Evora S1 ambient lighting

[Foxy]

Can it be made to stay on when the doors are closed? I can't see the point of it otherwise!

[C8RKH]

I can't see the point of it full stop to be honest. Just a gimmick really. Yes, looks nice but...

[Brendonian]

I'd really like to have it always on, or on when the headlamps are on. It must be possible, but it's beyond my confidence level to start messing with the wiring.

[theelanman]

ebay has DIY LED lighting like this that you could add easily without having to mess with the car.......

might be better than hacking your loom.......

[agentdr8]

6 hours ago, Brendonian said:

I'd really like to have it always on, or on when the headlamps are on. It must be possible, but it's beyond my confidence level to start messing with the wiring.

 

Looks to be rather simple. You have to connect the purple / white wire from the ICM pin D11 to ground to light up the mood lights. You'd want to isolate the dome light though, since it shares the same ground, otherwise it too would be on (you could always turn it to the off position). A simple relay could be connected to the illumination wire that the ICE uses for dimming and switch ground to your mood lighting. 

[Brendonian]

That may seem simple to you, but it's not something I can tackle unless somebody could write a step by step guide.

[agentdr8]

I'll do some testing and write something up. 

[Brendonian]

Wow, that would be fantastic!

[Foxy]

2 hours ago, agentdr8 said:

I'll do some testing and write something up. 

Excellent, thanks! I hope it's easy!

[agentdr8]

On 1/31/2017 at 12:49, Brendonian said:

Wow, that would be fantastic!

 

On 1/31/2017 at 14:42, Foxy said:

Excellent, thanks! I hope it's easy!

Here's what I came up with:

• Remove passenger floor mat & kick panel, exposing fuse & relay box, and ICM
• Unmount ICM (1x 8mm nut and 1x 6mm bolt)
• Disconnect the "D" connector, which should be the white connector to the right-most side of the ICM while facing it (see image below)
• Locate the purple & white wire (D11) and the yellow wire (D9) (highlighted in the pic below). The D11 wire is for the Door Open Output, which is pulled low when the door switch is engaged (i.e. door open). The D9 wire is the headlamp switch illumination output, which we're using as the relay trigger
• Wire a 12V relay as such:
  • 85 to 12V switched. I used a nearby 10A fuse leg since the fuse box is right there. 
  • 86 to D9. D9 gets pulled low when the key is in the full On position and the headlamp switch is illuminated on the speedo display
  • 30 to chassis ground. I used the 8mm bolt in the lower right-hand corner near the bottom of the fuse box. 
  • 87 to D11. Once the relay turns on, it will pass ground to the purple & white wire, which will illuminate the mood lighting (and dome light, see footnote)
• I used T-Taps for the ICM wires, so that it's relatively easy to reverse. Unfortunately T-Taps tend to suck for making solid connections, so verify it's contacting the actual wire and not just the insulation

Remember when testing to turn the key to the On position, not just ACC. Also test either with the doors closed, or the door latches in the closed position (use a screwdriver to manually close latch)

Footnote: As mentioned earlier in the thread, the dome light in the "Auto" position shares the same ICM output as the mood lighting. Unfortunately this means that if you leave the dome light switch in that position, it'll also come on with your headlights. There are 2 solutions to this, one easier but not as good, and the other more difficult but definitely a better integration. The first solution, which I'll likely employ, is to just leave the switch in the Off position, and manually turn it on when I need it. That negates the cool fade-in/fade-out of the dome light when you unlock/lock the car, but I'm ok with that. The other option is to use a second relay, wired to the first, and wire it in-between the purple & white wire that goes up to the dome light fixture and D11. You can trigger the 2nd relay with the first, but wire it so that it's normally closed when off. If anyone is interested in that I can write up what the wiring would look like. 

[Brendonian]

Thanks agentdr8, that's a great effort. Personally I wouldn't want to resort to operating the dome light manually. It would have to be a 'complete' solution.

If you could write up the next part, I'd really appreciate it.

Ideally I'd want somebody to test the whole thing before I'd attempt it myself.

[agentdr8]

Sure thing. I'll draw up a simple relay diagram. 

As for testing, I've already completed that first part for you, and will likely leave it in place since I like the subtle ambient lighting at night. 

[agentdr8]

I didn't have time to draw up a diagram, but here's how you'd wire the 2 relays:

• Wire relay A as previously noted:
  • 85 to 12V switched
  • 86 to D9
  • 30 to chassis ground
  • 87 to D11
• Wire relay B as follows:
  • 85 to 12V switched (or relay A 85)
  • 86 to relay A 86
  • 30 to chassis ground (or relay A 30)
  • 87a to purple & white wire leading to terminal 3 on the dome light. You'd want to sever the existing connection in the purple & white wire, so that the relay provides the ground. 

So what this will do is switch relay B on when relay A is on, except when relay B is off, then the dome light will have access to ground when in the Auto setting, but will be floating when relay B is energized, so that it doesn't light up when the headlights are on. I think the biggest hurdle to setting up the 2nd relay is finding the purple & white wire that leads to the dome light; from the schematics it shows it in cavity 2, wherever that is. I'm assuming it's part of the roof wiring harness (#6 on MR.10), but that intersects with the main harness (#1) somewhere. It looks to be a single wire connector though, so that might make it easier to locate. I plan on replacing my subwoofer soon, and will have that side of the interior apart. If I happen to locate the dome light wire, I'll make the change at that time. 

[Brendonian]

Thanks for that agentdr8. Let's hope you can find those wires

[agentdr8]

Can't seem to edit my previous post, but after thinking about it some more, relay B 30 should be connected to relay A 87 so that the dome light follows the original door open output when the relay is off. 

[Brendonian]

Now I'm struggling to picture the layout. I'm not much of an electrician

[agentdr8]

Here you go.

[Christian Ernst]

Dear Dave,

that's an excellent write up and idea ... but I do think that I do also need maybe some more help to apply that instruction  ... 

Could you do a photo as well of how that is looking like right not in your footwell? and now asking maybe too much ... post a link to the relay you used? ... seems like 12V relays are an absolute standard part which can be sourced from everywhere

Best

Christian

Edited February 8, 2017 by Christian Ernst

[agentdr8]

Sure thing Christian. You can use any 12V SPDT automotive relay; I opted to use a micro-relay I had lying around, which I'll be replacing with a 2ch relay module once I locate that dome light wire. And if you didn't want to get a relay module, you could adapt the wiring to a single DPDT relay and achieve the same result. 

 

[Brendonian]

16 hours ago, agentdr8 said:

Here you go.

Thanks. That's fantastic. I'm just waiting to see if you can find the wires for the dome light.

[agentdr8]

On 2/9/2017 at 03:23, Brendonian said:

Thanks. That's fantastic. I'm just waiting to see if you can find the wires for the dome light.

Success! I spent a few hours today installing my amp and subwoofer, and while I had it all apart, I located that dome light purple & white wire, and successfully cabled it up to my 2ch relay module. Now I have dome light fade in/fade out during ingress/egress and mood lighting when headlights are on. I took more pictures and will post them up tomorrow (err, later today); time to get some rest. 

[agentdr8]

Here's the pics; the roof harness does indeed come down the passenger-side B pillar, and meets up with main harness behind the subwoofer panel. 

I took the purple & white pin out of the connector on the roof harness side, and used a T-Tap to run a wire (blue in the photos) to the kick panel area. I ran it along the floor under the carpet and wire channel cover. 

[pickle]

It's stuff like this that makes me proud to be part of this community. 

The knowledge and willingness to help of people like @agentdr8 gives me a nice warm fuzzy feeling inside 

[Brendonian]

Great write-up, and pictures, thanks @agentdr8. Now I need to find the time (or maybe a competent auto electrician if I'm not feeling brave enough) to tackle this myself.

[agentdr8]

I think the hardest part is removing all the interior pieces; the wiring is just 5 wires in total.