I have a 1999 f250 and i have all kinds of neon in the truck from under the body to interior. I want to wire up all the neon to where when i open the door all my neon comes on. I have been told the easiest way to do so is to hook all my neon positive wire up to a constant power supply(no problems, already done) and to hook the Negative wires up to the door sensor negative since thats how the dome lights come on when the door is opened.
Only problem is... i dont know what wire that would be and where the best place to get to it would be after i find the right wire. i know where the door sensor is but i cant easily take it apart and look at it being its part of the closing handle things in the truck...

SOOO... does anyone know what color the ground wire on the door sensor is? or maybe, could help me find a diagram with the color code of it on there..?
Thanks

 

the left should be ground -> Black wire -> Door latch -> Black w/ yellow stripe wire.

the right should be ground -> black wire -> door latch -> black w/ pink stripe wire.

Don't know if what you are doing is a good idea, this is to the GEM.
I would use this to trigger the coil on a relay, and use that to switch ground on both sides ( path of least resistance should be via the switch to the ground in the door, I don't know what it looks like the other direction. )

If you don't want to use the relay method, go with the interior lamp circuit, black w/ light blue stripe wire on the +DCv side and tie the lamps to ground.

 

huuum... so let me get this right... you would hook up all the neon and have the positive to a constant power like battery or preferable a fuse.. then you would add a relay into all of it and hook the negative from the relay to the negative to the sensor...? or? cause see i have 4 tubes under the truck that all run together into one connector + and - and then to one button then i have atleast 2, maybe 3 if i run the dash neon to all this that ill have to individually connect up.. point is i have like 4 different negatives to hook up and what i wanted to do was run all them to a fuse then connect all the Negatives up to one spot on the sensor ground wire which "supposedly" will create the circuit to all of the neon when my doors open.. that is if i do it all right :P

Haha wiring up stuff is so complicated... and i ALWAYS find my self needing to wire something up
lol i dont even wanna think about how imma put fuses and/or relays on all of this uugh

 

hmm.. im thinking and either im confusing the heck outta my self or this is really complicated.

What honestly would be the easiest way to hook All my neon up to the door switches to where the neon comes on just as the dome light does when i open the door?
there has got to be a fuse under the hood or in the fuse box or somewhere that i can just hook it up to and be done with it..?

http://www.the12volt.com/relays/page4.asp#ien could i hook them up to this relay and it work...? :P <----- if thats a stupid question, sorry... im not good with relays :/

 

Not a stupid question, that is close to what I was talking about.

The picture :


Is to use an after market alarm to open the doors.

The best route I see ( using the diagram above ).

1. Wire terminal #85 to the out of the interior lamp relay. If you have courtesy lamps in the door, the black w/ light blue stripe wire will be in the rubber boot from the door to the a-pillar.
If not, it will be at the fuse panel in the cab of the truck. Square connector, pin #20 ( that is what I memory is telling me ), but it is a black w/ light blue stripe wire.

2. Wire Terminal #86 to ground.

At this point if you are wiring ground direct or power, either will work. I am sticking with your wiring all the + VDC leads on the lamps to a fuse and to the battery.

3. Terminal # 30 is connected to good known ground.

4. Terminal #87 is wired to the -VDC leads on the lamps.

The operation is :

When the doors open, the interior lamps will trigger the coil on the relay.
The normally open contacts ( terminal #30 to terminal #87 ) will close, and the ground circuit to the lamps is completed
Ground -> terminal #30 -> { closed contacts } terminal #87 -> lamps ground wire.

I say the best route I see, as I got to thinking about the door trigger operation, and had a moment of questioning myself.
I cannot recall right now ( long day ) if the door open indicator is a ground signal or a lack of ground at the GEM. If it is a lack of ground that triggers the interior lamps, the set up with using the door trigger will not work very well. You could use a SPDT relay, but you will always have it energized to keep the lamps off, and if it failed, it would fail to lamps on ( not a good thing ).

 

hmmm okay i think i see what your talking about.. if not sorry for my lack of knowledge in this area.. but anyway so is the relay already in my truck and if so #87 and #30 and #85 are already hooked up right? and all i would have to do is hook up my power on the neon to.. the fuse box/constant power, how ever i want to do so. and then i hook up my negative ground to #86..? and do i have to hook anything up to the #85? i dont do i? just the #86 ground correct?

and i got a few other questions but i guess i need to know if ^^^ is right 1st lol

 

This is not a factory relay, but one you are adding just for the neons.

If you already put the relay in, would need to know what you hooked up to terminals #87 and #30 and #85.

Even if you have an aftermarket RKE, you cannot reuse that, is is installed for RKE to factory lock interface ( backwards to what you need ).

 

aaah okaay :P so just need to get any old relay from the store?

 

Just make sure you get the AMP draw total from the lamps you are adding. to get the correct size relay.

I would guess them to be less than 20A, so a 20A relay would be fine, but this is a SWAG. My opinion on relay sis to stick with a brand name one, so you have a good set of contacts. I avoid the blazer ones that Autozone carries, and go with a Tyco ( who purchased the Bosch relay line ) mfgr.

That brings up another thing to keep in mind.
The neon lamps have a pigtail on them that is rated for the individual lamp.
If you do not have enough wire to get to where you are mounting the relay, remember to upsize the wire after the splice of the 4 of them.

They might be 16 AWG wire on each, but when you join the 4 of them together, you might need 14 or 12 AWG, depending on the current inrush @ a given voltage to ignite them.
After they are operational I think they draw 50% of the ignite voltage / current. Trying to recall from memory how they work.
The thing to keep in mind is to make it so they strike easy.