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Probably a silly question I know but I'm not all that good when it comes to wiring but at the same time don't want to blow myself, or my car up!

I have a set of sidelights/ daytime lights that take a feed from the cars loom and turn the lights on when I a) unlock the doors (they remain lit for a short period of time) b) turn the sidelights on.

What I would like is for them to turn on when I unlock the car, and then to remain on while the engine is running (which I have a relay to handle). My concern is that if I have an active feed from both my sidelights being on and the relay from the battery - will this overload the circuit and thus cause irreparable damage to my car or my lights? If it won't cause any damage - which would be the best way to achieve this?

Basic diagram of what I am getting at here (yes, no question would be complete without one) -

enter image description here

I look forward to your thoughts.

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  • \$\begingroup\$ Hi Chris, welcome to EEsx. I really appreciate your diagram but I feel it's incomplete, I think you are missing the various switches/timers that now are present. Moreover I am not sure I fully understood your question but maybe adding some details to your diagram will help enough. \$\endgroup\$
    – Vladimir Cravero
    Jul 31, 2014 at 21:45
  • \$\begingroup\$ @VladimirCravero you are correct and sorry for the confusion - I am pretty new to all this stuff so apologies for the poor diagram and lack of detail \$\endgroup\$
    – Chris
    Jul 31, 2014 at 22:25
  • \$\begingroup\$ I think now I get what your question is, and MrZebra schematic is valid. I'd just add that if there are some others loads in parallel with the lights they will stay on too, that may or may not be a problem. \$\endgroup\$
    – Vladimir Cravero
    Jul 31, 2014 at 22:42

1 Answer 1

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It will be fine - you will just have two switches in parallel (one being your relay, the other being the existing circuitry).

enter image description here

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  • \$\begingroup\$ Thanks for the answer @MrZebra. Two questions for you - 1) so just to confirm i can splice the positive and negatives as in my diagram with no issues? 2) what software do you use to draw your diagrams? Thanks! \$\endgroup\$
    – Chris
    Jul 31, 2014 at 22:24
  • \$\begingroup\$ @Chris I don't know what MrZebra is using but here you can use circuit lab, check carefully all the icons when you are asking/answering, there's an embedded tool just for schematics. \$\endgroup\$
    – Vladimir Cravero
    Jul 31, 2014 at 22:41
  • \$\begingroup\$ @VladimirCravero Ah so annoying I didn't even notice the schematics tool! Thanks for your help, I will be using this next time. \$\endgroup\$
    – Chris
    Aug 1, 2014 at 7:06

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