I just installed a pretty posh pair of Spec-D headlights with the LED strip on the front. At current I'm waiting for a special relay to come in that I'll be installing so that the LED's run with the Ignition and turn off when the Parking/Head lights are engaged.
At current, I'd also like to patch the LEDs to the Factory Keyless Entry system so that Lock/Unlock blinks the LEDs and not the Parking Lights anymore.
I figure I can do this by clipping a wire from the control box and running that between the relay and the LEDs.
The question is; what wire do I tap and where is it?
I certainly don't want to lose my parking lights entirely, especially if the parking lights feed from the FKE control box; I'd have to reroute those wires elsewhere so they still get power.
The Ve-hik-ul in question is an '03 DakQuad. 4x4/4.7/5Spd, if that means anything.

 

the fke i beleive is part of the ctm. if thats true, you wont be able to do what you want.

 

+1 on McNasy's response.

There is no alarm box or module. The oem keyless entry is an internal part of the Central Timer Module. To do what you are wanting to do you would have to open up the Central Timer Module and change the wiring, relays and circuits for the light flash part of the oem keyless entry. You would have to cut loose loose the circuit from the factory keyless entry that triggers the parking light flash and connect that to a relay to drive the LED's. Unless you have the training and electrical knowledge to get inside the CTM, find the circuits and interface with them, this is not possible. Even then, it would be risky at best. It may cause the parking lights to not work at all, or it could cause the keyless entry and/or the whole CTM not to work. Or all three. If you really want to make it work like that, maybe you could contact Motorola and see if they can provide a service manual and internal wiring schematic diagram for the CTM. Motorola makes the CTM. I bet their info is highly proprietary and only available to dealerships and Mopar Technical Advisors though.

What you might be able to do though is tap into the wire at the CTM that sets the factory alarm. Look for a light green/orange wire at connector 2, pin 14 of the CTM. This is the lock cylinder switch sense wire. It tells the factory keyless that the door is locked or unlocked so it arms or disarms the factory alarm and the alarm blinks the parking lights. From reading my Dakota service manual, it looks like the wire pulses a ground on it when the door is locked and it pulses a ground when the door is unlocked. You could *maybe* *possibly* tap into that wire, wire it to trigger a relay and provide power to flash the LED's. Then I believe there is a function to turn off the parking light flash output of the factory keyless entry. If you are able to turn off the parking light flash, you would have only the LED's flashing when you lock or unlock your truck with the keyless remote control. *However* I don't see anything in the service manual about turning off the parking light flash, you will need to read your owner's manual and see if it is even possible.

I will say this much: I am in no way saying I am 100% certain these ideas will work. I *think* they might possibly work, just from reading the CTM wiring diagrams in my Dakota Service Manual. You need to get in the truck and check and double check all wire functions and voltages with a good quality volt-ohm meter before you do any of this. I take absolutely no responsibility for any damage you may cause to your truck.

Now that my disclaimer is out of the way, I will say that this *might* work. First check your owner's manual and see if you can turn off the parking light flash from the factory keyless. If you can turn it off, then check the door lock switch sense wire at the CTM. Test the switch sense wire with a volt meter. If it all tests out OK with a meter and you get a ground output from it when locking and also when unlocking the doors with the remote, it is simple to wire in a plain old Bosch 30 amp relay to flash the LED's.

I would be interested in whether this idea really works or not.

Jimmy

 

Where's an OBD-I car when you need it?
Thanks for the great replies.
There is one little flaw in my plan, though.
Why the hell don't I just go buy myself a brand new keyless entry/remote start/awesome alarm system and I can wire that in any way that tingles me sack?

 

Well, Silver, here's your solution.
Snipper-Snip the Park Lamp Switch Sense wire and the Park Lamp Relay Control (Lt. Green/Red, Red/Yel Respectively) off the CTM and bridge them together; thusly bypassing the CTM.
Then!!, oh, this is where my genius truly shines...
Run a tap off that Red/Yel on the CTM and toss that in your engine compartment, for now; fuse it if you like.
Run a tap off the 87a from the Park Lamp Relay inside the cab and toss that in your engine compartment; this is already fused, so no need to fuse it. We'll call this wire Blue.
Now, find a ground in your engine compartment; you're working on the same side of the vehicle as the battery (driver's side) so this shouldn't be hard.
Go get yourself a SPDT Relay with a 12v coil. Depending where you live, this can be stupidly hard to find. 10 years ago you could pick one up at Radioshack for $3... =(
Ground your relay on 85 (or 86) and run your Red/Yel CTM wire to 86 (or 85).
Run your LEDs (or whatever) to 87a AND 87.
And run your Blue wire to the 30 Pole.

What will happen?
Your LEDs will run during the day, just like they do on the high-priced Audi's and Beamers. When you turn on your parking lights or headlights, the LEDs will be turned off.
OBVIOUSLY there will be no power to the LEDs while the lights are on, so if you lock your vehicle with your parking light/headlight switch on, nothing but the tail lights will blink.

I have not done this, yet, but it is merely a blueprint. I am still not sure what the consequences will be of bypassing that "Parking Lamp Switch Sense" on the CTM, what it does or even why.
After I consult with a Chevrolet technician, I'll proceed with this.

 

Not trying to be argumentative or anything but there is no way in hell I would try that on my own truck or any other truck either. The CTM and is outputs are very sensitive and cantankerous at best and what you describe sounds very much to me like it has a good chance of damaging the CTM. Also the light circuits in any later model Dodge vehicle are wired funny, with some 5 amp and other low voltage circuits. Anytime you interface with the lights on a Dodge from the late 90's and on up, it is always recommended to use the negative side of the circuit. And most switch inputs to the CTM and really a lot of the other components on the truck too are switching ground, not power, and the switch sense inputs may each provide different ground resistance to the CTM, so you would need to know if that is so and what resistor values to wire in if needed. Without verifying the wiring in the truck it looks to me like you don't have a 12 volt source for your relay setup. And you would definitely need to fuse your 12 volt input.

I would not do what you have outlined here. It makes more sense to me to go buy a good aftermarket alarm or stand-alone keyless entry system and install that instead. Then it would be super simple to wire in the parking light flash outputs to interface with the LED's any way you wanted it. The parking light flash output on Directed Electronics alarms/keyless (Viper) is selectable from negative to positive, so it could be very versatile when interfacing with the LED's. You can also buy a factory keyless entry upgrade to interface with the OEM Dodge keyless entry. What that does is it uses the factory alarm, factory remotes and you add a second module to it that has security inputs and outputs, like for door trigger, hood trigger, alarm siren outputs, dome lamp supervision, etc, all of the same things an aftermarket alarm has. The upgrade just needs to have a signal input from the factory keyless entry from a wire that changes state based on whether the system is locked or unlocked, from the remote. Usually, you use a door lock wire for that input. Maybe check at a good independent car audio/alarm shop and see if they can help you with that or a stand-alone keyless or alarm system.

This is just my 2 cents on your idea, please don't take it the wrong way.

Jimmy

 

Nah, you're totally right. Besides, after staring at the book for four hours tonight and giving myself a migraine trying to wire the truck in my head, I figured out that the Park Lamp Relay is friggin' Battery Hot; which would have my LEDs on Forever.
I think I'll stick with my original plan to wire a relay Fused Ignition Hot to 30, LEDs to 87a, Ground and Park Lamp Hot to 85/86. That'll just have to suit me for now until I get a Keyless Entry installed. I'll have to have it professionally done because I've only ever done Keyless Entry on older automatic vehicles; not a newer manual one. While I'm sure the concept is the same, this truck is my Daily. I only experiment when I have a back-up vehicle and right now my *Whisper*Firebird*/Whisper* is on the block with a bad crank seal and bearings.

Too bad for this, though. Before I put a Viper on the Unmentionable GM Vehicle, I had an old Keyless Entry from a friend's Monte I put in and set up the visual confirm to Lift and Lower the headlights. It's fun to unlock the car from a distance when people are walking by: Hilarity ensues.

 

I'm looking at getting the same headlights and was wondering where your getting the relay from cause I wanted to wire them in the same way.

 

Grainger Industrial Supply
Www.grainger.com
800 217 6872
Ridiculously friendly staff.
Their shipping prices are outrageous, but if you have one near you, you can submit a willcall order and pick it up. I only paid US$7 for mine.

 

Okay, Guys. I've got it all working.
It actually took two relays.
Attached is my wiring diagram.

Here is what I did:
First, I cut my Parking Lights. They were ugly. Fk 'em.
Second, I turned my marker lights into Turn Signals... I just felt like it. I didn't want them on with the LEDs anyway.
With this diagram and the right tools you will have:
LEDs that confirm Lock/Unlock.
LEDs that run when the Ignition is on.
LEDs that STAY on when parking lights/headlights are engaged.
If you want your LEDs to go off when the Headlights are engaged, that will require a third relay, Ignition Hot to 30Pole and a wire tap from the Headlight Engagement wire that comes right off the switch in the cabin to your 85.

Things you will need to buy:
2 Single Pole Double Throw Relays
(Preferably ones that visually reference 87 and 87a. I picked up my second one from Advance Auto and it showed two 87's and the Naturally Closed 87 was in a different place than the one I got from Grainger.)
1 Package of 16 or 14 Gauge Wire
(Color doesn't matter unless you wanna keep your leads organized. Feel free to spend $10 a roll for different colored wire. I didn't really care. lol)
1 Package of 16/14 .250 Female Spade Connectors
(These are to connect your wires to the Relays. This way if you make a mistake you can always undo it. I just wrapped up the relays with Electrical tape. No, not fancy, but you can buy relay seats with wire leads if you want things pretty; or tear apart your factory fuse boxes and use up the "Spare" locations. Up to you how Pro you want it.)
1 Package of 16/14 Butt-Connectors
1 O-Ring Crimpable Wire thingy-ma-bobber...it's for the ground.
(I tapped a ground off a nearby bolt holding the ground for what I think is the AC compressor. Not sure what it was grounding and didn't really care. It's bolted directly to the firewall and comes off with a deep-well 13mm).

Make sure to bring along some decent crimper/wire strippers. You don't want this stuff falling apart on you on the road. Then again, if you use fuse-taps and fuse your Hots like I did, the worst damage you'll do is blow one of these. If you don't fuse your hots...well, you're just a silly silly person.

I will soonly put up a Youtube video of my lights functioning as I say they do in this post. At the moment I broke my last fuse-tap and haven't wired up the Batt Hot to the second relay yet, but I did tape it to the battery post and ran some tests and everything worked beautifully. Once I get that tapped I'll show you everything.

Reply if you have questions or concerns.