Question about wiring switches for LED bar and pods.

I have been searching all over these forums and google, I think I have come up with a wiring option that will work. Just wanted to ask and see if anyone could confirm this for me.

I have ditch lights wired to one switch and lower vambrace bar wired to a second switch. (Plan on adding more lights in the future)

I have a LED push button switch by Mictuning, (below) which I only lights up when the lights are on.

The wiring harnesses that I have included a push button switch (below) with a light that is constantly on. It has 3 wires running to it. (below)

What I am thinking I can do is hook the 2 wires from the switch that control the lights. Then take the 3rd wire coming from the wiring harness to the + of the LED switch and then just ground the -.

 

The wires in the mictuning switch should be ground (almost certainly black); power feed (probably the green one); you'll need to decide if you want to run that one to the battery or to an ignition-switched line off the fuse block - if you're going to use a relay for the lights, then it won't matter much which circuit you tap since the relay won't draw much, if you're running the lights off the switch directly then you'll want to add a new fused circuit, either with an add-a-fuse or with an in-line fuse holder on the line to the battery; the red wire next to the green should go to your lights (or the relay to the lights).

The red next to the black should be the power for the light in the switch, and can be connected a few different ways:
1) Connect it to the dash lights circuit if you want the switch lit when the dash is lit up (parking/headlights on, or dimmer pushed up all the way past the "click"). This will light the switch with all the other instruments and dim its light along with the instrument cluster regardless of whether the switch is "on" or "off"
2) Splice it to the green wire in the harness, and the switch will be lit anytime there's power to the circuit to operate the lights (not a great idea if you're powering off of the battery)
3) Splice it to the other red wire if you want the switch to light when it's "on" and not when it's "off", doing this will mean it won't light up with the other controls and it can't be dimmed. This is probably not necessary for something like a light bar, which should be obvious if it's on, but there are other kinds of accessories/circuits where you may want it this way.

here's a link to an Amazon listing which includes the diagram for this kind of mictuning switch:

$17 MICTUNING Backlit Led Light Bar Symbol Push Button with Wiring Kit On-off Switch Replacement for Toyota (White, Surface Size 1.54 x 0.83"es) - M0810-T-LLBW

http://www.amazon.com/MICTUNING-Toyota-Switch-Connector-Symbol/dp/B0117B1J3W

 

So I actually have the same harness and switch that this guy has. I plugged it all in, black to black, red 1 to blue (accessory), and green to white (I believe is positive). The button works and turns the light bar on as well as the button turns on when pressed in. But I would like the switch to light up the bottom led behind the words, then when pressed in, turn the top led behind the symbol on to indicate that the light bar is on. Your first option was to tap into the dash circuit or the parking/headlights. In doing this will the whole switch light up? (Both the top and bottom led) And your 3rd option was to connect the red wire to the other red wire to power the top led when pressed in. How does that work? And by doing that the bottom led wouldn't be on with the rest of the dash.

 

The wire that's designed to tap into the dash lights only powers the lower LED (the one behind the words).

If you want that lit with the dash lights, then connect it to a wire in the dash light circuit - easiest would be the dash light line from an adjacent factory switch if you can ID the wire with a multimeter/circuit tester (if there's a green one, start with that, since that's apparently the color of the dash-light wire on the climate controls).

If you want that lit whenever the switch is "hot" (meaning that pushing the switch will turn on the accessory light), then you can just connect that to the other "power" wire on the switch (the one I'm assuming is attached to an ignition-switched power circuit, not the one feeding out to the relay for the light). If your switch is wired to the battery, I wouldn't recommend doing it this way, since you'll have your lower LED lit permanently; I also wouldn't recommend powering this off an unswitched (always hot) circuit like that since it makes it possible to kill the battery with the light bar left on, and there's not many scenarios in which I can imagine needing that light on when it's unsafe to leave the key in the ignition of the truck (lights like that are often illegal on the street, and there's not a lot of wildlife that can drive, just don't piss off your wife/gf out on the trails...).

Either way, the upper LED, which is behind the icon on the switch should only come on when the switch is on and the overall circuit is powered, which will be when the light, or whatever else, is on.

 

So if I tap into the dash circuit, and have the lower led light up with the rest of the stock switches, and I press the switch in, will both leds be on? Or only the top led because it's "hot" at the moment.

Is that why you were explaining to connect the one switch wire to the other switch wire? So I can have the lower led on while the the switch is pressed in? Can i do both of these wiring ways or do they contradict each other? And by permanently, do you mean I wouldn't be able to turn the lower led off with the rest of the dash?

One more thing. If I got a multimeter to test the dash circuit wires, what would I look for? I've never used one.

Sorry for all the questions. I'm not very electrical savvy at all.

Thanks

 

The two LEDs are on independent circuits, unless you tie them together manually. The upper will always be lit when the switch is closing a powered circuit.

How you connect the wire that powers the lower LED will determine when it's lit.
Connecting the lower light wire to the power wire on the switch harness will light the bottom light whenever there's power to the switch (meaning that turning it on will turn on the light bar), if you're connected to a "switched" power circuit, this will be whenever the key is turned to the ACC position or the engine is running - this is probably the best way to go with this, if you're powering the switch directly from the battery then doing this will mean the lower will always be lit unless the battery is dead or disconnected - not recommended.
Connecting the lower LED power to the dash light circuit will light the lower with the other dash lights only, turning on the switch without the dash lights on would only light the upper in this arrangement (you're unlikely to be using the light bar much when the dash lights are off though, so you may never notice that).
If you want the lower to light up with the upper, you can splice the lower LED power wire to the wire between the switch and the relay, but then both will only light when the switch is on and the circuit is powered and neither will light with the dash lights or to indicate that the circuit has power which nullifies the utility of having two LEDs on the switch in the first place.
Assuming you're generally going to use the light bar with the headlights, having the lower wired with the dash lights will generally mean both will be lit when the bar is on.

There are some ways in which the lower LED could be wired to work with multiple options above, but they'd involve using rectifier diodes in various configurations and would come into play so rarely that they're not worth the complexity involved.

I'll add another post explaining how to find circuits with a multimeter in a bit.

 

On the light harness:

White = + power from the battery (also powers the red LED)
Black = - from battery
Blue = + switched power to activate relay.

If you want to tie the switch into the accessory power of the truck, disregard the the white cable, and use the black and blue.

 

Yeah right now without the red 2 wire connected to anything, the switch lights up both leds when pressed in. I want the lower led to be on with the dash, and have the upper led turn on while still having the lower led on when the switch is pressed in. So I'll just tap into a nearby illuminated switch like you said.

 

We'll I already have the switched wired up like that, but curious on what you mean by accessory power of the truck. You mean the blue wire which is the accessory wire?

 

So the white supplies the power, when the switch is pressed ON it sends power the the Blue wire and the relay gets activated.

This means that you can power up the lights any time, even if the truck is off. I like to tap into the ACC circuit which only has power when the truck is on, that way if I forget to turn off the light it doesn't drain the battery because it's off when the truck is off.

You need a tap a fuse and you can get acc power from the fuse in the lower fuse block behind the coin holder.

If you do that, instead of using the white wire for power for the switch, you use power from the ACC to activate the relay via the blue wire.

 

Using a multimeter to find particular wires/circuits will involve using the DC volts setting on the meter, if it's an analog meter, use whatever range setting will put 14v closest to the limit without going over (probably 25V but your meter may vary), digital meters frequently have automatic range detection these days.

Basically you'll be toggling switches and probing wires to find which ones connect to which circuit. For the dash lights, you'll need to put the (-) lead of the meter to a ground point, if you've got the lower dash opened up, there's a shiny bracket and bolt head where the fuse block attaches to the metal structure which is a good ground, then get the red (+) lead of the meter into contact with different wires while switching the parking lights on/off, you'll be looking for a wire that reads zero volts with the parking/dash lights off and about 12v (or 14v if the engine is running) when the switch is on, then see if the voltage changes when the dash dimmer is rolled up or down. If you take of the upper dash panel, it might also be possible to tap a wirt6666666e off of a wire attached to that dimmer and run it to the switches (I haven't yet taken off the upper dash, so I can't say what's back there for sure

 

That seems easy enough. Thanks for all your help!

 

I have 3 extra switches for lights on my truck, would it be ok to just jump off the dash lights on the original fog lights to power the lower LED in the switches. I didn't know if 3 switches would pull to much power or not. I would doubt it, its only 3 tiny LEDs going when all three switches were on.

 

All of the dash lights are on the same fuse, and switch LEDs use very little current. There shouldn't be any harm from tapping all of your switches to the same spot anywhere in the dash light circuit, including the wire to the fog light switch. Only consideration really is the witch locations relative to where you're tapping the dash circuit, if you've got some switches going in the dash on the left of the steering wheel and some in the lower center console then you might want to do two taps rather than string a wire across the whole panel. One warning about the stock fog light switch that I've discovered is that the upper dash console has to come out to get access to the wiring behind that one, there's a ledge under there that makes it tough to reach from underneath.

In my truck, I'm putting in 3 new switches on the LHS panel including replacing the stock fog switch and relocating the inverter switch to the center (some of this is related to having bought the wrong size switches on my first try and not wanting to deal with doing a mail-in return), adding two additional switches in the center console and replacing the factory radio aux inlet with a dual USB power jack, and adding five switches to the overhead, so I'm having to tap three different locations for the dash light circuit.

 

How do you suggest connecting the wires? Will exposing the wire, and wrapping them both together, then surrounding with electrical tape work?

 

For the wires under the dash, these are probably the easiest way to go

$6 Red Solderless Wire Quick Splice Connector - 18-22 Gauge - 25 Pack

http://www.amazon.com/Solderless-Wire-Quick-Splice-Connector/dp/B00PR52AHE

Depending on how you're hooking up the relay, there's different ways to go about the wiring. If you have a socket with pigtails for the relay, then soldering the wires together and covering with shrink tube or tape would be best, followed by weatherproof crimp connectors (or regular crimp connectors covered with tape). If you're wiring straight to the pins on the relay, then using insulated/weatherproof female tab crimp terminals on the wires would the be best way to go; make sure there's an in-line fuse between the battery hot and the relay and use a crimp ring terminal for the wire attached to the battery. Either insulated bullet connectors or some kind of weather resistant/tolerant 2-pin connector to the light bar could be useful in case the bar ever needs to come out for service/replacement (or to provide access to something in the engine bay); there's any number of these kind of things available at auto parts stores or online (in my area, a single connector costs $6 at pep boys, or Amazon has 5-packs for about $10), you could also get short "flat-2" trailer extension and cut the wires in the middle to make two pigtails on compatible connectors.

 

Thanks! I have all three on the LHS right now. 32" bar in the lower bumper, ditch lights, and a reverse light.

 

Came across this thread when I was looking to do the same thing, use a Mictuning switch with the same wiring harness. I emailed CaliRaised and they told me the wiring should be as follows:
Green - Blue
Red2 - White
Black - Black

this thread is making me think people are wiring it
Green - White
Red1 - Blue
Black - Black

which is correct??

thanks!

 

Where is best place to tap into wire for dash lights and tap into wire for brights?
Looking to wire lower LED on Mictuning switch into dash lights (lit when dash lights on); and push button LEDs associated with brights headlight (LED bar only on if Mictuning button pushed and brights on). Have same LED/harness/switches/etc as OP.

LED harness has White-Blue-Black
Mictuning has Green-Red1-Red2-Black

tap from brights - Green
LED harness (Blue) - Red1
tap from dash lights - Red2
LED harness (Black) - Black

Right? So actuation of the Mictuning Toyota Switch connects Green positive source to relay from LED bar correct? i.e. if you wanted to wire LED bar to be able to be turned on even when car off you'd connect Green to white from LED harness. Am I looking at that right?

 

Green line goes to the power, the red next to it would go to the relay. Red next to the black goes to the dash light circuit and black goes to ground/body.

Where to tap into the dash lights will depend on where you're looking to install the switch. If you're putting the switch in the bank to the left of the steering wheel, just tap into the right wire on one of the nearby factory switches (can't remember which one that is, and I don't know when I'd have time to open my dash to see what I did). You can find the wire with a DMM or circuit tester by watching which one goes to 12V vs ground when the parking lights are turned on/off. Alternately, you can tap off of the TAIL circuit in the fuse box with an add-a-circuit to get a "dash light" circuit, but that's more wiring than you really need to do.