Spot Light Wiring

[nosliwedaw]

Picked up a set of those Jaycar LED spotlights on the weekend, look pretty good so far, I wasn't after possum frying ability.

I grabbed a dash switch from Mulgo and wired it up to the relay as per the pin-outs from the High Beam indicator light in the dash. I have the constant 12v+ feed coming from the spare fush holder under the seat. The swith works, dash lights and orange indicator light also.

I can get the Relay to click(kind of, only hear it when it goes off, not on), but no power to the lights? The lights and earths are fine as i can get them to fire if I grab the 12v+ constand off pin 30 and touch it against pin 87, but the relay doesn't seem to trigger them.

They only pull 2.4Amps per light, I have no idea what is going wrong and I now have less hair.

Any ideas?

[Leroy_Riding]

have you got another Relay you can test with? could be a faulty relay as you should easily be able to hear it click when he car is off. . .

Leroy

[nosliwedaw]

That is what I wondered, you can't even hear it when you power on, on power off there is a muted click when it lets go.

I might have to go and grab another one, it was new.

I wonder if I fried it somehow when i hooked the switch up wrong originally?

[Eevo]

get your multi meter out.
test the relay

should be 4 ports on the relay

30 - to battery
85 - to ground
86 - to switch
87 - to spotlights

turn everything on, put the multimeter between the port and a ground. you should have 12volts at 30, 86, 87

should be easy to troubleshoot from here

[nosliwedaw]

get your multi meter out.
test the relay

should be 4 ports on the relay

30 - to battery
85 - to ground
86 - to switch
87 - to spotlights

turn everything on, put the multimeter between the port and a ground. you should have 12volts at 30, 86, 87

should be easy to troubleshoot from here

That is another thing I need to grab, a new Battery for the multimeter

I am sure that is how I have it wired, the only possible exception is 85 and 86 may be backwards, I don't think that matters anyhow?

[Eevo]

i might have those two the wrong way around.

[nosliwedaw]

Okay, now I am really confused.

Replaced the battery in the Multi Meter:

12.02v at the input, hmm that seems a little low, oh yeah, haven't moved the car for a week and I have been turning the lights on and off all weekend. Started it up, 14.3v at the 12v+ input.

Flicked the lights on, 13.8v(or something close) from the switch
0.00v at the output side.

Swapped the relay over with the new one, same result. Tried testing the results direct off the battery earth to see if that was the issue, practically the same result.

WTF is going on?

This is the relay I am using: 30A Horn Relay - SPST - Jaycar Electronics

[Nomad9]

Hi Nosliwedaw,
I had an amazingly similar problem, in the end I did away with the switch and wired the switch input to the relay from the main beam wire. I also soldered the earth connection which I also suspect was an issue. My logic here was that if I turned the main beam on I would want the spotties on as well, also saved me drilling another hole in the dash. Mine work a treat now. I had fitted an HID conversion, after that when I flashed the main headlights with the HID lights they didn't come on so I had to wire the spot lights up so the vehicle complied with lighting regs. The spotties were normal lights.

[nosliwedaw]

Thanks for the replies all. I finally got it sorted out last night with the help of an auto electrician.

As it turns out, much to my delight I might add, I managed to purchase two dud relays. I must have known something was up as I kept both reciepts, I normally throw them.

Relay number 3 installed and it works like a charm. Always trust the Multi Meter.