Question: How to make LED lights turn ON when the car is OFF or locked

[exploiternz]

As the title says, I bought one of those knight rider led scan lights to go under the grill.

Anyone know how to wire it up so that when the car is off or locked the lights turn on?

I'm guessing some kind of reverse power or something??

 

[Big_Pezzy]

hook up the LED's power wire (probably red) to constant. I'm guessing you have it hooked up to ignition which will only supply power when the car is on. By having a constant 12v source, you can turn on the LEDs whenever you want. That's how I did my interior accent lighting.

 

[snoranger]

If you want it to only be on with the ignition off:

Get a 5 pin relay (Standard RY30 or equivalent)

Pin #85 ... Key on power
Pin #86 ... Ground
Pin #30 ... Fused constant power
Pin #87 a ... Power to LED
Pin #87 ... Unused

This will turn it on with the key off, off with the key on.
There is no user control of this. If you want to be able to shut it off, put a switch in the fused constant power (#30) wire. (Its only an LED, it doesn't draw much current.)

 

[exploiternz]

If you want it to only be on with the ignition off:

Get a 5 pin relay (Standard RY30 or equivalent)

Pin #85 ... Key on power
Pin #86 ... Ground
Pin #30 ... Fused constant power
Pin #87 a ... Power to LED
Pin #87 ... Unused

This will turn it on with the key off, off with the key on.
There is no user control of this. If you want to be able to shut it off, put a switch in the fused constant power (#30) wire. (Its only an LED, it doesn't draw much current.)

That's exactly what I want thanks a lot mate. That mean I just hook the black wire up to any ground where I mount the light I'm guessing?

 

[snoranger]

That's exactly what I want thanks a lot mate. That mean I just hook the black wire up to any ground where I mount the light I'm guessing?

Yup.

 

[01STrunner]

Snoranger covered it. A relay is the way to go