Footwell lights not working

Discussion in 'Clarity' started by Mitter__Mitch, May 4, 2020.

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  1. Mitter__Mitch

    Mitter__Mitch New Member

    On my 2018 touring there are factory installed footlights and they are not working. The roof front and back lights work when I open the door so it is not block A fuse 30. I found the fuse chart, but I cannot identify the fuse for the footwell lights.
    I removed the footwell cover and checked the LED bulbs which are working and used an ohm meter to see if there was voltage on the bulb connector which there is not. Checking the SW for light control there are two adjustments for interior lighting which I played with. The footwell lights did not respond.

    Does anybody else even have these factory installed lights? It seems that a lot of people are installing after market light so I am beginning to wonder is these ever worked at all.
     
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  3. petteyg359

    petteyg359 Well-Known Member

    I got them on mine. Unfortunately, it seems either the bulbs are ridiculously low-lumen or the car is providing them with such low voltage that the light is invisible with any other light source at all. Try in a closed garage at night sitting in the car with the doors shut so the only possible interfering light is the power button. The one for the console shelf has the same problem. You wouldn't know there was a light there if you weren't straining to look for it.
     
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  4. Mitter__Mitch

    Mitter__Mitch New Member

    So There is a under the console light! I was wondering. So OK, I will investigate further and see what voltage is being applied and see if I can re-route to the PWM signal going to the upper cabin lights. Give me a few days...
     
  5. Mitter__Mitch

    Mitter__Mitch New Member

    I tried looking at the lights in the dark last night and there wasn't even the slightest hint of glow. My ohm meter shows zero across the bulb so that is reasonable.

    Humm, yours glows so I think that since the Honda site has these as a option mine may not be software enabled. It is also interesting that rather than wiring them in a continuous parallel string each bulb has its own two wires running to the main harness. I hate to go to all of the trouble, but I may investigate pulling the PWM off of the cabin lights and adding HFET isolation between that and the individual footwell bulbs so that they track what the cabin lights are doing. Seems a shame to have to do that but as far as I can tell from other threads these little guys are unsupported. :(
     
  6. craze1cars

    craze1cars Well-Known Member

    Pic attached of mine. Yes it glows every time the door is open. Maybe other times too? I don’t pay much attention to them. Not sure what to tell you about fixing it, other than if still under warranty, why not have dealer attempt to figure it out?

    They are really dim. It’s actually on in this pic...flash fully washes it out. You’re 100% certain it is not on? Stare directly at it with door open...gotta be a contortionist or use a mirror if you’re not limber. I assume you have done this if you have actually removed it. Sorry can’t help further without a wiring diagram from a service manual.
    06E58EE6-AD87-4743-AD5A-A954525D500C.jpeg
     
    Last edited: May 5, 2020
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  8. I remember noticing a dim light under the passenger side in our dark garage and asking here(?) what the heck? That's when someone explained they were a "feature". Okay, but why bother if they can only be seen in pitch black surroundings?
     
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  9. Mitter__Mitch

    Mitter__Mitch New Member

    IMG_2679.JPG IMG_2678.JPG
    Yay! I did it!
    You guys were right about getting a dim glow from the footwell and under console lights. I did not see it last night because it turns them off after 30 seconds even with the door closed. So I made a mod to light them up. Now I am a happy guy. Also while I was at it I change the Panel lights so that I can see them in the dark. Very pretty!

    IMG_2680.JPG IMG_2681.JPG IMG_2683.JPG

    This is a blurry shot of the driver's door showing the trunk and gas button lighting brightness. Sooooo much better.
     
  10. petteyg359

    petteyg359 Well-Known Member

    So how'd you do that?
     
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  11. Mitter__Mitch

    Mitter__Mitch New Member

    how i did it.png

    Its easy. Just jumper the blue wire to ground. It affects the trip light, window and mirror lights, footwell, console and heater lights. They still work as before only brighter. Go figure. BTW, it's safe too.
     
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  13. Nemesis

    Nemesis Active Member

    Mitter_Mitch, sorry but I still don't understand what you did to get brighter lights? Can you shed a little more detail about the mod you did? Did you purchase brighter LED'S, did you run more LED lights? Not sure I understand. Thanks.
     
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  14. And that last picture is gobbledygook to me. Need more info!
     
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  15. Mitter__Mitch

    Mitter__Mitch New Member

    Sorry about that picture. This was an interesting problem since it turned out to be what I consider a design flaw in the lighting system. It took several days to figure out the wiring, but at the end of the day Honda tied the footwell lights to the console lights. Since they did not provide separate SW control over the lights they run at the same sink current as the door and panel lights. The ground jumper to the blue wire overrides the sink current regulator and allows all of the internal panel lights to run at full brightness. The SW can control the high side ie. turning them off and dimming them but now the lights can run at full intensity. I have no idea if they fixed this in the 2019 and 2020 models but now mine are working the way you would expect in any other car except that the footwell lights follow the panel light intensity. That is OK and in fact the I like having the under the console like on while driving. It is not bright enough to be distracting in any way. If it were a reasonable thing to do they should be tied to the cabin lights, but I also like the brighter panel and door lights so I will leave it as it is and work on automatically switching to sport mode and regen all the way up which is yet another feature they should have included.
     
  16. jorgie393

    jorgie393 Well-Known Member

    Mitter_Mitch:

    Which blue wire? The sink after the driver’s footwell LED (see attached—formally labeled as the color “LT_PUR/BLU”? And then having grounded that, all the other lights sharing that ( center tray, passenger footwell, glove box, map light switch LED, and all the other switch LEDs). also draw more current and are brighter?

    I assume that you could ground any of them if I understand you correctly for same effect?

    (Actually, I have to send a second msg with the schematics).


    Sent from my iPhone using Inside EVs
     
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  17. jorgie393

    jorgie393 Well-Known Member

    The wiring and physical schematics, attached.
     

    Attached Files:

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  18. jorgie393

    jorgie393 Well-Known Member

    P.S. Sorry, "Driver's Footwell" is cut off between pages 2 and 3 of the schematic.
     
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  19. Mitter__Mitch

    Mitter__Mitch New Member

    I will have a look tomorrow, but yes, grounding any blue wire will make them all brighter.
    Thanks for the schematics. I looked all day and had to trace it by hand.
     
  20. Mitter__Mitch

    Mitter__Mitch New Member

    @jorgie393 Would you by chance have the schematics for the center console switches? I am going to tap the "D", "P", "R" and sport mode buttons and if I can find it the "-" paddle, bring them down to an Arduino located and powered in the left side console wing. The desired behavior would be:
    Power on - nothing and only seconds to boot.
    Monitor the "D"
    if edge of "D" wait 1 sec and "PUSH" Sport
    latch the "D" state
    wait 1 second then press the "-" four time with a .25 second interval
    Monitor "P" and "R"
    If "P" or "R" goto start

    This should put the car in sport mode and full regen as default even if you park or reverse it and then switch back to drive. Double Sport mode would be avoided and operator override would be respected.

    Another more elegant but expensive approach would be to monitor the CAN bus and insert button presses that way but I haven't the time or resources.
     
  21. Greek.
     
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  22. Mitter__Mitch

    Mitter__Mitch New Member

    Greek? Nope, that's just good old silicon valley talk. I am a HW engineer and do some work for Volkswagen and Tesla. You can tell I am an engineer because I own a Volt and a Clarity. :)

    BTW the android system is running a little slow so I just took a look and it is SD card based. The older Hondas were SDHC memory so I think that I might have a go at replacing the 4G sd with a larger 32 FAT formatted SD card. The extra size is not important. It is the 100MB/sec speed plus A1 file access random seek times that matter. It my make the head unit faster. Not all speed problems are the fault of the processor. Very often they are the storage system. I just may get better boot times.
     
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  23. eneka

    eneka Member

    huh, I swear I've noticed the ambient footwell and under console lighting on my '19 BEV and never thought they were too dim; I generally turn all lights to the lowest setting anyway haha.
    Gonna go check later tonight to see how mine are!

    Keep us updated on the headunit mod! Love tinker with things as well.

    FYI honda does have official resources for their maintenance and electrical manuals, though you do have to pay for them. Used to be able to get OEM Service manuals on ebay for cheap when dealers retired them, but they've transitioned to all online now.
    https://techinfo.honda.com/rjanisis/logon.aspx?AHM=y&logout=Y&ValidUser=
     
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