LED dome lights not working properly...

[bahollis]

LED, not HID.

I just installed LED lamps in my dome lights for my Hoe. (front 2 map lights, and three bulbs in both celing lamps. (middle and rear)

Now... when I turned on the reading lamps (two black buttons) in the middle and rear celing light clusters the lamps are dim, and they flicker a bit. Here's where it gets strange. When I open the vanity mirror and let the old bulbs come on all, four reading lights suddenly get brighter like they should. The old OEM vanity lights stay on too.

Sooooo, fast forward a week. I just got in some bulbs for the vanity mirrors. I install them, and test everthing out. The reading lamps are dim still. I open the vanity mirror and these lights do not come on at all because the damn reading lights are on. If I turn off the reading lamps, the vanity lights will come on full strength.

So even before the vanity lamp switch I had an issue with the reading lamp bulbs, and now with the vanity lamps switched to LED I can't get full strength reading lights AND I can't have them both on at the same time.

I never had any issues with the lights when they were OEM bulbs.

If you know what the hell is going on please let me know.

BH

 

[bahollis]

Update- So I got to looking at these lights to try and troubleshoot. I am pretty sure it's not permanently fixed, but I took one of the LEDs out of the vanity and put an OEM bulb back in and all the dim lights got freaking bright again. Then I take out the OEM and put the LED back in, and it stayed bright... for now.

Is there some sort of resistor or something for all the interior courtesy lights?

BH

 

[Rivieraracing]

That's a strange problem indeed!! Where did you buy the LED's from? Ebay? Might be the quality of the lights or even the sockets making contact, just throwing out some ideas!!!

 

[bahollis]

Uhhhh, I got them from HID Guy. Shit, I was hoping to leave that can of worms closed....

I replaced one of the Vanity bulbs with the OEM one, and it seems to be fixed for now. I need to see if that holds true for any of the vanity sockets with the OEM bulb. If so, I have no freaking idea.

BH

 

[bahollis]

Anyone else do the interior LED change and have weird light issues? It would be different if it was jacked before the LEDs went in, but it was fine.

????

 

[ILSMKU]

Anyone else do the interior LED change and have weird light issues? It would be different if it was jacked before the LEDs went in, but it was fine.

????

Bump an old thread. I have very similar issue with the LED bulbs. I didnt touch my vanity bulbs, but my map/dome bulbs are not working correctly either. flickering, VERY dim, or not working at all. Sucks.

Did you ever figure it out OP?

 

[bahollis]

LED interior lights

I never got them to work right. The lights in the roof interior come on about 20% brightness until I open my driver side vanity mirror. Then they are full power. The map lights won't both turn on at the same time unless I do the magic vanity mirror trick.

This was never an issue with the standard bulbs.

In all honesty, the LEDs are bright as shit to look at... but the white light doesn't seem to illuminate as well as the warm light. Maybe it's my eyes. It's weird.

I have simply been dealing with it. I will however be changing back to the standard bulbs. I hate not knowing how to solve an issue in my truck, no matter how trivial it may seem.

BH

 

[chauncey0337]

It seems that in 2003-2006 models when replaced with led have dimming problems. Not sure if it's the same problem you have but we have people working on the situation as we speak-

http://tahoeyukonforum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=34369

 

[agilliam]

HID/LED Interior lighting not working

The reason the interior lighting is not working with ALL LED, is simple but can be confusing for some. All interior lights are computer controlled on new cars. If you notice, if you leave your lights on, after 10 minutes usually all your interior lights will shut off to prevent battery drain. You also have a bulb out warning for your headlights turns etc. With that in mind, Your lights will come on dim, but unless it detects a resistance of a actual oem bulb, the lights will not turn on. This is why when you put 1 light bulb back in place of your LED light, they worked. It has to have a resistance there in order for the lights to get full power. The BCM (Body Control Module) sends out a slow voltage to measure the lights to see if they are there. IF they arent there, then it wont send the signal to turn the lights on full 12v power.

Hope this helped.

I had the same thing with my Dodge Ram. I had to wire in load resistors in the map lights to get this problem solved. The resistors tell the computer "Hey i have a bulb in because there is resistance", then the BCM turns the lights on full power with no bulb out error msg or dimming.

 

[2005SnowKon]

my 2005 Yukon had the same problem with thet dome lights but all i needed to do was turn the LED bulb alittle and it brightened right up

 

[JustinToolbox]

It has to do with the bcm , you have to put in a add a circuit an a diode . I'm currently working on doing that in my 04 yuk .
But I don't want to completely cut out the bcm , so I'm going to try an put a diode from the add a circuit to the orange wire to the lights , then a diode on the orange wire from the bcm an see if it works . Don't want to keep the bcm alive all the time but don't want to completely disconnect it .

 

[95escahoe]

When I put LED's in the dome lights on my Esky I had to bend the contacts so the bulbs fit tighter then they were fine


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[armentaaw]

Folks I'm new to this forum. Here is what I did and it totally solved my dim issues. I'm not counting on BCM to control the lights. They have been in over a week and no issues.

What I did was tap into the orange wire that is one of two wires going to garage door opener. That wire is always hot. The orange wire on the three wire side goes to the map lights, vanity lights and rear reading lights. All of which are switched. See photos.

 

[DougAMiller]

This certainly will work, but what you have done is to bypass the BCM's ability to turn off the interior lights if they are inadvertently left on, hence the name of the circuit that powers these lights - Inadvertent Power (IP). The IP circuit supplies a low level current that is not enough to run down the battery and will not be enough to light a standard bulb, but since LEDs run on much lower power, they do come on, just at a dim level since it is very low power. The BCM senses current drain on this circuit and switches on full power for about 15 minutes (it will stay on if the engine is running until the light is turned off, then it resets). The LEDs do not draw enough current to reach the threshold for the BCM to switch on full power. This is why turning on the vanity lights (with original bulbs) will cause the reading lights to go to full brightness.

I solved this by adding a resistor in parallel with the LED that draws extra current to trigger the BCM, and then put a capacitor in series with the resistor which basically shuts off the current through the resistor after the capacitor is fully charged. This does cause the reading lights to slowly fade out when you turn them off. How fast they fade out is determined by the size of the capacitor. If you don't put a capacitor in series with the resistor, you must use a large power resistor, like 10W or so. Anything smaller will burn out. Even a 10W is going to get pretty hot. My first configuration without the capacitor resulted in the heat sink on the resistor melting through the plastic housing of the overhead console, and I had to replace the console housing.

It takes a 22Ω resistor to draw enough current plus the LED current to equal the current draw of a 194 incandescent bulb. I haven't experimented with what the largest resistor value could be used and still trigger the BCM, but the larger value you have, the lower power rating it can have. Lower power rating on the resistor means generating less heat.

To throw in a little Ohm's Law: Current = Voltage/Resistance and Power = Voltage x Current This is how you determine how many Watts the resistor needs to be rated for.

 

[armentaaw]

This certainly will work, but what you have done is to bypass the BCM's ability to turn off the interior lights if they are inadvertently left on, hence the name of the circuit that powers these lights - Inadvertent Power (IP). The IP circuit supplies a low level current that is not enough to run down the battery and will not be enough to light a standard bulb, but since LEDs run on much lower power, they do come on, just at a dim level since it is very low power. The BCM senses current drain on this circuit and switches on full power for about 15 minutes (it will stay on if the engine is running until the light is turned off, then it resets). The LEDs do not draw enough current to reach the threshold for the BCM to switch on full power. This is why turning on the vanity lights (with original bulbs) will cause the reading lights to go to full brightness.

I solved this by adding a resistor in parallel with the LED that draws extra current to trigger the BCM, and then put a capacitor in series with the resistor which basically shuts off the current through the resistor after the capacitor is fully charged. This does cause the reading lights to slowly fade out when you turn them off. How fast they fade out is determined by the size of the capacitor. If you don't put a capacitor in series with the resistor, you must use a large power resistor, like 10W or so. Anything smaller will burn out. Even a 10W is going to get pretty hot. My first configuration without the capacitor resulted in the heat sink on the resistor melting through the plastic housing of the overhead console, and I had to replace the console housing.

It takes a 22Ω resistor to draw enough current plus the LED current to equal the current draw of a 194 incandescent bulb. I haven't experimented with what the largest resistor value could be used and still trigger the BCM, but the larger value you have, the lower power rating it can have. Lower power rating on the resistor means generating less heat.

To throw in a little Ohm's Law: Current = Voltage/Resistance and Power = Voltage x Current This is how you determine how many Watts the resistor needs to be rated for.

Thanks Doug. I was fully aware of the risks bypassing BCM. I carefully considered the other posts that suggest the same set up. I'll probably be so ultra conscious of leaving any lights on that I may be lucky enough not to end up with a dead battery. Just a sidebar note here, I did try using the canbus lights which is my understanding they have resisters in them. They did not work.

 

[DougAMiller]

No problem. It's a hassle making LEDs work properly, but I do like the interior lighting better now. The preferred solution would be to modify the BCM software to change the threshold current to a lower value so that the LEDs would trigger Inadvertent Power, but they will never give us that access. It took me months to reverse engineer the IPC software enough to be able to add the Trans Temp gauge and make it functional, I'm not keen on digging into the BCM software.

 

[Twinsoffroad]

Reviving this thread, thanks for the write up! So far so good in my 2004 Suburban Z71.

 

[deathfry]

This certainly will work, but what you have done is to bypass the BCM's ability to turn off the interior lights if they are inadvertently left on, hence the name of the circuit that powers these lights - Inadvertent Power (IP). The IP circuit supplies a low level current that is not enough to run down the battery and will not be enough to light a standard bulb, but since LEDs run on much lower power, they do come on, just at a dim level since it is very low power. The BCM senses current drain on this circuit and switches on full power for about 15 minutes (it will stay on if the engine is running until the light is turned off, then it resets). The LEDs do not draw enough current to reach the threshold for the BCM to switch on full power. This is why turning on the vanity lights (with original bulbs) will cause the reading lights to go to full brightness.

I solved this by adding a resistor in parallel with the LED that draws extra current to trigger the BCM, and then put a capacitor in series with the resistor which basically shuts off the current through the resistor after the capacitor is fully charged. This does cause the reading lights to slowly fade out when you turn them off. How fast they fade out is determined by the size of the capacitor. If you don't put a capacitor in series with the resistor, you must use a large power resistor, like 10W or so. Anything smaller will burn out. Even a 10W is going to get pretty hot. My first configuration without the capacitor resulted in the heat sink on the resistor melting through the plastic housing of the overhead console, and I had to replace the console housing.

It takes a 22Ω resistor to draw enough current plus the LED current to equal the current draw of a 194 incandescent bulb. I haven't experimented with what the largest resistor value could be used and still trigger the BCM, but the larger value you have, the lower power rating it can have. Lower power rating on the resistor means generating less heat.

To throw in a little Ohm's Law: Current = Voltage/Resistance and Power = Voltage x Current This is how you determine how many Watts the resistor needs to be rated for.

Doug, could you please provide some photos how did you do the wiring?
And as I got from your post you've used a 22 Ohm resistor and what exact capacitor?

 

[DougAMiller]

Doug, could you please provide some photos how did you do the wiring?
And as I got from your post you've used a 22 Ohm resistor and what exact capacitor?

Well, my phone decided it's not taking pictures today, but here is a schematic of what I did to mine. It includes the capacitor and resistor values. The 15kΩ resistor across the capacitor sets the fade out time. The larger it is, the slower it fades out. Without it the LED has to drain the capacitor when the power is turned off, and it will power the LED for quite awhile. 15k gives about a 5 second fade out.

 

[deathfry]

@

Well, my phone decided it's not taking pictures today, but here is a schematic of what I did to mine. It includes the capacitor and resistor values. The 15kΩ resistor across the capacitor sets the fade out time. The larger it is, the slower it fades out. Without it the LED has to drain the capacitor when the power is turned off, and it will power the LED for quite awhile. 15k gives about a 5 second fade out.

View attachment 413075

Thank you a lot! But if you allow me I'll still wait for the photos of the installation - where and how did you place capacitor and resistor