Avital 2101 Dome supervision Ford Ranger

Ya'll helped me a couple years ago with my Avital 2101 and setting up progressive locks on my 2001 Ford Ranger. Yesterday I decided I wanted to see if I could get the dome supervision working since I never hooked it up.

I'm completely stumped on this one as I spent about 3 hours trying to get it work with no avail..

According to my Avital 2101 manual:

H1/3 BLACK/WHITE-1 Domelight Supervision Input
This wire determines what the output polarity of H1/4 will be. If the door pin circuit is negative,
connect to chassis ground. If the door circuit is positive, connect to a fused 12V source.

H1/4 BLACK/WHITE Domelight Supervision Output
Connect this wire directly to the domelight circuit in the vehicle. The on-board relay will drive
circuits up to 30 amperes. The polarity of this output is determined by the connection of the input
wire H1/3 in the Relay Harness.

Now I know my ford ranger uses negative for the door wires. From research I fond the following information:
It's a yellow/black wire behind the dash. On the dome light itself in my single cab there is a 12v constant, ground (which is a screw into the chasis) and a blue/red wire. The dome light circuit is the blue/red wire.

According to the avital it can support 30amp which should be fine since all lights in the cabin are LED.

I tried hooking up the H1/3 wire of the avital to chasis ground then tried the H1/4 wire to the dome light's blue/red wire. Hit unlock and the dome lights didn't come on. But I also read on my ranger forum that the blue/red wire actually as 12 volts going to it and it's only triggered when the ground is activated?

I then tried a 4 pin relay. I could hear the relay click but couldn't get the lights to work.

Normally I'd say screw it since it's not a huge feature but it bothers me that I can't get this working.

I do know that my 2001 Ford Ranger has a battery saver relay. So I have read on here that could also play a part in it. IE: All power gets shut down after 10-15 minutes or so until you put the keys in the ignition to rest.

How hard is this to actually do? I'm at a loss honestly because I just don't know what to do. Seems simple enough honestly that the avital is only 2 wires, one in and one out for the dome light so that's what is driving me nuts. I also tried the black/yellow wire behind the dash that in the above says it's the dome supervision. Then did the output wire to the blue/red wire but again, nothing happened when I unlocked the truck as far as interior lights coming on.
My Ford ranger has no power anything other than the avital 2101 I installed a couple years ago with only the driver/passenger door locks which lock/unlock via the remote. No other buttons are inside to do so. No power windows..etc.

Thanks,
-Nigel

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~NSG~

I made an error: For some reason I can't edit original post.

The blue/red wire above for the dome is actually Blue/Black. Completely typo on my part. That is the wire I meant to say and that is in fact the wire I used.

Thanks,
-Nigel

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~NSG~

Connect H4 to a + fused source, worth a try. Forget relays.


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Amateurs assume, don't test and have problems; pros test first. I am not a free install service.
Read the installation manual, do a search here or online for your vehicle wiring before posting.

I'm curious how this goes as well as that's also the only part of my 2101 I haven't hooked up.

Have you tried putting a multimeter on that blue/black line to see what it's actually doing when you open the door? Might be that you have to flip the polarity of H3 (to a + fused source as Howie says)...?

I will have to probe over the weekend again I guess. When taking a multimeter to the wire what should I have it on to read? Just normal voltage or am I checking to see if it's +/ground...etc.

I believe I tried every combo possible and at one point blew out a fuse. You'd think for only being two wires this would be super simple to hook up. Amazing that it's not honestly.

-Nigel

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~NSG~

The big rookie problem. Using a meter without knowing what to look for.
Use a 12Volt incandescent bulb test light, quicker.
2 or 3 Wires at dome light.
Clip to 12V+.
One will be a constant ground, ignition on/off, doors open/closed etc.
IGNORE.
Clip to ground.
One will be a constant 12V+ OR be open circuit and go to 12V+ when the door is opened.
If it's the second case, that's the one. And it's POS (+)
Clip to 12V+
Maybe third wire, if this goes to ground on door opening then this is the one and it's NEG (-)



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Amateurs assume, don't test and have problems; pros test first. I am not a free install service.
Read the installation manual, do a search here or online for your vehicle wiring before posting.

I'm new to car electronics (embedded/avionics systems background) so I'll defer to Howie on how to test the lines.

I'm still very curious to hear how it goes. I may try this on my truck this weekend, although I doubt that's gonna help you since it sounds like a vehicle specific issue. I did google around a bit with your vehicle type and got this:

door wiring

This makes it sound like you actually should be wiring up to the yellow/black door ajar wire and let the GEM handle turning on the dome light (maybe it's actually a digital line) ?

p.s. To clarify what I mean: hook H3 to chassis ground, H4 to yellow/black

ThenZero. I think you're spot on! That output should also be tested. i.e. set meter to ohms or continuity join H3 to H4.
Activate and meter should go from open circuit to 0 ohms or buzz.


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Amateurs assume, don't test and have problems; pros test first. I am not a free install service.
Read the installation manual, do a search here or online for your vehicle wiring before posting.

On a 2003 Ford, the blu/blk is +12V with the dome lights ON. Connect one of the wires to the blk/blu, and the other to B+ hot at all times.

Awesome! Thanks everyone for all the help especially probing. I should be able to do this Friday/Saturday weather pending.

Will update once I test everything get it going.

Thanks,
-NIgel

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~NSG~

Wanted to updated.

Took a test probe 12v light and did the following. Clipped it to ground then touched the far left wire on the dome. It was 12v positive. I believe this is for the map lights. Then touched the blue/black wire. Nothing light up until I opened the door. Once I shut the door the light turned off. I'm going to do what Dave suggested and test it out this weekend if it's not rainy and cold by hooking up the h3 wire to 12v constant and then the h4 wire to the blue/black wire. Hoping that works. :-) Will update either or and or problems/trouble shooting that needs to be done.

-Nigel

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~NSG~

That's what I told you to do! Anyway that should do it.

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Amateurs assume, don't test and have problems; pros test first. I am not a free install service.
Read the installation manual, do a search here or online for your vehicle wiring before posting.

Yay it worked!! W00t w00t.

Howie, I got confused when you first posted because you said connect h4 to a fused 12v source instead of the h3. Now looking back I know what you meant..lol

I tapped off the aux connector since I don't use that and it's constant 12v. Then just attached H4 to the dome light blue/black wire. Works perfectly! I click unlock and it turns on the dome light for 30 seconds. It was also set by default that when you turn off the ignition the dome light would kick on but I turned that feature off since I don't necessarily need the dome light to come on if I turn the keys off.

Thanks for all the help again!! Now it's great! Everything is as it should. If I knew how simple this was I would have hooked it up when I did the locks a couple years back..lol

I'm going to post on my ranger forum since everyone was saying connect it to this or that without really any explanation.


-Nigel

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~NSG~

Cool! Glad you got it working. Thanks for following up, guess I'll give this a shot this weekend.

Another update.

I did the above during the day outside. About an hour ago I went to go out to go to Lowes, when I unlocked the truck my rear cargo light was on. I hadn't noticed or even thought to check this during the day since I was inside the cabin. It's kinda neat actually. Pretty much what new vehicles do when they illuminate outside lighting when you unlock.

Just to double check, I locked/unlocked the truck multiple times and every time the rear cargo light came on along with the interior cabin lights. Both would stay on for 30 seconds. I do have a switch on the inside of the truck that I can roll up and it will illuminate the interior/cargo light at the same time so I'm guessing this is all fine.

When I open the door the rear cargo light shuts off. At first I wasn't sure if I liked it but honestly it's kinda nice when it's dark out that there is light coming from the rear of the truck.

I'm not sure on the newer rangers since they don't have a cargo light on the rear 3rd brake light.

-Nigel

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~NSG~