Okay - I think I have all that sorted out.
Now, onto my front signals!
I bought some really nice, small, rubber stalk-type turn/running lights (from the UK), which I plan to mount to either side of the nose. It's not ideal, appearance-wise, but there's really nowhere else I can realistically mount them, so I bought small ones so they'd be as unobtrusive as possible, while still being visible as front side marker lights (mandatory here).
Problem was, once I received them, I realized that they only have a single filament. So, they're not actually intended to perform both running & turn functions
I thought of various strategies to fix this, including trying to fit small LED's inside the housings to act as signal bulbs, but there's just not enough room.
Then, I had an epiphany - how about using relays to turn the front lights flash OFF when the rear signals flashed ON?
To make it all work, I purchased a pair of normally-closed, 5-pole Bosch-style relays. The plan is that, when the running lights are on, the front lights will be on. When the signals are activated, the front signal lights will go off as the rear ones light up, and vice-versa. This means that the front & rear signals will flash alternately (but at the same rate). As the signals on many GM vehicles operate that way, it's not a problem standards-wise.
So...here's the circuit I designed using relays, in case anyone else (who may be as woefully ignorant about wiring as I am!!) wants to be able to do this:
Attachment:
signal relay pinout amd color code small.jpg
Note that it's actually a
lot simpler than it looks - each relay has a total of 4 wires - two power wires in, one wire out to the lamp, and one ground wire. This diagram shows both the right & left sides, incorporated into the same diagram, which is why it looks more complex than it is.
The relays are "normally closed", 5 poles, and have the "87a" pole in the middle (this needs to be there).
By the way, the color code shown is standard GM, which matches my EZ harness (as well as Painless, Kwik-Wire, Jegs, etc.).
This took a lot of research, so I'm
really hoping it will be of use to others here. I'd hate to see someone else have to so all that research! There's a LOT of misleading information out there, and a LOT of wrong, downright dangerous, diagrams for wiring relays (I found some that had power hooking directly to ground - imagine the smoke escaping when you fired up headlights & the power went directly to ground instead of the lights
)
- Cheers, folks!
_________________
Scratch building, at continental-drift speed, a custom McSoreley-design framed, dual-Weber 45DCOE carburated, Zetec-engined, ridiculously fast money pit.
http://zetec7.webs.com/