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Diode Dynamics Switchbacks and BCM / Tail Light Issues

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I heard back from OPT7, they said that the "fibrillating" signal issue is more prominent on the GT's and that they do not currently have a fix for it.

It would be interesting to find out what is different about the GT that affects the sequencing logic of the LED driver.

I'll try the FORscan option this weekend. Fingers crossed that having the front turn signal's "low beam" marker light on all the time will get them sequencing correctly all the time. Otherwise I may have to take OPT7's advice and initiate a return.
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FORScan seems to have worked. One change and the front markers are now on as DRL's. When the engine and the Arrow's white light is on, they are sequencing correctly...hope it stays that way.

The DRL's go off when the handbrake is set, so there is still a mode of operation when they won't work correctly (engine running with the hand brake set and lights off). But at least that only happens very rarely, before they weren't working in the most common state of the car (driving it during daylight).

As an added bonus, FORScan enabled me to disable the double honk when closing the door with the engine running and the FOB in my pocket outside the car. I was also able to set the damn panic button on the FOB to require 2 clicks before it starts wailing. Hopefully that will eliminate the pocket push... if not it will get disabled completely.

The Arrow's really do look fantastic. Hopefully they can get their design sorted out to be more stable. If it is a result of the intermittent power from the stock blinker circuit turning on and off (without the additional power supplied from the marker/low beam circuit) perhaps a larger capacitor could hold enough charge to keep it going between blinks...
 
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I've been running the FORScan changes for a while now. However, one thing I would like to point out to anyone reading and considering this route...

The FORScan change does not just turn on the front marker lights. It turns on the entire parking lights system, front, rear, side, etc. It also sets the gill lights to their nighttime dim mode. The side and rear marker lights I could live with, but would rather not have to. The gills being half intensity with the front markers being full intensity is out of balance and I'm not sure I'm OK with the look of it.

There is a DRL provision that was included for the European Mustangs of using dedicated DRL's. However, although the logic and outputs may exist in the US version BCM, I am suspicious that the actual wiring does not exist in the US Mustang's harness. It would be possible to add the two required pins to the connector and run wiring including relays out to the OPT7 modules. But that just doesn't sound like it would be worth all the effort.
 

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I've been running the FORScan changes for a while now. However, one thing I would like to point out to anyone reading and considering this route...

The FORScan change does not just turn on the front marker lights. It turns on the entire parking lights system, front, rear, side, etc. It also sets the gill lights to their nighttime dim mode. The side and rear marker lights I could live with, but would rather not have to. The gills being half intensity with the front markers being full intensity is out of balance and I'm not sure I'm OK with the look of it.

There is a DRL provision that was included for the European Mustangs of using dedicated DRL's. However, although the logic and outputs may exist in the US version BCM, I am suspicious that the actual wiring does not exist in the US Mustang's harness. It would be possible to add the two required pins to the connector and run wiring including relays out to the OPT7 modules. But that just doesn't sound like it would be worth all the effort.
Wow I'll have to look into that. I must have never noticed
 
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Wow I'll have to look into that. I must have never noticed
If you find something different please let us know. I have experimented with a bunch of stuff and have not been able to change it.

Based on OPT7's email I've started looking at alternate suppliers of the sequencing front signals. I will call them before giving up and sending back their units though.
 

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The extra resistor harness did not help.

But if you want your gill lights to be full brightness and the other parking lights off, Diode Dynamics makes a harness that allows you to tap into the switched power (hot in start and run) from the headlights (DD4051) without permanent change to the vehicle. You can do it much cheaper without the harness, using a positap if you are OK with piercing the vehicle wire's insulation.

The key is to disconnect the marker light lead (center green wire) of the OPT7 Arrow from its connector and attach it directly to pin 3 from the headlight connector/harness. If you don't disconnect the marker lead from the connector you will be putting switched 12V onto the entire parking light circuit (essentially bypassing the BCM's control).

This route is a bit more invasive, but it does allow you to have the white front turn signals as DRL's without dimming the gills and without running any of the other marker lights. And for some reason, when there is 12V on the marker light lead of the OPT7 Arrows, they work fine regardless of whether or not the engine is running.
 
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The downside to that setup is that the front marker lights won't come on with the ignition off. So, not when you first shut off the car, not when you sit parked with the markers on. Although the gills will be on so the front of the car is not completely dark.

Seems that the OPT7 Arrows, while great looking, have a defective design and will require some flavor of compromise one way or the other. Although they did mention that it is more prevalent with the GT's.
 
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I got a wild hair this afternoon and went back in to add diode packs. I had some 3A rectifier diodes on hand and built my own, but you can also buy them from trailer shops. Two diodes in parallel with the striped ends joined and then connected to the turn signal's parking lamp lead. The non-striped side of one of the diodes connected to the vehicle parking light power and the other is connected to the DD harness bringing switched power from the headlight connector.
 
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I got a wild hair this afternoon and went back in to add diode packs. I had some 3A rectifier diodes on hand and built my own, but you can also buy them from trailer shops. Two diodes in parallel with the stripped ends joined and then connected to the turn signal's parking lamp lead. The non-striped side of one of the diodes connected to the vehicle parking light power and the other is connected to the DD harness bringing switched power from the headlight connector.
Did this make the OPT7s work correctly without any Forscan changes? Any pics?
 
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Yes, so far so good. For me the OPT7's only fibrillated (failed to sequence properly) when the engine was running and there was no power in the Arrow's marker light circuit. Since I am powering that marker light circuit whenever the ignition is in Hot or Start using power from pin3 of the headlamp assembly, that has completely solved my fibrillation problem AND has enabled me to restore the as-built setting to not use the parking lights as DRLs. This, in-turn, has restored the gills lights to their full intensity and turned off all the other parking lights as DRL's.

However, I did not want to tap directly into the Arrow's marker light circuit as is because that would put switched 12V onto the entire parking light circuit. My original solution was to disconnect the Arrow's marker light circuit from the car, but that resulted in the Arrow's white light only coming on when the ignition was turned on. (i.e. the parking lights no longer turned on the front white Arrows). Adding the diodes allows either circuit (switched 12V or the parking lights) to illuminate the white Arrows without dumping 12V onto the other circuit.

The end result is the normal parking light behavior of the white marker lights up front with the addition of them coming on as white DRLs whenever the ignition is on. And since they now have the 12V whenever the engine is running they also sequence properly at all times.

Here are a few pics of the stuff I added, but I haven't yet snapped any shots of the front of the car (probably should wash the car first). I removed the Arrow's pin2 terminal from the connector and disconnected the green wire (and installed a male quick connect on the green wire - however this will need to be female if using the trailer diodes). Then built a new longer wire and reinserted the pin into the connector. Although it would be easier to just cut the green wire and crimp on male and female quick connectors. I used the shielded female quick connectors on the side that carry voltage even when disconnected (i.e. the car side) to reduce the chance of shorting out.

If you don't have any diodes handy you can purchase these: https://www.etrailer.com/Accessories-and-Parts/Hopkins/48955.html or these https://www.amazon.com/Hopkins-5630...NSS8G8NQZZY4K26A7SV1&qid=1556901582&s=gateway (thanks to @jfabes for bird dogging this option)

Plain diodes are a lot cheaper. But with the commercial trailer diodes you can crimp the quick connects on the wires and put it together without any soldering. The trailer diodes are rated at 3A (or 5A for the second option), which is spec'd for an incandescent turn signal bulb and is probably overkill for LEDs, but without knowing the max current required by the OPT7 Arrows, I figured I'd just go with the same 3A.

DiodePack_Reduced.jpg
View attachment 345271
DiodeBlock_v2.jpg
 

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Here is a picture of the front marker with the engine running and all other lights turned off. I tried to grab some shots with the marker lights on and the headlights on, but apparently the gills use some sort of duty cycle to dim and it plays havoc with my cell phone's shutter speed, so they appear to be partially on and partially off. Maybe when the sun isn't setting in the background I can set up a real camera with a lower shutter speed to get a true image.

Trying to get the whole front of the car in frame resulted in the chumpy cell phone camera dimming out the exposure due to the sunset in the background.

Pardon the dirt, it has been raining and snowing here for the past couple of days.

ArrowWhite_Reduced.jpg
 
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Yes, so far so good. For me the OPT7's only fibrillated (failed to sequence properly) when the engine was running and there was no power in the Arrow's marker light circuit. Since I am powering that marker light circuit whenever the ignition is in Hot or Start using power from pin3 of the headlamp assembly, that has completely solved my fibrillation problem AND has enabled me to restore the as-built setting to not use the parking lights as DRLs. This, in-turn, has restored the gills lights to their full intensity and turned off all the other parking lights as DRL's.

However, I did not want to tap directly into the Arrow's marker light circuit as is because that would put switched 12V onto the entire parking light circuit. My original solution was to disconnect the Arrow's marker light circuit from the car, but that resulted in the Arrow's white light only coming on when the ignition was turned on. (i.e. the parking lights no longer turned on the front white Arrows). Adding the diodes allows either circuit (switched 12V or the parking lights) to illuminate the white Arrows without dumping 12V onto the other circuit.

The end result is the normal parking light behavior of the white marker lights up front with the addition of them coming on as white DRLs whenever the ignition is on. And since they now have the 12V whenever the engine is running they also sequence properly at all times.

Here are a few pics of the stuff I added, but I haven't yet snapped any shots of the front of the car (probably should wash the car first). I removed the Arrow's pin2 terminal from the connector and disconnected the green wire (and installed a male quick connect on the green wire - however this will need to be female if using the trailer diodes). Then built a new longer wire and reinserted the pin into the connector. Although it would be easier to just cut the green wire and crimp on male and female quick connectors. I used the shielded female quick connectors on the side that carry voltage even when disconnected (i.e. the car side) to reduce the chance of shorting out.

If you don't have any diodes handy you can purchase these: https://www.etrailer.com/Accessories-and-Parts/Hopkins/48955.html

The diodes on Amazon are a lot cheaper. But with the trailer diodes you can crimp the quick connects on the wires and put it together without any soldering. The trailer diodes are rated at 3A, which is spec'd for an incandescent turn signal bulb and is probably overkill for LEDs, but without knowing the max current required by the OPT7 Arrows, I figured I'd just go with the same 3A.

DiodePack_Reduced.jpg
View attachment 345271
Wow, very interesting. I may attempt this once the weather warms up. "Pin 2 from low beam of vehicle" you mean the connector that goes into the OPT7s, correct? And for the switched power from DD4051 harness, where is that located?
 
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Wow, very interesting. I may attempt this once the weather warms up. "Pin 2 from low beam of vehicle" you mean the connector that goes into the OPT7s, correct? And for the switched power from DD4051 harness, where is that located?
Correct, "Pin 2 from low beam of vehicle" to clarify refers to pin 2 of the turn signal connector that connects to the OPT7 Arrow. "Low beam" is meant to refer to the parking light circuit. I did all the work on the Arrow side to leave the vehicle harness and connector completely stock. From the open connection side of the Arrow connector you can use a toothpick to lift the terminal pin release and pull out the pin. Although if I had to do it all again, I would probably just cut the green wire on the Arrow and install a mating pair of crimp on quick connects. Much less hassle and less risk of damaging or loosing the terminal pin - which is very difficult to find a replacement.

The DD4051 harness is made/sold by Diode Dynamics (part # DD4051). It is an add-on harness that goes between the vehicle's connector and the headlamp assembly and provides a pigtail tap into pin 3. The DD4051 is sold in pairs at about $40 from the usual outlets. You can skip this harness if you are willing to use a Posi-tap on the wire in headlamp assembly connector. Posi-tap is cheaper by far, but it pierces the wire insulation and leaves a hole if you ever want to remove it to reverse the install back to stock.

DD4051_Harness.jpg
Pin2_Green_Removed.jpeg
 
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Personally, I think OPT7 would do well to incorporate the diode pack and a similar harness as an option to their product. Then instead of having to warn potential customers that their white markers will only be on when the lights are on, they can say for a little extra $$ you can have white running lights up front. And for those select vehicles where the sequencing malfunctions they could offer them as fix.

I generally have been monitoring the function of the Arrows since the beginning whenever I'm sitting in traffic behind a shiny enough vehicle. Since integrating the always on white markers the turn signals have sequenced properly.
 

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Correct, "Pin 2 from low beam of vehicle" to clarify refers to pin 2 of the turn signal connector that connects to the OPT7 Arrow. "Low beam" is meant to refer to the parking light circuit. I did all the work on the Arrow side to leave the vehicle harness and connector completely stock. From the open connection side of the Arrow connector you can use a toothpick to lift the terminal pin release and pull out the pin. Although if I had to do it all again, I would probably just cut the green wire on the Arrow and install a mating pair of crimp on quick connects. Much less hassle and less risk of damaging or loosing the terminal pin - which is very difficult to find a replacement.

The DD4051 harness is made/sold by Diode Dynamics (part # DD4051). It is an add-on harness that goes between the vehicle's connector and the headlamp assembly and provides a pigtail tap into pin 3. The DD4051 is sold in pairs at about $40 from the usual outlets. You can skip this harness if you are willing to use a Posi-tap on the wire in headlamp assembly connector. Posi-tap is cheaper by far, but it pierces the wire insulation and leaves a hole if you ever want to remove it to reverse the install back to stock.

DD4051_Harness.jpg
Pin2_Green_Removed.jpeg
Thanks very much. I think I will attempt it this summer.
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