My first post on here so be gentle !! ?
I have a very small red ‘alarm’ LED light in the top of the instrument cluster that I want to ‘wire in’ to come on when the ignition is OFF (as I don’t want to have it flashing whilst driving). Can anyone point me to the easiest wires to ‘link’ into to achieve this ?
Thanks in advance ??

rarey1 said:

My first post on here so be gentle !! ��
I have a very small red ‘alarm’ LED light in the top of the instrument cluster that I want to ‘wire in’ to come on when the ignition is OFF (as I don’t want to have it flashing whilst driving). Can anyone point me to the easiest wires to ‘link’ into to achieve this ?
Thanks in advance ����

Click to expand...

Hi and Welcome to Fiat Forum.

There is no "live when off" feed I'm aware of, but there is a useful trick for low power loads like your flashing LED. You put a diode in series with the LED and connect the circuit between a switched live and battery live:

When the switched live is OFF the connection is an 0V and current will flow from the battery through the LED and the off electrics. Effectively trying to power the off equipment through the LED. The current is so low that it has no effect on the OFF equipment. You can get away without the series diode (a 1N4001 series is OK) but it protects the LED from voltage transients when switching on and off.. Obviously if your chosen LED needs a series resistor you should include that too.

HTH,
Robert G8RPI.

My circuit did not come out, try again
LED.jpg

Hi,
Thanks for the prompt reply and help ... I am not an electrician so do you have an ‘idiots’ diagram that would show exactly what is required ?
Thanks for your patience ??

This time of year I'd go to the shops and buy some flashing toy like a pair of ear rings. I'd mount the LED off to the side so as not to be visible from the driver's seat (except maybe at night) and call it a day.

Saves cutting into wiring if you're not 100% sure what you're doing.

Or purchase a cheap set of solar LED Xmas lights, cut off the LEDs, connect your flashing LED and mount the solar panel on top of the dashboard.

On second thoughts, while that'd work here I'm not sure there's enough sunshine in the UK this time of year.

Definitely not. it's just after 4pm and it pretty much dark round here this time of year it's about 8am till it gets fully light in a morning
And half the time there's cloud cover so anything solar powered it's working too well

I very much doubt a flashing led will stop your car been robbed, if they want it it’ll go regardless

most car audio shops will do this for minimal cost.

How about a battery operated led for a fake burglar alarm box.