Help with wiring light acces. to dome light

[tysamigo]

Im attaching a small led accessory light to come on when the door is open. Using a t tap connector, I attached the positive to each of the red wires (separately, testing each wire) of the dome light and the light comes on when the door is CLOSED (opposite of what I need) and when you open the door the light goes off. And of course the black wire of the led is to ground.

What am I doing wrong? I feel like its something simple

[tom4bren]

That is kinda strange.

The dome light dims before it goes out after you close the door. That may be what your problem is. One of the leads at the dome light should have power alla time and the other only when the door is open. You'll have to use a meter or test light to figure it out for sure.

IIRC, etlsport had a pretty good writeup IRT his woes when converting his dome light to LED. I'll see if I can find it.

[etlsport]

You would need to tap into the ground wire there too, I am pretty sure that our door switches supply the ground and not the power.

I soldered leads off of the dome light bulb prongs, that way the lights were on any time the dome light was. Only issue i had here was that i had a lot of lights powered from there and was not getting much light output (i had 60+ LEDs powered from there) so i wound up installing a relay that was switched by the dome light. Only issue there was that when the dome light dims it drops to 6V so it made the relay freak out and it would buzz. The fix for that was some no-ox-id grease over the contacts inside the relay. It still buzzes but its barely audible now.

[tysamigo]

You would need to tap into the ground wire there too, I am pretty sure that our door switches supply the ground and not the power.

I soldered leads off of the dome light bulb prongs, that way the lights were on any time the dome light was. Only issue i had here was that i had a lot of lights powered from there and was not getting much light output (i had 60+ LEDs powered from there) so i wound up installing a relay that was switched by the dome light. Only issue there was that when the dome light dims it drops to 6V so it made the relay freak out and it would buzz. The fix for that was some no-ox-id grease over the contacts inside the relay. It still buzzes but its barely audible now.

Wow... thats very intersting. Sounds like me... I wont stop or give up. Just keep jumping each hurdle as they come. if you had to do it all over again what would you do different. Don't you think there is a way to wire it from one of the wires on the floor that go up to the dome light and tap in there? I have done just this however the problem is that the light will only work when the door is CLOSED which is the opposite of what I need. So it is working with this wire on the floor that goes directly to it however it needs to be the other way around where the light comes on when the doors are OPEN. I tried both of the lines that go to the dome, one works but only when the door is CLOSED and then when the door is open turns off. The other wire does not work at all and both times I have the ground attached to the dome light. I also tried grounding at a known OEM ground and it did not work. So yes you do have to use the ground in the dome but I feel like there is some type of way to make this work opposite of the way that it is currently working and I just can't figure it out. If you had to do it all over again would you do anything different, would you approach the problem any differently?

[tysamigo]

If I tap in BEFORE the dome, then the LED should not feel the voltage drop down to 6V.... right? Therefore bypassing the need of all the other stuff you had to go through... I dont know for sure... just guessing... but is that how it works.

[twostep1n2]

Come off the constant hot that feeds the dome light RED/WHT go to your LED +. Then tap in the LED - wire to the door switch wire RED/GRN both are behind the dome light and are in the conector that plugs into the dome light. That way the power will be at the LED all the time but the LED will only come on when the LED - is grounded through the door switch. no voltage drop involved

[tysamigo]

Come off the constant hot that feeds the dome light RED/WHT go to your LED +. Then tap in the LED - wire to the door switch wire RED/GRN both are behind the dome light and are in the conector that plugs into the dome light. That way the power will be at the LED all the time but the LED will only come on when the LED - is grounded through the door switch. no voltage drop involved

Phil....IT WORKS!!!!! I did exactly what you said and it works perfectly thank you very very very much

[twostep1n2]

Your welcome. The dimmer part of the light is inside the dome light itself. I tapped into the dome light to add a second dome light over the cargo area near the back door.