LED Bar

Hello
I am having a hard time finding a way to connect a auxillery ledbar to my Leaf Tekna 2018 with full led lights. Living in the swedish woods, where darknes makes the need for headligts eminent.

Are Nissan using canbus signals to turn on the headlights?

How is it done?

page 13 of this is the start of headlamp wiring:
https://www.nicoclub.com/FSM/Leaf/2013%20LEAF/EXL.pdf

there are fuses you can tap into to add the aux LEDs

unfortunately no diagrams for a 2018 but it is a fairly safe bet that its the same.

If you want to add lights, I always thought you would wire them to the battery just like adding a horn....

With a switch on the dash, an in-line fuse at the (+), and relay under the hood?

You really do not need to know any wiring diagrams...

I'm planning a similar set-up for my 2016 30kWh Tekna (UK top spec) Leaf. It has the LED dipped beam lights and pathetic halogen high-beams which I want to use the LED light bars to supplement. I intend to mount the light bars just ahead of the grill, and use a pre-made light-bar loom to power them:
https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.co.uk%2Fulk%2Fitm%2F133127144929

I'd also like to know how to get the switch wire through the bulkhead to the switch panel by the drivers knee which has 7 positions with 1 spare currently unfilled that I will mount my new switch into. I had a look at Sal's speaker upgrade install to see how he got his 12V power through the bulkhead, but since the (North american/continental European) left-hand-drive layout is obviously different to the (UK/Japanese) right-hand drive layout, I haven't found the grommets in the same place.

Are there any other UK based Leaf owners on here who've done something like this and could advise?

I also intend to alter the function of the wiring loom This loom has a 3-core cable running to an illuminated on/off switch (+12V, 0V, switch output). I've cut the 0V supply to the switch, as that's only there to operate the switch illumination which I won't be using. This cable will be connected to a wire-tap off the high-beam supply to the original lights, and the illuminated On/Off switch replaced with a (non-illuminated) 3-position rocker. The first (normal) position will activate the relay using the signal from the high-beam, the middle position will keep the relay off, and the 3rd position will activate the relay from the 12V supply - essentially permanently on.

Gleneral said:

Hello
I am having a hard time finding a way to connect a auxillery ledbar to my Leaf Tekna 2018 with full led lights. Living in the swedish woods, where darknes makes the need for headligts eminent.

Are Nissan using canbus signals to turn on the headlights?

How is it done?

Click to expand...

If you are from Sweden, you could check out the Norwegian EV forum : www.elbilforum.no

There are some Leaf-owners there which have installed auxillary lights. I believe it is pretty straightforward.

All of you guys that are talking about adding lights are scaring me...

You talk about tapping into the existing headlights and other odd stuff.

If you are asking how to get through the "bulkhead" or firewall, that shows me that you do not know what you are doing....

If you don't already know how to do this and are planning these unusual projects, I would recommend that you get a qualified radio installer to mount your stuff before you set your car on fire...

Sorry if I have been too direct.

powersurge said:

If you want to add lights, I always thought you would wire them to the battery just like adding a horn....

With a switch on the dash, an in-line fuse at the (+), and relay under the hood?

You really do not need to know any wiring diagrams...

Click to expand...

Perhaps they want them to come on via the same switch as the headlights, or maybe fog-lights. Which is still easy enough to tap the 12V to the lamps as a signal to activate a battery-attached relay, etc. They don't need to know *how* the OEM lamps are turned on, only *when*.

It sounded like they want to tap power for a light bar (mucho watts) from the existing headlight circuit.. Which is crazy.

Also, It makes no sense to "want" all the lights to go on at the same time.... Lights on a car are a safety and issue regulated by law.

You cannot expect to turn on your lights AND LIGHT BAR all the time.... You will blind others and make them crash, and you will get big tickets.

What does it take to flip one switch on the dash when you want the extra lights.... Let's be logical....

powersurge said:

All of you guys that are talking about adding lights are scaring me...

You talk about tapping into the existing headlights and other odd stuff.

If you are asking how to get through the "bulkhead" or firewall, that shows me that you do not know what you are doing....

Click to expand...

It's not so much that I don't know what I'm doing but that, for the moment, I don't know where I'm going to route it. I want to be able to control how my new lights are activated, and for that I'd like to use a switch inside the cabin. I have an alternative idea that could avoid routing anything into the cabin by using a combination of settings on the lights stalk to control the LED bars, via a bunch of fuses removed and made switchable with some relay logic under the bonnet (hood). However, the implementation would be far simpler and easier to set up using the normal switch method I've already described.
Clearly for a switch inside the cabin to be controlling something under the bonnet (hood), crossing the threshold between those two areas will be necessary. I don't get to spend much time outside by myself to work on my car, so I want to work out the best approach before I start, rather than waste time digging around behind the wrong bits of trim. If, as I hoped, someone else had done a similar job and was prepared to share their experience with me, that would be very helpful.

In case you're concerned about electrical safety, I want to reassure you that I will be taking several precautions. If you think I'm missing something important, I'd be most grateful if you could tell me what that is rather than just trying to put me off my project.

• Anything added to the electrics in the car will always have a fuse between it and the +12V terminal on the battery to protect against burning/overheating wires if there's a short somewhere. The terminal for connecting the wiring loom to the battery is fitted with an in-line fuse for this purpose which all the other added parts are downstream of.

• No existing circuit which is being tapped into for a signal will have any substantial load added to it. This will be achieved by only using those signals to energise a relay, which in turn makes the connection between the battery hook-up already described and the new load from the LED bar(s)

• The reason I asked my question, any added cables which pass through the body of the car (e.g. the bulkhead/firewall) will use an appropriate grommet to ensure that the insulation on the new wire isn't worn away by contact with the metalwork leading to a short.

I'm aiming for the least impact to the original systems on the car as I can, so that if I sell it on at a later time, I'll be able to remove my modifications easily and not leave any indication that it had ever been anything other than stock. The things I'll have to put right are:

• I'll cut into the spare blanking plate from the switches by the drivers knee so that I can fit my new switch inside it, so this will have to be replaced.

• I'll pass a cable through a grommet, once I've located an appropriate one, which may need to be replaced as well.

• I'll drill 2 holes to mount each of the LED bars into the lower grill opening which I'll do my best to fill/conceal after removal.

powersurge said:

It sounded like they want to tap power for a light bar (mucho watts) from the existing headlight circuit.. Which is crazy.

Click to expand...

As I said in my previous reply, no (significant) current will be drawn from any of the existing circuits. I only want to use the voltage on the high-beam circuit as a trigger for the relay which will supply the power to the LED bar.

powersurge said:

Also, It makes no sense to "want" all the lights to go on at the same time.... Lights on a car are a safety and issue regulated by law.

Click to expand...

The stock halogen bulb high-beams on the leaf are very weak compared to other cars, and it irks me that the light colour is so noticeably different to the colour of the LED low-beam lights. So, this is why I want to use the LED bars to supplement the high-beams.

powersurge said:

You cannot expect to turn on your lights AND LIGHT BAR all the time.... You will blind others and make them crash, and you will get big tickets.

Click to expand...

High beams are never used when there is anyone ahead so there's no risk of blinding anyone with the LED bars coming on at the same time.
It might help if you understand better how I intend to use these extra lights. When I drive on country lanes rather than main roads/highways they are not usually lit with street-lamps. The low-beam headlights don't illuminate far enough ahead if there's no-one in front, so that's where the high-beams are used. As soon as there's anyone ahead of me, they are switched off again to avoid blinding the other driver.

powersurge said:

What does it take to flip one switch on the dash when you want the extra lights.... Let's be logical....

Click to expand...

Since I'll be on a public road using these, and I'm very keen not for them to cause an issue for other road users, the built-in control for the high beam is the best way to be sure I can get the lights on and off exactly when I need them to be since I can operate it still with my hands on the wheel. A separate switch that's not close at hand while driving along the kinds of roads where I want to use these, won't be much good to me at all.
I wonder if you're thinking more of the off-road driving (we call it green-laning in the UK) uses for an LED bar where they are switched on and off only while the vehicle is stopped and left running for long periods in areas where there aren't any other drivers in front to be worried about blinding them. That's not the use I had planned, but more sporadic for the brief periods where I'm the only one on a dark road, and I'd like to be able to see further ahead.

Rest asured that i am a qualified service technitian.
I just want the exact info about How this is Done on on my 2018 full led teckna. This car has no simple wire to steal the signal from.

All other debatting is not helpfull.
Relaying the power is basic.

Help needed finding the headlight signal under the Hood

did you check the schematic link? That probably has the answer you are looking for as far as tapping into.

I apologize if I sounded negative of what you want to do. You sound like you have things well in hand.. I am just cautious about wiring accessories to other things.

Gleneral said:

...want the exact info about How this is Done on on my 2018 full led teckna. This car has no simple wire to steal the signal from.

Click to expand...

I know you never mentioned it, but if you were ever considering it, I'd forget CANbus. Tapping into and then attempting to decode the messages on the CANbus and then trying to make some use of them would be a substantial embedded software engineering project way beyond what you're trying to achieve.

Instead you could find where the fuses are for the headlights and take your signal from there. I couldn't find any info online other than for pre-2018 cars unfortunately, but it wouldn't surprise me if it's quite similar for the 2018 and later models. The PDM (power distribution module) which is located near the 12V battery on the 2017 Leaf has a bunch of fuses on its underside. It unclips and lifts up (dragging a whole thick bunch of leads with it) just far enough that you can turn it over and see the fuses. There's a key to identify the different fuses embossed next to the fuses themselves. Among those, you'll almost certainly find a pair of fuses each for the low beams and the high beams.

To get the signal from there, you could use a piggy-back fuse adaptor like I plan to, such as this one:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07ML55GFL
It has the advantage of being completely reversible without leaving any trace that it was installed. So there's no need to strip back any of the insulation from the original wiring or install a wire-tap or anything else like that.

powersurge said:

It sounded like they want to tap power for a light bar (mucho watts) from the existing headlight circuit.. Which is crazy.

Also, It makes no sense to "want" all the lights to go on at the same time.... Lights on a car are a safety and issue regulated by law.

You cannot expect to turn on your lights AND LIGHT BAR all the time.... You will blind others and make them crash, and you will get big tickets.

What does it take to flip one switch on the dash when you want the extra lights.... Let's be logical....

Click to expand...

I was thinking more along the lines of repurposing the fog-light switch, which would remove need to fish anything through the firewall. But my main point was that one needn't know any CAN info, but can simply rely upon existing light wiring to energize a relay that would send current to the new lights without overburdening the existing circuits. I was trying to add to the discussion and not trying to contradict or start an argument with you.

I did this on my Leaf yesterday, mounted a 100W LED bar. Highly recommended!

https://youtu.be/SBs5qJFJudI