DRL dimmed with headlights on (How to Guide)

[veessv]

Hey guys finaly got around to fitting a dimmer relay, after a few ups and downs she working.
I bought ones of these dimmer relay off ebay

Now I had a few problems when wiring up the white wire that is designed to dim the DRL was connected to parker it caused the DRL's to flicker so I had to connect up a 4 pin or 5 pin relay what ever you have handy.

The next problem came the next day when I had thought everything was working great I notcied the DRL werent working what I forgot to realise is that the dimmer relay is voltage sensing meaning it will turn on or off when the voltage raised or droped below 13v.
Now coz the VF's alternator switches off when not needed meant it also droped below 13v and the DRL's turned off so to fix that I connected the orignal DRL wiring to the BLUE AND YELLOW wire from the Dimmer Relay designed to be used for indicators to the 12v+ from the factory wire that went into the DRL and that fixed it.

But in doing all this I have now worked it all out and I hope I have made the diagram easy enough that anyone can do it. If I could find the plugs that the DRL's have I could make up a loom for people but for now you will have to follow the diagram

Things you will need is the ebay dimmer relay, a relay and some extra wire for the relay

 

[Flukey]

Pretty cool.

 

[Tasmaniak]

Fwiw... you can buy relays with diodes across the coil inbuilt... or a resistor!

 

[lacks creativity]

I like it! nice work & thank you for sharing.

 

[veessv]

Fwiw... you can buy relays with diodes across the coil inbuilt... or a resistor!

Yes your right you can buy relays with a diode in it but all that does stop kickback or back emf through the circut you have tap into, the resistor also helps with voltage spikes so not sure how that applies as I only used a relay to get rid of the flickering when dimmed.

If you were to use resistors to drop the voltage to dim the DRL you would need a few in series on how many I dont know until you would think it has enough dim also I would also worry about the heat it dissipates. What you really need is a voltage regulator, and is probably what is in this ebay kit or it could be a chip circut as it also has the ability to be used as flashing turn signals and in all honesty for 10 bucks i went the easy way and got the kit. You can get a voltage reg to drop the voltage with lights on and do it that way but you still will need to put a diode on the factory 12v input to the DRL or risk it and see what happens and you might still get the flickering so you will need another relay as the flikering only happened when it was connected to the parker and didnt happen when connected straight to 12v hence why the relay

 

[rhino6.0]

Stupid question time...Why would you want to do this? It's very clever I just don't get it.

 

[Tasmaniak]

Yes your right you can buy relays with a diode in it but all that does stop kickback or back emf through the circut you have tap into, the resistor also helps with voltage spikes so not sure how that applies as I only used a relay to get rid of the flickering when dimmed.

If you were to use resistors to drop the voltage to dim the DRL you would need a few in series on how many I dont know until you would think it has enough dim also I would also worry about the heat it dissipates. What you really need is a voltage regulator, and is probably what is in this ebay kit or it could be a chip circut as it also has the ability to be used as flashing turn signals and in all honesty for 10 bucks i went the easy way and got the kit. You can get a voltage reg to drop the voltage with lights on and do it that way but you still will need to put a diode on the factory 12v input to the DRL or risk it and see what happens and you might still get the flickering so you will need another relay as the flikering only happened when it was connected to the parker and didnt happen when connected straight to 12v hence why the relay

Sorry mate, I was under the impression the diode was to protect the bcm from when the relay coil breaks down

 

[kyled2012]

Stupid question time...Why would you want to do this? It's very clever I just don't get it.

The Gen-F HSV's do this, and so do most euro's with DRLS. I like the look, and it increases night time visibility without being blinding.
In my opinion, it's mostly a personal taste modification.

 

[Benboy]

What do the ADR's (Australian Design Rules) have to say about running DRLs (Daylight Running Lights) during hours of darkness ?

I was under the impression that when the headlights were turned on vehicles with factory DRLs, the DRLs were extinguished.

I do know that it is illegal to drive at night on a road in a Municipality or built up area with more than two lights showing to the front.

For example, you cannot drive in those areas at night with high beam on.

You cannot drive at anytime with headlights and fog lights on at the same time (4 lights). M'mmm seems to me you could have some roadworthiness issues !!

 

[B-Man]

if all you wanted to do was run the DRL when the headlights were on could you not of just run a diode from the parklights to the DRL relay pin #85?