fog light dash board warning mod!
Its Christmas… I’m bored, what can I say!!!
Today it’s fog lights! Well more accurately it’s knowing when they are on!
Now, JDM didn’t have them fitted as standard, so mine was converted when it came in to have the pair of inner brake lights as the fogs. This caused the ‘brake light out’ warning lamp to light on the dash, so when it was originally converted, whoever did it was kind enough to put black tape over the dash light! For years I thought the brake light out indicator was an optional extra!
Eventually I worked out what they had done, and rewired the inner brake lights via a relay, so all was normal, and when the fogs were on and the brake pressed, the warning light came on... A handy bonus that reset when the drive finished.
I then evolved to the current fog set up, with the centre section filled with LEDs ( http://www.nsxcb.co.uk/showthread.ph...s!)&highlight= ) . The switch behind the gear stick has a ‘fogs on’ lamp when it’s pressed, but I missed the dash indication… I don’t know what Honda did for the UK models with OEM fog lights, but I’ve not seen a dashboard fog light indicator mentioned anywhere. A couple of times I’ve noticed I’ve had the rear fog light on by accident (leant on switch at some point) usually discovered by someone flashing me! At least I know they work!
After the ‘boot/hatch open/alarm/bonnet catch issues, it occurred to me there was a simple solution… use the ‘boot open’ light!
When I did the DRLs I bought some LED control units… I got 2 types to see what was best… turns out one set just did flashing patterns, no good for DRLs but ok for stock! I used one of these flashing units to tweak the dash!
This is the unit
http://i301.photobucket.com/albums/n...12-29-4348.jpg
it was something stupid like £1 on ebay! The flashing style/rate can be selected, and it remembers what one, so I can switch off and switch back on to the same pattern!
Out of the 4 wires I only need the red and black on the 12v in side and the black wire on the LED side. The unit works by switching the 0v line on the LED. The LED + wire on the controller is a direct link to the +12v on the input side. the dash light gets it's 12v supply from the dash!
The +12v side is connected to the 2 fog lamp wires, to power up when the fog light goes on, the LED – goes to the boot catch switch. There is a 3 wire connector going to the switch, of which the black is the switch earth. I connected the led control unit to one of the other 2, it doesn’t really matter which as they are commoned on the switch side of things… anyway, here’s the pic, the connector has a cover, which was removed, the wire just pushed in, and the cover replaced… not very scientific, but more than adequate, and doesn’t cut anything…
http://i301.photobucket.com/albums/n...12-29-4350.jpg
Once fitted up, and the boot closed, the lamp was tested and here’s what I get!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OkmeWT47yN0&
so now, if the rear fog light is on, i have a dashboard indication, rather than a lamp under my elbow! (obviously it's just the dashboard light that flashes, the fog light and light on the switch stay on constantly!)
