Jaycar Interior Light Delay Kit - Help

[Major Clod]

Ok, I am having some issues with this bloody kit. I have built quite a few kits successfully from Jaycar before so I'm not a complete idiot when it comes to soldering etc, however I am just having a pain in the arse of a time trying to get this Jaycar kit to work.

Now I'd like to know if anyone has installed one of these kits, and if they had any problems at all? What mine is doing is constantly keeping the interior lights on, regardless of if the door switch is open or closed. The manual said to swap the + and - leads on the kit, still the same problem.

Now as far as I'm aware, this kit is meant to be wired up like so.



As far as I can understand, when the door is opened (switch closed), current runs through the switch and the interior light is on, shorting out the Jaycar circuit. At this time the Jaycar kit does what it does, then when the door is closed (switch opened) the Jaycar Kit has the 12V running through it, keeps the light on until the delay is over and the light fades out.

I have not installed this into my car, I have not yet finished the interior and have no lights in the roof. What I have done is run the circuit, exactly as in that image above, off a 12V power supply with one of my interior lights, and just a bog standard switch.

If I completely take the switch out of the circuit, the Jaycar kit will still close the circuit and power the lights regardless.

Now I have gone through this bastard, I have continuity tested every single frigging trace on the PCB, I have replaced all the semi conductors at least once, as well as the capacitors. All six resistors are showing their exact values. Everything is at the correct polarity, I have resoldered every single joint, its driving me nuts!

I am at a loss as to what is happening here.... If anyone could give me some pointers, I'd really really appreciate it. Likewise if someone wants to just build me a working one for a six pack and the price of the kit, let me know!!


If someone who hasn't built this kit wants me to post up a scan of the circuit diagram and some notes so that they might be able to work it out, please let me know

[Kagetsu]

Yeah, wouldn't mind seeing the circuit diagram... Will be visiting Jaycar and get me some of these though. ^_~
The way I understand it though, is you probably don't need to bridge the gap. Splice it after the switch and the capacitor will take car of the rest. In reality, it shouldn't take more then a few resistors, and a capacitor at the right capacity.

[maurice c]

I've built and fitted two of these and I remember the instructions been a bit off from Jaycar. What you need to do is tap one side of the earth wire that is earthed by the door switch and then earth the other side of the jaycar kit to the body, so thats + to door earthing wire and - to chassie, this will keep the lights on by earthing the light until the capacitors charge up. it doesnt matter which way you wire up the light sensor just break the dashboard lights somewhere and solder the wires to either end. I think that this is the way it should be done from memory but i might be wrong, if you still have a problem then I'll have a look in one of my cars.

[maurice c]

server lock up. .

[maurice c]

Server lock and hence triple post

[Major Clod]

I've built and fitted two of these and I remember the instructions been a bit off from Jaycar. What you need to do is tap one side of the earth wire that is earthed by the door switch and then earth the other side of the jaycar kit to the body, so thats + to door earthing wire and - to chassie, this will keep the lights on by earthing the light until the capacitors charge up. it doesnt matter which way you wire up the light sensor just break the dashboard lights somewhere and solder the wires to either end. I think that this is the way it should be done from memory but i might be wrong, if you still have a problem then I'll have a look in one of my cars.

I was thinking it might be something along these lines... but the thing is if this circuit is spliced in series after the door switches, and the door is closed (door switch now open) there is no way for a closed circuit to be formed when that door switch is open, the power goes to the light, but it can't be grounded as the switch is open, and the Jaycar kit is located on the other side...

As far as I can tell, it needs to be wired in parallel to the switch, providing an alternate path for the current to flow when that door switch is closed... Of course if its not a big hassel, checking out your wiring for me would be awesome

[jezza323]

the unit stores current in one of the bits (forget which) and when current stops flowing, it lets its own current store drain slowly through the light

i built one of these and had no problems in my ta22, i wired it up as described in the intructions (pretty sure its not a switch bypass), i did find though that when i was driving at night with the headlights on, everytime i pressed the brake the interior light would come on, because the circuit was too sensitive, there was a section in the intructions about modifying the circuit to make it less sensitive, so do that before u put it in if u can

good luck

[Major Clod]

Yeah, wouldn't mind seeing the circuit diagram... Will be visiting Jaycar and get me some of these though. ^_~
The way I understand it though, is you probably don't need to bridge the gap. Splice it after the switch and the capacitor will take car of the rest. In reality, it shouldn't take more then a few resistors, and a capacitor at the right capacity.

Problem is though, this kit doesn't seem to store power to actually go to the lights, the only reason it stores power in its capacitors is to control the Mosfet which acts as a switch and opens/closes the ground path for the interior lights...

The lights have constant 12V going to them, it is the multiple ground circuit(door, on, map lights) that when closed, route the power through the lights in a specific way.

This is the circuit



My cars lights are set up like figure 1(a).

[jezza323]

thats definately different to the one i made :S maybe a new revision? i did mine about 2-3 yrs ago...

[Dale]

I remember this thing doing my head in about a year ago when I made and installed installed a couple of them and tried to comprehend how they actually worked, it's too early in the morning for me to think of exactly what the deal was.. it was quite simple though.

The times it didn't work were due to a faulty door switch, and bad tail light connection.

I'd build a working one for a 6 pack if I lived in QLD

What you do is cut the door switch and solder one + and one - wire to each side of the cut wire, so basically the current has to pass through the kit.. I think anyway.

[ndgcpr]

Yeah i also built one of the older ones. I am north bris if you need a hand.

Does the led light? If not your mosfet could be the wrong way around.

[thechuckster]

What you do is cut the door switch and solder one + and one - wire to each side of the cut wire, so basically the current has to pass through the kit.. I think anyway.

wrong... it should run parallel to a door switch.

a door switch provides an earth whenever you open the door - if you put this in series with a switch, it would do nothing.

[Dale]

I'm well aware how a door switch works, but tell us all this - what's the point in running two wires in parallel with the switch?

Assuming X means cut, A was the method I described, B seems to be the method you're suggesting. Running two wires in parallel with a one wire switch seems like it would do nothing to me.

[thechuckster]

when you shut the door - that disconnects the earth to the interior light circuit and the lights goes out.

With the jaycar unit in parallel with one of the switches - when you shut the door, the jaycar unit continues to provide an earth for a pre-determined amount of time, thus keeping the lights on.

What the jaycar circuit also does is also sense whether the tail lights (hence the dash lights) are on and therefore does not keep the lights on (for the pre-determined amount of time mentioned above) when the doors are closed.

[Dale]

But how does it provide the earth when essentially it's tapping into the same earth that the door switch controls - so once the door is closed, the switch is pushed in and the earth disconnected. Seeing as the earth runs through the same cable, isn't the switch a physical thing, so in theory there would no longer be an earth there for the jaycar unit to continue using?

I have a feeling I'm missing something with all this, like I said it was over a year ago I installed these!