VE Fog Lights

[Woodsy_]

Hi Guys,

I've got a set of after market fog lights in my VE Omega. They're not wired though, never got around to it. Anyway I was asking around and I know a bloke who put some LED lights on the front of his, and wired them through to a cigarette lighter charger and just powered them through there. The charger had an on/off switch.

So my question is can this be done with the fog lights? I've seen his wiring and it seemed simple enough, just need to know if the fog lights can be powered with the 12V car charger.

Thanks.

 

[Denno]

It'll be pretty easy mate. You'll need a relay to power the lights. Great link for info on relays and how to wire them (Single Pole Double Throw (SPDT), Single Pole Single Throw (SPST) Automotive Relays).

Basically you'll connect up +ve and -ve from the battery to the appropriate relay inputs. Connect the output to the power wire for the fog lights. Connect the negative of the fog lights to the chassis or back to the battery -ve.
Then, for the relay 'trigger', you can run a wire from the trigger input of the relay, to a switch - any switch will do, look for SPST - and then connect the other side of the switch to the 12v cigarette lighter.
So flicking the switch will allow power through to the relay which will trigger it, and the relay will then allow power straight from the battery to the fog lights.

The reason for needing the relay is because the fog lights will draw alooot more power than the LED's will, and therefore running wires specifically for the fog lights will mean no factory wires will possibly be overloaded.

This set up means that the fog lights can only be turned on when the car accessories is turned on. Bit of a fail safe for if you turn the car off and forget to switch the fog lights off (they'll turn off because the power from the cigarette lighter will be gone, so there is no power to the trigger of the relay, hence the relay won't be activated).

Hope that helps ya mate, if you want more info let me know.

Denno

 

[Keepleft]

Whats wrong with wiring them normally?

 

[Denno]

Wiring them normally as in using the stock harness? That's a good point, I forgot that they're usually there. However he will have to wire in his own switch, but there should be the wires there, just needs the hardware. And maybe a fuse in the correct location in the fuse box.