Relocating the BSM to Tail Lights

Any luck getting these working?

 

Still working through it! But I'm close. Got the sensors mounted in the tail light housings and the wiring for the lights is all done. I think they'll be fine mounted to the plastic brackets I attached to the housings rather than bending up aluminum bar and trying that whole idea. I'll try to get some shots of the lighting effects later, they're going to be sweet!

Next step is making sure that the sensors still work and will see through the lenses. As you can see, I had to remove a good amount of the housing to get them to fit in there. The plan is to cut and graft in strips of PC then hit the seams with RTV to make them as close to waterproof as I can. Maybe it would be worth going to Fusion360 to see if there's something there I can do. That's extra $$ and time though.



Here's some mockups and testing of the reverse light pods! They're going to be bright af

 

Awesome work! Would love to see this work out so we can try some sweet rear bumpers.

 

So badass! Hoping for the best with this so I can get a rear bumper on order!

Do you have access to a 3D scanner? I'm wondering if you could scan the backside of the housing with the sensor in place so you could print up a cover for it.

 

My aftermarket bsm sensors are a good bit smaller than those it seems. But I didn’t have factory bsm I added it.

 

Got a link for those?

 

Nah I wish. That would have made things a lot easier up to this point if I did! If I designed a type of cover for the back it wouldn't be too hard to just get measurements the old fashioned way and then model it in Fusion360. I'll have to take some time to model the sensor and see if I can come up with something that makes sense. Sometimes it just helps to have it in CAD to think it all through.

 

Yeah I hear that. I'm totally the same way. I haven't tried it personally, but I've heard the 3D scanners for iPhones using the LIDAR work pretty well. You need an iPhone 12 Pro or better though.

 

Hadn't heard of this, I'll play around with it and see if it'll do what I need thanks! All that I saw before were $800 entry level scanners which then jump up to $5k-$10k high res professional scanners. Wasn't about to drop that kind of coin!

 

work perfect for someone that doesn’t have the bsm. I put mine in the factory location but would work good in the tail light with another bumper. My sensors are like 3x3

Brandmotion Radar Blind Spot System with Cross Traffic Detection RDBS-1500 | Seamless Integration | Lane Change Assist | 40ft Range Radar | Audible / Visual Driver Alert for Vehicles 2007 and Newer

Brandmotion RDBS-1500 Radar Blind Spot System for 2007 & Newer Vehicles , Black

 

Well, y'all. IT WORKS!! The sensors work! They're a little finnicky, but that's probably mostly due to the makeshift bracket I have the sensors mounted on for now to test. It threw check sensor warnings a little after I started driving with them in there. I turned off the truck, turned off BSM from the switch and then started up the truck and turned the BSM back on again and that seemed to get it working for a few minutes without issue. They need more extensive testing to give it a 100% seal of approval, but I'm pumped that it's working in testing! I haven't tested cross traffic yet though, which is the main feature I'd like.

I got a video of it in action, but having some trouble getting the file small enough to share here. Anyways, not an exciting video on it's own. I tested both sides, both lit up when a vehicle was in my blind spot. They're a little sensitive, so sometimes a light pole will set them off briefly or if they wiggle too much I think it alerts the ECU. Once they're in there more solidly that should be it hopefully. Probably don't even need to be messed with in techstream but maybe that could also help with the blips from light poles. The most important fact is they're working!

Here are some shots of the lights mounted. Ignore the masking tape holding the lenses in place!







Here's the turn signal sequence in action. It's not sped up due to the low quality of the gifs, that's pretty true to life. I like the idea of the sequence, makes it seem as fancy as it is imo, but it seems less visible when the running lights are on than I'm comfortable with and too quick to run through the sequence. The sequence is more visible in person with the running lights on than shows up in the gif, however. Usually the diode drivers will turn off the running lights, flash, then turn the running lights back on which is what I'd prefer. Not sure why the module would be causing that bit of the driver not to function as expected. Needs some tweaking before I feel comfortable with these on the street.

 

Nice work! I dropped mine a while back but after your success I might try to add them back. I have fiberglass bedsides so even easier.

 

Killer! In the past I've had a BSM malfunction after they got covered with mud. After cleaning them off it took like 5-10 minutes of driving before the warning light went away. It seems like the system has to work through a reset of some sort. Well done!

 

Great job man. I've been following this thread closely. You've put in a lot of time and effort into this.

 

Thanks for the support y'all! It's been a journey. Still not at the finish yet, I think the sensors will require a 3d printed bracket to be set up best for success.

Here are some daytime shots! Looks so black! I've got some plans for the rear reflectors since those are currently missing.





These are the lights that come on when you hit the brake pedal. I'm worried they won't be as obvious during the day and too bright at night. I bought a flasher module for the 3rd brake which I think will help with daytime visibility, but a relay could be used to have the running lights (the L shaped LEDs) work with the brakes during the day and not at night. What do y'all think?

 

Hot damnnnn!!!!! Did you have to do any reprogramming on the sensors? From the forums, seems that might be SOP when working on them.

 

I think you need to get a 3d printed piece together. Maybe with reflectors etc, so people can bake their taillights and do this mod. Looks good.

 

I am thinking with your success I may give this a try, but instead of making my own tail lights I will try to fit the BSM in the reverse light location of some OEM style aftermarket tails like these:



The reverse light housing appears to be well separateed from the main tail light assembly so I think i could seal up the main assembly with some sikaflex black, and black out the reverse light area in the housings.
If I can get the BSM work then I could mount some white pod chase lights in the aftermarket rear bumper wired to the backup light circuit.

Can you confirm the following links are the correct pigtails for building the BSM extension harness like you did?
https://www.bmotorsports.com/shop/product_info.php/products_id/4057
https://www.bmotorsports.com/shop/product_info.php/products_id/5053

 

I like this idea. The reverse lights could be integrated into the bumper. The drawback is that you couldn't use @MESO total tail amber blinkers.

 

Yeah those are the correct links for the pigtails. You just have to solder them together to make the extension. I've thought about doing something similar, you'll have to let me know how it goes. Not sure how well it'll see through the curves in the plastic/fit in the allocated space behind the housing since it'll need to be basically right where the side bolt goes and sit pretty far back to clear everything.