Anybody have any idea how to wire up the new flex era 3 dual modes to the upfitter switches?

[Bschurr]

Okay, just wanted to give an update and also ask a question. I will include some pictures later, but I was able to wire everything up to two of the switches, but they do not quite behave the way I thought they would so I need some input.

I have the white wires going to one switch and the red wires going to another with the ground shared at the chassis. When I flip one switch, the fog lights come on by themselves. Check. I then flip that switch off and flip the other switch, and BOTH the fog lights and the spot lights come on. This matches what the behavior of the two positions on the kc switch would be doing. It's a bit annoying as I thought it would just be the spot beam by itself, but it's fine.

My concern is what would happen if I had just the fog switch on and then turned the other upfitter switch on? Would it blow something since there would be two 12v sources going to the fog light beam? This is where my electrical knowledge is lacking, so any help is appreciated.

I assume if I just make sure to operate the switches independently, I should be fine, but I'm just trying to safeguard against the scenario where both switches would get thrown. Anyone have any thoughts?

Check the specifications on the LEDs - many can handle 9V to 30V and if that’s the case you have zero worries since you would only be applying 24V.

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[5280Bronco]

Check the specifications on the LEDs - many can handle 9V to 30V and if that’s the case you have zero worries since you would only be applying 24V.

Looks like it says the lamps can handle 9-36v, so I may be okay. I was just confused about whether it would actually be 24v or not since I'm using the same 12v source for each of them rather than two separate ones.

 

[hemiblas]

Looks like it says the lamps can handle 9-36v, so I may be okay. I was just confused about whether it would actually be 24v or not since I'm using the same 12v source for each of them rather than two separate ones.

I'll look more at the wiring diagrams, but you cant get 24v out of the same battery, you would need 2 batteries in series to get 24v. I think it would be ok to get both switches at the same time, but again going to look at how you wired it.
To answer other questions I saw..yes relays are generally rated much higher..and 40a is a standard number. Nothing wrong with that. Same for the 160w...it can handle that much or less power.
It is setup with a multiple pole relay, so one switch would control it. I'll look at how you got it to work with two switches. The bronco switch is just used for controlling the relay (so no high amp loads go through it)....the "big" amps go through the relay. The bronco switch would just send a signal to the relay to open or close.

 

[5280Bronco]

I'll look more at the wiring diagrams, but you cant get 24v out of the same battery, you would need 2 batteries in series to get 24v. I think it would be ok to get both switches at the same time, but again going to look at how you wired it.
To answer other questions I saw..yes relays are generally rated much higher..and 40a is a standard number. Nothing wrong with that. Same for the 160w...it can handle that much or less power.
It is setup with a multiple pole relay, so one switch would control it. I'll look at how you got it to work with two switches. The bronco switch is just used for controlling the relay (so no high amp loads go through it)....the "big" amps go through the relay. The bronco switch would just send a signal to the relay to open or close.

I actually cut the kc harness off right before the relay and connected the switches at that point. Here is my absolutely horrible drawing of the way I wired it:

It really seems like the fog part of the lamp is wired to the white in an isolated way since I can turn then on by themselves with the switch on the white wire, but then they must also be wired to the red wire through potentially a diode from the spot lights? Obviously my concern is not for the spot lights, it's for a situation where I already have the white wire energized with the first switch and then flip the second switch which tries to send a second 12v signal from the red wire/spot light circuit to the fog light circuit through that diode or however they have them tied together inside the lamp.

 

[hemiblas]

I actually cut the kc harness off right before the relay and connected the switches at that point. Here is my absolutely horrible drawing of the way I wired it:

It really seems like the fog part of the lamp is wired to the white in an isolated way since I can turn then on by themselves with the switch on the white wire, but then they must also be wired to the red wire through potentially a diode from the spot lights? Obviously my concern is not for the spot lights, it's for a situation where I already have the white wire energized with the first switch and then flip the second switch which tries to send a second 12v signal from the red wire/spot light circuit to the fog light circuit through that diode or however they have them tied together inside the lamp.

You are ok. It is the same power source...no concerns of shorting or doubling any power.

Quick question....what are the Bronco switches rated at(how many amps)? Just make the switch is rated for the intended load since you arent using the relay.

 

[5280Bronco]

You are ok. It is the same power source...no concerns of shorting or doubling any power.

Quick question....what are the Bronco switches rated at(how many amps)? Just make the switch is rated for the intended load since you arent using the relay.

Those are 10a fused switches, and according to KC below, I'm reading that the lamps even in the combo mode draw 4.5?

 

[hemiblas]

Those are 10a fused switches, and according to KC below, I'm reading that the lamps even in the combo mode draw 4.5?

ok so switch one has a load of 2.9...where switch 2 has a load of 4.5amps. You are good to go. If this is how you wanted it to be wired you shouldnt have any issues.

 

[5280Bronco]

ok so switch one has a load of 2.9...where switch 2 has a load of 4.5amps. You are good to go. If this is how you wanted it to be wired you shouldnt have any issues.

Thanks, I appreciate your help. It is as close to how I wanted it to function as possible. I was hoping on some way I could use the spot just by themselves, but since they are wired together inside the lamp, I really now just have an onroad switch and an off-road switch. Works for me. Just wanted to make sure if anyone else decides to use them and flips both switches that there would be no issues, so this has definitely worked for that. Thank you!

 

[j930]

just bought the spot version these and installing this weekend.. thanks for the write up.

 

[BeerRunner]

Everything work out for you? Any follow up notes or pictures? Thanks for posting, looking at doing the same with flex era 3’s

 

[5280Bronco]

Everything work out for you? Any follow up notes or pictures? Thanks for posting, looking at doing the same with flex era 3’s

Sorry, I completely missed this reply. I'll take a couple pictures and a brief wrap up this afternoon!

 

[Smokey510]

This is a handy thread. I was just wondering what was the recommended way to wire my flex era 4s to my aux switches. New to all of this.

 

[5280Bronco]

Okay, so I ended up wiring the white wire to Aux 5 and the red wire to Aux 4 to control the lights. I cannot get the spot lights to come on independently of the fog lights, but the fog lights do come on by themselves. It has to be something within the lamps themselves.

Here are the results:

AUX 5 switched on (fogs only):

AUX switch 4 OR 4 and 5 switched on (fog and spot combo):

And just a picture with all of them on including my headlights:

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