Quick DRL question

Hello TW Was wondering... Saw a taco on the highway and noticed his orange front blinker lights were on and being used as DRL. I believe on 2gen they turn on as soon as trucks started. Any idea how to do this on our 3rd Gen?

 

You saw an SR model. They have the inside amber lights wired for DRL's from the factory. The OR, Sport, and Limited did not get this function because they come equipped with a white led strip next to the low beam. I installed VLED's switch back Amber/Amber. This keeps the classic "amber" inside for DRL(like all the 2nd gens), while retaining the flash for turn signal.

 

Thank you mesojdm. Looks great

 

How did you tap into the drl and how did you tap into the Vled to get it to work like that?

 

For VLED triton switchback you will need the 3157CK base adapter. That will plug into the OEM turn signal connector. Slight problem: Turn signal harness only has 2 wires(ground and turn power). The VLED has 3 wires ground, turn power, AND DRL. (red,blue,black). You will have to cut the blue wire off the VLED connector and run it over to the DRL harness for power.
You will need to connect like this


Now your DRL circuit will power the blue wire on VLEDS, and still retains turn signal like factory. Last, the VLED has a white wire that will need to tapped to the headlight wire. This will DIM the VLED's at night..just like the OEM DRL lights

 

Did you tap the blue Vled wire into both trigger wires from the drl harness? The drl has a ground, high power, and the low power. I tapped into the low and they come on with the parking lights.

 

You will need to tap both HIGH and LOW DRL wires if you want them to stay on when headlights are switched on. The LOW wire has power until the headlights are activated(then that circuit goes dead) and power gets directed to the HIGH wire. Tapping both will ensure your VLEDS stay on during the day AND night.
Good luck

 

So you're blue is attached to both high and low drl wires? If it's not too much trouble a picture would make it a lot easier to visualize

 

That is correct. I posted a diagram above ^.

Find the factory 3 pin DRL harness. It's clipped to the back of the headlight.(in between the high and low beam). Unclip it and you will get more slack to access the wires.

The 3 wires on the harness work like this;
white/black- is ground
green-gives 12V+ when headlight switch is on "DRL" and/or "Parking" (red wire is dead)
Red-gives 12V+ when switch is turned to "Headlights" (Now GREEN wire is dead)

So in order to have power for Additional DRL lights (VLED's in this case) you will have to tap BOTH wires. You will also need 2 diodes like I showed in the diagram. This will prevent backfeed from the
green-->red wire.

 

I think I get it now. Is there a specific diode voltage I'll need to get? I'm assuming radio shack would have them

 

Any small diode will work (2A, 5A, Etc) Just make sure the orientation is as shown in the diagram. Radio shack should have them, Or in my case; a Car Stereo shop (often used in alarm installations) Good luck!

 

Stopped by micro center and fixed everything. Thanks for all your help with this

 

Okay so i have a SR. I just bought some TRD headlights that has the led DRL. I want to do the complete opposite of what you guys are wanting to do. Just have led strip on as my DRL and my turn signal just as my turn signal. How would a guy go about wiring that up? Would i be able to just take the wire that turns on my DRL now and simply move them to the led harness?

 

Just used this to wire up my amber backlight on my Baja Designs S8. Worked great. Thank you.

 

Looks great glad I could help

 

So I just wired this up according to the diagram for my Baja S8 backlights, but it's still only operating while in the DRL mode on the switch in the truck, as soon as I switch it to headlights they go off. I have 3amp diodes, built into a "y" style like in the picture posted earlier, and tapped into the green and red wire. Any thoughts on what I did wrong?

 

Think simple first. Did you install the diodes in the correct orientation?
Make sure your connections are secure, a good multimeter with a diode check function would make this process easier, but not necessary.

 

In fact, after I posted this, I realized I HAD put one diode in the wrong direction. So I took it all apart and re installed and BAM! no dice

hahaha.

so I started tracing back my issues. I put everything back the way I started (baja s8 wire tapped into the green wire) and my S8 works in DRL mode, but then I realized the DRL's are not working when my head lights are on. Then I noticed my interior dome lights are not working any more. so when installing the diodes the wrong way, I am pretty sure I blew a fuse. But I am calling it quits for now, and will re-asses in the morning.

 

For safety, I've wanted to enhance my wimpy 2017 OR OEM DRL without emptying my wallet on Miramoto XB or 2020 OEM LED Headlights, etc. In contrast to @MESO, I went with a 5000K VLED Triton amber/white switch back because I am more of a white (DRL) guy rather then amber. I also chose not to wait for the upcoming VLED Triton Extreme (white/amber) switchback as I was concerned the Triton Extreme white may be just too bright as a DRL in the non-projection reflector housing of the turn signal.

I also prepped for the Meso V5 Ultimate Turn Signals which will contain either a white or amber (two product SKUs) DRL.

I have the Auto Headlights Technology package in my OR and wanted the new circuit to emulate the DRL OEM behavior, in particular the dimming behavior of the DRL. That means limiting the bright white VLED DRL to ONLY when the “AUTO” switch on the steering wheel stalk is set and ONLY during the day. At all other positions of the stalk (parking, parking/ignition, headlights on), the Triton VLED DRL is dimmed from 900 to 90 lumens. Using the red wire (blue on passenger side) of the DRL harness as the dimming wire for the VLED instead of the headlight wire creates this effect.

As Meso stated, both (green) and (red/blue) DRL wires must be directed to the VLED switchback to power it day and night. The Triton switchback is a 7440 style with a parking adapter. The "parking adapter" on the 7440 base is connected to "VLED Switchback White" on the diagram below and accepts bright white on the green wire during the day and dim white from the red/blue wire otherwise. The "VLED Dim" diagram connection (red/blue) goes to the dimming wire on the VLED bulb.

I had a couple of 2.5A PTC205 diodes in my parts bin and used them on the green circuit. The VLED white consumes 650mA bright and 100mA dim, so I used more common 1 amp IN400X back feed prevention diodes on the red line. These figures are vendor provided numbers, not measured, so I think common 1A diodes would work on both branches of the circuit. The cathodes are soldered together and the other connections are made with 20-22 Posi-Tap/Posi-Seal connections and dielectric grease.

I also wanted the upcoming Meso V5 mirror DRL to also be controlled by the stalk, so I routed the DRL signal into the cabin and into the Meso wiring harness. Unmodified, the Meso DRL is always on with ignition.

For fun, I wired in some cheap (offer $25) white Raptor lights with a 5A INJ add-a-fuse in the fuse box. These lights remain on at all times with ignition.

Thanks to @Ronzio and the members in this forked thread for the inspiration. The posts below #50 in this thread are not meaningful to the current discussion.

Ignition On - Stalk on Parking (OEM bright, VLED DRL dim))
When the stalk is switched to "headlight", the OEM DRLs go dim and the VLED's remain dim.




Ignition On - Parking Brake Released - Stalk on Auto (OEM, VLED DRL bright)
This is the normal daytime driving situation. In the evening, when the auto sensor senses darkness, the low beams come on and the OEM and VLED DRLs go dim.




With the exception of the "Meso Mirror DRL" signal, this circuit is duplicated on both the driver and passenger headlight DRL wires. The "Meso Mirror DRL" connection is only present on the driver side because downstream the Meso harness splits the signal to both driver and passenger mirrors.




Hyper-flash Resistor Tuning

I have two LED’s in my turn circuit (front VLED amber switchback, Meso Total Tail rear). I required a resistance paralleled across the socket to add a hyper-flash-preventing current load. Eventually, I will add a third LED in the Meso V5 Ultimate Turn mirror product.

Without the V5, a 10 ohm VLED resistor solved the front turn hyper-flash problem; however it did not eliminate hyper-flashing when in reverse with the turn signal on (as in backing into a parallel parking space). I increased the circuit load slightly by adding a 25 ohm resistor on the Meso Total Tail white/amber reverse/turn switchback LED. This corrected the reverse/turn hyper-flash problem.

The built in Meso V5 resistor (10 ohm?) will reduce the aggregate resistance further. If that proves to be too much of a load, I will adjust (or perhaps eliminate) one of the VLED resistors. The modularity of the VLED resistor product makes that adjustment very easy.