Bed Light Wiring Help

could this equate to installing some courtesy lights in the footwells? door open = light in the footwells?

 

I don't have a wiring diagram to see if the door switches are positive or negative. If they are simply grounding a wire, then sure, you could do that.

The issue comes when you want to mimic the operation of the dome light. Door open does = dome lights on, but unlocking with the keyless remote also = dome light on.

If the door switches are positive, you'd need to look at where the source is coming from. If it's through the body computer, I'd avoid tapping that directly, but a relay might still work.

If someone has a diagram to look at, I'd be happy to offer an opinion. Since TTORA took the FSM down, I don't have a way to access that info.

 

save in case it gets taken down

anyway, I have (2) sets of these which includes two 12" lights, a power converter, and a 4 pin male and female molex connector. I would like to install these in conjunction with the dome light action. I dont use the dome light, so it is in the off position, would it still be possible given the diagram I linked and this product?

and sorry to hijack this thread...

edit: damn, them pics is big. got these from a master mechanic in pdf, and converted them to jpg.

 

sub'd. interested in doing this, instead of the one switch inside the cab like everyone else

 

You could use a relay, wire into the door switch wire coming out of the body ecu, using that wire as the ground to the relay. That won't put any more load on the door switch, and shouldn't be a problem for the body ecu (might want to buy a diode suppressed relay for an extra precaution). You won't be able use this to switch the lights on when you hit your keyless entry, like the factory dome light will do. The lights would come on when you open the door.

 

which is all I would want.

ok, so relay power into the power converter for the lights, and then one lead into the ground(other lead) of the power converter, and the lights should turn on? I'll look into that.

I am hoping to tie in one of the main circuits for the door switches, so no matter what door is open, they all light up for simplicity's sake

I will also wait until I install my sound system, that way I can tie in from the distribution block that I will route inside.

would it matter if the dome light is set to on, off, or door? I don't use dome light

 

Dome light switch position will have no effect on your added lights when tapped into the door pinswitches.

 

Joes - you have been a great help/resource thus far. much appreciation I will consult with Proforce and see what kinda knowledge he can drop.

how I read that schematic posted, it shows that there are (2) door switches for the access cab(upper and lower), and only (1) for the double cab rear doors. are you seeing it that way as well? I don't have an access cab, so I can not confirm the number of door switches present for the rears.

I am also curious why I couldn't tap into a main line that the door switches are tied into, unless each of them are wired directly to the ecu. I see the circuit as, once any of the doors open, then the dome light would power on(if it were switched to "door"), indicating that the door switches share the same circuit, correct? if that is the case, I would like to identify that line/wire.

I understand the diode bit, and would have to do some more research on what size/type I would need to get, don't think I need to use separate relays for each door, as the relay would provide enough juice for the power converters to the lights.

argh. so confusing

 

Wow this thread is a disaster I didn't read the entire thing cuz you guys made this way more complicated than it needs to be.

OP, if you need help, let me know and I'll read through this tomorrow and chime in.
6spd, I got your PM and will respond soon. Yours is a very very simple wiring setup. Door triggers are all negative. Front Driver and passenger doors are separate individual wires, rear doors share 1 wire. Each wire shows ground when its respective door is opened. They MUST be diode isolated. Tap all 3 triggers, add diodes, and that attaches to your ccfl lighting negative wires. Then the positive light wires all get constant +12v. Positive and negative wires will both be fused. Depending on the lights and their power consumption will determine if a relay is needed or not. Doing this will eliminate the problem of the lights turning on/off with lock/unlock on the remote.... Unless that's what your going for, then that's am even easier wiring setup and completely different. Anyways, I'm half asleep so hope this made sense. Let me know what you guys need and I'll see if I can't draw up some schematics

 

We like to say "it's FE, man" at work. (F--kin Electricity)

 

The "door pin" wires can be found in multiple locations. All 3 can be found together in the driver kick panel, but are difficult to locate. All 3 can also be found at the ECU behind the glove compartment, buy are also difficult to locate. Easiest way is to locate the driver from door pin and the driver rear (which also covers passenger rear) under the driver door sill panel just before the kick panel. Then the passe never front can be found under the passenger door sill just before entering the passenger kick panel.

When testes, these wires should read nothing or a low + voltage with the door shut (or pin depressed) and when the respective door is open and pin released, that single wire should read straight ground. It is plenty to trigger a relay.

These wires are independent of the dome light circuit, so will not attempt to "fade" in/out and will also not change when the dome is turned on/off manually.

The Diodes are REQUIRED!! Failure to properly diode isolate each wire correctly will result I'm damage to the ECU!

The ground fuse between the diodes and relay is just a precaution. It can be 5amp.
Relay pin 86 can go to any constant power source and can be fused with a small 5 or 10 amp fuse. A good location to connect this to positive is directly to the battery or aftermarket fuse box (if the relay is located in the engine bay) or to the +12v constant wire at the ignition harness which can be found in the right side front of the inside fuse box (of the relay will be located I'm the cab).

Your CCFL lights should draw very little current. A 10amp fuse "should" be enough for the connection of the lights to battery + BUT be sure to look up the lights draw and do the math to be sure of fuse amperage and wire gauge.

All the wires from the door pins to diodes and connection to relay pin 85 can be very small 16-18g wire. Pin 86 can also be small 16-18g wire.

Pin 30 ground and pin 87 to lights negative should be the same gauge as the lights positive to battery wire, and more than likely 16g wire will be perfect. 18 may work, but just to remain on the safe side, I would just get a roll of 16g and just use it on the entire setup to be safe.

Diodes need to be facing the correct direction!!!! A 1-5 amp diode will be plenty for these.

 

To complete the information, what I see for a 2012 DCSB TRD OR 4.0 manual is as follows:

LF latch: Green/Yellow (-)
RF latch: Red/Black (-)
LR and RR latch: Pink/Black (-)

Latch is door trigger. And colorX/colorY means X with a Y tracer or stripe. Get it?

And the constant heavy gauge 12+ battery wire at the ignition harness is labeled as:
White/Blue & White/Red (either will work).

TEST ALL WIRES FIRST! DO NOT RELY ON THE INFORMATION I JUST SUPPLIED. I TAKE NO RESPONSIBILITY FOR ERRORS IN THE ABOVE INFORMATION.

This source says the door pin wires can all be found at the: Under Dash Fusebox. Although I still think locating them under the door sill panels is easier.

 

For diode orientation, the stripe MUST fave towards the door pin wire!!! You want (-) to travel through the diode to the relay, but not feed back into the other door pin wires. You don't care what (+) does. See below:

 

PS: sorry if I made it sound like I was talking to a bunch of preschoolers, I just try my best to put everything in the most absolute simplest form possible, because not everyone has the same knowledge level.

I just want everyone of all levels to be able to understand and for those who may find this thread in a search in the future will have all the info they need.

 

I appreciate you bringing it down to layman's terms

could this feature also happen alongside the door opening and turning on the lights?



if the remote would turn the lights on, when would the lights come off? when the lock button is depressed(on the remote or inside)?

also, another schematic to show how that would be spliced in. we love schematics(your drawing is much easier to read than the toyota diagram)

OP - once again, sorry for threadjacking you, I thought it was somewhat related since we're both trying to tie in the dome light/door switch wiring.

edit: going into even more layman terms, I should be testing the wires that connect to the door switches, correct? what am I testing these wires for, continuity or voltage?

 

This is all good stuff. I'm a little lost on what this will do though (but I'm at work "working"). Does this set up dim the lights on, same as the dome light?

Back to the original questions, I know there are simpler ways to wire up bed lights, but that's not what I am going for.

I would like to have manual control over bed lights on auto with dome light (doors)
on auto with canopy door open
on auto with tailgate open or canopy
on from cab (3-way with bed)
on from bed (3-way with cab)

The reason for the complicated wiring is that sometime I have the topper on, sometime off, sometimes i run with no tailgate, and sometimes I want to hide whats in the back and don't want the lights on at all and if i forget to turn the bed lights off at the bed, when I get into the truck I can turn them off.

Does that make sense?

I too appreciate you talking to "preschoolers" it makes it vary clear for anyone else who wants to do this, regardless of ability level.

 

I don't understand what your asking. On my truck, when I press unlock on my remote, dome lights turn on. When I press lock on my remote, dome lights turn off. This also happens when I use the switch on the driver door to lock and unlock. The problem with connecting the ccfl to this circuit is that it "dims" in and out and so voltage is not consistent. It will end up causing erratic results from the relay. If you want the lights to turn on/off with the dome light and not the doors, that's way easier, but its going to have problems though.

As far as what your testing for on the door wires... When you find the wire in question, it should read 0 or possibly some (+) voltage when the corresponding door is Closed. As soon as the door is open, is should read ground. The tool I use actually just tells me if there is ground present, but if using a multi meter, then you would test this wire by looking for continuity to ground when the door is open. These wires start directly at the "pin" in the door opening.

 

OP, I apologize for us taking over your thread. All the information I have supplied is unrelated to what your trying to accomplish. I am on my way to school right now but will be home in about 3 hours. I will analyze what your trying to accomplish and see if I can get something drawn up. I can tell you that without a computer programmed circuit, this is going to be very difficult to accomplish!! Its going to get very messy and honestly just not worth the hassle, but ill see what I can do and what is and isn't possible.

 

No worries guys, I too thought your questions were related. You are trying to turn on the lights in the footwells with doors open right?

I would like to achieve the same thing, but be able to turn it off if i don't want that effect, except I am trying to light bed lights rather than footlights.