AlfaOBD

[JB1]

I’ve never heard of this or had a problem with this. When the headlights come on in the “auto” setting, is determined by the amount of ambient light detected by the sun sensor in the middle of the dash by the bottom of the windshield, not the type of bulbs being used.

You don’t have to wait to turn the headlights on. The ballast is just sitting there waiting for power. Once power is supplied from the source, the ballast steps up the voltage to the igniter and excites the gases inside the lamp. You can take a 12v battery on the bench that is 90% discharged, hook it up to an HID kit, and the ballasts will still be able to ignite the bulbs. Why? Because ballasts can operate down to 9v, as long as there’s enough amps for the ballast to draw to fire the lamps. There is a couple seconds delay, but it’s not to turn the bulbs on. The bulbs come on immediately. It’s to get the lamps fired to full brightness. For this reason, I wouldn’t use them as high beams.

For our trucks, it’s not that the HIDs fail, but the fact that the low beam circuit uses PWM (pulse width modulation). This is the rapid throttling on and off of the 12v supply to the bulbs so that halogen bulbs will last longer. A ballast needs consistent 12v supply to fire the bulb, and when PWM is used, the ballast struggles to step up the voltage, and ultimately flickers and shuts off. The relay harness is used so that the ballast can get it’s consistent 12v straight from the battery, and use the low beam circuit as the trigger. These relay harnesses are subject to failure because PWM is still being used as the trigger, which creates relay chatter, which reduces the life of the relay itself.
So, all that being said, the AlfaOBD has the capability to shut off the PWM, therefore allowing any HID kit (even the cheap ones) to operate as designed for a long time.

That’s the best explanation I’ve read on here

 

[likes2build]

I just got this email from Scantool and this is going to be a really good deal on Amazon Prime Day.

7/15 from 5:25 PM - 11:25 PM PDT the OBDlink MX+ is $49.97.

7/16 from 6 AM - 12 PM PDT the OBDlink MX is $44.99.

 

[MGD81]

Edit - All working well, thanks everybody for the great articles/howto's on this site.

So I went for it today.

I ordered the V2 lights, 2 x sets of Katana LED's for highs and lows and also the connectors from MPGrimm that allow me to use the factory DRL circuit - my truck is a Bighorn with quads.


Went mostly smoothly, with some finicky moments!

I'm stoked with the way the truck looks in person, I have everything wired right with as much factory look as possible. I used the DRL harness that came with the lights and cut the connector and mated it with MPgrimm's pins.

Everything works well apart from the DRL's - I have done the following

CBC features - LED front turn lamps present YES
CBC Features - LED front park marker lamps present - yes
CBC Features - LED low beam lamps present - yes
CBC Features - LED high beam lamps present - yes
CBC I/O right dedicated DRL Lamp output present- YES
CBC I/O left dedicated DRL Lamp output present- YES
CBC DRL config- OPTIONAL DRL
CBC features- DRL lamp location- DEDICATED
CBC features- DRL dropout enable- YES
CBC Features LED deicated DRL present- YES
ECU config- DRL customer setting enable/disable- YES
Daytime Running lights CSM- YES

Am I missing anything? I waited 5 mins to let the truck settle after the changes, do you think it needs a few more key cycles?

Matt

 

[SitKneelBend]

Is there anything tricky about using this on 2012 and earlier Ram?

I just did my Fogs w/ Highs and my father-in-law would like it done to his 2012.



Sent from my HTC U11 using Tapatalk

 

[1500ram12]

Is there anything tricky about using this on 2012 and earlier Ram?

I just did my Fogs w/ Highs and my father-in-law would like it done to his 2012.



Sent from my HTC U11 using Tapatalk

You might get a faster response in the 08-12 alphaobd thread


2018 2500 6.4L Tradesman

 

[SitKneelBend]

You might get a faster response in the 08-12 alphaobd thread


2018 2500 6.4L Tradesman

I didn't know there was such a thing! Every time I think I have a handle on this topic it gets BIGGER!!!

Sent from my HTC U11 using Tapatalk

 

[1500ram12]

I didn't know there was such a thing! Every time I think I have a handle on this topic it gets BIGGER!!!

Sent from my HTC U11 using Tapatalk

It's not as big of a thread as this one so it'll be easier to find a answer. It might be 06-12 I don't remember off hand


2018 2500 6.4L Tradesman

 

[Mrmagoolin]

Is there anything tricky about using this on 2012 and earlier Ram?

I just did my Fogs w/ Highs and my father-in-law would like it done to his 2012.


The fog light works just fine on 12's I did it to my son's worked gray.



Sent from my HTC U11 using Tapatalk

 

[SitKneelBend]

06-12 is the option in Alfa...thanks again!

Sent from my HTC U11 using Tapatalk

 

[Michael]

Does everyone here just use this app on an android device or are there some that use a windows computer with it? If you do use windows how is your experience with it? I'm sorry if this has been discussed before, but with 777 pages I don't have time to go through them all.

 

[Deepc6]

Not trying to step on WTMs toes but im in southwest CT if that is more convenient.

Not hating on Albany! I have family in that area

Thank you for your help!

Met up with Chris today in Connecticut, he enabled my windows downs and fog light with the Hi Beams features.

Thank You Again!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[SitKneelBend]

I'm not sure if this has been discussed but quick question...is there any benefit to disabling PWM (with AlfaOBD) when using LEDs?

Does setting the high/low beams to LED present automatically disable PWM?

Sent from my HTC U11 using Tapatalk

 

[Austen]

I bought LED high and low beams & switchbacks from Dieselleds and I am thinking that was a mistake. The switchbacks say canbus error free and I keep getting a park light out message on the dash. Even though they claim to be error free I enabled LED front turn lamps to see if it would fix the issue and when I started the truck earlier every time the message would pop up then if I checked the stored messages on the evic it would be gone until next start up. Now it's staying on even after clearing the code. Alpha says it is the right front turn lamp short circuit to battery but I have quadruple checked my connections and the bulb being correctly seated. I'm lost and out of ideas. Frustrated because I bought from a company that I have heard no reviews on. The switchbacks when running white have a very poor output but the amber is the brightest turn signal I have seen. High & low beams I'm not even honestly sure if they are battery than my factory halogen bulbs.

17' CCSB 4X4 68RFE 2500 6.7 Tradesman DRP EGR delete, CTT tuning w/TCM tuning, UAQ w/7 speed HVAC, 7" premium EVIC, OEM front Parksense, OEM style front camera, aux switches

 

[1500ram12]

I bought LED high and low beams & switchbacks from Dieselleds and I am thinking that was a mistake. The switchbacks say canbus error free and I keep getting a park light out message on the dash. Even though they claim to be error free I enabled LED front turn lamps to see if it would fix the issue and when I started the truck earlier every time the message would pop up then if I checked the stored messages on the evic it would be gone until next start up. Now it's staying on even after clearing the code. Alpha says it is the right front turn lamp short circuit to battery but I have quadruple checked my connections and the bulb being correctly seated. I'm lost and out of ideas. Frustrated because I bought from a company that I have heard no reviews on. The switchbacks when running white have a very poor output but the amber is the brightest turn signal I have seen. High & low beams I'm not even honestly sure if they are battery than my factory halogen bulbs.

17' CCSB 4X4 68RFE 2500 6.7 Tradesman DRP EGR delete, CTT tuning w/TCM tuning, UAQ w/7 speed HVAC, 7" premium EVIC, OEM front Parksense, OEM style front camera, aux switches

Make sure you enable led parking lamps.

I used lasfit canbus compatible switchbacks. Once I changed turn/park lamps to led I didn't have any issues. But wasn't impressed with the white. Wasn't very bright at all as a drl. But at the time didn't realize that you could adjust the voltage for drl's


2018 2500 6.4L Tradesman

 

[1500ram12]

I'm not sure if this has been discussed but quick question...is there any benefit to disabling PWM (with AlfaOBD) when using LEDs?

Does setting the high/low beams to LED present automatically disable PWM?

Sent from my HTC U11 using Tapatalk

You'll want to enable hid's because that actually disables pwm. Then enable led's. It's not necessary for highs but I did.


2018 2500 6.4L Tradesman

 

[Ramsportrocks]

something that I wanted to mention

my truck is a 2013 and I had asked a while ago about the compass.. I have the U-connect 5.0 option and when I
would hit the compass button I got the no signal message

since installing the 7" evic I hit reset to defaults in the cluster so I could program it how I wanted it
and wonder of wonders the compass heading shows up in the evic and it is definitely working correctly.
when I hit the radio compass button it still says no signal...?????

 

[Ramsportrocks]

forgot to add

on the splash screen since mine is a 13 and the evic replacement is a 13 are there options to change
it like the later model clusters have?

 

[1500ram12]

forgot to add

on the splash screen since mine is a 13 and the evic replacement is a 13 are there options to change
it like the later model clusters have?

I don't believe so. It either started in 2014 or 2015


2018 2500 6.4L Tradesman

 

[Ricks Ram]

something that I wanted to mention

my truck is a 2013 and I had asked a while ago about the compass.. I have the U-connect 5.0 option and when I
would hit the compass button I got the no signal message

since installing the 7" evic I hit reset to defaults in the cluster so I could program it how I wanted it
and wonder of wonders the compass heading shows up in the evic and it is definitely working correctly.
when I hit the radio compass button it still says no signal...?????

This is a common problem on some of the trucks equipped with the RA2 radios. As with many issues and small glitches these trucks come with that the dealers couldn't figure out in most cases they said the radios were working as designed and refused to address the issue. My 14 came with the RA2 and the compass in the radio and on the EVIC worked fine before I upgraded to the RA4. Some did and some didn't. To the best of my knowledge no one was really ever able to figure out what the issue was. The fact that your EVIC compass works correctly shows that the compass itself is most likely not the issue which would only leave some type of programming issue or radio issue as the most likely problem. As far as the Splash Screen in the EVIC goes it will not display on a 13 or 14 cluster. I believe the first year cluster that is capable of showing different splash screens is the 2015 but not positive.

Sent from my SM-G960U using Tapatalk

 

[Austen]

Make sure you enable led parking lamps.

I used lasfit canbus compatible switchbacks. Once I changed turn/park lamps to led I didn't have any issues. But wasn't impressed with the white. Wasn't very bright at all as a drl. But at the time didn't realize that you could adjust the voltage for drl's


2018 2500 6.4L Tradesman

How much did you bring up the voltage? Also it's actually called LED parking lamps and not turn lamps?

17' CCSB 4X4 68RFE 2500 6.7 Tradesman DRP EGR delete, CTT tuning w/TCM tuning, UAQ w/7 speed HVAC, 7" premium EVIC, OEM front Parksense, OEM style front camera, aux switches