I have done several searches looking for an answer but couldnt find anything. A while back I purchased a new toggle switch panel, with all the switches, front and rear lights included. My 05 MCS didnt come with any front or rear foglights or driving lights. I just purchased a set of Hella 500 driving lights. My question is can I use the switch on the toggle panel to turn these light on and off, without buying the factory foglight relay and wiring harness. Is there any way to hook up the wiring that comes with the hella kit to the switch on that panel. Any help is appreciated. thanks

 

The short answer; no.

 

Slightly less short...my GBMINI auto-up module was modified to put out a low voltage whenever the desired toggle was held. Release the toggle, the voltage goes away. A momentary switch. I useit to drive an "Ooogah" horn. That doesn't work however with driving lights unless you want to drive around with one hand on the switch.

Now, if you can find a way to use that momentary voltage to turn on another switch, and then next time turn it off again, then maybe.

 

What's the voltage of the output from the modified GBMINI module (as well as the current capacity)?

If it can provide 12 volts at 160 milliamps, you can make a latching relay to power the Hellas from a couple of standard Bosch SPDT relays. One pulse from the toggle would turn the relay on, and the next would turn it off.

The modified GBMINI circuit can probably power a relay, since I suspect that's how you have it set up to activate your "Ooogah" horn.

 

I don't recall either number, but those numbers sound real close. Your suggestion is a firmer idea of the fuzzy concept I had in mind although I can't visualize the details your latching concept.

youngw682eni, I'd get with Scott to lay out the circuit, try to find an MCAW (hard to find these days), and then arrange for Ian Cull ("GBMINI", the maker) and see if you can sweet talk him into modifying it for you. I think mine cost me about $8+ shipping (or something like that) to modify the one I already had.

What you'll get is a PC board and harness that gets inserted behind the toggle panel in between it and the original harness (it will intercept the toggle signals going to the body computer), and a long pigtail that will run out and connect to a wire going through the firewall and connecting on either side of a relay (or however Scott shows you...one wire will be trigger signal and the other ground).

 

"Latching" just means that a momentary pulse from the toggle switch will turn a relay on, and the relay will *stay* on by itself until another momentary pulse from the toggle turns it back off.

Imagine if a short "blip" from the toggle started your "oogah" horn blaring, and it would continue blaring even after you released the toggle, until you blipped the toggle again to turn it off. Not really what you want for a horn, but it's the behavior you need for a set of driving lights.

With a modified GBMINI auto-up circuit, the wiring for the driving lights would require a total of six relays (one to convert the positive pulse from the GBMINI circuit to a negative pulse, and five more to build the latching circuit).

youngw682eni, if you're interested, the wiring would not be that complicated, and I can send you pictures that would make it downright easy.