Courtesy and Rock Lights

Four “courtesy lights”, one for each door, that come on and off with the dome light.

Four “rock lights”, two each on the front and rear bumper, that come on manually with a switch. When I turn the rock lights on I want the courtesy lights to come on as well (for a total of 8 lights).

The lights I chose pull about 200-300mA each. I didn’t want to draw this from the dome circuit so I had to put in interposing relays.

My first stab at this did not include the timer. When S1 is set to “dome” and the dome light comes on R2 is engaged and powers L1-L4. However, there was a major problem. Since the dome lights are auto dimming the signal gets to a point that the relay rapidly opens and closes. When the lights are coming on or off theres a point where the “fading” signal is enough to engage the relay but not hold it so you get a burst of on-off-on-off-…… The lights flash and its pretty but a relay will not last long under these conditions.

So I had to add the timer. This timer is really cool. There are several functions you can program it for. I used this on my bedlights. I programmed it to come on immediately when power is applied, turn off immediately when power is removed, and turn off after about 10 minutes if the power is left on. I didn’t want to shut the bed cover with the bed lights on and have it run down the battery.

I had to program it differently for the dome light though. I put it for a delay on / delay off with inverted trigger. So as the dome light is pulling the signal low it gets to the point that it triggers the timer. At that point there is a delay before it drives the output high. This delay is programmed for just a split second, long enough to ignore the dome light signal until it gets fully charged / discharged. In other words there will be a point when the timer is triggered, a split second where it doesn’t care what the trigger is doing, and the output goes high. The same time delay is in place when the light turns off as well, except the lights stay on for a bit to let the dome circuit settle.

This timer was programmed with function 10 and trigger 4.

The final problem was that the timer trigger was “leaking” enough that the dome lights would never turn off. Adding D1 prevented this.

The middle position of S1 turns off all the lights (dome lights still works but no exterior lights)(incognito mode).

D2 allows the rock lights and the courtesy lights to both come on in the “rock” position.


L1-L8 Lights

$13 2 Pods LED Rock Lights, Ampper Waterproof LED Neon Underglow Light for Car Truck ATV UTV SUV Offroad Boat Underbody Glow Trail Rig Lamp (White)

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01M0T8DT5/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1


S1 Switch

$10 URBEST® Rocker Switch 10Pcs ON/Off/ON SPDT Snap in Round Button 6A/250V 10A/125V AC for Auto Car Boat

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01LZK50VO/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o07_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1


D2 BIG Diode

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B011CP4EFS/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o07_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1


R1 and R2 Relay

$10 ESUPPORT Car Heavy Duty Relay Switch 12V 30A SPDT 5Pin Waterproof Electrical Automotive Pack of 5

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00RV9ZUEO/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1


D1 Small Diode

$10 Cafurty 1N4007 DO-41 Axial Silastic Guard Junction Standard Rectifier Diode (Pack of 20)

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00W17LOBO/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o05_s02?ie=UTF8&psc=1



T1 Timer $20

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00PD65UGA/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o04_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

Awesome. Great write up. The schematic takes me back to my C-130 Avionics days.

How did you mount the lights and run the wires?

Pictures of the undercarriage.



Side note..If Melissa McCarthy was involved in the Hollywood sex scandal... I'm never watching any movie again.

 

Looks awesome! I think the white works well without looking all “fast and the furious”

Disclaimer: I love those movies lol.

 

Really nice job.

 

Looks great . I have gotten some LED strips from Matt Gecko , they arent istalled yet. I was also looking at LUXlighting system , theyre magnetic . Thats a great look you have there .

 

I'm in the process of doing the same thing. I am going to be using 4 for the doors then 1 for each wheel well and finally 2 in the front and 2 in the back. Also using white.

 

@bstrange Where did you tap the dome light circuit?

 

I’m hoping you can help. I hooked up my wiring for my 4 Rock Lights and my 2 LED Strip Lights on each side. I used the following wiring diagram



Everything is working just how I want it except for one thing...the Switch is not activating the side LED Strips to come on with the Rock Lights. So the Dome triggers the LED Strips on the side just like I want and the diode is preventing the Rock Lights and Switch to activate. So I know that’s done correctly. The Switch triggers the Rock Lights in the Front and Rear to come on just like I want and the diode is preventing the back feed into the Dome Light to activate. So I know that’s done correctly. However, I have the diodes in a location so that when I hit the switch it should power on all the lights: Rock/Coutesy Lights without backfeeding into the dome, but it’s not. My question is, what am I missing? I’m not really sure what I’m missing or maybe it’s just not possible without a timer or something.

I feel like I have the flow going correctly for it all to work but it’s not



My goal is to do the same as you. Have the switch turn on all the lights and have the dome just turn on the side lights.

 

Finally hooked this up last night. This is so awesome!

 

following

 

Resurrecting this thread.

The Amazon link for the timer doesn't work any more. Is there an alternative?

 

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads...tesy-rock-lights-v4-by-dsim-solutions.545892/

Get the universal kit.

 

Hi, i know this thread is 5-6 years old but the timer you posted doesnt seem to exist anymore. Could you elaborate on what it is? Like is it a type of a pcb module?

And btw, awsome thread. Helping me tremendously,
J

T1 Timer $20

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00PD65UGA?ie=UTF8

 

I did this mod and didn't use the timer. (I have the timer in my garage somewhere.)
I used a relay and it works fine.

https://youtu.be/H-aaA3pdSPI?si=ZS5tD3kgD4iT1kWc

 

I used the Toyota kit I got from Sparks. It has four nice outside LEDs and two LEDs for under the dash that slowly dim to a nice dim light that stays on. It's a nice kit, comes on automatically when approaching your truck provided the key fob is on you and lights up the sides and under the truck some very nicely.