DD DRL Boards

[Gnome]

Thats very interesting John. The part that puzzled me with the cutting hole option is that when I pulled the US assembly apart there is a black backing plate that sits behind the DRL LED boards and would obstruct any attempt other than splitting them open. So I am assuming the EU assembly is missing this backing plate.

I seen an Ebay listing a while back for a Cambus (think thats how you spell it) pig tail that connects between the lights and harness which apparantly resolves the flickering issues. Apparantly it is the ECU detecting an out of spec current variation under load and can even result in a dash error code. The pigtail has a diode to restrict current trickle-back and the capacitor as a kind of choke filter. But who knows? I tried getting a schematic but Ford are very protective at this stage.

I was told today by a reputable source that the DRL's are not an issue in Australia. Its an Issue in a couple of countries in Europe specs and ADR has no conflict with them. This explains why we see so many vehicles with crazy DRL's higher, brighter and in some cases dozens of them in strings that seemed more aggressive than the mustangs. I often wondered why but its actually not an issue at all for us. Apparantly.

I was thinking I would swap the fog light drl for the tri-bars. I dont like both at once as it looses the aggressive look of the tri bars in my opinion. I wonder if this would resolve the whole current under load issue?

Have been out all day so I wont get the heat gun method up until tomorrow now. But I am convinced it is way better than the hole method.

Ours do also have the black backing plate, but you feed the boards in between where they mount and the plate, from below. As you have a headlight that is open imagine cutting a hole directly below where they mount and feeding them up into the gap between the back plate and the spot where they mount and then gluing them in. Literally like building a ship in a bottle, really fiddly.

The signal on the parking light power is not canbus it is PWM.
The voltage in these cars rises a fair bit while the battery is charging and to drop it back down they use PWM, which is essentially like how the dimmer works on your house lights, it turns the power off an on at a rapid rate and by varying the ratio of on time versus off time you decrease the average amount of power available. I took a video of what happens when you rev the engine but cant attach it here. Without going into it to deeply if you smooth this out you get rid of the flicker, and a canbus filter may also work and so does disconnecting the original park light globe. Disconnecting the original DRL has no effect as the flicker is only when the parking lights are on, the drls go off then in any case. The US spec cars have this same signal on the DRL circuit and DD allowed for it in the design of the drivers, they did not anticipate this being on the park light circuit as it is not on the US cars. I spent a fair bit of time on it and sent all the info back to DD as they don't have an export car they could work with. Why we need it on the park light circuit and US cars don't I have no idea.

You wont bring up any dash warnings, but it does log trouble codes in the ECU if you go in and look with a scan tool.

I have also found myself looking at DRLs on oncoming cars recently and some you can hardly see and others are ridiculous arrays of individual led spots that are almost like headlights, so I cant see ours being an issue also but glad you have been told this by someone that may actually know what the rules are.

I also disconnected the original parker and drls and only have the tribars, and agree with you it makes them stand out more. I tried some LED replacement globes in the original park light fitting and also in the fog/ drl fitting and to me it was too much x-mas tree, may suit a lot of people but not for me.

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[Kaps]

I am not jumping in at this stage, but have been thinking of buying one EU set, splitting and selling already split with a token added cost for my time and then repeating the process one set at a time. But I am also hesitant as I don't want to end up with dramas. My heart says do it to help others, my brain says stay away from it...:frusty::frusty::frusty:

Always listen to your heart Allan, you will never go wrong

 

[yellowpony]

DD multi coloured ones

 

[CasperGT]

DD multi coloured ones

So what method did you use?

 

[yellowpony]

Benditvox special cut under the headlight like Gnome explained in above post

 

[PPPony]

DD multi coloured ones

Go Cats !!!!

 

[CasperGT]

Cut under the light

Did you take any photos of where you made the cut? I would like to know so that I can decide if its better then using the heat gun separating method or not?

I would truly appreciate if you could give us a short description of how you wnet about it and what the issues were along with how long the whole install took?

I can get the light split in 45 minutes and prep time to get ready for resealing about another 45 minutes. Then the internal mods at your leisure and of course can paint the chrome and reflector with black out paint.

So I see advantages for splitting but need someone like yourself to confirm the cut a hole method. It will help others and also means we have good information if you. Are willing to share.

Thanks mate :cheers:

 

[CasperGT]

Ours do also have the black backing plate, but you feed the boards in between where they mount and the plate, from below. As you have a headlight that is open imagine cutting a hole directly below where they mount and feeding them up into the gap between the back plate and the spot where they mount and then gluing them in. Literally like building a ship in a bottle, really fiddly.

The signal on the parking light power is not canbus it is PWM.
The voltage in these cars rises a fair bit while the battery is charging and to drop it back down they use PWM, which is essentially like how the dimmer works on your house lights, it turns the power off an on at a rapid rate and by varying the ratio of on time versus off time you decrease the average amount of power available. I took a video of what happens when you rev the engine but cant attach it here. Without going into it to deeply if you smooth this out you get rid of the flicker, and a canbus filter may also work and so does disconnecting the original park light globe. Disconnecting the original DRL has no effect as the flicker is only when the parking lights are on, the drls go off then in any case. The US spec cars have this same signal on the DRL circuit and DD allowed for it in the design of the drivers, they did not anticipate this being on the park light circuit as it is not on the US cars. I spent a fair bit of time on it and sent all the info back to DD as they don't have an export car they could work with. Why we need it on the park light circuit and US cars don't I have no idea.

You wont bring up any dash warnings, but it does log trouble codes in the ECU if you go in and look with a scan tool.

I have also found myself looking at DRLs on oncoming cars recently and some you can hardly see and others are ridiculous arrays of individual led spots that are almost like headlights, so I cant see ours being an issue also but glad you have been told this by someone that may actually know what the rules are.

I also disconnected the original parker and drls and only have the tribars, and agree with you it makes them stand out more. I tried some LED replacement globes in the original park light fitting and also in the fog/ drl fitting and to me it was too much x-mas tree, may suit a lot of people but not for me.

Oh missed this post! Thank Gnome, this is very helpful. :cheers: Haha, seen the text last night but not the photos. Cheers!

 

[66 WAS]

I am not jumping in at this stage, but have been thinking of buying one EU set, splitting and selling already split with a token added cost for my time and then repeating the process one set at a time. But I am also hesitant as I don't want to end up with dramas. My heart says do it to help others, my brain says stay away from it...:frusty::frusty::frusty:

DO IT ... DO IT ... DO IT ... use me as a trial .... ???????
Charge for your time and purchased items ..... Put the drls in .... reseal .... test .... send to us ... we the usless ones get them installed and send you back our lights to you for your next person, a predetermined refund once you have received our original lights ....

 

[CasperGT]

I just studied my headlight assemblies with the hole method in mind. I have an advantage as I can look at everything without keyhole limited view. I can see exactly where to make the cut for optimum fitting. I have also worked out a way to make an installation tool for setting in the LED boards. But what I would like to know is if the EU LED mounting board has the pegs that align the LED boards? Could someone confirm please.

 

[yellowpony]

Yes they have pegs Allan

 

[mix 302]

I have a set of DD DRL Boards patiently waiting to be fitted, Blingworks require the lights for a week & $800 for fitting them if anyone's interested? Will probably go down that track, but won't be till I'm on A/L after Christmas.

 

[apsilon]

DO IT ... DO IT ... DO IT ... use me as a trial .... ???????
Charge for your time and purchased items ..... Put the drls in .... reseal .... test .... send to us ... we the usless ones get them installed and send you back our lights to you for your next person, a predetermined refund once you have received our original lights ....

I'd suggest not doing them on an exchange basis as there'll always be someone who isn't happy because they sent you pristine lights and received back ones where someone followed a gravel truck daily and are pitted and scratched etc etc.

 

[phil545]

I'd suggest not doing them on an exchange basis as there'll always be someone who isn't happy because they sent you pristine lights and received back ones where someone followed a gravel truck daily and are pitted and scratched etc etc.

Hhaha exactly like my headlights lol

 

[66 WAS]

I'd suggest not doing them on an exchange basis as there'll always be someone who isn't happy because they sent you pristine lights and received back ones where someone followed a gravel truck daily and are pitted and scratched etc etc.

lol wasnt thinking like that asmy car is 1 week old and 350 km on the clock but i do understand

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