Electrical System/Dash lights Question
Thread Starter
Melting Slicks
Joined: Mar 2002
Posts: 2,931
Likes: 2
From: Tx
Electrical System/Dash lights Question
Can someone explain this?
I hooked my pillar pod gauge lights up to the power leads for the traction control button light. Everything worked great, but after driving at night for a while all of the lights on that circuit (the pod and the button) went out. Turning the lights off an on quickly would allow them to stay on for a bit, but then they would cut out. I played around with it for a while and realized that I could disconnect the button light and the others would stay on, but when everything was connected it would eventually have the power cut (after being on for a bit).
Is it possible that something is seeing too many amps being drawn and cutting the power to that wire. I did not think it would be that advanced. I'm used to dealing with fuses that blow and don’t come back on. I'm wondering what is going on here.
I hooked my pillar pod gauge lights up to the power leads for the traction control button light. Everything worked great, but after driving at night for a while all of the lights on that circuit (the pod and the button) went out. Turning the lights off an on quickly would allow them to stay on for a bit, but then they would cut out. I played around with it for a while and realized that I could disconnect the button light and the others would stay on, but when everything was connected it would eventually have the power cut (after being on for a bit).
Is it possible that something is seeing too many amps being drawn and cutting the power to that wire. I did not think it would be that advanced. I'm used to dealing with fuses that blow and don’t come back on. I'm wondering what is going on here.
Thread Starter
Melting Slicks
Joined: Mar 2002
Posts: 2,931
Likes: 2
From: Tx
Re: Electrical System/Dash lights Question (MANNY)
I look into rigging it with a transistor (I only want the lights to come on when the dash lights come on). I'm just surprised that it can respond to such a slight increase in amps. Does anyone know how it works?
Burning Brakes
Joined: Dec 2001
Posts: 1,062
Likes: 0
From: VA
Re: Electrical System/Dash lights Question (QuickSilver2002)
I look into rigging it with a transistor (I only want the lights to come on when the dash lights come on). I'm just surprised that it can respond to such a slight increase in amps. Does anyone know how it works?
"Many late model vehicles, including the C5 Corvette, use a ground pulsing system to dim the dash lights. In a ground pulsing system, the device, (in this case it would be the dash lights), has full voltage applied to it at all times. The device is turned on/off by controlling the path to ground. To achieve the effect of dimming the lights, the path to ground is turned on and off at a very fast rate, so fast as not to create a flickering effect, but slow enough to reduce the output of the device. If you connect the device directly to the chassis ground instead of the pulse controlled ground, the device will not be controlled by the dimmer switch and will be on all the time."
For the increased electrical load there is a Monitored (Inadvertant) Load Control, micro relay #37 in the instrument panel fuse block under the passenger floor panel that I believe comes into play in shutting off the lights to your pod.
:cheers:
Melting Slicks
Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 2,665
Likes: 847
From: New Jersey
Re: Electrical System/Dash lights Question (Vetts Forever)
Actually, the driver transistor in the BCM, which pulses the illumination lamp load current to ground, has an overcurrent protection sense feature. This should set a BCM trouble code. The BCM will shut down a driver if the current sense trips. This has nothing to do with the "inadvertent load protection relay" feature.
