LED High Beam Signal Wire

[Phatrucker]

I want to wire my light bar into my high beams but the LED system is different from the Halogen system. I have wired 3 of our work trucks up this way using the white wire with the green tracer as the high beam signal. This is not the case with the factory LED headlights. All wires going to the headlights have constant voltage Most are at 12V but 2 of them are at 8V with no change with the dimmer switch being activated. My question does anyone know of a signal or fuse for the high beam when The truck has factory LED headlights. I’m at my wits end trying to figure this out. Thank you for any help

 

[Mood93]

did you find anything out?

 

[Phatrucker]

Nothing yet, I will continue to look and experiment.


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[stevj]

Just guessing here and not positive about the LED version, as I have no wiring diagrams for the new Ram.
If +12VDC is applied to a lighting circuit whose GROUND is not connected to anything (open), then +12VDC will be measured on both supply and return sides until a GROUND connection is made.
It's possible that the +12VDC is always available, and a GROUND is placed on the appropriate wire by the Control Module to turn on the lights.
Probe the wires with the high beams ON and see if you can then find a GROUND potential on a wire.

Steve

 

[Phatrucker]

Awesome great idea Steve I will give it a shot and report back. Than you.


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[AALiVEE]

What did you find out? Did you get it working?
I am also thinking about adding more lights for the high beam, same as shown in the picture, i think it looks pretty good, what do you think?
The 360 camera will suffer some, but still work ok, park-sensors mounted in the lightbar working 100%, i will probably remove the lights during summer.

 

[AALiVEE]

 

[Shives]

Ummm no to rain on the parade, but I think LED lights have there “own” control unit. Each head lamp, I don’t know... Probably. But, I’m more then sure a way can be done. Sadly, as I think of it, LEDs are normally 3.3vdc per light diode. Course, this differs. But, goes the same, LED lights don’t use 12volts. They will prob use a low voltage signal.
What at this point I would consider, AlfaOBD and see if you can Re-program an output or circuit to come alive with high beam signal.

so, if that’s true you need to figure out if you can get to those units, and find a trigger wire, and get a relay that’s rated for that circuit. In other words, a 4 poll relay that will trigger withsay 8 volts (guessing) and allow 12v to be passed to your other lights. You’ll also have to supply battery voltage to this relay, as I’m guessing poll 30. 85 and 86 will be trigger. 87 will be your lights. This is shorting from the hip, hungry and waiting in line for food.

 

[AALiVEE]

Yeah, this might be trickier than i expected..
Still on the fence about it, the LED-headlights do have e pretty good high-beam, in fact might have one of the best, but still if you once had a setup as in the picture above it is hard to not remember the magnificent light output that has...
Thank you for good input.

 

[adorsett]

I know many foreign cars (BMW, Volvo, etc) that have been LED for years which offer "cornering" capabilities are using LED headlights that attach to the CANbus and are receiving data across the CAN and the lights have their own control module to process the data and determine when to corner or when to go high/low. Not sure if RAM has switched to something like this in their new LED lights...

Perhaps it might be easier to monitor via the OBDII port and decode the high/low signal that gets pushed out across the CANbus with a RaspberryPi and then use it to drive an external relay that controls the lights. With that you can do a lot more than just light control: https://www.autopi.io/use-cases/

Here's a prebuilt system that I just found quickly via google:

Raspberry Pi 3 B+ System With Single CAN Bus Interface

Raspberry Pi 3 System With CAN Bus Interface For CAN Bus Programming Under Embedded Linux

copperhilltech.com

 

[Shives]

Lmfao.... I mean... Sure.... We could build a super computer to see if I’m male or female... But I think it would take less time to just check.

in other words, you would have to monitor the port, break security in the vehicle to see this, then make a program to watch or listen to a port, or signal, and then turn a circuit on... Then off! That’s a bit over the top for most folks.
So do you have fog lamps now?
You could do a few things with relays! First, take the fog light signal and reverse it with a relay to trigger high beam. BUT being you don’t use the fogs all the time, may not work as you want. Yes, the headlamps use a control box to turn off and on the LED lights. They get a can bus signal.
Before using a PI I would check a few things with AlfaOBD. First check to see if programming can be done for an extra output. As I do see that you can program some of these items. 2. Use a relay that triggers off low voltage. (You can find these any place!) you would use 85 and 86 as your trigger. 30 and 87 or 87a would be feed. Depending how you do this. SO, without having a system in front of me, I can’t tell you where to start, but if your local, I’m happy to help!
At some point today, I plan on looking at my truck! Again, I don’t have LED headlamps in mine, but I might be able to see an area in settings for light output.

now, looks like the LED controller is on the headlights themself. I’ll take a look and see if I can find some information.

I’ll be adding some switch back DRL strips, and looming to do some output programming, or tie in.

the Raspberry pi Is a cool idea, but takes some work to really get it right. You would need to be good with electrical, and more. Not saying it’s impossible, but the length you will have to go to get it working, is much more then using a relay and some wires or AlfaOBD.

 

[Shives]

Back to the fog light system... if you program your fogs drop out... to stay on with high beams you can use the normal 85-86 as trigger. Supply 12volts to 30 and use 87 to your new lights. OR, if you want fogs off with high beam, you can use the reverse... if you want them to drop out, wire 30 for power, and put the trigger on 87a. This way when the fogs are on, relay is trigger to turn off and cut supply... when off, relay rest back to the 87a and will turn on the six headlights.

 

[Shives]

Ps this is in AlfaOBD. Looked today.

 

[AALiVEE]

In my last truck (not full-size us-truck) i had CanBUS interface that did extract high-beam signal and parking light which i wired to relays / extra lightning, i know i have one of those interfaces laying in the garage, it is a 100$ thing and very basic but works great. I guess this one might work fine in the RAM also?
But i still need to know what wire to tap signal from..

 

[Kazoo]

View attachment 68084

@AALiVEE what bully bar is that??

 

[AALiVEE]

@AALiVEE what bully bar is that??

https://qpax.se/en/car-model/dodge/dodge-frame-1500-19/q-light-extraljusfaste-dodge-frame-1500-19-extraljusbage-for-4x.html

About 850 USD plus shipping.

 

[ALBOY29]

Hate to revive an old thread, but in a very similar boat right now. Any luck?

 

[AALiVEE]

I have scrapped my plans on extra lightning so i have not investigated this further, but i know it is possible as I have seen another Limited with the full LED-headlights running extra lightning, so it is doable, probably with some can-bus module.
The auto-high-beam feature will not be possible to use of course.