Dectane/Depo lights?

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#121

04-24-2013 | 10:16 AM

G-forceTarga4S

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Quote:

Originally Posted by Jack667

I tried it out this morning and it didn't work for me. In fairness, my poor result could be due to either:
- taking a shortcut on the 'fix'
- possibly a different failure scenario in the first place

First - my failure scenario: My passenger rear taillight from Dectane (Orange) seems to be causing the problem. When both Dectane lights are connected, the passenger rear does not illuminate when the headlights are in the on position. Also, there's a fast blinker on the right side. I have the front LEDs and the right front turn signal illuminates solid when the headlights are on. When I swap the left and right Dectanes, the same failures move to the other side. Is this a similar problem to what others are seeing? Is this the problem that the resistors are supposed to fix? Does anyone have a suggestion of another possible fix? I swapped the bulb for the reverse light (I think that's what it is) and that didn't make a difference.

Second - I did try the new resistors. I bought them from Amazon, and they look very similar to the other ones posted - gold in color. I metered them and they are 6 Ohm each and I connected them in series and see 12 Ohm on the meter. I removed the Dectane resistor, patched my 12 Ohm kit into the Dectand connector, measured again at 12 Ohm on the connector blades, and connected it to the light. I tried it on the car and it didn't work. The only other thing I metered was the Dectane connector and that looks like 30 Ohm. Also, I only messed with the passenger side. The driver side has the Dectane resistor on it and seems to work fine.

Any ideas?

Thanks!
Jack

I replied to your quandry in the other Dectane thread that you posted this problem in

#122

04-25-2013 | 12:59 AM

vaportrail

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Quote:

Originally Posted by G-forceTarga4S

Did you meter the Dectane resistors before removing them & changing to the ones I suggested? Reason I ask, is the amperage change & wire tolerance.

I did check the Dectane resistors. They were both functional and returned the same measurement. I forget what the reading was. I blame whiskey for lack of memory.

LED's are semiconductors,almost no resistance to be found on an unenergized circuit. My inexpensive voltmeter cannot measure resistance unless circuit is dead.

I'm not sure what you mean by wire tolerance?

I am an electrical engineer, although electronics are not my current forte. I stick to high voltage as much as possible.

#123

04-25-2013 | 01:10 AM

vaportrail

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Quote:

Originally Posted by aa909

Scott

Happy to hear that the lights are finally working! IIRC the LED tail lights draw a lower voltage than the stock incandescent lights, therefore triggering the error codes, correct?

so are the new resistors you installed rated for a higher resistance (ohm's) than the ones that came with the Depo lights? I'm no electrical engineer but if V=I*R, then I assume a larger resistor will register a higher voltage (similar to the incandescent lights) which should signal to the ECU that the tail lights are working properly. Is this the core of the issue?

Art--

I am an EE, which may make me the worst person to explain this.

Voltage isn't 'drawn' it is provided by the source, whether that is an alternator, a battery, or a hydroelectric station. Amperage/wattage is what is drawn. A larger resistor will return a lower voltage due to voltage drop in the circuit supplying the load (ohms law).

The new resistors are much smaller than the originals provided. I havent checked the differences in resistance between the two, but I should. Too many other things to do.

Scott

#124

04-25-2013 | 04:46 AM

Jack667

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Quote:

Originally Posted by vaportrail

Art--

I am an EE, which may make me the worst person to explain this.

I checked my Dectane resistors and found them to be 30 Ohm each (one per side). The new ones are 12 Ohm per side (6x2).

#125

05-05-2013 | 12:45 PM

JeffC911

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Newbie to the board, but thanks to G-ForceTargaRS for finding a solution to clearing the errors. I went and probed my original lights to see the expected resistance range, here’s what I got:

Pin 1 to 2 (brake light): 0.6 Ohms
Pin 3 to 2 (reverse light): 0.6 Ohms
Pin 5 to 2 (fog light): 0.6 Ohms
Pin 4 to 2 (turn signal): 0.6 Ohms
Pin 6 to 2 (tail lights): 1.0 Ohms

Pin numbers are stamped on the connector, pin 2 is the common (return) for all the others. Tail light is different from all the others as it has three lamps wired in parallel, it’s a bit counter intuitive as I would have expected a lower resistance from this one, not higher but it is what it is. The 0.6 Ohms correspond to 20 Watts power consumption at 12 Volts, the 1.0 Ohms corresponds to 12 Watts.

I expect that the computer uses a current sense circuit for each lamp that has a specified acceptable range. The supplied resistors have much larger values that those listed above thus the current draw is lower than factory, but they probably are at the edge of the acceptable range in most cases. G-ForceTargaRS’s fix moves the resistance values closer to those shown above. The trick is to get the resistance low enough that the codes aren’t thrown but not so low that the resistors generate excessive heat.

As an aside, I’m working on a hack that turns on the full LED array for the brakes rather than just the backward “C”. The tail light turns on the whole array in low intensity, the brake turns on the “C” portion in high intensity, the fog turns on the rest in high intensity. Using a couple of external diodes both could be turned on by the brake yet still maintain the fog function alone. The passenger side looks like it also supports this despite the fact there is no factory fog function. Has anyone tried this?<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:WordDocument> <w:View>Normal</w:View> <w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:TrackMoves/> <w:TrackFormatting/> <w:PunctuationKerning/> <w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/> <w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w

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Last edited by JeffC911; 05-05-2013 at 01:27 PM. Reason: fixed font

#126

05-05-2013 | 01:43 PM

bbywu

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Yes.

https://www.6speedonline.com/forums/...s-problem.html

#127

05-05-2013 | 11:00 PM

faiz

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Perone never shared his solution about fixing the "c" pattern for braking. I would love to heAr how u would be able to redo the brake pattern without have the "c" pAttern.

The only hint perone gave was that his tech had to taKe apart the taillight but when a member tried to bake them open they wouldnt budge (probably bc they used the same glue as the headlights)

Either way really keen to see if uare able to solve the dreaded "c" brake pattern.

#128

05-05-2013 | 11:05 PM

faiz

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I would also add that there is no difference between euro and north american units and thus both tails are wired to handle a rear fog light which is controlled by the computer dependig on region either the rear fog is on the right or the left rear tail.

#129

05-05-2013 | 11:09 PM

JeffC911

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Thanks for the link, looks like it doesn't work as a middle section of LEDs doesn't brighten when you try to turn both on at once with a hack. I just checked on my car and the exact same thing happens when I have the fog light on and apply the brakes in normal operation. Do they all do this and people don't realize it? If so, that's quite a design flaw.

I never use the fog light so it's not a huge deal but I'm surprised I haven't seen this mentioned on these boards.

Someone else has a video posted showing the same thing.

#130

05-06-2013 | 11:30 AM

faiz

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All the lights work this way. This was done on purpose to distinguish the brake lights from the fogs when brakes were depressed. Hence the gap.

#131

05-06-2013 | 06:04 PM

djben

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Quote:

Originally Posted by djben

Like I said, it is obviously affecting some amount of the lights and not all of them. There is obviously some sort of flaw, either inherent to the design or manufacturing process, which doesn't necessarily manifest itself consistently over time. My RL light has been perfectly fine and it'll have been in almost a year *knock on wood*

**** me.

My RL / driver's light just died today.

#132

05-07-2013 | 09:28 PM

O31982

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i was considering buying these, how long are they lasting you guys?

#133

05-07-2013 | 10:51 PM

djben

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Quote:

Originally Posted by O31982

i was considering buying these, how long are they lasting you guys?

My rear right died after 9 months, and my rear left died at 12 months.

I ordered resistors to do the DIY mentioned in this thread.

#134

05-07-2013 | 11:22 PM

faiz

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order from carlightpro - they are a bit more but they are all tested and qc'ed properly here in NA before shipping......

#135

05-08-2013 | 12:46 AM

SecretAsianMan

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Quote:

Originally Posted by faiz

order from carlightpro - they are a bit more but they are all tested and qc'ed properly here in NA before shipping......

What do you think their testing and QC involves? I would bet you five whole dollars that it's plugging it into a power supply and seeing if it turns on (aka not really any indicator whatsoever if it's going to fail down the road).

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