your 12 volt relay coil. 85 and 86, You can even tie in your aux switch with 2 more diodes if you want to trigger that way as well.
Supply 12 volts to 30 and run 87 to the LED ROCK LIGHTS. Open door and adjust step up until the relay triggers and holds in. If you get chatter from the relay go a little higher on your adjustment. There is a happy medium that doesn't make the BCM go into protection mode and turn off the dome lights.
Hope this helps.

Here is a simple schematic for you to follow and you can also use your aux switch to trigger.
When I say not perfect. Every once in a while I hit unlock when walking up to the truck and the lights do not come on even the dome lights do not trigger. This seems to happen when the truck has been turned off for 12 hours and the temps are in the mid 80s.I hit start then I hit unlock and it lights up unless its been 12 hours and hot. Once I open the door and hit the start button the doom lights come on and every thing will work flawlessly every stop I make that night.

Interesting setup. This has both inputs driving the relay. That would work. My diagram didn't show the Aux input. I was assuming it would just run to the other input on the isolating diode as the OP has it currently wired. Since the diode can handle 85 amps that should work too. I would think one could avoid the step up converter if the chosen relay would reliably close with a 6V input. Surely someone makes one like that. The specs for the one the OP found on Amazon says it will.

Edit: I just checked that relay again and the "Must Operate" voltage is 6 to 8V. That means it may require 8V to reliably operate and that may not work. Need to find a different relay or use the step-up converter

 

[RJinPV]

They are a cheap Chinese version on Amazon, called Dr. Car, I only have 4 lights. They look decently made as far as waterproofing and such, but all the wires go into a Blackbox with the bluetooth controller, so I have no clue how they are wired. There also isn't much information on Amazon, nor the box.

My kids got them for me for Xmas. I don't have to have them hooked up to unlock, just thought based on what other people had posted that it wasn't too much more difficult to do, but this is stretching my structural engineering mind, as I avoided electrical engineering in vollege for a reason.

I looked at them on Amazon and they do not specify how much current they draw. The black control box that power goes to should have some marking that specify how many watts it is rated for. Amps=watts/12v.

 

[culdbbi]

Interesting setup. This has both inputs driving the relay. That would work. My diagram didn't show the Aux input. I was assuming it would just run to the other input on the isolating diode as the OP has it currently wired. Since the diode can handle 85 amps that should work too. I would think one could avoid the step up converter if the chosen relay would reliably close with a 6V input. Surely someone makes one like that. The specs for the one the OP found on Amazon says it will.

Edit: I just checked that relay again and the "Must Operate" voltage is 6 to 8V. That means it may require 8V to reliably operate and that may not work. Need to find a different relay or use the step-up converter

I ordered the relay and will see if it works, if not maybe I'll go further, but it's already a mess of wires.

 

[culdbbi]

Here are two pictures of the wires I've been talking about. There are 3 wires on the plug to the led footwell light. I haven't touched the mess of wires to the left.

I tapped the yellow with purple, took off the tapp to check the voltage.

 

[sharpsicle]

OK, so you're right that the wire you've tapped is the courtesy light wire.

EDIT: See my next post. The below doesn't apply. I was spit-balling out loud, but once tested I found my concern was unfounded.

But, someone help me out here. Look at the diagram here. Would it not be possible for the WH/GN "ambient lighting" circuit to backfeed through the Courtesy Light circuit? Normally this wouldn't matter, as there's no path up that line to a ground point. But with the addition of the rock lights, there would be, yes?

Diagram:

I'm hoping there's something that just isn't shown here that makes my backfeed path not possible.

But it could make sense if there isn't, could be that he's getting lower voltage readings feeding back from the ambient light side of things. If it is, then any fix being proposed here with a relay or step-up adapter would mean his lights would be on any time ambient lighting is on, which would include driving at night.

I'm going to take a look at something once I get back home in the garage.

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