What have you done to your Tacoma today? 1st Gen Edition

i thought Windows98 was a super cool piece of machinery back then!
i carried a big hunk of laptop with that OS in my truck for a few years

 

The other confusing thing is type A vs Type B relay. https://www.12voltplanet.co.uk/relay-guide.html


The thing to remember is that a relay is just an automated switch.

The pin numbers are the same, but 30 and 86 get their locations swapped. 30 and 87 are always the switch, 85 and 86 are always the coil. When the coil gets energized, the switch closes.
87a just does the opposite of 87. 87 is NO (Normally Open) and 87a is NC (Normally Closed).


30 goes to the battery and 87 goes to the aux thing you're turning on. These could also be connected to ground if you had your aux thing supplied with 12v constant from the battery. Just think about it like you are moving the location of this switch to the ground side of the light, as opposed to the positive side. It's still usually better to have the relay on the positive side to limit the length number of constant hot circuits.

86 and 85 can be interchanged, one gets power the other gets ground. You can then put a switch on either side (power or ground). These are what automate the switch. In this case your switch is the high beam switch ground, so you connect it to the ground side of this relay.

Make sense?

 

I didn't know you had heated seats, I'll be adding heating elements into my RSX seats soon. Still unsure of where I will put the switch, it's coming with a high/low/off switch, and I doubt OTRATTW have switches like that, so I might need to put it in a hidden spot.

 

Yes I meant 87, I'll correct my original post.

If you have 86 hooked to 12v+ then yes, connecting 85 to the high beam wire will trigger the lights.

 

Easiest spot is at the headlight. You can also find it near the headlight stalk.
Red-Yellow (R-Y) is the high beam ground
Red-Green (R-G) is the low beam ground
Red-Light Blue (R-L) is 12v+

If you look at the diagram attached you'll see that the high beam indicator is actually on the low beam wire. When the high beams are activated, power travels through the low beam filament and to the dash indicator. It doesn't illuminate when the low beams are on due to resistance. This is also why the high beam indicator doesn't work when you put in LEDs or HIDs, because there is no low beam filament for the power to travel through.

 

Dude brutha my homie. You're typing up what should be stickies. This took forever for me to grasp and mostly because I couldn't wrap my mind around only switching on the ground side. Which is most Toyotas, if not all Japanese makes. But your explanations and analogies are great and I'm glad you typed them up so we can have references here. @RysiuM also understands 12VDC circuits and wiring very well. You guys are a great resource. Thanks.

 

It took me a while to understand it all as well. Things like the Type A vs B relays and the fact that the high beam indicator is on the low beam wire just add to the confusion.

If you think about DC power like water flowing, it makes more sense.

 

Your low beam LEDs must have a resistor added to match the stock low beam resistance. Higher quality ones will sometimes think about things like this haha.

 

@nw_chris
Thanks for posting the pic of an actual, genuine, current production Toyota support bearing.
To be continued.......


In other news, This project,
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads...st-gen-edition.138573/page-9599#post-22395877
is moving along at a Jack Rabbit pace.

Here all three bolts have been uniformly shortened with the 4600, I'm exhausted.
The title reads "Creative Clamping.

 

Id recommend still having a switch in the cab that is separate. It is still technically illegal to do this and if you have the switch you may have times where you want the brights but not the spots. That and it can get you out of a huge ticket if that every happens.

Very easy to do. Just have to run the wire you tap from the Hi Beam into the cab onto a switch and then back to your relay. Its just ground so it's not super dangerous either.

 

Hmm, sway bar bracket cut off and 3 bolts.

Are you trying to make that adapter plate to move the LBJ forward in the LCA? If so, I'll be watching closely.

 

Just get a SPDT switch and use the high beam ground and chassis ground. One position turns on with highs, one position turns on anytime, one position is off. That's how I have mine, except I used a relay to get 12v positive when the highbeam is on so I could easily use another relay in my bussmann rtmr to power the lights.

 

I don't know why anyone would chose Scanguage OR Ultraguage when you can just use...

This

for Android Phones ONLY - Wireless Bluetooth Diagnostic OBD2 Scanner Car Code Reader and Scan Tool for All 1996 & Newer Vehicles ELM327 Compatible OBDII

https://www.amazon.com/BAFX-Products-Wireless-Bluetooth-Diagnostic/dp/B005NLQAHS?ref_=fsclp_pl_dp_1


With this

Full 16pin OBD II OBD2 Male to Female Extension Cable Flat Ribbon Cable with Angled connectors 30cm/1ft 16pin

https://www.amazon.com/Through-Exte...TD9XJXYACYC&psc=1&refRID=Q1MG929JDTD9XJXYACYC


On your phone with this
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.prowl.torque&hl=en_US

 

Yes, if you get the MX model instead of the EM. Still way cheaper than Scangauge, at $89.

A number of reasons, and I do have the Torque Pro app on my phone, so I know the setup. First, Torque Pro ties up your phone. You can't display Torque Pro and navigation at the same time, for example.

Second, you have to fire up Torque Pro every time you get in the truck; by comparison, the SG or UG are always there and running. After trying this for a week, I realized that I stopped bothering turning on Torque Pro on a regular basis, saving it for only when I wanted to see something.

But by doing that, I lost the top feature of the UG, IMO, which is having it constantly monitor important parameters like coolant temp, and alert me when it gets too high. So it was a no-brainer for me to get the separate dedicated device.

 

Yes it does now. The new one.

because having a unit with a dedicated screen that is always one and always showing you want you want it to is way better than having to dig out a phone and fire up the app make sure BT is on and the switch back to the other app you were using and then..

I get it that phones can do a lot. But when Im driving. I don't like changing stuff a ton. Why I have a screen for nav, one for APRS, HAM has a screen and phone is only for music. That way I can just look at what I want to look at when I need to vs being very distracted and fiddling with too much.

 

I can see some of your points. I don't normally run nav on my phone, normally run that on the tablet. And I also normally run an older phone for my Torque app. (I have the Torque app on my regular phone, but that's not the one I normally monitor my truck with)

 

That's why you use an old phone to use with the Torque app. You can leave it plugged in and it doesn't even have to be connected to service.

Then you don't have to dig it out, fire it up, turn on bluetooth... and you have a better display, customizable, and you can set it to alert you at certain parameters, just like ultra/scan guage.

 

eh at that point for me then it would be easy of mounting. The ultra gauge is much smaller than a phone and lighter and easier to place. Cockpit already looks like this:

IgorsCommandCenter-65.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

Not a lot of places to but a 3rd phone. Lots of places to put a gauge easily.

 

lol... Where's your Ultraguage even at?

(Assuming behind the steering wheel in pic)

 

That's a pretty old photo. But yes that is my location in this truck. Had a scangauge but removed it. Just haven't had a moment to do it.