Hello people of AAC, I just joined here. I am Tamrat and I am from Ethiopia. I need assistance on modifying my 2009 Toyota Yaris Hatchback so that I can use the turn indicators as DRLs.
I have always been fascinated by Ford's and Chevrolet's similar implementation of dual purpose bulbs on the brake lights (brake lights also double as turn indicators). And I am also a huge fan of Daytime Running Lights. Unfortunately my car, a 2009 Toyota Yaris, doesn't come with DRLs from factory. I was on the process of adding LED strips as DRLs when I noticed something. Some cars (like the Toyota Tacoma pictured below) have turn indicator bulbs that also act as DRLs. The bulbs are on when the car is running and the respective side will blink (flash) when a turn indicator signal comes. I tossed away the LED idea and started to look into it more to get it for my car.
At first I thought it was very simple. My idea was to get a line that is hot when the car was running, and wire the turn indicator bulbs so that they can stay on. Then I will use another relay to turn off the lights when a turn indicator signal came (hence creating a flashing effect). I used to be an Electrical Engineering student before I dropped out and switched to Software Engineering so I had tools like MultiSim that was given to me from school. I tried to create a simple circuit that would achieve this (pictured below). But even with very minimal knowledge of circuits, I noticed a lot of things that will not work (or not ideal).
Problems I noticed:
Thank you very much for your time,
Tamrat
I have always been fascinated by Ford's and Chevrolet's similar implementation of dual purpose bulbs on the brake lights (brake lights also double as turn indicators). And I am also a huge fan of Daytime Running Lights. Unfortunately my car, a 2009 Toyota Yaris, doesn't come with DRLs from factory. I was on the process of adding LED strips as DRLs when I noticed something. Some cars (like the Toyota Tacoma pictured below) have turn indicator bulbs that also act as DRLs. The bulbs are on when the car is running and the respective side will blink (flash) when a turn indicator signal comes. I tossed away the LED idea and started to look into it more to get it for my car.
At first I thought it was very simple. My idea was to get a line that is hot when the car was running, and wire the turn indicator bulbs so that they can stay on. Then I will use another relay to turn off the lights when a turn indicator signal came (hence creating a flashing effect). I used to be an Electrical Engineering student before I dropped out and switched to Software Engineering so I had tools like MultiSim that was given to me from school. I tried to create a simple circuit that would achieve this (pictured below). But even with very minimal knowledge of circuits, I noticed a lot of things that will not work (or not ideal).
Problems I noticed:
- The front indicator bulbs will not be in sync with the rest of the bulbs (side and rear) because the ON signal will turn them off. Not ideal.
- If the DRL is switched off from the main switch (SWITCHA | Key = D), the indicators will not work at all.
- If the engine is off (hence DRLs OFF), the front bulbs will not light up at all if I try to use the hazard warning lights.
Thank you very much for your time,
Tamrat
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