How to wire LED footlights
03-18-2016, 08:34 AM
#1
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How to wire LED footlights
Sounded simple but.. Tried wiring them right to the wire from the door switch. But dome and door lights would go out when door closed, but led's stay on. Tried wiring directly to dome fuse,(tried both sides), led's just stayed on. I'm thinking it's a grounding issue. The company I bought them from were unable to help. HELP !
03-18-2016, 11:38 AM
#2
Can you show us the lights??
No wiring diagrams ??
Just how did you have them wired into the door switch??
Like this below ??
Since the door switch when closed (door open) goes to ground your lights would need to be hooked into that wire only!! one wire of the light ( the ground) towards the switch the other wire( positive) hooked to the same wire.
That should turn your light on when the door is opened and have them off when closed.
If they are normal LED lights
No wiring diagrams ??
Just how did you have them wired into the door switch??
Like this below ??
Since the door switch when closed (door open) goes to ground your lights would need to be hooked into that wire only!! one wire of the light ( the ground) towards the switch the other wire( positive) hooked to the same wire.
That should turn your light on when the door is opened and have them off when closed.
If they are normal LED lights
03-18-2016, 06:44 PM
#3
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The led's are in a strip w/ red and black wires. So red should go to a positive and black should go to wire from door switch ? I got confused before because wire from door switch is red. I'll work on it in the morning ! Thanx !
03-19-2016, 03:29 AM
#4
The black wire goes to ground. It needs to be a good contact, free from paint etc.
Think of it as a miniature version of one of your chassis or engine grounds.
I doubt the LED's pull much juice so you should be able to pull power from your door switch power
Think of it as a miniature version of one of your chassis or engine grounds.
I doubt the LED's pull much juice so you should be able to pull power from your door switch power
03-19-2016, 05:35 AM
#5
The door switches when the door opens allowing the switch to close complete the circuit by grounding !!
If you ground the LED strip then hook a positive to the other wire the lights will be on all the time.Or as long as the voltage is applied.
The OP wanted his new LED lights to power up when the door is opened.
Must not have had enough Carrots in his youth.
If you ground the LED strip then hook a positive to the other wire the lights will be on all the time.Or as long as the voltage is applied.
The OP wanted his new LED lights to power up when the door is opened.
Must not have had enough Carrots in his youth.
03-23-2016, 11:28 AM
#7
I wanted some floor board lights in my 83 so here's what I did:
-Mounted the lights on the kick panel
-Wired the lights directly into the dome light (ground to ground, positive to positive)
-Since the dome light operates on a ground interrupt circuit they have constant power going to the positive side, but when you open the door the ground circuit is completed thus turning on the light.
-I wanted to be able to turn on the lights without opening the door so I wired a regular rocker switch "backwards" so that when I turned on the switch (with the doors closed) the switch would complete the ground circuit and turn the lights on (regardless of whether the door is open or not). I wired a wire from a ground source to what would be the positive feed post on the switch and then a wire from the what would be the positive output post of the switch to the ground wire on the dome light/floor lights.
So here would be your schematic:
Body ground --> switch
Switch --> ground wire on dome light/floor light
Floor light ground --> ground wire on dome light
Floor light positive --> positive wire on dome light
*Note, on the 79-83 pickups, the dome light does not come on without the doors open. They can be turned off so that they will not come on when the door is opened, but they cannot be turned on by switch with the doors closed. This modification allows me to turn on the dome light with the doors closed as well as the new floor lights.
Here are some pics:
Switch for the dome/floor lights to the left of my steering column
LED floor lights
-Mounted the lights on the kick panel
-Wired the lights directly into the dome light (ground to ground, positive to positive)
-Since the dome light operates on a ground interrupt circuit they have constant power going to the positive side, but when you open the door the ground circuit is completed thus turning on the light.
-I wanted to be able to turn on the lights without opening the door so I wired a regular rocker switch "backwards" so that when I turned on the switch (with the doors closed) the switch would complete the ground circuit and turn the lights on (regardless of whether the door is open or not). I wired a wire from a ground source to what would be the positive feed post on the switch and then a wire from the what would be the positive output post of the switch to the ground wire on the dome light/floor lights.
So here would be your schematic:
Body ground --> switch
Switch --> ground wire on dome light/floor light
Floor light ground --> ground wire on dome light
Floor light positive --> positive wire on dome light
*Note, on the 79-83 pickups, the dome light does not come on without the doors open. They can be turned off so that they will not come on when the door is opened, but they cannot be turned on by switch with the doors closed. This modification allows me to turn on the dome light with the doors closed as well as the new floor lights.
Here are some pics:
Switch for the dome/floor lights to the left of my steering column
LED floor lights
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03-28-2016, 09:40 AM
#9
Man that's bright!! I was thinking about doing the stick on LED strips and mounting them directly under the steering column and glove box, but I wasn't confident in how long they would retain their "stickiness" so I just went with a small LED lamp. Plus I didn't need anything super bright - just something that was bright enough to find something that was dropped in the floor. This whole modification came about when my son dropped a gumball in the floor and I had to listen to it roll around for about 60 miles because I didn't have any lights down there to find it at night! LOL
03-29-2016, 07:15 AM
#10
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Ive had the stick on strips on for a while and they seem to be holding up. Whats nice is you can cut them to whatever length you need. Superbrightleds.com Guess thats why they called them that... Bought a relay that should leave the lights on for 10 seconds after door is closed then fade out. Hope it works. Then that is all I'm gonna do...... Ha HA ya right !
03-30-2016, 04:49 AM
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Its actually for daytime running lights but I think I can make it work. Shipping is taking a while but I'll post as soon as I get it and wired up !
http://www.ebay.com/itm/311554835887?_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT
http://www.ebay.com/itm/311554835887?_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT
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