Electrical Assistance Requested

Good morning all. I could use some assistance from the community. The short version of this is, on my previous builds I did all the mechanical and my Dad did all the electrical. Sadly, he passed away so now I've gotta learn it on my own. I know how to splice wires, tie into wires, run wires, and everything else. I just need someone to run things by every once in awhile. Like so...

I've been wanting to order and install an OPT7 Aura Smart-Color LED Strip Interior Lighting Kit. And that kit is pretty much as simple as can be. I've mentally got the installation down already thanks to reading over posts here and various YouTube videos. Except for one thing. There is an auxiliary wire that needs to be connected to a wire that only activates when the door opens. (See bottom of image) I have hunted all over the internet all last week. And while there are plenty of pics and videos of people installing the system, there is not one of them that shows hooking up that auxiliary wire.

So my question is this. With it being suggested to hook that wire into the dome light wire, wouldn't I just be able to crimp an add-a-fuse onto that wire and then plug it into the "dome" fuse slot in the fuse box? And if not, can anyone tell me which wire coming out of the fuse box is the dome light wire so that I can just T splice it right there instead of having to take any of the panels off? I want to document this process as I do it for future Tacoma owners to have a very easy to follow set of instructions for hooking up this wire since that information does not exist currently. Thank you in advance for your time and assistance.

 

the add-a-fuse option try it, think that would work. If it does not then the "switch" for the dome is after the fuse. Then another option would have to be used.

 

Adam, I added "puddle" LED lights under my running boards that come on when the doors are open. I soldered into the dome light wire that runs up the drivers side A puller. Picture that follows shows which wire I spliced into.

 

Did you want the new lights to fade in and out like your dome light does? If so It might get a little more complicated. If I recall, the dome light is on a variable ground, meaning the wire that controls the cycling is the ground wire, not the hot wire. You'd essentially have to wire in your new light "backwards" to get them to cycle correctly.
Take a look at this thread for reference:
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads...-lights-thread-cycle-w-dome-light-pix.276239/

 

Thanks for the picture. At least I can see what wire I'm looking for now. Question though. I'm trying to do it without removing the A piller. Any idea if that wire runs straight down towards the fuse box and I could find it up under the dash near the fuse box? I figure it has to run down there somewhere.

 

Well, hooked up like the directions say, it's supposed to come on white when you open the door/hit the unlock button, and then change to whatever you had them set to previously. I think with the way the dome light already fades now, I think a fading white option for the open/unlock is going to be the only option.

But just to be clear, what you're saying is that the aux wire should be wired into the variable ground light running FROM the dome light?

It's my understanding, and again I was not the electrician of my previous pairing, that the regular wiring that is going into the fuse box is going to run to an accessory switch so that when the vehicle is on, power is running to the control box. Because if it was hooked to a constant power, the LED's would always be on and drain the battery. So what you're saying is, for that auxiliary wire to change it over to white when the door/unlock happens, it would have to be hooked to the variable ground coming out of the door. But since the vehicle wouldn't be on yet, how would it get power to turn the lights on?

 

That's a good question. It has to run down, but based on fuse box location, you would probably have a hard time finding/getting to the wire without removing some of the dash. Besides, it only takes a few minutes to remove the A pillar and push a wire up.

 

Alright, Gentleman. So first off, thank you for all the help. I have the kit hooked in. And it works great. Turns white when the doors open and then fades to the pre-set color when the door closes. So that is all working exactly like it's supposed to. But now I have one last little thing that is driving me nuts.

So, near as I can tell, I have two options. I can hook the add a fuse into a constant power, in which case once I close the doors and walk off, the pre-set color stays on. Which obviously is going to drain the battery. So that's no good. But if I hook it to a switched power fuse, then when I initially unlock the vehicle, there is no light until I turn the vehicle on.

So is there not a way to wire it up to where it comes on like the dome light? I hit the unlock button, light comes on without the vehicle being on? It's very possible at this point that I am overlooking something simple from going around and around with this thing for the last 24 hours or so. Any assistance is greatly appreciated.

 

See the 7.5 amp fuse labeled dome 4th from bottom on right. Put your add a fuse there and it should work properly. @mesojdm sorry I stole your pic but it was only fuse diagram I knew of on here I could quickly get a hold of.

 

Sadly, I had the same thought and it didn't work. The dome is a constant on. There's a switch afterwards that is what turns it on after I hit "unlock" on the remote. I just don't know where that switch is to wire the LED lights main power in after it.

 

I haven't done any research on this, but here are some schematic screenshots that may help you understand, not necessarily help you though...

 

BTW, the SE toyota bed light kit may be helpful info for you. I think this kit is designed (for access cabs) to turn on when unlocking doors, etc.
Again, haven't done research on this, but might be helpful. Be careful, there is different wiring taps for the different trims.

https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0176/5842/files/00016-34089_TA_16_toyota_mcdonough.pdf

 

I think this has us on the right path. But from looking it up and over, I believe this is wiring into the bed light switch. So then I would have to leave that on if I wanted the lights to work and I'm faced with the same problem as a constant on fuse. The trick is figuring out which is the right wires to splice into and where to splice into them, I believe.

 

That pdf attaches to the bed light switch on double cabs, or straight to the dome lights on access cabs (access cabs don't have bed light switch as I recall).

My suggestion (I assume you are double cab)
Look at the pdf for the access cab, to see where they tap in to the system. Those added lights are tied to dome on access cab.
Then look at schematic for access cab to understand how they tied in.
Then look at double cab schematic to replicate (same wire color, etc)

 

The body control module must control it but I would have thought it would send it through the fuse but must have a relay that the bcm controls, and the relay must have constant power through that fuse

 

Thank you for reminding me I never followed up with this.

So I've got it doing exactly what I want it to do now. We ended up having to install a relay to get it to white light on with the door's being unlocked and the power/vehicle not being on. We tried just doing a regular relay at first and while it worked, it left us with a buzzing noise whenever it activated the lights. It had to do with the voltage changing because the dome lights dimmed. So we went back in and installed a solid state relay and that fixed the problem.

So for anyone else heading into this project, hooking up the kit as it is originally intended is something most anyone can do. There are plenty of instructions out there now even for where to hook up the auxiliary wire. And if not, give me a holler and I'll pull my trim off and take a pic of exactly where and how I spliced that wire in. Pretty much just a different method of splicing over soldering like OBXPaul's picture above.

For getting the lights to come on whenever you unlock the doors or as you exit the vehicle with the power/vehicle off, if you have to Google what a Solid State Relay is, take it to a shop. Just tell them what you want the kit to do and that it'll need a Solid State Relay installed and they'll get you taken care of.