aux lighting wiring diagram needed

[coldtaco]

Hi, I can't figure out how to wire the aux lights the way I want them to work. Can someone make me a drawing/schematic to how to do it? What I want is to use a on/off/on switch. One on position for just running the lights by them selves and the other on position so that they come on when I have the high beams on. I have a Hella 24V relay with the 5 prongs, the usual following post numbers; 30, 85, 86, 87, 87a. Sorry Stone, but the drawing you made me a while back does not make sense to me especially after I compared it to what I could find on the Hella web site, which still did not clear up the confusion for me
Thanks.

 

[Stone]

It "should be" a simple matter to do that. Pin 30 is the power source for your aux lights...so if you're running 24V bulbs then you hook Pin 30 to the 24V post. If you're running 12V lights (not recommended as it takes power from your converter), then you hook up Pin 30 to a 12V source.

Pins 85 and 86 power the coil that throws the switch in the relay. If you don't have a relay that has a diode inline with the coil, then it doesn't matter which pin you make ground and which one you make positive. Let's say you have a standard relay with a resistor inline with the coil. Let's arbitrarily make Pin 85 ground, and Pin 86 positive. You will hook up Pin 86 to the 24V terminal of your battery (or a switched source if you want that), then to a ON/OFF swtich that you will use to manually control your lights, then to the relay. In order to automatically turn on the aux lights with your high beams, find the wire in your headlight wire harness that is energized with +24V when the high beams are on. The tap into this wire and connect it between the ON/OFF switch and the relay. This way the relay will see +24V and flip the lights on with your high beams no matter what your switch is doing. You will also have to properly put in a diode inline with the wire that you've attached between your high beams wire and the relay...or else your high beams will flash on when you flip your switch to turn on the aux lights.

Pin 87a is a normally closed connection with Pin 30...so you will not use this Pin.

Pin 87 is the normally open connection with Pin 30, and this is where the (+) wire of your aux lights should be connected to.

The only tricky part of this circuit will be finding the right diode and connecting it properly in order to prevent the relay circuit from turning on your high beams when you turn on your aux lights. Other than that, it should be fairly straight forward...I think. Anyone else spot a flaw in this quickly thought-up plan?

 

[coldtaco]

Thanks, will try again tomorrow. I don't know about using a diode on the high beam thing. I wired this set up on the Taco, just it's -25C outside and I would have to pull the switch out of th dash and look under the hood and see how everything was wired up. Well, I am due for a oil change on the Taco, so I probably should do that tomorrow and then I can check how I did it before. I did finally figure out the pin 30 and 87, just still need to figure out the multiple switch idea. I did not know that there might be a resistor between the other two pins, will have to work on the pin 85 and 86, hopefully the Taco will reveal it's secret to me

 

[Stone]

Hi Stefan:

The resistor inline with the coil between Pin 85 and 86 does two things. It raises the resistance in the coil allowing use in a 24V system, and it also prevents voltage spikes as the coil is flipped on and off.

As far as your ON/OFF/ON switch is concerned, if you want to use it, you can maybe get rid of having to put in a Diode by doing the following: Hook up one side the the switch from the battery to the relay as previously mentioned. Then, when you do the tap from the high beam wire, instead of tapping it into the wire coming from the battery, wire it to the other side of the switch...then you won't need a diode as the high beam wire remains isolated from the battery.

Your system will function as follows: ON(1)...manually turn on your aux lights. OFF is completely off no matter what happens. ON(2)...your aux lights remain off, but turn on when your high beams are turned on. Might not be a bad setup actually.

 

[coldtaco]

So, would a 24V relay have this resistor?

 

[Stone]

So, would a 24V relay have this resistor?

Yes...at least the Hella ones do.

 

[coldtaco]

I think I got it all figured out now. Hopefully I can get it done tomorrow, just got to find the high beam wiring under the dash and hope that it is 24V. Do you happen to know where the head lights go from 24V to 12V? At least I am assuming that at the head light switch it is 24V.

 

[Greg_B]

If the dimmer relay is anything like the BJ42 (uses the same evil center tap system) is will be 12V. The 12V center tap will power the relay, as well as have a hot 24V coming in. The relay then splits the 12V and 24V where needed, to create an even load on the system.

It should say right on the relay if it is 12V or 24V.

hth's

gb

 

[Stone]

I keep forgetting that your 70 has 12V headlights, Stefan. I would recommend sticking with the KISS principle.

 

[sandcruiser]

when I wired my lights in the 60 I did them like this:

bought an On/Off/On switch
the center wire from switch went to the relay pin 86. A wire went from pin 85 to ground.
From the bottom of the switch, I ran a pigtail to the highbeam indicator light.
From the top of the switch, I ran a pigtail to the guage cluster illumination light.
I then wired pin 30 to the power source, and pin 87 to the lights.

It worked like this: when the switch was thrown downward, it turned on the Aux lights as long as the headlights or parking lights are on.
when the switch was thrown upward, the aux lights would turn on with the highbeams.
In the center position, no aux lights. Period.

I wired it this way so that if I turn off the light switch on the steering column, all lights actually go out.

An alternative would be to run the top of switch pigtail to either ignition or "hot".

This method worked great for me for two sets of driving lights and a set of fog lights (well, I just used a jumper from one switch to the next for the top and bottom, but effectively the same thing). I recommend it.

Of course, this all assumes 12v. with 24 you may have to make a change or two. Can't help you there.

 

[Stone]

Stefan:

With your 12V headlights and 24V electrical system, I would use a 12V relay on the ON/OFF/ON system that I've described. The other change that you would have to make is to measure the resistance between Pin 85 and 86 and double that resistance by buying the same value in a resistor. You can then place this resistor inline with the lead that comes in from the 24V battery. The lead from your headlight will already be 12V.

Pins 30 and 87 don't care what voltage they see, so you can still use 24V foglights if you like.

 

[coldtaco]

update

Well, it only works half way Switching the aux on by itself works. Switching the aux on with high beams does not work. As soon as you turn your headlights on, the aux is on when that switch position is selected. The problem is that there is 12V to the high beam side when headlights are selected on. Then when you go for high beam, you get 24V. So, the 12V activates the relay. Isn't there any way to get 24V only for high beam? I checked the pin for the high beam indicator light on the dash and it does the same thing. It has 12V when headlights are on, and 24V when high beam selected and the blue light comes on. Any ideas?

 

[coldtaco]

another update, Stone got any ideas?

Ok, found out the relay will close with 15V, and by having the 14.8 (aprox) with the vehicle running, it appears voltage is close enough to close the relay. So I installed a resistor and that seems to fix that problem. The other problem is that when you shut the high beams off, the relay stays closed because the shut-off voltage is only 2V. So, with there being 12v, engine off, or 14.8v, engine on, the relay remains closed (on). So, now I need to figure out a way to get power off of the relay when you turn the high beams off, or trick it into thinking that the power is turned off. Dont' know how to do that.

 

[Stone]

Steffan:

Sandcruiser has laid out an excellent plan in post #10 above...I don't see why you didn't take his advice on setting it up his way since it seems to be what you're trying to do for your truck?

If your dash lights are 24V, then all you'll need to change is the relay to a 24V model.

 

[coldtaco]

Sandcruiser's 60 is a 12V system. I got this to work on my 12V Tacoma also. Please re-read my last two posts. I got the first problem fixed. The second problem is that the relay has a 2V kick-out rating. That means that the relay needs to see less than 2V for it to open. When you turn the high beams off, the power goes to 12V in the high beam wiring, instead of 0V like in a 12V system. Need to come up with a way to have 0V in the wire that I hooked up to the high beam wire when the high beam is shut off. Hope this makes sense.

 

[Stone]

I have read your question numerous times (I'm not that dumb) and it baffles me why you've chosen to tap a high beam dependent source where you have. I give up.

 

[coldtaco]

Do you have any other suggestions to how to run my 24V aux lights off of the 12V high beams? email me your phone number please if you don't want to post it please. flyc46@gci.net

 

[coldtaco]

Success


Well, I spent some more time under the dash checking everything I could find that has anything to do with the headlights. I finally gave up and started buttoning everything back up when I notices a metal box looking like relay. Checked the writing on it and it said Dimmer Relay. Hmmmm. So I started checking voltage at each wire and came across a wire that had 12V with the high beams on and 0V at all other light settings. So I thought, if the 24V relay activates at a low voltage and de-activates at 2V or less, why not hook it up to this wire? So I did and now the Aux lights come on with the high beams when selected on the ON/OFF/ON switch. So it can be done on Toyota's crazy center tap setup for the headlights.

 

[Greg_B]

Well, I spent some more time under the dash checking everything I could find that has anything to do with the headlights. I finally gave up and started buttoning everything back up when I notices a metal box looking like relay. Checked the writing on it and it said Dimmer Relay. Hmmmm. So I started checking voltage at each wire and came across a wire that had 12V with the high beams on and 0V at all other light settings. So I thought, if the 24V relay activates at a low voltage and de-activates at 2V or less, why not hook it up to this wire? So I did and now the Aux lights come on with the high beams when selected on the ON/OFF/ON switch. So it can be done on Toyota's crazy center tap setup for the headlights.

Good for you. Stone and I were talking about this at the shop today, and this is exactly what was discussed. BTW...the dimmer relay is the relay I mentioned in the PM that takes in the 12V and 24V leads, and sends them out to the head lights on the pins required to make the center tap battery balance system work. You found the high beam 12V side, as opposed to the 24v side you had tried using, which shows 12V when the headlights are off, which netralize's the 12V neutral pin for that headlight.

gb

 

[coldtaco]

Thanks. Yeah, I never found this relay in all my searching under the dash and looking at the wiring schematics. I had my head under the dash and would turn on and off the headlights listening for the clicking noises. The ones I found where the little round ones just off the right side of the stearing column. When ever I removed a certain one, there would be no more clicks so I never heard any other clicks. I'm glad this is done and works. When you mentioned the dimmer relay I thought it was one of those round ones.