underglow

JJR760 · Post by **JJR760** » Fri Jul 11, 2008 8:16 pm

im looking to get a red underglow kit for my car but i want it to turn on with my domelight i.e. when i unlock it and walk to it when i have my door open thats it how would i go about wiring something like this?

Craz1000 · Post by **Craz1000** » Sat Jul 12, 2008 12:38 am

you cant. the dome light is a - trigger that drops voltage slowly. if you hook up a relay to this system when it fades the relay will reach a point where it will rapidly turn on and off causing the lights to flicker... this is going to wreak havoc on your under-car lights... that and red is extremely illegal... especially blinking red lights.

and connecting it directly will surely overload the circuit

JJR760 · Post by **JJR760** » Sat Jul 12, 2008 3:20 am

well that sucks lol can you think of anyway then to make them come on when i unlock the car then probably not huh?

cgneon · Post by **cgneon** » Sat Jul 12, 2008 7:15 am

its early, so i may think of a better way later in the day, but you COULD, tap the power source into the side marker lights... at least it would blink on when you hit the button, gettin them to stay on is a diff story, maybe add a relay or something, not sure how to wire it up though or you could get a kit that has the remote with it, you can turn it on from a distance, and if it does diff colors and pattern you can go nuts...

http://www.oznium.com/blaze

just get it and have a ball....7 colors, so you can use red, but be able to change it if you get hassled... i never went with red.. i used green and never had a problem.. oh and get LED's, not the glass tubes, you'll thank me later...

Craz1000 · Post by **Craz1000** » Sat Jul 12, 2008 11:56 am

he could hook it to the parking light circuit like aquarius stated... but you will also need some other way to control it when the circuit is active becuase at night the neons will be on constantly... and since hes getting red hes going to get some shit form the cops for sure, in fact i would almost garontee hes going to get a fat ticket. having a relay control the - side of your neon's circuit and have the relay controled with a togle switch would be the way to go if your getting the parking lights.

also the problem i stated with the domelight and it flickering MAY be fixed with a small capacitor and a diode wired to the relay

cgneon · Post by **cgneon** » Sat Jul 12, 2008 12:38 pm

thanks for reminding me craz. ah yes, i forgot to mention... DO NOT INSTALL WITHOUT SWITCHES!!! there will be plenty of times when you will need the ability to turn them off while driving.. lol

and why red?, asking for trouble.. i have a copy of the florida statutes on auxillary lighting.. and basically the only color you can rock is white amber and green.. and ive even been hassled one time for my green driving down the highway.. a state trooper yelled through his P.A. to turn em off. i did, he went on his merry way.. i could have been a dick, and would have got pulled over try to show the law but i just shut em off.. thats once out of countless times driving with em on.. install red at your own risk..

switches!!!! i got one for outside the car, and another for glow inside the car.. i cannot stress the importance of a toggle switch..

JRM · Post by **JRM** » Sat Jul 12, 2008 3:31 pm

Take it to a car audio shop. They can hook it up through an aftermarket alarm/keyless entry system to come on when you hit the unlock button. When I had underglow neons on my car thats how I had them install it.

Post by **occasional demons** » Sat Jul 12, 2008 8:38 pm

As far as legality he only wants them for unlock/entry the way I understand it, so it's not like the car is traveling with red lights flashing. The dome most likely fades from drawing on a capacitor, so if it could be tied in before the cap the relay would shut off in one step. The trick would be finding the cap. a diode may need to be installed if there isn't one already. This may be futile if the cap is mounted to a circuit board tho. At the least very difficult.

Craz1000 · Post by **Craz1000** » Sat Jul 12, 2008 10:12 pm

the capacitor your speaking of and the unit that controls the timing is the RKE module... its all done on the circuit board, so there's no way to get it before the capacitor per-say.

JJR760 · Post by **JJR760** » Sun Jul 13, 2008 2:16 am

yeah i only want them on while im not moving as far as i know in california you cant have any lights while driving. I am using a aftermarket keyless entry and alarm im curious to know how they hooked those up any way you could find out?

Post by **occasional demons** » Sun Jul 13, 2008 2:17 am

Mine doesn't have RKE and the dome stilll fades, I'll have to research how it's done on the base models....

JJR760 · Post by **JJR760** » Wed Jul 16, 2008 8:12 pm

I found what i was looking for at good ol crutchfield

http://www.crutchfield.com/App/Product/ ... ow&tp=2130

on the main hub there is a white courtesy wire that goes to your dome light incase anyone else had this question.

nineball · Post by **nineball** » Wed Jul 16, 2008 10:52 pm

exterior lighting is different in every state. here in ohio you can have any color light you want to, anywhere on your car, inside or out. the only requirement is that you have no flashing red or blue lights on the front of the car as they are reserved for emergency vehicles. on an old car i had the blue led washer jet lights and a few blue neons behind the grille and never had a problem. check your local laws before you invest any money into lighting.

Craz1000 · Post by **Craz1000** » Wed Jul 16, 2008 11:10 pm

occasional demons wrote:Mine doesn't have RKE and the dome stilll fades, I'll have to research how it's done on the base models....

hmm interesting, so if its not done though the RKE then yes there would be a capacitor somewhere on the line. but where, i haven't seen one anywhere. is it possible that the dome is controlled at the ECU? that would make sense since the factory alarm is also in the ECU.

are you 100% sure also that there isnt there in place of the RKE. and also im assuming you have the black key

NiteHawk · Post by **NiteHawk** » Wed Jul 16, 2008 11:55 pm

Craz, the RKE has nothing to do with the dome light actually...

check the FSM, even the diagrams show the dome light is connected to the cluster.

Here's a suggestion. check the How To i wrote in the electrical how to section. Switching relays using RKE. This will allow you to have the neons turn on when you unlock and turn off when you lock, or when the car locks itself automatically at 15mph.....

of course, that wont be helpful to anyone without RKE

Craz1000 · Post by **Craz1000** » Thu Jul 17, 2008 8:02 pm

so the capacitor the light drains off for the fade effect is in the cluster.. hmm thats an unusual place

yea i would have checked the FSM but i lost my digital copy when i got rid of my PC and baught my imac a few months back which sucks because ive had to diagnose some problems recently without it as a guide

you know where i can get another copy

NiteHawk · Post by **NiteHawk** » Fri Jul 18, 2008 12:20 am

pm sent

Adionik · Post by **Adionik** » Mon Jul 28, 2008 2:12 am

Damn...I started thinking about this today and I kinda wanted neons underneath for the dome light thing like some SUVS have.

Oh well....:[

I need to hook up a badass toggle switch for my Jensen override

Craz1000 · Post by **Craz1000** » Mon Jul 28, 2008 9:57 am

any toggle will work, theres no need for a "badass" toggle lol