12-15 AlphaRex Pro-Series Headlights DRL

Coming to realize if I were to wire the Alpha's DRL harness to the factory DRL, they would turn off when halogen low beams are engaged. Which may interfere with the sequential turn signal...

so may have to end up wiring to +12v positive under the hood somewhere (dont really want to run it to the cab). A little bummed I won't ever be able to go into stealth mode (no lights on on the vehicle).

Will post some pictures of the Alpha-Rex's once installed....installing Cali-Raised roof rack this week. Yeeee

 

Do the Morimotos DRL turn into turn signals?

 

No the morimotos don't do that with their DRLs unfortunately

 

So DRL is NOT related to turn. What is the worry?

 

i personally dont care about the DRLs working with the turn lights. They look cool already the way they are on my truck

 

Finally getting to uploading a picture! Woo
Installed the Cali-Raised roof rack with slim LED light bar! Great output, but it seems to have a very visible spot beam, was hoping for more a flood projection. Also, seems to be pretty reflective off the hood (maybe because of the white) I've never had a roof mounted light bar before, so new output for me.
Then the Alpha-Rex Pro headlights got hooked up love the design and look of them! I don't notice much of a difference in headlight output, but the white DRL's are very strong!! I've got it wired up to the light stalk, so they can be switched off completely with a click.
Grill lights are currently wired into factory DRL, so they turn off when headlights go on. But they do come back on when turn signal is initiated (then go back off). Still trying to decide if I want to switch them to parking light sequence or DRL sequence.
If they turn on with parking lights, they stay on with headlights, but not DRL.
And if they turn on with DRL, they turn off with headlights....
Maybe I wire them to a separate switch...would love them to be on for all light sequences

 

Maybe you need to add a diode from each input
One from DRL another from Parking.

 

Lets go!

 

Never messed around with diodes much...what size would you recommend?

 

1Amp

 

I have the AlphaRex Nova series and they are much brighter than OEM headlights, but im having the same issue. Someone on the FB group recommended unplugging the top fuse for AlphaRex harness and that enabled me to turn on/off the DRL parts with factory stalk when vehicle is turned off. BUT when vehicle is running they somehow override the function and wont turn off anymore. Plus when headlights are full on, the right blinker hyperflashes unless I turn on left blinker first.

Long story short, thinking about wiring in a hidden kill switch under the dash for if I need to go into stealth mode which cuts off the power to the lights completely when needed. Its a bummer that AlphaRex doesnt make a separate wiring harness that we can purchase for these functions. Someone could make bank selling these for Morimoto headlights also!

 

Actually this is how you do it. its how i did my 2015 TRD off road with tow kit and factory DRL lights......it retains the factory switch and you dont even have to go thru the firewall for the fuse tap nor behind the JB box..... just a local relay and two diodes .... all between the main battery and the headlights.

remember that the factory DRL are the factory turn signals but with a steady 12v to them when in DRL and 0v when OFF . if the DRL are on and a turn signal is selected, the BCU sends the 12v pulse to the side of turn while the other remains a steady 12v.

regardless the alpharex black box unit times out at about a minute if the grey wire has no 12v input at the aplpharex black box....the DRL shut off when the timer expires (Approx. 1 minute). even if you dont have DRL on and you just give a 12v pulse to one side, that yellow wire input allows for the the pulsing 12v to power up the DRL for turn sequencing operation only (not continuous DRL operation) and after a boot up (go watch the headlights) then place the appropriate side into sequential with the offside booting into a steady DRL state until you cancel the turn and then wait for the alpharex black box to timer out and shut back off both DRLs. if you dont pulse the yellow input to the alpharex black box then you'll get hyperflash.... (everything just said assumes the marker (or also referred to as parking lamps) have no input and the headlamps are not on in bright nor dim. if any of those happen then the DRLs have already been booted up and will immediately respond to a turn command without any additional boot up lamp sequence.

basically a COLD headlight, no signals to it for over a minute (no marker, no headlamp, no turn, etc.... meaning cold) then if a turn command 12v pulse input on the yellow happens, this will initiate a boot up sequence for turn signal only and cause a drl sate for the offside and a drl state for the onside once turn is cancelled util the unit times out again because of no grey wire power.

also basically if cold and any other input like the marker or the headlamps or the alpharex black box getting grey 12v steady or pulsed will cuase the DRLs to boot and the last method, the grey wire steady or pulsed will trigger the aplharex to connect battery inputs to the alpharex black box to the output red wires going to each headlight and hold that until 12v on grey is removed or hasnt pulsed for abut a minute via an internal timer in their unit.

for the guy that has just the one side (the left side yellow connected as per the FRICKEN idiots at Alpharex who are lame and cant figure out how this design this workaround let alone design their internal black box properly to have the yellow input to also recognize a steady 12v and not just a pulsed) so for that guy that was confused about his left vs right when wired per alpharex wiring recommendation.....if the left side is pulsed,(the headlamps cold prior to this) then the left turn works (albeit boot up happens then turn works....., if the other side is pulsed, you hyperflash the right turn signal because of no input to their box unless you selected right turn prior to the alpharex black box timer expiring. so you HAVE to diode isolate and give a pulsed input to their unit from either side when trying to command a turn signal.

if the grey wire is Not hot, (like some of you are doing in a tedious way by going thru the firewall and behind the JB and grabbing the BCU ground output when DRL is on) when the grey is not hot then the turns commanding on has to boot the lamp to then get it to go into sequential. but a steady on the yellow wont boot it, just a pulsed on the yellow. for the grey, it has to be a steady or a pulse to get it to turn on for its timer which runs about a minute to connect the battery voltage to the DRL red inputs so if you even pulse the grey, its good enough..... look at it like a timer SCR circuit where you give voltage to trigger the SCR to forward bias and then it has a timer on it to stop the forward bias after x amount of time. repeated triggering just keeps it going. so now with that said, if the factory DRL are on then you have steady 12V on the turn wires (factory DRL switch on sends steady 12v to both forward turn signal inputs) which means it will power my add-on relay and pull it down sending a constant 12v to the grey until you turn them off and the alpharex black box unit eventually times out. for those like me that have the auto shut off on the DRL, markers and the headlights if the stalk switch is left on, well that still works and after the BCU auto shut off timer expires (by opening and closing driver door), then the relay is relaxed and eventually in about a minute the alpharex will expire and disconnect.

its worth commenting that yes, if only a turn command (pulsed 12v) to either side then the add-on relay will cycle and not remain steady during the turn signal command when no DRL is on (BCU not sending steady 12v to at least one of them) but thats ok, the relay will cycle at the rate for the 12v pulsed signal and all its doing is restarting the internal timer to the alpharex black box same effect that he pulsed yellow wire input to it is already doing. and when it stops the same time out will occur and disconnect the battery from feeding the red wires to each headlight just like what happens when the yellow wire stops pulsing.

bottom line is you can wire like i did or wire it your way. mine solves all and uses factory switch and retains shut off and everything except it cant over come and nobody elses design can overcome the fact that if the DRL are not on and you initiate a turn, then both lamps go into boot up prior to the appropriate turn signal beginning its sequencing and then when turn signals are turned off, the DRL will remain until the alpharex black box unit internal timer expires in about a minute. trust me you designs in the blogs above work this way. (again except for the guy with the right hyperflash, what he doesnt understand is that by turning on his left first, he booted up both sides and then switches to the right and it works, but if he leaves it and check back within a minute he will find the alpharex unit timed out from losing the left giving input to the yellow input wire and the right will revert back to hyperflash once that timer expires.

trust me any questions and ill try to explain it better, but this is how to get it to work the very best it can be made to work and its also way way easier and retains the factory switch and features.

sucks that the turn sequencers have to be "booted up" and initiate DRL on just to use a turn signal and if you havent had the DRL on nor a turn signal command for over a minute then the next time you turn again, it has to be booted up again.... but thats the way it is yours too, dont believe me, go look again at all of your designs above, you vehicles do it too if you are keeping your DRLs off by the relay.



in summary, because of piss poor design on alpharex part...

no matter what you do, if operating from a cold state (meaning no DRL on state (per your designs above or per my design too)) and then you select a turn signal, both sides will boot the turn LED strips and turn on DRL and then the side selected will sequence turn while the other side shows DRL ......and when you turn off the turn signal, the DRLs will linger until the alpharex black box unit timer expires and it will do this over and over and over again everytime you select a turn signal if you are doing so from a no DRL on state. (this is where you can attempt a test to verify and prove my results. while the DRL are lingering and awaiting timeout and there is 0v on grey wire and you have just removed the pulsing 12v coming from one side. try to turn on a steady 12v f=to the yellow wire from the factory switch and you will see that the yellow input does not respond to a steady 12v... it only responds to a pulsing 12v). this is what i meant by the pulse yellow being a non continuous DRL state for booting the DRL lamps for use as turn signal sequencing and temp DRL for the offside and the onside cancelled turn pulse.

alpharex didnt make a booted up state that can keep the sequencer ready or armed but dark .... they should have .... and the other design flaw is alpharex didnt allow for the yellow input to turn on DRL when a steady 12v is present on the yellow it only responds to a pulsing input on the yellow so DRLs cant be commanded ON by the yellow (they are commanded on just for sequential turn function then turn back off..... the grey must be used for the DRL either steady 12v or pulsed to keep the timer reset while maintaining battery to red outputs until timer expires) ... enough said. and their customer support is fricken terrible, days of trying to contact them and then saying they will get around to me and never did until i told them forget it im fixing what i can myself and better than they possibly can. the rest, they need to do some serious product improvement and customer service improvement because none of this info i just gave was provided by them but instead found out by me after and hours and hours of testing and measuring and even as of today, they have never gotten back to me after facebook messenger, and phone call attempts.... just LAME.

sure i kept the headlights, but dont count on them to explain how their headlamps or their black box works. trust a guy (ME) that reverse engineered it out of necessity to get to a workable integration diagram and trying to share with you all how their wire inputs work to their unit.

 

Wow that's some serious research there! Any recommendation on which specific parts to purchase to make this work? I wish there was a plug and play kit, but im not opposed to hard wiring it in to make it work. Thanks for your help!

 

the diodes...

$6 BOJACK 1N4001 Rectifier Diode 1 A 50 V DO-41 Axial 4001 1 amp 50 volt Electronic Silicon Diodes (Pack of 125)

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07Q3HBM63?ie=UTF8

the relay....

$13 Recoil 2 Pack Automotive 5-Pin 30/40A 12V SPDT Relays with Interlocking Relay Sockets and in-line ATC Fuse Holders (2 Pack)

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08BHR2RM7?ie=UTF8


i had to fix the relay wire leg colors to match the standard bosch 12v relays .....so use this drawing and not the ones above

this drawing below shows the ALPHAREX way on the upper half and my way after reworking theirs using the relay and diode on the lower half. i just cut off the connectors for the yellow wires and then solder spliced in the diodes and added wiring with heat shrink covering the diodes and all spice locations of wires shown by the black dots

sure you can keep their connectors and try and go find the mates and add in the diodes and relay as a additional harness, but i just simply hardwired it all together and mounted the relay and tied it all in with conduit etc

Trust me this is way easier than going thru the firewall and going in behind the JB box to try and slice to that green/red wire etc. and Alpha rex way.... doesnt work for shit

i just drove my truck to and from work again today.. works awesome... remember that if you daytime drive with the DRL off and go to select a turn, both DRL boot and then within about a second or two ..they then flash. but your rear taillights dont delay, they immediate flash. thats whats important is anyone behind you as you lane change at highway speeds. (my rear headlighs are stock but with led bulbs and load resistors at each rear corner to eliminate hyperflash due to each being LED additions by me) mine didnt come factory with LED

This design is as good as it gets for having these headlights. im happy with them and have been happy since i designed this mod a few months back.

 

Sweet thanks! I run my DRL's on all the time, so this should work great for my setup. Thanks again for the links and diagrams!

 

ok, im gonna be guilty of thread hijacking, ha.... but i consider the following appropriate info and with intent to help others with their designs.

yeah, no problem on the help, anytime...., im an engineering test pilot for a major business jet company and have been doing system integration designs as well as being the chief test pilot, design engineer and a licensed aircraft mechanic.... been doing it for almost 40 yrs now so when it comes to vehicles this stuff is easy. hit me up if ever any design problems. i enjoy designing and helping people. my truck is sick, it is probably the most modified truck and high tech of any tacoma in the world. it has its own phone number full tesla style touch screen tablet... my ham radio, with satellite and mountain top repeater position reporting... I can even send text sms messages via my ham radio to anyones cell when out of cell range and bounce it off the international space station when it makes a pass over head, gps tracking, real satellite radio via rooftop antenna and its own receiver that is externally input to the tesla style screen, full engine diagnostics and engine gauges, the touch screen can run any app, i can watch netflix, news any app with cellular 4g signal but he sirus XM is not streamed via cellular so my sirus XM works anywhere) anti theft, alarm (if someone even disconnects my battery, there is a hidden battery that instantly powers the gps tracker and instantly sends a message to my phone to tell me the battery got disconnected). I installed a remote starter, 2nd battery behind the right wheel, full amp meters on both batteries, bed lighting with remote control, power and charging outlets in the bed, cpap power in the bed, winch, lane departure warning, cameras, full width gun safe behind the rear seats etc etc etc even my own home made water system with a footwell water tank that holds 11 gallon and sits low on the floor (low CG) and pumps it thru a dial thermostat under the frame (reach under the driver door (fyi truck has 2.5 inch lift kit)) and routes thru a heat exchanger in the engine bay and back to the mixer and i just plug a 1/2" diameter , 15 foot coiled garden hose into the quick disconnect on the frame just under the driver door and hit the button and as long as the engine is warm and when i dial it full hot... i am getting about 118 degree water and it shoots like 40 feet , so very good pressure and hot enough to scold someone if thermostat is too dialed too high... good enough for quick spray washing/showing at campsite and enough water for about a week for one person including ability to plug an inline filter and filter the potable water in the tank into drinking water. i can go on and on and show many more diagrams but my truck is more high tech that any vehicle out there of any kind and i designed everything myself. I build all my own harnesses and everything looks factory installed. no hack shit here. just looking at some of my drawings can be overwhelming for most....

basically its the ultimate camping vehicle, RSI smartcap that i can open from inside and i just keep the 6 inch foam mattress and my sleeping bag back there and everything else camping (fridge, camp gear and clothing go in the back seat with the bench seat removed if i go on a prolonged trip for over a week. i can wake up and remote start vehicle before i even get out of the sleeping bag and preheat the truck bed with a "noogle" hose connected to the passenger vent and routed thru the rear window into the smartcap. meanwhile as its remote started it begin recharging my 2nd battery from being used during the night (which has never depleted lower that 65% capacity even with full humidity and heat on my cpap machine and running lights and charging devices before sleeping 8 hours) so when i remote start, it warms the engine, recharges the battery and heats the smartcap via that hose if i want it preset before i goto bed. then i crawl out of the bag, warm and go take a quick shower and then pull out of campsite without worry for a tent most al my mods youd never notice unless i pointed the out. (even the alarm has a mode switch for normal alarm mode and camping mode (camping mode disables the motion sensor because im sleeping in the vehicle and it adds the accessory bus so the touch screen and heater controls power up. normal mode allows for all doors and motion sensors and "other sensors" but keeps the accessory buss off during remote start i toggle the switch one way or the other before locking vehicle with the remote or my phone. and of course i can start it and track it and remote "kill the engine" from my phone from anywhere in the world. another feature i like to point out is my led light bar thats on my SSO hybrid winch bumper has a dedicated switch and can turn on with key on to any position but if you turn on the headlights then the lightbar only works in high beam. that way if i encounter on coming traffic i dont have to dim high beams AND turn off led light bar, just dimming the headlights back to low beams caused the LED Lightbar to be inhibited. I stole that feature from the fog lamp factory circuit that inhibits fog lights unless low beams are on. i reworked both circuits so fog light can come on anytime but lightbar only comes on it switch is on and headlights are either off or headlights on and in high beam.

anyway, like i said, hit me up if ever a design problem i'm not on here often but i do check in at least once a month the below 3 diagrams are most of the mods but i have another drawing that i wont share because its my hidden alarm features and i dont want anyone knowing how its designed so they cant defeat it and steal the truck.... but lets just say it includes monitoring the wheel speed sensors for the anti skid and if someone even rolls any one of my wheels let alone open a door or hood or even if they could start the vehicle which i doubt they could, even with all power off ....just any wheel rolling will send a instant signal to my phone. most advanced alarm system ive ever seen and i designed the additional features myself. but those i keep guarded . they cant even remove my catalytic converter anti theft shield without the sensors being tripped and setting off my alarm. the plunger is depressed when it is bolted on and if remove the bolts that hold it on or cut the wire, it breaks the ground signal and sets off my phone. there is no way to get to the hidden battery that powers the tracker or disable either without me getting an alert. like i said, even a dead battery engages the hidden backup and sets off my phone.

maybe the question of solar panels will arise, i dont bother with that expensive and inefficient crap. I just run the engine and recharge as im driving the next day.. im usually out sightseeing during the day even if im just leaving camp to go drive around and then return to the same camp later. i only need like an hour to completely top the battery from the most drained state ive ever experienced so far during a all night operation of the 2nd battery.(gas is cheap, a week of saving hotel costs, even if i used a ful tank of gas for an entire weeks worth of idling at california gas prices, its still only about 85 bucks for an extra tank of gas just for idling/recharging. compare that to a weeks worth of hotel costs. and no way would i need to idle during a full week for more than about a quarter tank of gas at the most. but like i said, im usually on a road trip and pulling out of camp and driving around all day so a byproduct is it recharges easily before returning to camp..... my truck isnt captivated at the camp site by any tent or anything deployed, i just close up the tailgate and close the smartcap and drive off and if i pull into a new campsite after hours or in the rain, no need to set up anything or remove stuff from the truck bed to then get inside and sleep... unless i want to also carry a folding table which sometimes i do, but that takes two seconds to pull out and set aside and climb into truck bed and pull things closed and sleep.

oh and last and a critically important thing. I carry a battery operated and usb charged air quality monitor that has an alarm built into it that i keep in the truck bed to protect me from carbon monoxide or any pollutants and it will easily wake me if any dangerous levels occur..... since i have the remote starter, i figured thats an important item. I do have my remote start to automatically start if the air temp falls below freezing and you never know if the winds are just right to cause the exhaust fumes to enter the truck bed sleeping area. has never happened to me, but i protect myself by using that air quality monitor and alarm when i sleep back there. plus you never know if a forest fire or even if the camp fire didnt get put out good by your drunk buddies who went to their tents after you already fell asleep. I dont want to NOT wake up.



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Wow that is quite the setup! If you are ever in the Charlotte area of North Carolina I would love to meet up and take a look at your truck!