For those that have looked and been annoyed by the data bus in the 06 vette controlling the illumination on the stock head unit I found a "normal" ILL feed nearby.

I'll guess this is also the case on the other year C6's.

It is in the traction control button.

3 wires in the button. One switches from 0v and sends variable + voltage with the lights. Voltage varies with the level of the dash lighting. It's in the range of 5-10v.

I used this feed with Ducati's circuit and the Z1 works like it should. I never hooked this ILL feed directly to the Z1 so I don't know if it is good enough to use without Ducati's circuit. I think his sends 12v when it senses any reasonable level of voltage.

I'm not sure what the Z1 will take for an ILL wire, but yes, mine works on lower voltages, pulsed voltages or just 12v all the time. Should interface with most ILL or Dimmer wires out there.

One other question, when you had the Center console off, did you notice another 3 pin connector just "hanging out" in the same area? If so, this is the connector to the F55 selective ride control switch. It also has a ILL wire, just not sure if it's the same as the tracktion control or not.

Cheers
Jay

crease-guard said:

One other question, when you had the Center console off, did you notice another 3 pin connector just "hanging out" in the same area? If so, this is the connector to the F55 selective ride control switch. It also has a ILL wire, just not sure if it's the same as the tracktion control or not.

Cheers
Jay

I didn't have that connector or I missed it. Maybe GM actually has a different wiring harness for F55 equiped cars??? I recall a few connectors, all were used.
12V power port
traction control
solanoid for auto trans lockout
lighting for auto trans shifter <-- didn't work, was also ground modulated.

I hope I would have seen an open connector. I was testing everything :lol: for ILL power.

Well, the traction control button is good enough, now I don't have to hunt for it, thanks :lol:

Jay

So if I understand you correctly Pulp, what you are saying is...if the power source you are considering using for the ILL on your Z! dims with your dimmer, you CANNOT use that because the circuit is ground modulated. You therefore have to find a light source to use that comes on with the lights, but does not dim with the dimmer control. Does that sound right?

03Aviator said:

So if I understand you correctly Pulp, what you are saying is...if the power source you are considering using for the ILL on your Z! dims with your dimmer, you CANNOT use that because the circuit is ground modulated. You therefore have to find a light source to use that comes on with the lights, but does not dim with the dimmer control. Does that sound right?

Sort of, if you use my circuit in between your vehicle and the Z1 then you should be able to use the modulated dimmer wire. If you are hooking it directly to the Z1 I don't know if that would work or not.

And just because you've already done all the hard work, which wire is is?

Jay

03Aviator said:

So if I understand you correctly Pulp, what you are saying is...if the power source you are considering using for the ILL on your Z! dims with your dimmer, you CANNOT use that because the circuit is ground modulated. You therefore have to find a light source to use that comes on with the lights, but does not dim with the dimmer control. Does that sound right?

Although Ducati is correct in answering your question let me clarify what I was trying to get across.

In my 06 vette most of the dash lights have +12v at all times and the way the lighting is activated by the dimmer switch is by activating the ground part of the circuit. Yes it modulates the amount of ground it gives to the dash lights to dim vs. full bright.

Most cars do this same thing but in reverse. Everything has a ground and the +12v is modulated.

The Z1 was designed to work with a +12v source to detect when the lights are on. I don't know if the Z1 dim from only a +7v source (normal voltage level in a lighting circuit when the dash is slightly dimmed). This is where Ducati's flasher helps. His can detect the lower voltage and will send the +12v to the Z1. Nice bonus just in case +7v was not enough (assuming I understand his flasher from his previous posts).

In the case of the traction control button (this is the vette specific info) it does NOT work the same way. It has only 3 wires and one of them operates "normally". When you turn on the lights you get +5v - +10v approx. when the lights are on. I didn't photo the switch but I think I can diagram it.

Looking at the part of the plug where the wires go in it is this wire:


XX LL
EE XX


Where XX = a wire
EE = Empty hole in plug
LL = lighting circuit that worked.

Basically the wire opposite the empty socket.

You can test this with a multimeter, that's how I found it.

I'll double check it at lunch today since I can see this plug by looking through the cover where the F55 option controls would be.

Thanks. Did you ever get a change to loof for the F55 connector? Reason I ask is that I purchased one of the rotary toggles switches that go into that little hole for the F55 option. I want to use it to toggle the butterfly valves in my Z06, but I poped it apart and it looks like it toggles the lighting instead so I'm not sure how the lighting in these cars works as I would like to back light the switch AND toggle the butterflies but they seem to be connected somehow and I'm not sure what's going on electrically

Jay