Spot1
Well-Known Member
I’m planning a little trickery with the wiring.
Obviously to be legal the (what will be 6) LED’s on the front bar need to be through a relay to only switch on with the main beam.
I want the side and rear LED’s on a hand break cut out relay so that they will only work when the hand break is on (therefore unable to be on whilst driving on the road).
HOWEVER I am also planning to have an override switch for the above for when I’m off road. This will most likely be a key switch so that it can’t be accidentally turned on whilst on road (and by a difficult MOT tester and argue that it is not road legal....
This is my plan for the front bar relays;
All the switching will be done on the common -ve so I maintain independent switching on the 3 pairs of LED’s on the bar. This will basically disconnect the -ve unless the main beam is on. The override relay will switch the trigger from the main beam to a permanent +ve therefore being able to have them on regardless of the main beam state.
The problem I have is working out the hand break cut off. Again, switching will be done on the -ve side to retain independent control of left/rear/right pairs.
The problem I have with this part is that the head light trigger is 0v until the main beam is on when it goes 12v. That is easy to trigger a relay. However the hand break is effectively 12v when the hand break is OFF and 0v when ON. This is basically backwards to what I need to trigger a relay.... I’ve considdered a normally closed relay but as I don’t routinely use the handbreak (it’s an auto so I just leave it in park, the American way) then that would mean that the relay is is energised most of the time which I don’t want.....
Is there a somewhere I could pick up a simple 12v when the ‘box is in Park?
Obviously to be legal the (what will be 6) LED’s on the front bar need to be through a relay to only switch on with the main beam.
I want the side and rear LED’s on a hand break cut out relay so that they will only work when the hand break is on (therefore unable to be on whilst driving on the road).
HOWEVER I am also planning to have an override switch for the above for when I’m off road. This will most likely be a key switch so that it can’t be accidentally turned on whilst on road (and by a difficult MOT tester and argue that it is not road legal....
This is my plan for the front bar relays;
All the switching will be done on the common -ve so I maintain independent switching on the 3 pairs of LED’s on the bar. This will basically disconnect the -ve unless the main beam is on. The override relay will switch the trigger from the main beam to a permanent +ve therefore being able to have them on regardless of the main beam state.
The problem I have is working out the hand break cut off. Again, switching will be done on the -ve side to retain independent control of left/rear/right pairs.
The problem I have with this part is that the head light trigger is 0v until the main beam is on when it goes 12v. That is easy to trigger a relay. However the hand break is effectively 12v when the hand break is OFF and 0v when ON. This is basically backwards to what I need to trigger a relay.... I’ve considdered a normally closed relay but as I don’t routinely use the handbreak (it’s an auto so I just leave it in park, the American way) then that would mean that the relay is is energised most of the time which I don’t want.....
Is there a somewhere I could pick up a simple 12v when the ‘box is in Park?