Bagadonuts

Hi,

Got a 2011 JK and I removed the soundbar, but I miss the dome light. I have tried to install LED strips by connecting to the yellow/white for power and black for ground and the strips work (1 forward facing, 1 rear facing) but they come on very weak and some of the LEDs do not come on at all. So I undid the yellow/white and connected to solid yellow and now the lights stay on (fully and quite bright) while driving independent of stalk switch position which is not fun or what I want. I can turn them off after the engine is off. So how do I wire the LED strips to function like my old dome light, as in comes on when I hit the key or use the stalk, but turn off when I am driving? I have looked at other posts, but they don't seem to help considering I have done what was suggested. It seems like the yellow/white does not carry enough power to the LED strips. Thanks!

resharp001

I replaced my rear dome light with an LED strip on my '13. I have that yellow/white hooked to positive and the black to ground and it works when doors are opened. If I recall, the 3rd wire was solid yellow and it was so you could click the button to turn the light on regardless of the doors or stalk. I think that agrees with your situation of the solid yellow leaving the light on the whole time you're driving which would indeed be annoying and dangerous at night. I do not think the dim lights while connected to the yellow/white are for lack of power. Those LEDs draw so little. I'm wondering if maybe the CANbus is not liking them. I know on my '13 I've tried to put LED bulbs in those lights and my CANbus did not like them even though it was fine with the same LED bulb in the rear dome light. (in my case the LEDs there forced the map lights on the rearview mirror to stay on full time.....also buddies with '14s had no issues with the same bulbs so it was indeed my CANbus).

Bagadonuts

Ok. How did you get your install to work?

resharp001

Never did in the front where you are trying to, My rear LED strip works fine using the factory wiring for that dome light (my strip light is relocated to the cargo area on the side of the rail). Just left that front dome light as the normal bulb cuz didn't care enough to mess with it. I'm only hypothesizing that it could be CANbus issue as how you previously had it wired should have been correct in my mind.

Bagadonuts

Makes sense. I had an issue with LED light bulbs for my headlights with flicker/weirdness until the manufacturer sent me an inline capacitor. Probably same thing going on here. Since I don't have the soundbar/dome light physically installed in my JK (or even in my possession), I will just have to figure out what can take up the extra current.

Does this sound right to anyone else?

resharp001

A worst case scenario I think would be tapping the yellow/white power from the rear dome light and running all that extra wire back to where you need it if you had to. It should give you the same functionality of on with the doors open or with your stalk control. Kinda silly that you'd have to do that, but if push comes to shove you might keep it in mind.

Bagadonuts

I don't have a rear dome light. This is a JK, not a JKU. I have my old sound bar wiring right where I want to mount the LEDs.

Sandau

It depends on how many LED’s are in the strip, the color of the LED’s and the forward voltage drop from each individual LED.
check the voltage of your hot wire with a multimeter. If it is a constant 12v feed and they are white LED’s the most LED’s you could run in a strip with out resistors/capacitors is only 3 or 4.
they are dim and not all lit because there is not enough voltage running to them.

resharp001

I admittedly am no electrical wizard so this is really interesting to me. Reading a few threads about this brings up a couple questions I have. The wires that run to those particular dome lights (and into the light in back of a JKU) are definitely thinner than most the wiring in the jeep from what I recall. So you're implying the thinner wire has higher resistance and inductance, and that if the wires were thicker to start with then they might be able to power the OPs strips better? Also, I never thought about how RGB lights require more power than just standard white. Not sure that applies to the OP but that is interesting as well. What stumps me a bit is I have an LED strip hooked to these wires in the back of my JKU and it has maybe 12 LEDs in it and works just fine. They are just white LEDs though. They appear to be lit at full strength to me but maybe not. I have LED strips run to several places in the jeep (tapped into the same source) and have no issues with needing capacitors......is that maybe just cuz the thicker wire is helping?

Sandau

Do you have any details on the LED strip you are running?