Rock light tapped courtesy lights blink

[sharpsicle]

Alright, I answered my own questions. I clearly needed to do some testing on my end earlier on.

First off, no there is no potential feedback loop. The lights are adequately separated. It was kind of silly of me to suggest that in hindsight.

Second, the courtesy light brightness is voltage controlled. It's on, but dim, before you open the door, and on brighter after you open it. My measurements show 6v, with a controlled increase to 12v. After you close the door, the voltage gradually drops off in line with the gradual dimming of the lights. So, what you're measuring and experiencing is apparently normal.

Now, why can others wire their lights up direct and you can't? Likely has to do with the bluetooth controller box not liking the lower voltage input. Not all lights are designed the same, and chances are if you hooked the lights direct to the Courtesy Light circuit they'd work the same way the interior lights do. But with the controller in the middle, it needs consistent power. I wasn't aware until today that your lights had a controller, that really changes things.

Sorry for dragging all this through everything. But testing and verification was key. All this being said, you're probably going to want something that can react and drive a 12v source from as low as 4v based on my testing. A lower limit of 6v isn't going to be reliable enough. It also needs to have an upper limit of 14v+ for when the truck is running.

The other alternative is to try and find another circuit that doesn't mess with the voltage. Not sure what candidates there would be for that, but I'm sure there's a way to do it.

Either way, that wire is one you can use, and your measurements are normal. Your trouble is indeed just the voltage variations.

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[Arcticelf]

JScan doesn't seem to have a setting for that voltage, but they do for other voltages. So perhaps it's adjustable and could be turned all the way up.

 

[RJinPV]

I went out to my Jeep and probed the connector to the passenger footwell light and it behaves exactly as @culdbbi describes. I measured 6.1V when the alarm is unlocked and the doors closed. Then it goes to 12V when a door is opened. If you turn on the courtesy lights from the dashboard switch it reads 12V, doors opened or closed.

I next took an old 12V relay I had and hooked up a variable DC power supply to it. The relay would not close when ~5.2V was applied. It did close when 6.8V was applied. The supply's output voltage varies in steps so I didn't have fine control to walk it down to 6.0V. But it was encouraging.

So the next step was to wire the relay into that footwell circuit. As expected my relay closed at 12V. It also closed the circuit at 6.V (the first time). However, there was a lot of chattering by the relay when it was transitioning from off to on. If you look at the lights they slowly come on and then they slowly dim to off. Those transitions did not make the relay happy.

I disconnected everything, but then decided to try the wht/grn wire just to see what it can do. So I hooked it all back up and this time the relay chattered constantly with a 6V input using either the wht/grn OR the Yel/violet wire. The connections the second time around might have been a little less solid so I double checked the twisted wires and still no good.

In summary, A 12V relay will likely not work reliably with that circuit at 6V. The margins are too small and the dimming transitions are problematic. There are 6V relays out there that would close the circuit, but when the source goes to 12V after opening the door I don't know what that would do to the 6V coil inside the relay. They may not be rated for a higher voltage. Maybe someone has experience with 6V relays at 12V?

Another solution that still has a chance is the one that @Robert May showed using some step up converters.

 

[Arcticelf]

Is there a reason to use the footwell lights and not the bed lights? The bed lights behave as desired with door open/close and can be controlled while the truck is on with a button on the dashboard.

ETA: mostly this thread has convinced me to put my rock and dust lights on the bed light circuit, but I'm open to reasons to use the footwell lights.

 

[sharpsicle]

Is there a reason to use the footwell lights and not the bed lights? The bed lights behave as desired with door open/close and can be controlled while the truck is on with a button on the dashboard.

ETA: mostly this thread has convinced me to put my rock and dust lights on the bed light circuit, but I'm open to reasons to use the footwell lights.

That's a great point. I had seen a number of installs that used the bed lights circuit, but I had assumed it operated the same as the interior lights. I meant to test it, but never got around to it. If it is a straight on/off rather than dimmed transition, then that's the guy to use!

 

[aprez27]

Is there a reason to use the footwell lights and not the bed lights? The bed lights behave as desired with door open/close and can be controlled while the truck is on with a button on the dashboard.

ETA: mostly this thread has convinced me to put my rock and dust lights on the bed light circuit, but I'm open to reasons to use the footwell lights.

I had no issue using the footwell lights. Now I'm starting to wonder if it is because I had halogen lights to start with. Now all LED.

 

[RJinPV]

I had no issue using the footwell lights. Now I'm starting to wonder if it is because I had halogen lights to start with. Now all LED.

I was thinking that might be the case. For the record, my Gladiator has the factory LED option.

 

[RJinPV]

Is there a reason to use the footwell lights and not the bed lights?

The only reason I can think of is that they're more likely to be left on without noticing it. But I think if that happened the Jeep would protect itself like it does with all of the lights if you leave them on. Plus you have the dashboard light to tell you the bed lights are on. So maybe this concern is not a big one.

More advantages with the bed light source is you don't have to tie up an Aux switch that you could use for something else, and you can skip the isolating diode because you use only one source. You also should be able to skip using a relay as well.

 

[Gatorized]

The only reason I can think of is that they're more likely to be left on without noticing it. But I think if that happened the Jeep would protect itself like it does with all of the lights if you leave them on. Plus you have the dashboard light to tell you the bed lights are on. So maybe this concern is not a big one.

More advantages with the bed light source is you don't have to tie up an Aux switch that you could use for something else, and you can skip the isolating diode because you use only one source. You also should be able to skip using a relay as well.

Bed lights turn off if doors are closed and after a short interval if doors are left open. If you left the bed light switch on, the tapped lights being on would be a reminder to shut off the switch.

 

[RJinPV]

Bed lights turn off if doors are closed and after a short interval if doors are left open. If you left the bed light switch on, the tapped lights being on would be a reminder to shut off the switch.

Yes, I was aware of the auto off features. I was really thinking of the case where you turn them on and forget to turn them off, or you inadvertently turn them on. After thinking about it, that is is really no worse than it is already with just the bed lights and no rock lights wired to them. So it really isn't much of a concern.

 

[sharpsicle]

Yes, I was aware of the auto off features. I was really thinking of the case where you turn them on and forget to turn them off, or you inadvertently turn them on. After thinking about it, that is is really no worse than it is already with just the bed lights and no rock lights wired to them. So it really isn't much of a concern.

Would be the same as turning them on with the AUX switch and forgetting that. The problem just shifts, it doesn't get any better or worse. Makes it a good alternative.

 

[Arcticelf]

Bed lights turn off if doors are closed and after a short interval if doors are left open. If you left the bed light switch on, the tapped lights being on would be a reminder to shut off the switch.

Driving around last night, when I push the button for bed lights they stayed on as long as I drove. And behaved like the fog-lights when I turned the truck off: went out and came back on when I restarted an hour later.

This was a 2020 Overland edition, your software load my vary.

 

[culdbbi]

I want to thank everyone for their responses. I'm waiting on a relay to arrive that claims to work down as low as 6v. If that works, problem solved, if not I might just jump ship on the idea as I've already spent enough time and money on the situation.

I chose the footwell rather than the bed lights because I bought the voswitch and was already running a qire unto the cab, so I thought why not just add another one while I'm at it.

Maybe the bed lights come on at 12v upon unlock, I might test that if I get bored and want to revisit the project.

I'll report back on the relay once I have a chance to put it in.

Thank again.

 

[culdbbi]

Finally had an hour on a dry day to see if the relay would work. It didn't. It chatters when I hit unlock, so the 6v isn't enough to keep the switch on. I was going to just give up, but just hit buy on a step up converter. So I'll let you know if that works.

 

[Arcticelf]

Finally had an hour on a dry day to see if the relay would work. It didn't. It chatters when I hit unlock, so the 6v isn't enough to keep the switch on. I was going to just give up, but just hit buy on a step up converter. So I'll let you know if that works.

It's almost certainly a pulse width modulated dimmer, so it's not actually 6 volts; it's slamming back and forth between 12V and 0 V for varying % of time to produce whatever voltage is called for.

The voltage converter should fix it though.

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