Headlight build switchback issue, Need Help!!

[rgallina25]

Hey guys, I've researched every angle I could think of, but I'm still at a loss here.
I have a 2015 Ram sport with the factory projectors. I purchased the retro-quick system from TheRetrofitSource, Demon Eyes and the DRL switchback from DiodeDynamics. I purchased the 15+ harness that is required for that year truck as well. Since these headlights are ridiculously expensive to replace OEM, I opted to send them to a reputable installer to get everything installed. He did his job as expected so far as I know, and send me pictures of the headlights in full working order on "the bench" and then shipped them back. Once I received them, I plugged everything in according to the diagram from TRS, and everything worked great EXCEPT the switchbacks. We've gone through every wire and every plug we could think of, with no success. The problem I'm having is the driver side does not illuminate at all, and the passenger side lights up amber. We get no turn signal from the headlights neither on the drl strip or the side markers. Tail lights and side mirrors still light up, and you can hear an audible clicking with the four ways on. I know about the AphaObd but the fact that the passenger side illuminates amber is making me assume that AlphaObd may not be the fix, but I'm hoping I'm wrong. I do not have AlphaObd because I own an iPhone, but am willing to buy one if that will solve my issue.

The installer is at a loss, and I can't get a hold of Diode until Monday. I'm hoping you guys with your wealth of knowledge can provide an answer!

TLDR; Switchbacks do not work installed on truck after proved working on "the bench" Passenger side lights up amber, driver does not illuminate at all.

Thanks in advance for any help you guys may be able to provide!

 

[Jimmy07]

As far as the switchbacks go, I don’t think the AlfaOBD is gonna help you out there. Your BCM settings are already set at LED from the factory for the front turn signals and parking lights. It will, however, help you get rid of that rats nest of a relay harness and resistors for the low beams. How about starting simple. Do you have the wiring diagram for the truck connector that plugs into the headlights? I would take the headlights out, and with a separate battery and some probes, start probing the proper terminals to make sure the switchback drivers still work. Get the parking lights to come on, then the turn signals, then the DRLs. Make sure that stuff actually works on the bench again, then we can go from there. Did the installer wire the switchback driver pigtail inside the housing, and pop the end out of the dust cap?

 

[rgallina25]

I don't have the diagram for the truck connector, just the one for the harness that was sent by TRS. The installer says all switchback wiring was done internally. He was thinking bad drivers as well but I was hoping there was a more simple solution that could be tried before I had to contact Diode Dynamics.

 

[RedSRT4Me]

I don't have the diagram for the truck connector, just the one for the harness that was sent by TRS. The installer says all switchback wiring was done internally. He was thinking bad drivers as well but I was hoping there was a more simple solution that could be tried before I had to contact Diode Dynamics.

If everything works off of the truck like stated in the first post then your relay harness is the problem.

I'd remove the relay harness install everything into the factory connections and turn on the needed settings in AlphaOBD.

 

[rgallina25]

Please forgive my ignorance, I have zero experience with wiring and stuff like this, I was expecting a plug and play system for the most part.. But if I eliminate the harness, what about the resistors and balast computers? I'm not in front of the truck at the moment but if memory serves correct, there is only that one large plug from factory. Am I to only remove part of the TRS harness?

 

[Jimmy07]

If everything works off of the truck like stated in the first post then your relay harness is the problem.

I'd remove the relay harness install everything into the factory connections and turn on the needed settings in AlphaOBD.

While I would definitely recommend the alfa and getting rid of the relay harness and resistors, that wouldn’t help with his issues with the switchbacks. The low beams are using the relay harness. The switchbacks are using the turn signal, parking, DRL, and bulb out detection circuit. He’s got a factory projector truck, so no issue with the turn and parking light settings, as they are already set to LED. I’m gonna say the problem is with the switchback drivers because I’ve had these before, and had similar issues. I went through 5 sets of drivers they sent me before I gave up. @Spud2388 went through some minor issues with his, nothing like this, but maybe he can throw some ideas around. I believe he ended up grounding the fault sense and ground wires from the switchback drivers straight to the battery.
@rgallina25, here’s a pin out of the truck connector that plugs into the headlights-
I would get the headlights on the bench and double check with a battery and probe each function of the switchbacks to see if the drivers are still doing what they’re supposed to.

 

[rgallina25]

@Jimmy07 that looks like it should be pretty helpful. We'll try to play around with it a little on the bench before getting in contact with Diode about the drivers. Hopefully they will be willing to help out considering I bought the switchbacks back in November and just got around to getting them installed last week.

As far as the Alpha thing goes, are you guys saying I can eliminate this entire rats nest of a harness just by getting AlphaObd and changing some settings, or am I misunderstanding? It seems like some of the plugs are necessary to get the bixenon high and low bulb to work, but then again I have zero idea what's actually going on here. I'm more of a middle man between the installer of the retroquick system/switchback, and the installer of the physical headlight and harness itself. I've been meaning to get a grasp of Alpha but other parts of the truck took priority, and I'm not the best with programming or electronics as you guys can tell. I really appreciate the help you're all offering!

 

[Jimmy07]

@Jimmy07 that looks like it should be pretty helpful. We'll try to play around with it a little on the bench before getting in contact with Diode about the drivers. Hopefully they will be willing to help out considering I bought the switchbacks back in November and just got around to getting them installed last week.

As far as the Alpha thing goes, are you guys saying I can eliminate this entire rats nest of a harness just by getting AlphaObd and changing some settings, or am I misunderstanding? It seems like some of the plugs are necessary to get the bixenon high and low bulb to work, but then again I have zero idea what's actually going on here. I'm more of a middle man between the installer of the retroquick system/switchback, and the installer of the physical headlight and harness itself. I've been meaning to get a grasp of Alpha but other parts of the truck took priority, and I'm not the best with programming or electronics as you guys can tell. I really appreciate the help you're all offering!

You should have no problem with diode dynamics helping you out. They’ll probably just send new drivers, but they’ll ask about steps taken to troubleshoot them and see if the problem follows the driver.
For the low beam HIDs and the AlfaOBD, after you remove all the resistors and relay harness, this is what you’ll be left with after the dust settles-
Inside the black box is the inside of the headlight housing with the arrow pointing to the factory connector that used to be plugged into your original low beam bulb.

 

[madtrucker2016]

check the wires from the headlight pigtail and the light system pigtails you might have to reverse the positive in the harness by pulling the pin and switching it in the housing

 

[rgallina25]

So with the Alpha I can get rid of most of the harness and those bulky resistors and have no hyper flashing or ruin the bulbs? As for the switchbacks, I'm going to try everything suggested here tomorrow and if all else fails I will be in contact with Diode on Monday.

 

[Spud2388]

Hey guys, I've researched every angle I could think of, but I'm still at a loss here.
I have a 2015 Ram sport with the factory projectors. I purchased the retro-quick system from TheRetrofitSource, Demon Eyes and the DRL switchback from DiodeDynamics. I purchased the 15+ harness that is required for that year truck as well. Since these headlights are ridiculously expensive to replace OEM, I opted to send them to a reputable installer to get everything installed. He did his job as expected so far as I know, and send me pictures of the headlights in full working order on "the bench" and then shipped them back. Once I received them, I plugged everything in according to the diagram from TRS, and everything worked great EXCEPT the switchbacks. We've gone through every wire and every plug we could think of, with no success. The problem I'm having is the driver side does not illuminate at all, and the passenger side lights up amber. We get no turn signal from the headlights neither on the drl strip or the side markers. Tail lights and side mirrors still light up, and you can hear an audible clicking with the four ways on. I know about the AphaObd but the fact that the passenger side illuminates amber is making me assume that AlphaObd may not be the fix, but I'm hoping I'm wrong. I do not have AlphaObd because I own an iPhone, but am willing to buy one if that will solve my issue.

The installer is at a loss, and I can't get a hold of Diode until Monday. I'm hoping you guys with your wealth of knowledge can provide an answer!

TLDR; Switchbacks do not work installed on truck after proved working on "the bench" Passenger side lights up amber, driver does not illuminate at all.

Thanks in advance for any help you guys may be able to provide!

So my situation wasn't exactly like yours, but I will tell you mine was acting funny for sure and did different things on each side even though they were wired up the same. I ran into the same situation with just getting amber lights myself. Mine was fixed by grounding the ground wire and the fault sense straight to the battery. You would think the ground in the factory harness would be enough, but some some unknown reason it wasn't. It HAD to be grounded directly to the battery. I also remember getting just the amber lights by only having one of them grounded and the other not (I think anyways). Not sure which one it was, but I would start buy grounding to the battery and see what happens.

I would also test the headlights out yourself. A couple pieces of wire and some small slide on connectors lets you ground to the battery and you can go through and test each function. Again, it worked different on the bench for me compared to hooked up to the truck...

 

[rgallina25]

So my situation wasn't exactly like yours, but I will tell you mine was acting funny for sure and did different things on each side even though they were wired up the same. I ran into the same situation with just getting amber lights myself. Mine was fixed by grounding the ground wire and the fault sense straight to the battery. You would think the ground in the factory harness would be enough, but some some unknown reason it wasn't. It HAD to be grounded directly to the battery. I also remember getting just the amber lights by only having one of them grounded and the other not (I think anyways). Not sure which one it was, but I would start buy grounding to the battery and see what happens.

I would also test the headlights out yourself. A couple pieces of wire and some small slide on connectors lets you ground to the battery and you can go through and test each function. Again, it worked different on the bench for me compared to hooked up to the truck...

Thanks for the insight! We're going to try to get a fresh look at it tomorrow morning. I'm hoping it's as simple as just grounding, but we're going to put it through all the tests that were suggested here. If all else fails, hopefully a call to Diode fixes this headache.

 

[Spud2388]

Thanks for the insight! We're going to try to get a fresh look at it tomorrow morning. I'm hoping it's as simple as just grounding, but we're going to put it through all the tests that were suggested here. If all else fails, hopefully a call to Diode fixes this headache.

Good luck! And if you have any questions, please let me/us know. I spent over a day testing and trying different things until I stumbled on the grounding solution. Again, check from a bench (or not from the factory harness) first and then work you way from there. And FYI, diode isn't fast at shipping. I'm still waiting for my replacement modules (cause they insisted that was the issue... it wasn't) and that was over 2 weeks ago...

 

[rgallina25]

Just in case anyone was losing as much sleep over this as I was, it turned out to be the drivers. Diode shipped them out the day after I called, and we finally got to installing them yesterday. How they could have went bad from the short amount of time between table to truck install I have no idea, but it was a huge relief to see those switchbacks light up finally! Thanks to everyone for all your help!

 

[Guillermo Arevalo]

Good luck! And if you have any questions, please let me/us know. I spent over a day testing and trying different things until I stumbled on the grounding solution. Again, check from a bench (or not from the factory harness) first and then work you way from there. And FYI, diode isn't fast at shipping. I'm still waiting for my replacement modules (cause they insisted that was the issue... it wasn't) and that was over 2 weeks ago...

Hey man not sure if you can help me out but its worth a shot. Im having issues with my drls being amber not white and also im having a hyperflash issue inside the truck and on the mirrors but not on the outside front or rear. Ive already contacted DD but nothing worked. Maybe you can help if not any advice is helpful.

 

[Spud2388]

Hey man not sure if you can help me out but its worth a shot. Im having issues with my drls being amber not white and also im having a hyperflash issue inside the truck and on the mirrors but not on the outside front or rear. Ive already contacted DD but nothing worked. Maybe you can help if not any advice is helpful.

SO its been a while since I've played around with mine. I pretty much had to try all sorts of combinations to fine something. I ended up grounding the ground and fault sense directly to the battery and not though the harness.

 

[Lastgoodshyguy]

I recently installed switchbacks as well but mine were colorwerx. The drl and turn lights had to be tapped into the existing headlight harnesses