My 2009 Suburban has the standard tail lights with one bulb for brake, one bulb for turn signal, and a bulb for reverse. This requires 5 wires to complete: ground, brake, turn, reverse, park. I am swaping out the entire tail light assembly with a new assembly from a Caddilac Escalade that is all LED (except for the reverse bulb). The issue is that the Escalade tail light uses the same LEDs for brake and turn signal. So it only requires 4 wires to complete: ground, brake/turn, reverse, park.
Since they also use different plugs I have gone ahead and assembled new plugs to go in between the body wire harness and the new Escalade tail light with a converter in the middle. I have included a 50watt 6ohm resistor to simulate a turn signal bulb to prevent hyper flash (which is controlled by the BCM or Body Control Module). I can not just swap out a "flasher can" as it does not exist in this vehicle. I have installed a Hopkins 48895 5 wire to 4 wire electronic tail light converter to make this work and only use one side of the output and it works fine. (Although one of the two converters I purchased was bad and wouldn't pass through the brake light feed.) Really the only thing I need to accomplish is how to pass the brake and turn through and output it as one. If the brake is applied it passes straight through. If the turn signal is applied it passes through and flashes. If the brake AND turn signal are applied it still flashes, but just alternate of the + feed (so it will have to be opposite of the front turn signal.)
I would like to be able to build my own by using a small circuit board and some diodes and relays and then stick it all in a small metal enclosure, but I am not exactly familiar in this area. I can solder and assemble fine, just not so good with design. My end goal is to be able to build more of these in order to sell to others wishing to do the same tail light conversion.
I know a simple automotive relay with some diodes would "work" but I would like to make this as small as possible and also be as quiet as possible. I tried to break open the bad converter to see what all it had inside, but the way it is built is by pouring the rubbery plastic over their circuit board inside a mold so there is no good way to gain access to their circuit board. Whatever they use is pretty much silent and is only about 1/4" tall off of the actual circuit board inside. I'm not sure if they even used a relay? I could only see one diode before I gave up trying to break it apart.
Any help is greatly appreciated!!
Since they also use different plugs I have gone ahead and assembled new plugs to go in between the body wire harness and the new Escalade tail light with a converter in the middle. I have included a 50watt 6ohm resistor to simulate a turn signal bulb to prevent hyper flash (which is controlled by the BCM or Body Control Module). I can not just swap out a "flasher can" as it does not exist in this vehicle. I have installed a Hopkins 48895 5 wire to 4 wire electronic tail light converter to make this work and only use one side of the output and it works fine. (Although one of the two converters I purchased was bad and wouldn't pass through the brake light feed.) Really the only thing I need to accomplish is how to pass the brake and turn through and output it as one. If the brake is applied it passes straight through. If the turn signal is applied it passes through and flashes. If the brake AND turn signal are applied it still flashes, but just alternate of the + feed (so it will have to be opposite of the front turn signal.)
I would like to be able to build my own by using a small circuit board and some diodes and relays and then stick it all in a small metal enclosure, but I am not exactly familiar in this area. I can solder and assemble fine, just not so good with design. My end goal is to be able to build more of these in order to sell to others wishing to do the same tail light conversion.
I know a simple automotive relay with some diodes would "work" but I would like to make this as small as possible and also be as quiet as possible. I tried to break open the bad converter to see what all it had inside, but the way it is built is by pouring the rubbery plastic over their circuit board inside a mold so there is no good way to gain access to their circuit board. Whatever they use is pretty much silent and is only about 1/4" tall off of the actual circuit board inside. I'm not sure if they even used a relay? I could only see one diode before I gave up trying to break it apart.
Any help is greatly appreciated!!
