Mirror Reflector Lights Always On and Flash

I just bought Rapotr Mirror Reflector Lights and was wanting to get some information on wiring them.

I would like them to be on with the amber markers in the grill. That part is easy. I would then like them to flash when the turn signal is flashing.

I was thinking of having a relay that allows power from the marker in the grill normally. Then when the turn signal is on, it gets power to the relay, which can switch the lights to get power from the flasher in the mirror.

My question is where can I find a wire with constant power when the signals are flashing? I assume there is an input voltage to the flasher controller. Anyone know where that is located? Is there one for left and one for right?

Thanks for any help you can provide.

there are 2 wires for each side a front and a rear. left side is blue/green (F) and grey/brown (R)

the right side is yellow/purple (F) and purple/orange (R) these are located at the bcm in the pkp. brown plug top right of the panel.

The Car Stereo Company said:

there are 2 wires for each side a front and a rear. left side is blue/green (F) and grey/brown (R)

the right side is yellow/purple (F) and purple/orange (R) these are located at the bcm in the pkp. brown plug top right of the panel.

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Thanks Noah! That should save me some time. I'll try to resist the urge to text you when I still can't find them.

Noah loves texting!
He does it with his left hand as his right feeds high tension wires under power through the firewall...

jondle said:

I just bought Rapotr Mirror Reflector Lights and was wanting to get some information on wiring them.

I would like them to be on with the amber markers in the grill. That part is easy. I would then like them to flash when the turn signal is flashing.

I was thinking of having a relay that allows power from the marker in the grill normally. Then when the turn signal is on, it gets power to the relay, which can switch the lights to get power from the flasher in the mirror.

My question is where can I find a wire with constant power when the signals are flashing? I assume there is an input voltage to the flasher controller. Anyone know where that is located? Is there one for left and one for right?

Thanks for any help you can provide.

Click to expand...

Getting the flashing for the blinkers is easy... Just use the wires already in the mirror.

How did you go about running wire to the mirror from the markers? That's going to be the tricky part.

I put the anzo mirror LEDs in mine. In researching how to get them to stay on constant (with the markers) and then flash with the blinkers I learned that it's a tad more complicated then using a relay. To make it work required tying into two separate circuits and using resistors and diodes, not to mention getting a constant power wire to the mirrors in the first place. (For the 13's, at least, that means removing the door and door panels so that you can get to the door wire plugs and modify them to get a new wire into the door.) In the end I said screw it and just spliced them directly to the mirror blinkers.

If you get this hooked up and working with the markers I (and I'm sure many others here) would love to see a write up on how you did it! Good luck!

Ps. I'm not sure how Trevor made these lights, but they look exactly like the clear lens version of the anzo reflector LEDs I have, only with a black vinyl cutout overlaying the Leds. If that's the case, take a good look at the back before you install them. The Anzo's fit good and light great, but they aren't sealed for shit! (Or at all really) If Trevor hasn't already (and for the $50 price hike on the $3 worth of vinyl and 2 minutes he spent putting it on he really should have) get some good water resistant silicone and completely coat the back side of the reflector so that there's no chance the led circuit can get wet and short out. It'll save you a ton of cursing the first time you take it through the car wash! ;-)

You could use a normally closed relay run the lights through the switched section to the marker power source. Then connect the coil to the blinker line in order to get them to flash on/off in sync you will need to build a 12v not gate to invert the signal from the blinker only when it was active unless you can find the line that goes to the flasher unit I think this is not such a simple task.

Harblar said:

How did you go about running wire to the mirror from the markers? That's going to be the tricky part.

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I found this post about how to pull the door panel off and run the wires. That shouldn't be too big of a deal.

Harblar said:

I put the anzo mirror LEDs in mine. In researching how to get them to stay on constant (with the markers) and then flash with the blinkers I learned that it's a tad more complicated then using a relay. To make it work required tying into two separate circuits and using resistors and diodes, not to mention getting a constant power wire to the mirrors in the first place. In the end I said screw it and just spliced them directly to the mirror blinkers.

Click to expand...

I think that is way more complicated than necessary. I have a couple ideas. Ideally, using @the-car-stereo-company post, I'll locate the power that goes into the flasher controller. It should be constant on when the blinkers are flashing. Then I can wire up a relay that uses the marker's power when the flasher controller doesn't have power and uses the actual blinker's power when the controller does have power. Someone please correct me if I'm wrong about this or not thinking about it correctly.

If that doesn't work, as @t_j stated, I'll just wire a NOT gate to the blinker's power and it'll flash inversely to the actual blinker, which may actually be better.

Harblar said:

If you get this hooked up and working with the markers I (and I'm sure many others here) would love to see a write up on how you did it!

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Will do. I'm out of town this weekend, but I'll try to get to it next weekend.

Harblar said:

Ps. I'm not sure how Trevor made these lights, but they look exactly like the clear lens version of the anzo reflector LEDs I have, only with a black vinyl cutout overlaying the Leds. If that's the case, take a good look at the back before you install them. The Anzo's fit good and light great, but they aren't sealed for shit! (Or at all really) If Trevor hasn't already (and for the $50 price hike on the $3 worth of vinyl and 2 minutes he spent putting it on he really should have) get some good water resistant silicone and completely coat the back side of the reflector so that there's no chance the led circuit can get wet and short out. It'll save you a ton of cursing the first time you take it through the car wash! ;-)

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Thanks a lot for that. I wouldn't have even thought about it and been pissed later.

t_j said:

You could use a normally closed relay run the lights through the switched section to the marker power source. Then connect the coil to the blinker line in order to get them to flash on/off in sync you will need to build a 12v not gate to invert the signal from the blinker only when it was active unless you can find the line that goes to the flasher unit I think this is not such a simple task.

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I think that is what @the-car-stereo-company was pointing me to. I take a look and see what I can find.

If you have to run wires anyway, can't you just parallel the direction signal lights?

PropDr said:

If you have to run wires anyway, can't you just parallel the direction signal lights?

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Not sure what you mean.

Do you mean wire the new light in parallel with the signal in the mirror? If so, I could but that would leave the light not illuminated when normally driving and the blinker isn't on.

Or do you mean trace the wire from the blinker back to the controller and run the wire for the new light along side the factory wire for the blinker? If so, sure, but it would be easier to know where it terminates ahead of time and then run the wire so it is hidden, but maybe no as perfectly as the factory wire.

jondle said:

I found this post about how to pull the door panel off and run the wires. That shouldn't be too big of a deal.

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What year truck/package do you have? That link is basically just showing how to install puddle lights and rear facing blinkers on trucks that didn't have them from the factory. If you already have these you don't even need to take off the door panel or mirror to tap into the blinkers. Just remove the glass and unscrew the bolts it was covering. The front of the mirror comes off and you can easily swap the reflector and tap the blinker wires from there.

That's what I did... That, however, doesn't provide any way to tap into the marker lights. None of the preexisting wires in the door do (that I know of)... That was the problem. The only way I could see of getting the needed wires to the mirror was by running them from the cab or engine bay through the connector in the door (next to the hinge). Depending on the model year this can be a major PITA! Earlier years just had a rubber boot, but mine has a plug in connector, soooo that means tapping an unused set of pins or drilling a hole through the connector... Either way, removing the entire door is necessary to achieve this. I haven't been that motivated yet, myself! Hahaha

I'd love to see other possible workarounds to get this working!