Electronics question

[Back in a Bowtie]

So I have a tailgate light strip that the inlaws got me a while back.  I like the way it works except for when im on the brakes in reverse, or when im in reverse at night.  It looks like a candy cane with both the white and red lit simultaneously.  Is there any wiring I can do to get the reverse feed to override everything else?  

[carkhz316]

Does it plug in to the trailer plug or did you have to hard wire it in? If former, I'd say the thing is Fubar internally. If latter, double check your wiring.

[bndawgs]

1 hour ago, 14tungstenLT said:

So I have a tailgate light strip that the inlaws got me a while back.  I like the way it works except for when im on the brakes in reverse, or when im in reverse at night.  It looks like a candy cane with both the white and red lit simultaneously.  Is there any wiring I can do to get the reverse feed to override everything else?  

so when in reverse, you want just the reverse lights to come on from the light bar?  

[Back in a Bowtie]

10 minutes ago, carkhz316 said:

Does it plug in to the trailer plug or did you have to hard wire it in? If former, I'd say the thing is Fubar internally. If latter, double check your wiring.

Plugs into the trailer harness (4 pin) then had to tap into one of the tail lights for the reverse power.  

1 minute ago, bndawgs said:

so when in reverse, you want just the reverse lights to come on from the light bar?  

yea i want it to only be reverse lights when in reverse.  

[bndawgs]

you'd probably to have to wire up some relays and bypass the factory plug on the light bar. 

[Back in a Bowtie]

1 minute ago, bndawgs said:

you'd probably to have to wire up some relays and bypass the factory plug on the light bar. 

yea im sure there is a way just not sure how.  Haven't brushed up on my electronics since college.   

[carkhz316]

Hey OP, now I understand what you mean the lightbar is doing. The easiest way would be to use 1 relay to interrupt the parklight feed. I could draw a diagram, but using a standard 5-pin relay, it'd be:

 

pin 85:  reverse feed in (T'd from reverse power to the lightbar)

pin 86:  ground

pin 30: park light/ tailight in from plug

pin 87a: out to parklight at LED bar

pin 87 not used.

 

Wired this way, the parklight circuit through the relay is a Normally Closed circuit until it is opened via a reverse trigger. I hope this helps.

 

Edit: D'oh, just re-read your post and saw you don't like the brakes doing it too. In that case, a second relay would be needed for the brake circuit, wired virtually the same as above.