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Adding the ability to turn on LEDs with Hi-Beam toggle?

Discussion in 'Lighting' started by rollin904, Sep 3, 2018.

  1. Sep 3, 2018 at 8:36 PM
    #1
    rollin904

    rollin904 [OP] Feather Slinger

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    I have my light bar and ditch lights wired to toggles in the cab of the truck but I live in a hilly area and find I'm often hitting the switches when I've already blinded an oncoming car. Can I simply add a tap to the high beam signal wire and allow them to come on then?

    This is the style switch I'm using https://caliraisedled.com/products/toyota-oem-led-light-bar-switch

    Would like to keep the ability to keep the switches active without the truck on or independently. Driving home today I ended up just using my high beams because I didnt want to react too slow to turning off my LEDs.
     
  2. Sep 4, 2018 at 6:42 AM
    #2
    se7enine

    se7enine MCMLXXIX

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    Not sure on how the switch you have is wired but you can just use the positive High beam wire as the 12v trigger to the switch. That way the switch only gets power when the High is on.
     
  3. Sep 4, 2018 at 7:53 AM
    #3
    rollin904

    rollin904 [OP] Feather Slinger

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    Would using that as the signal wire prevent me from turning on the lights via the switches? I sometimes use them for lighting up areas when I'm out of the truck so I dont drain the batteries using headlights
     
  4. Sep 4, 2018 at 12:31 PM
    #4
    se7enine

    se7enine MCMLXXIX

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    I'm not an electrical guru by any means so just thinking out loud here but maybe you could run a separate fused relay wire harness tapped into the headlight high's as one trigger and use the switch independently like you have as a second ON option.

    Edit: I think that might actually trigger your high beam though so maybe not a good idea. Unless you wired the switch to trigger off of a ground instead of positive.
     
    Gunshot-6A likes this.
  5. Sep 4, 2018 at 1:09 PM
    #5
    danwray

    danwray Traitor

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    I believe you could set this up with a SPDT Relay. By putting the positive input to you lights on the common pin, you could wire your current setup to the N/C pin so it would work like it already does. Then run a jumper to your highbeams to trigger one side of the coil, with the other side grounded, and the N/O pin on the relay should be hooked up to positive voltage. This would make it so when your high beams are off the system works as it already does, but when you flip on your high beams, the other lights come on as well, bypassing the switches.

    Summary - SPDT Relay pinouts:
    N/C (87a) = + voltage from current switch
    Common (30) = + input to LED lights
    N/O (87) = + power from battery
    Coil (85, or 86) = one side grounded, other side tapped to high-beam +

    Be sure to double check my suggestion, but I have done some LED lighting similar to this to wire a strobe controller to oem sockets with LED bulbs.
     
  6. Sep 4, 2018 at 1:22 PM
    #6
    Gunshot-6A

    Gunshot-6A Prime Beef

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    Here is a diagram I made for someone wanting to do this with their fog lights. It is just a relay wired "backwards" to accept 2 sources to 1 output; a "poor man's diode".

    Substitute "light bars" for "fogs" off pin 30.

    Pin 87a would accept power from your existing light bar harness run by the dash switch. (essentially a nested relay since my diagram's relay would take power from the light bar harness' relay.

    Pin 87 would accept 12v+ power direct from the battery and would activate the light bars with the high beam trigger.


    Edit: the below diagram has 87 and 87a swapped. See correct instructions above.
    [​IMG]
     
    Last edited: Sep 4, 2018
  7. Oct 1, 2018 at 6:42 PM
    #7
    67siia

    67siia Well-Known Member

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  8. Oct 2, 2018 at 6:54 AM
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    rollin904

    rollin904 [OP] Feather Slinger

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    Interesting. So take the signal wire from my existing switch and run it to the diode, then run a new wire to both the high beam toggle and the switch? So it could now be turned on via switch or toggle?
     
  9. Oct 2, 2018 at 7:10 AM
    #9
    67siia

    67siia Well-Known Member

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    This pic is for my backup lights + a switch to manually turn on as needed.

    Assume:

    A) The backup lights are your high beams (using a relay)
    B) The bed switch panel is your on/off light bar switch (using a relay)

    Let me know if this is clear

    0235D48C-C5A5-4B86-A86B-FBC3A33B7E39.jpg
     
    rollin904[QUOTED][OP] likes this.
  10. Oct 2, 2018 at 7:12 AM
    #10
    67siia

    67siia Well-Known Member

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    This is how I plan on wiring my light bar to ONLY high beam switch

    4F4BFD66-6FD5-43F9-B74E-C40BCFF24985.jpg
     
  11. Oct 2, 2018 at 7:21 AM
    #11
    rollin904

    rollin904 [OP] Feather Slinger

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    Perfect, should work for what I'm doing. My lights are run through relays, I don't see a voltage maximum so I assume I'd be safe to run both my ditch lights and bar to one node on the diode?
     
  12. Oct 2, 2018 at 7:24 AM
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    rollin904

    rollin904 [OP] Feather Slinger

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    Are you tapping directly to your high beam wire or using a fuse-tap connection?
     
  13. Oct 2, 2018 at 7:48 AM
    #13
    67siia

    67siia Well-Known Member

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  14. Oct 2, 2018 at 8:04 AM
    #14
    rollin904

    rollin904 [OP] Feather Slinger

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  15. Oct 2, 2018 at 8:19 AM
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    67siia

    67siia Well-Known Member

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    I’m not sure yet. I’m waiting for my manual.
     
  16. Oct 3, 2018 at 10:10 AM
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    DirtyBrad

    DirtyBrad Well-Known Member

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    I have a slightly different set up. I have fog lights, flood lights, and a light bar. Each have a switch. But the floods and light bar are also wired into a third switch. When it's off, their switches operate normally. But when the third switch is off, the floods and light bar only come on if their switch is on and the high beams are on. Complicated to write, but easy to use and configurable.

    I mostly drive with the light bar switch off, the flood switch on, and the third switch on. That has the floods come on with the high beams. That's usually plenty of light for on-road driving and I'm not killing people with the light bar if I forget to click the high beams off when someone approaches.
     
  17. Oct 3, 2018 at 2:01 PM
    #17
    rollin904

    rollin904 [OP] Feather Slinger

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    I'm guessing floods are configured like a ditch light? I really enjoy mine since adding them and they add enough light I really don't need my bar unless I'm on a flat stretch of highway.
     
  18. Oct 3, 2018 at 3:55 PM
    #18
    nzbrock

    nzbrock Well-Known Member

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    You could also use a Single Pole Double Throw (SPDT) switch. These are called ON-OFF-ON or ON-OFF-AUTO switches also. You run 12v from battery to one input, 12v trigger from high beam to another input, then have one output. This allows you to disable the lights if you want to.

    This only works if your truck triggers its high beams using 12v. 1st gen trucks have a ground triggered system.
     
  19. Oct 8, 2018 at 11:23 PM
    #19
    Badwin45

    Badwin45 Well-Known Member

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    If you look in the fuse box in the engine bay, each headlight has a fuse for both the high and low beams. Add a mini fuse tap to one of the high beam fuses and use that for the “signal” wire to the relay coil. You can then run a single wire to the switch, and then from the switch to ground, to complete the circuit.
     
  20. Oct 9, 2018 at 12:01 PM
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    rollin904

    rollin904 [OP] Feather Slinger

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    So basically whatever switch wire runs to my relay, take the current wire off that runs to the in-cab switch and run a add-a-fuse from the fuse box and join those two wires together before plugging back into relay. So then it can come on via switch or via high beam toggle?
     

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