Posts

Picture of a headlight switch manufactured by Standard Motor Products

Headlight Switch

It’s time to wire in the headlight switch in our customer’s 1967 Mustang.  They are installing our 20-Circuit Kit in the car.  In previous posts, we blogged about wiring the headlights and parking lights to the outputs on the POWERCELLs in the car.  You can read about that process at this link.

Remember that there is no direct connection between your switches and the things that you are switching.  In this case, there is no direct connection between the headlight switch and the headlight bulbs in the front of the car.  The headlight switch connects to the MASTERCELL.  The headlight bulbs connect to the POWERCELL.  The MASTERCELL and POWERCELLs are connected with our CAN data cable.  When you turn on the headlight switch, the MASTERCELL sees the switch turn on.  It sends a command to the POWERCELL in the front of the car and commands it to turn the output on that powers the headlight bulbs.  The same thing happens when you turn on your parking lights.  The MASTERCELL sees the parking light switch turn on.  It sends a command to the POWERCELLs in the front and rear of the car.  Each of these POWERCELLs turn on parking light outputs locally in the car.

Our customer started with the original headlight switch that came with the car.  After some checking and testing of the switch, they figured out that the switch was bad.  Something inside the switch failed.

Picture showing how to use a multimeter to check continuity between terminals on a headlight switch

Picture showing how to use a multimeter to check continuity between terminals on a headlight switch

They wanted to keep the traditional pull-type headlight switch in the car so they picked up a replacement switch made by Standard Motor Products.  This what the switch looks like.

Picture of a headlight switch manufactured by Standard Motor Products

Picture of a headlight switch manufactured by Standard Motor Products

This is a multi-function switch.  It controls the parking and headlights in the car.  You get the parking lights when you pull the switch to the first detent.  You get both the parking lights and headlights when you pull the switch to the second position.

This is a very common switch, used in lots of different cars.  We created a specific wiring diagram showing how to wire your MASTERCELL inputs to the terminals on the switch.  This picture shows you the diagram.

Picture of a wiring diagram for a typical headlight switch

Picture of a wiring diagram for a typical headlight switch

You can download a PDF of this diagram by clicking this link.

The first thing that we did was to check the configuration sheet for this system.  You can get more details on the configuration sheet for your system by clicking this link.  The MASTERCELL inputs for the headlights and parking lights are going to connect to the switch.  The headlight input is the white wire with the green tracer.  The parking light input is the blue wire with the black tracer.  Both of these inputs are on the MASTERCELL input harness.  You also need three ground connections to this switch.  Two of the terminals need to be grounded and the switch housing needs to be connected to ground.  You can use the black wires that came in the MASTERCELL input harness as grounds for this switch.  One of the MASTERCELL ground wires can handle the ground for the entire switch.  Just jumper that black wire between the different terminals on the switch and the case.

Follow the diagram to see which terminals on the headlight switch connect to the headlight and parking light input wires on the MASTERCELL.  This is pretty simple.

Once you have the input wires connected and the grounds connected, you have wired the inputs for the headlights and parking lights.  When you pull the switch to the first position, the switch connects the parking light input wire to ground.  This sends the signal to the MASTERCELL to control the lights through the front and rear POWERCELLs.  When you pull the switch to the second position, the switch connects the headlight input to ground.  This triggers the MASTERCELL to control the headlights from the front POWERCELL.  When the switch is in the headlight position, the switch also keeps the parking light input connected to ground.

Once you have the headlight and parking light inputs wired, you can also use this switch to control and dim your dash lights.  This specific switch has a rheostat built in to dim dash lights.  In most cases, you are powering your dash lights off of your parking light output.  See this blog post for more details.  You will have power to your dash lights when the parking lights or headlights are on from this switch.

This switch has a rheostat built in to dim the dash lights.  A rheostat is a variable resistor.  Turning the knob, increases or decreases the resistance in series with the dash lights.  This lets more or less current flow to the dash lights, which will dim or brighten them.  Please note that the dimming effect may not be as significant when using LED dash lights.

You can wire the dash light feed though the rheostat on the headlight switch.  See the wiring diagram above for the details of which terminals need to connect to the wires.  Please note that there is a metal jumper that must be cut to do this.  If you do not remove this metal jumper, you will damage your MASTERCELL inputs and potentially void the warranty.

That’s it.  This one post covers wiring  your parking light input, your headlight and your dash lights.  Please click this link to contact our team with any questions about our Infinitybox system.

Parking Lights

In our last post, we talked about wiring the headlights and high-beams to the front POWERCELL in your Infinitybox system.  Now it is time for you to wire the parking lights.  What we call parking lights can be called a few different things.  Some guys call them marker lights, some call them running lights or driving lights.  We call them parking lights.  These are the amber lights on the front of your car and the amber or red lights on the rear of your car.  Essentially, you are going to wire them the exact same way that you did for your headlights and high-beams with a few important exceptions.

There are parking lights on the front of your car and on the rear of your car.  Instead of running wire from the front to back of your car to power these lights together, we have dedicated outputs on the front and rear POWERCELLs for these lights.  In the case of our 1967 Mustang project, we power the front parking lights from the POWERCELL in the driver’s fender.  The rear parking lights come from the rear POWERCELL mounted in the trunk.  In both cases, the runs of wire are very short.

Remember that the switch does not connect to the lights.  The switch connects to the MASTERCELL.  We’re going to get into wiring the switches in upcoming blog posts.

In configuration that we are using for this 1967 Mustang, the parking lights are on outputs 6 on the front and 6 on the rear POWERCELL.  These are the yellow wires.  Click here to read the blog post that talks about the configuration sheet.  Run your parking light output wire to the the closest parking light on that side of the car, then splice off of that to go to the second parking light on that side of the car.  The parking light output is going to connect to both the left and right parking light bulbs.  These are wired in parallel.  The other wire in the parking light harness needs to get connected to ground.  Check the documentation that came with your lights for the proper wires for power and ground.  If you are using LED parking lights, the polarity is very important.  LED lights will not work if they are wired backwards.  You can see the headlight blog post to talk about ways to tap between the left and right lights on the car by clicking here.

You are going to use the parking light outputs from the front & rear POWERCELLs to power the lights.  You are also going to tap off of these POWERCELL outputs to power other illumination in the car.  Each POWERCELL output has capacity for 25-amps.  Most parking lights draw about one amp so you have lots of room to spare.

In the front of the car, you are going to tap off of your parking light output to power the gauge illumination and your dash illumination.  That way, you have lights on your gauges and dash when your parking lights are on.  In the rear of the car, you are going to tap off of the parking light output to light your license plate light and any other running lights on the back of the car.

This illustration shows you how the front & rear parking light outputs connect from the two POWERCELLs in the car.

Diagram showing how to power your parking lights from the Infinitybox system.

Diagram showing how to power your parking lights from the Infinitybox system.

We wanted to add a few comments about splicing and tapping off wires in your harness.  We do not recommend products that pierce the wire insulation for making taps.  This is a decent way to make splices in low current applications in sealed enclosures for telecom systems.  We do not recommend these types of taps or splices for the automotive environment.  Vibration, temperature, oil, dirt and grease will cause these taps to fail over time.  We recommend that you use crimp connectors or solder these splices.  If you used either of these methods, the joints should be protected and covered with heat-shrink tubing.

Another great option for creating a sealed junction point is to use our Infinitybox Splice Saver Kit.  This is a simple way to join multiple wires together in a sealed connector.  This pictures shows you an example of how to splice multiple lights to your single parking light output on your front POWERCELL using the Splice Saver Kit.

Wire diagram showing how to wire front parking lights and illumination with the Infinitybox Splice Saver Kit

Wire diagram showing how to wire front parking lights and illumination with the Infinitybox Splice Saver Kit

This picture shows you how you can use the Splice Saver Kit to wire your rear parking lights.

Wiring diagram showing how to wire parking lights and brake lights with an Infinitybox Splice Saver

Wiring diagram showing how to wire parking lights and brake lights with an Infinitybox Splice Saver

Click on this link to contact our team with questions or comments about wiring your parking lights with our Infinitybox system.

 

High-Beams

Here’s another cool feature that is built into our 10 and 20-Circuit Harness Kits.  We give you a very simple way to toggle between your headlights and high-beams.

In most cases, you have a separate input for your headlights and a separate input for your high-beams.  When the headlight input is grounded through the switch, the headlights turn on.  When the high-beam input is grounded, the high-beams turn on.  This link will take you to one of the most common headlight switches and a wiring diagram showing you how to connect it to your MASTERCELL inputs.

In some cases, the car may have a momentary switch as part of the steering column that is supposed to control the headlights and high-beams.  There are lots of kits out there that manage this but they are unnecessary with our 10 and 20-Circuit Kits.  We build that functionality in to the kits.  You simply need a momentary button to control your high-beams.

If you look at your configuration sheet, you’ll see an input that is called “Alternating Headlight Toggle”.  It does something pretty simple.  The input is designed to connect to a momentary switch.  The other side of the momentary switch should connect to ground.

If your headlights are on and you press and release this momentary switch, the headlights will turn off and your high-beams will turn on.   If you press and release the momentary switch again, the high-beams will turn off and your headlights will turn on.  Essentially, this switch will allow you to toggle between your headlights and high-beams.

Now, if you headlights are off and you press the switch, the high-beams will turn on.  This is for a flash-to-pass function.  Again, this is built into the system.  No external controllers or relays are required.

If you are using a newer OEM steering column, there is usually a switch that closes when you pull back on the turn-signal stalk.  You’d connect one side of this switch to the Alternating Headlight Toggle input on the MASTERCELL then ground the other side.

Both IDIDIT and Flaming River make great aftermarket columns.  They both have upgrade options that put a momentary button on the end of the turn-signal stalk.  You can connect that button to the Alternating Headlight Toggle input and get the same function.  You do not need their relay controllers to do this.

This link will take you to the Dimmer Switch option from IDIDIT.

This link will take you to the dimmer switch kit from Flaming River.  You do not need their relay and harness kit.

Contact our technical support team if you have questions about wiring your headlights and high-beams.