LED trouble

jglass · Mar 18, 2016

So I installed 2 18w 4" LED pods on the back of my 2013. I tied them into the trailer hitch wiring, and they work great. I put the truck in reverse they come on, I flip the manual switch they come on. All is well...until. Until I am backing up and look at my camera display, and it's all fuzzy.

I installed these off the reverse, ground, and battery constant wires on the hitch (I attached a diagram of how I did it). I metered my diodes to make sure I wasn't getting any feedback from the reverse or constant wires. Nothing, not even MV. So I'm left with 2 possibilities. 1 in getting some kind of EMF interference from the wires running parallel with the camera wires. Or 2 the shared ground is doing it.

What do you guys think?

txcobowhunter · Mar 18, 2016

Both sound plausible. I would check the easy route first. Ground them to the frame and see if that fixes the problem.

jglass · Mar 18, 2016

txcobowhunter said:
Both sound plausible. I would check the easy route first. Ground them to the frame and see if that fixes the problem.

Ya the more I sit here thinking about it, the more I lean towards the ground.

jglass · Mar 19, 2016

Well it's not the ground.

BlownGP · Mar 19, 2016

Ok, I was going to post about this but was going to figure it on my own first.

I'm having the same, now I don't have the factory camera. It's a aftermarket one tied into my pionner HU.

I haven't messed around with it yet, but my ground is tied into the led tailgate bar and the power is tapped into the trailer hitch reverse power.

And when the lights come on the camera video just looks wavy. Still have a picture but something is messing with it.

The only think I can think of is the light drawing too much power on the trailer wire and need to be run to the battery.

cableguy_hd · Mar 19, 2016

Could be a power/ amperage thing? Not enough for the camera due to leds?

fordtech90 · Mar 19, 2016

Very possible. It will have 12v but might not have enough amperage for both

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sbarron · Mar 19, 2016

Can you take a picture of the camera image?

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SitKneelBend · Mar 19, 2016

Try grounding to the frame. I'm thinking EMI. I've experienced it with LEDs before.

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jglass · Mar 19, 2016

SitKneelBend said:
Try grounding to the frame. I'm thinking EMI. I've experienced it with LEDs before.

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Mine is grounded to the frame. Also, I pulled the wire run loose and wrapped it in foil, and grounded the foil just to see if I was picking up any interference. Same thing.

I'm going to run a direct wire to the battery tomorrow morning to see if that works. If it does, then I'll use a relay off the reverse trigger.

SitKneelBend · Mar 19, 2016

Interesting, did you grind down to bare metal? Maybe it's a poor ground?

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jglass · Mar 19, 2016

sbarron said:
Can you take a picture of the camera image?

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Here's a pic

sbarron · Mar 19, 2016

That certainly looks more like an EMI issue than a lighting level issue. Easiest thing to try a different ground in a slightly different location.

reek · Mar 20, 2016

can you try "isolating" the lights by running them off a relay? Not sure if you're already doing this. Yes, it's more wiring but to me, its worth the trouble.

clifford15 · Mar 20, 2016

What is the little rectangle on your schematic and what are the diodes supposed to do in your circuit? There should be no voltage feedback from the trailer on the REV pin and this circuit would prevent voltage to the trailer if "HITCH" = trailer plug.

jglass · Mar 20, 2016

clifford15 said:
What is the little rectangle on your schematic and what are the diodes supposed to do in your circuit? There should be no voltage feedback from the trailer on the REV pin and this circuit would prevent voltage to the trailer if "HITCH" = trailer plug.

The reverse and a constant + are going to the lights. Reverse goes directly to the lights +, and the constant + through a manual switch. I don't want one back feeding into the other when being used, so the triangle with the line is showing where I put my diodes.

BlownGP · Mar 20, 2016

I'm going to try a different ground today if I get time. There's a bolt for the bumper I'm going to use.

What I noticed with mine is, the camera video is only fuzzy with the truck on. With the just the accessory on and put it in reverse. The camera video looks fine.

jglass · Mar 20, 2016

Running a different ground helped some, by there was still some interference. So I ran directly to the battery + and - then used a relay off the reverse light wire, and that fixed it.

BlownGP · Mar 20, 2016

So you ran the negative to the battery too? Too the negative terminal?

Really didn't want to run them off a switch, for the main reason having to run wires the length of my truck. lol

Gotta a little diagram of how you wires the relay off the reverse light wire?

They still come on when when you put in reverse, but the switch has to be on right?

jglass · Mar 20, 2016

BlownGP said:
So you ran the negative to the battery too? Too the negative terminal?

Really didn't want to run them off a switch, for the main reason having to run wires the length of my truck. lol

Gotta a little diagram of how you wires the relay off the reverse light wire?

They still come on when when you put in reverse, but the switch has to be on right?

I can draw one up. I wanted my switch to be able to turn on the lights when it was not in reverse. My goal was to have a light when I was skinning a deer or getting dressed to go to a treestand.

I'll draw one up when I get home.

LED trouble

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