The big light up

I'm building up the parts I'm going to need to really do it right and once[emoji39]

The over all plan is to be able to have the ORL and fogs operate independently of the high/lows so the flip flop relay and turn signal stalk mod will need to be done. I'm not super confidant about wiring or soldering so if there's any pointers on that or easy to use resources feel free to enlighten ( tee hee) me.

For the front id like to retro in some LED fog lights bulb swap would be easiest and in actively researching those. The projector head lamp assembly's on eBay keep peaking my interest however I've read so much good and bad I'm hesitant. HID alone is so bright compared to stock it's unreal. Getting a good set up is much harder than it first appeared. I've read so much about the off-road HID swap that I'm planning on ordering those today eBay special looks straight forward with good diy stickies. I have a cheapie 20" bar for the mouth also seems pretty straight forward. The sides are going to be tough for me. I work on an ambulance and having scene lights is just the best I use them all the time and decided I wanted some on my x.
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got them for a steal they are the box above the bar
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I want to mount them to the bottom of he rail and run the wires inside. I'm all ears for that procedure. I have six of those. The idea was two left two right and two rear. Eyeballing the rear most bar position though I don't know if those will hit where I want so I'm also going to source some couch mount pods to stick in the bumper. I'd like them to selectively turn on either via switch when I shift to reverse, MT, or off allowing only the stock back ups. Haven't figured that out yet.

I like the idea of LED interior lights especially if they are brighter but when I click on some of the links in the stickies they go no where so that's also still under research. As for the back hatch I saw a mod called the "porch light". I got two very thin COB LED and will try to wire them into the rear dome light. they will be mounted on the far left and right of the tailgate so when the hatch goes up the immediate area outside will have illumination. I'm also thinking about strips glued into the headliner to eliminate dark spots.



The switch placement is odd. I tried outa few ideas with post it notes and felt that
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here up above the door handle would work best for me. I found some circular rocker switches and I will arrange them in a diamond to help me hit the right one by feel.

I'm ordering a ten pack of relays today probably some wire. I'll try to take pictures of successes and failures.
32a054f74d112de56a62f436ebb00fda.jpg



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TN4x4Xterra

Suspension Lift
Location
Knoxville, TN
Sounds complicated for your set up.

Mine was easier using the set up I followed the steps over TNX with XJ-TERRA's thread.

I'm running the same set up -

20" Bar in mouth
40" bar on roof WITH ORLs still there.
4 x 6" Rigid SR Series on sides
10" SR Series on rear
2 x 3" Duallys on front of grille
2 x amber/white strobes on grille
2 x 3" Duallys on rear corners
2 x RED fog rear running lights
LED Traffic adviser bar just right behind the rear window.

I'm running BlueSea Fusebox for all these lights, and I have 2 police 5-switch box in the cab for all these lights.

I think I may have the pics on my build thread, not sure. Been a while since I updated it.

This is somewhat more up to date......I don't have the 40" on top of mine in that build thread but I'll post up pics.
http://www.thenewx.org/forum/showthread.php?t=52690
 
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TN4x4Xterra

Suspension Lift
Location
Knoxville, TN
Here's the most recent pic:


40" mounted and you can see the side lights too:
FB_IMG_1438913228769_zpsnvaix5vz.jpg


You can see the rear lightbar, dually top rear corners and side lights:
20150524_183942_zpsfdyzjjf7.jpeg


Police switch box with OTRATTW switches:

20130525_213257_zpsbafa6b0b.jpg


20130525_213331_zps1f7013bb.jpg


Hope this helps
 
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Oh complicated for sure lol but I like the idea of using the factory stalk
It's challenging and I'll learn a fair bit.

Did you run your fuse block all the way I I the cab or did you run your switch wires out to the relays Under the hood somewhere? I'll read up on that link when I'm back home.
My cb is in that location
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I'm thinking about using like a bell wire or telephone wire set up to run out to the switches in the door. Don't know exactly what to call it yet. Many small gauge wires in a 1/4" or smaller main cable. Will run from the switches to the relays. Carrying a minimal of a large right? Just the one led in the switch itself and the current to switch the relay.
The relays are on the way, need to settle on the fuse block and get that enroute. I'm studying and printing the pictures and will try to follow them exactly

Hid kit www.ebay.com/ulk/itm/221534511657
eb686b82eddedd6971a969ad842e3d61.jpg



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TJTJ

Skid Plates
Founding Member
Location
NJ
Automotive wiring is more vibration resistant than house wiring...hence there being more than one type.

HID capsules are different depths than the halogens they replace, so the light they emit is not in the correct location in the reflector housing to focus properly.

That causes an admittedly bright, but unfocused beam, that causes glare to oncoming drivers, and may have less range than the halogen lights did.

IE: They might look very bright right in front of you, but put a lower lux on distant objects. This causes your pupils to contract and your night vision to degrade during night driving, due to the proximal brightness, leaving you less able to see further ahead, which ironically, was the objective for most people to add the HID capsules in the first place.

I have light measurement equipment I use for work for example, and I can tell you the HID conversions look brighter, but work worse in real life...even if you are (typically) fooled into thinking "they are hella bright!!!!".

:D
 
The hid is for the off road lights, so far I'm still researching the headlight stuff. Have you any experience with the LED swap in bulbs. Some say the placement of the chip is closer to where the filament would
Be and works better but I haven't read much on actual good quantitive reviews


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The wire question is stumping me because I don't know what it's called hence I can't search for it. I envision many strands of individual wire insulated and bundled together I'm guessing I would need nine or ten strands inside a larger encapsulating insulative layer.


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TJTJ

Skid Plates
Founding Member
Location
NJ
The LED will not be (Except by coincidence) anywhere near where they need to be, in the best orientation....relative to a reflector.

Additionally, a halogen light emits light along the axis of the filaments, whereas an LED emits straight forward...so a reflector designed to work with a particular halogen capsule will not really even work with one of a different orientation, let alone different emission axis, etc.

If you want HID headlights, use the type that has a projector assembly, so that the HID and projector are a matched set, intended to work together...and you simply don't USE a reflector anymore, solving that issue.

Same for LED headlights...the lenses HAVE TO match the optics of the emitters to work well.

Essentially, to have the best range, you need the best collimation of the light, and that requires the light to be emitted from a point that the reflector can collimate it from.

Imagine a magnifying glass...and you want to burn an ant, and you want the sun to be concentrated on the wee bugger and fry it.

You can't randomly hold the glass and fry the bug....you need to move the glass in/out and so forth until you see the beam focused to a teeny point, on the ant.

The more concentrated the beam can be (collimated so all the photons are marching in the same direction...), the better the range of the light....and the brighter you can illuminate distant objects.


I played around with some early HID set-ups, and it makes a HUGE different in performance if the emitter is rotated a few degrees (orientation), or moved in/out of the reflector bowl by mere mm...its that sensitive to these factors.


My wife has trouble seeing at night, so for her Jeep, I swapped on JK Speaker 8700 Evolution II LED headlights in place of the OEM headlights...and holy crap!

The LED's lighting was amazing in comparison to the stock jeep lights...and she had a newer model (JK), not some old CJ, etc.

:D
 
I read reviews of those, seem to be a silver bullet of sorts for the jeepers, wish there was a similar discovery for the x. It's part of the illness that nothing's ever easy with a a nissan


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Would this work for those four switches?
3f1331ad9a46472acb34c3fde2143fa8.jpg

It's called speed wire by stinger

The only other stuff I could find was solid wire
Which I was told would break where it would be bent repeatedly in the door jamb


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Muadeeb

Nissan al Gaib
Admin
Location
Dallas
18 gauge should be fine. I'm actually using 'speaker wire' for my roof lights, and at work we use lamp wire for speakers.
 
I got my eyes on some at the local radio shack of all things. I measured it at .5" diameter. Didn't have time to peel back the conduit in the door to see if I got the room and two will nine strands be enough.


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My plan for the scene lights as of now is hose clamps. Sigh, inelegant I know but it's my first iteration. My plan to get as much wire inside the factory rack tubes is possible right? I haven't see any pictures of the mounts off the truck yet. I'm thinking of popping up the passenger side A post.


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Prime

Shut up Baby, I know it!
Admin
Location
Denver Adjacent
Category cable is a little small imo. Cat5 is 24ga. Some Cat6 is 23ga. It's not made to handle really any amperage.

That being said, I dig your scene lights. I did the same with square LED pods mounted to my rack. They're invaluable when camping or having to be stuck on the road at night. Those look super low profile and I'm curious to see the output.
 
So working on the porch lights today
73dc2fdbafc0d817846220257f9af693.jpg
the lights
2c8b5e1b44e5a7c702a8bb9a2921ea56.jpg
the backside of the switch
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the switch! It looks like I'm going to have to run grounds back to the switch to preserve its function. Ie the open on and on off


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Prime

Shut up Baby, I know it!
Admin
Location
Denver Adjacent
Am I crazy? The hot is the top right contact, ground one is the right curly contact and he far left is the second


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Nissan likes to switch everything on ground. So the one with the interrupt switch is very likely the ground and the one that goes straight to the bulb is the hot.
 
Got it, can I simply ground in the door panel or do I have to drag grounds back and solder to the existing grounds to get switched on and constant on?

So my plan is to bring a hot via tap from the switch before it plugs into the switch assembly then bring two grounds back up to the switch in attempt to mimic the stock switch, except i don't see how it knows when the door is open or not?? I'm missing a piece of the puzzle here.

feel free to shoot me a pm i'm willing to call people to figure this out lol only thing i object to is the release of factory installed smoke!

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ive worked a thick zip tie through the rubber elbow loom thingy to ferry some wire through and that green heavy gauge is running from the top of the door down to where the COB lights at going to peek through. Ideally I will retain the switch function as on when open/switched on/ off. The COB lights have 3m (Chinese cheap I so I'm not real hopeful) double sided tape. I'll use that for now with some nice epoxy if it woks out nice [emoji16] seriously if you have pointers I could use them lol.

1fbd728930d2c0eb64226002c136c9b0.jpg


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Muadeeb

Nissan al Gaib
Admin
Location
Dallas
Got it, can I simply ground in the door panel or do I have to drag grounds back and solder to the existing grounds to get switched on and constant on?

So my plan is to bring a hot via tap from the switch before it plugs into the switch assembly then bring two grounds back up to the switch in attempt to mimic the stock switch, except i don't see how it knows when the door is open or not?? I'm missing a piece of the puzzle here.

feel free to shoot me a pm i'm willing to call people to figure this out lol only thing i object to is the release of factory installed smoke!

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dome%20light.jpg

With labels!!!
 

Muadeeb

Nissan al Gaib
Admin
Location
Dallas
You'll have to install your own switch to have the 'porch' lights mimic the dome ones. There is no slave output from the dome light, only the door switch and a B+ so each dome light has its own mode switch. You're basically replicating that setup.
 
I know you are saying something important but I'm a little slow on the uptake. I chatted with Prime a few minutes and he suggested grab a hot and identify the broken ground wire from the door switch so the lights are on when to door opens.
Ground switched systems, broken ground loops, etc are not jumping to mind as things I understand well. My concept is power goes from battery to fuse to switch to thing to ground or back to battery.
From what I've been told the computer sees a ground when the door is OPEN FROM A SWITCH at the latch. When you open the door the computer sees the ground (switch closed) and sends power to the light assembly other the hot side/wire going to switch, it's dead until the computer sees the circuit complete via closed door switch. The thought was that I grab power from the hot side of the switch to my red wire for lights, the grounds I attach to the wire that loses continuity with the door open. I'm planning on probing the wires with the latch open and shut to identify it.
That is if I understand what I'm being told, I do not understand the B+
?Battery positive or hot?
,[emoji53] I put people back together manage complex ICU patients on mechanical ventilation with multiple drips. I can get this I just need baby steps lol


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Prime

Shut up Baby, I know it!
Admin
Location
Denver Adjacent
Backwards. The computer loses ground when the latch is closed. When the latch is opened it completes the circuit to ground. Which tells the computer that a door is open and to turn on the dome light.
 

Prime

Shut up Baby, I know it!
Admin
Location
Denver Adjacent
But essentially, yes. So long as you attach your ground for the lights to the wire that loses ground when the latch is closed, that will complete the circuit for the light to come on when the hatch is opened.
 

Prime

Shut up Baby, I know it!
Admin
Location
Denver Adjacent
And yeah, I just pulled up the 2nd gen wiring schematic and verified that. Same exact entry system as the 1st Gen. Only difference is that the rear dome light is only tied to the hatch. Whereas on mine, the front and rear dome lights always come on together.
 
Idea number 34, the big issue is that the switch is a selectable ground right? Door closed switch on light is off because the ground is broken by latch and computer sends no power. Door opens latch closes circuit to latch complete and computer sends power to light switch which then goes to ring terminal ground and the light comes on. If the switch is in the middle position the door is closed


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Hold on a second I'm assuming the light gets power only from the computer when the latch switch is closed creating ground? Doesn't it also get power when the key is on but door closed?


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Ok theory: door closed latch switch open no continuity key off = no power to light, key on =power to light. Stand by

Confirmed! Sort of maybe

Findings: the latch breaks ground and the wire leading from the switch to the latch is that ground, the ring terminal thingy is grounded straight to chassis with a sheet metal screw also an attachment screw for the housing. It seems that the rear most light gets constant 12v no matter what condition of key, lock or door position. It does not lose power with a door shut and locked like the dome and map lights (I'm calling this the cargo light). I have to head to radio shack and buy some insulated male/female spade connectors. So I have to get the kid dressed I left it on to see if the computer cuts power at some point. ETA it does!

I pose this question: if I run a tap for power off the wire pre switch and run my grounds back to that switch and connect /solder to each grounded position would that give me what I want with regards to operation or would I have to run my power into the switch and solder it in after the housing onto that flat plate behind the bulb. Which I'd like to replace with a COB led panel anyways at some point.


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Muadeeb

Nissan al Gaib
Admin
Location
Dallas
Here's what I would do. Get a switch that has three positions: Either side is 'on', but the middle is 'off' (may be listed as an ON-OFF-ON switch). Tap off the Cargo Light, you should have a Blue and a Red/yellow wire. The Red one is the 12V, Blue is Ground when the hatch is open. Run a splice off the red one to your Porch lights, then out of the lights into the center connector of the switch. One of the outside connectors will go back up to the Cargo Light to the blue wire, and the other connector will go to a convenient body ground.
G2%20hatch%20switch.jpg


Prime, anything you think that could be done different?

I do not understand the B+ ?Battery positive or hot?
Sorry, shorthand for Positive Battery Voltage. It's not really always hot in this case, as the body computer will shut it off after a while in order to save the battery, but close enough.
 
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