Glove Box PDU

[chiko]

I was annoyed by a few things with my Maverick. 1)Lack of power points that were accessory, not constant. 2)Crawling into the passenger footwell to get access to 12V power. 3) Futzing around with those tiny fuses.

I back stabbed a connector to the BCM pin 35 which is a constant signal from the key ACC/RUN position and then ziptied the tap wire to the factory wire. Maybe not super reliable but easier than re-pinning and I HATE vampire taps.

The latch for the connector is a bit finicky. In the middle of the latch handle, the middle part presses in to unlock the handle and then the handle swing left to right and the connector slides right out. During re-install, you do not use the handle as much. Just press the connector and the handle will swing right to left until fully seated, then move the handle right to left to engage the lock.

One weird thing that I ran into along the way. I built most of it detached from the truck inside the house. For a power source I used one of those tiny 12V battery that are typically found in key fob alarm buttons. The battery would drive the LEDs fine. It would drive the relay fine. It would not drive both. I started to doubt that I knew how to build a basic relay circuit. After checking all the wiring, I saw that it would flash the LED strip briefly then the strip would go out. It was also hard to hear/feel the relay trip as there was a noticeable jolt in my fingers when the I was touching or disconnecting the leads. I do not recall any feeling when closing the circuit but breaking it was very noticeable.

The hub does not do data. I tried. The hub is USB 3.0 high speed and wants to do data but the truck does not. The one I selected did include a 120AC -> 12V transformer and I got lucky. The barrel power connector that came with the LED strip was the same size as the USB hub.

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[chiko]

Tested in darkness and there was no point including the magnetic switch for the light strip. There was no light leak around the glove box door. I plan to do something similar for lighting the center console.

OR - This particular strip gets pretty hot. The interior plastic is undamaged and would probably be fine. But I can add the switch.

 

[Tim d]

I was annoyed by a few things with my Maverick. 1)Lack of power points that were accessory, not constant. 2)Crawling into the passenger footwell to get access to 12V power. 3) Futzing around with those tiny fuses.

I back stabbed a connector to the BCM pin 35 which is a constant signal from the key ACC/RUN position and then ziptied the tap wire to the factory wire. Maybe not super reliable but easier than re-pinning and I HATE vampire taps.

One weird thing that I ran into along the way. I built most of it detached from the truck inside the house. For a power source I used one of those tiny 12V battery that are typically found in key fob alarm buttons. The battery would drive the LEDs fine. It would drive the relay fine. It would not drive both. I started to doubt that I knew how to build a basic relay circuit. After checking all the wiring, I saw that it would flash the LED strip briefly then the strip would go out. It was also hard to hear/feel the relay trip as there was a noticeable jolt in my fingers when the I was touching or disconnecting the leads. I do not recall any feeling when closing the circuit but breaking it was very noticeable.

The hub does not do data. I tried. The hub is USB 3.0 high speed and wants to do data but the truck does not. The one I selected did include a 120AC -> 12V transformer and I got lucky. The barrel power connector that came with the LED strip was the same size as the USB hub.

What exactly did you do here? Ad another 12v access? Sry to lazy to read

 

[RedClayMaverick]

I was annoyed by a few things with my Maverick. 1)Lack of power points that were accessory, not constant. 2)Crawling into the passenger footwell to get access to 12V power. 3) Futzing around with those tiny fuses.

I back stabbed a connector to the BCM pin 35 which is a constant signal from the key ACC/RUN position and then ziptied the tap wire to the factory wire. Maybe not super reliable but easier than re-pinning and I HATE vampire taps.

One weird thing that I ran into along the way. I built most of it detached from the truck inside the house. For a power source I used one of those tiny 12V battery that are typically found in key fob alarm buttons. The battery would drive the LEDs fine. It would drive the relay fine. It would not drive both. I started to doubt that I knew how to build a basic relay circuit. After checking all the wiring, I saw that it would flash the LED strip briefly then the strip would go out. It was also hard to hear/feel the relay trip as there was a noticeable jolt in my fingers when the I was touching or disconnecting the leads. I do not recall any feeling when closing the circuit but breaking it was very noticeable.

The hub does not do data. I tried. The hub is USB 3.0 high speed and wants to do data but the truck does not. The one I selected did include a 120AC -> 12V transformer and I got lucky. The barrel power connector that came with the LED strip was the same size as the USB hub.

That jolt you were feeling is back EMF from the magnetic field collapsing on the relay coil when power is removed. You may want to put a snubber diode on the coil terminals

 

[chiko]

The camera makes the lighting much brighter than reality. Somehow I was able to get the magnetic switch in the glove box aligned correctly on the first try (verified with amp meter) but flubbed it on the center storage and had to fill in the first hole with crumbled tin foil.

 

[chiko]

That jolt you were feeling is back EMF from the magnetic field collapsing on the relay coil when power is removed. You may want to put a snubber diode on the coil terminals

2 Questions if I might ask you to expand on your wisdom.

If the 12V source would have come battery associated with the cordless ratchets, the stick kind, might that have driven the lamps and relay more successfully? I would guess yes.

Given that stronger charge, might the jolt gone from noticeable to some degree of pain? I am going to guess that the relay coil would be a limiting factor. My experience is pretty limited but my first car had classic coil, distributor and points.

Its all installed and working now so I don't have reason to experiment on my own but if I should try something similar, I want to know what to look out for.

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