AMP Powerstep and possible remote operation if I can find a reverse ground signal

[Timmy]

Hi Timmy, I have a 2013 Rubicon and had a shop do my install today per your write up, which was very clearly written- thank you. However here is the problem. The dome light coming on does send my steps down, as well as just using the door to drop them. However, the steps will not go back up again unless I manually turn the dome light switch off. Otherwise they stay down and I get a message on my cluster that says "doors ajar" and "vehicle not in park". Once I manually turn the dome light off (which actually stays on unless I do so) everything goes back to normal. When I exit the vehicle the dome light comes on, steps drop, and if I leave for a while the dome light goes off and the steps are still down. Any ideas?

Thank you I advance!

Kevin

Hmmm, very interesting. In my particular situation, I did not wire my the steps to the door and the dome light at the same time. I only offered a solution that you could do this in conjunction with a manual switch to chose which you'd like to use for your signalling, either the door OR the dome lights, but not both at the same time.

Without seeing your setup firsthand... My gut reaction would be to tell you that you need to disconnect whatever wiring you have hooked up to the door wiring entirely. ONLY hook up to the dome lights. Once you have the system working with JUST the dome lights, then you can come back and try to get fancy by putting in a switch to toggle between the door or the dome for signaling (or neutral "off".)

Nothing about this procedure should cause the dome lights to stay on. The only way the dome lights are being used is to pull a tiny little draw off the hot wire of the dome lights to power the relay switch, which in turn grounds the signaling wire on the opposite poles for the Amp steps.

If you'd like, first disconnect your door wiring from the setup entirely and if still doesn't work as desire. If not snap a pic of your relay and get it over to me which will help me better understand your wiring.

FWIW... I have two relays, one for each step. I did this because I basically was replicating the existing setup where each step was grabbing it's signaling from each door independently. If I was to do it all again, I'd go with just a single relay switch that is then connected up to wiring for both steps at the same time. That way both steps are receiving the exact same grounding signal at the exact same time. Right now, one relay switch is just a HAIR faster than the other, so my steps deploy and retract at slightly different times. Now mind you, when I say a HAIR faster, I am literally talking maybe a 1/4 second at best. It's enough to bug me, but not enough to cause me to go re-wire it using a single relay (which honestly, would take, ohh, um... 10 minutes to toss a wire from say the drivers side to the passenger side?)

Also, another FWIW... I run my system off my dome lights exclusively. I originally thought I would switch back to using the door signaling when I put the doors on but I don't because it's not worth it. The OEM Amp solution allows the steps to deploy/retract independently of each other, and they don't retract when you open up the rear tail gate. In my solution, both steps retract all the time, no matter what door is open, and even if I unlock the vehicle while walking up to it. Big whoop, that tiny difference in how they operate was just not worth alternating between the two different signals based on when I have the doors on and off.

[BigKevSeattle]

Thanks man. Yeah they probably do have it wired to both the dome light and the door switch. I thought that may be the problem. I did verify he wired it like you mentioned to both relays. I'll let you know what happens. Thanks for the quick reply.

Kevin

[BigKevSeattle]

Hmmm, very interesting. In my particular situation, I did not wire my the steps to the door and the dome light at the same time. I only offered a solution that you could do this in conjunction with a manual switch to chose which you'd like to use for your signalling, either the door OR the dome lights, but not both at the same time.

Without seeing your setup firsthand... My gut reaction would be to tell you that you need to disconnect whatever wiring you have hooked up to the door wiring entirely. ONLY hook up to the dome lights. Once you have the system working with JUST the dome lights, then you can come back and try to get fancy by putting in a switch to toggle between the door or the dome for signaling (or neutral "off".)

Nothing about this procedure should cause the dome lights to stay on. The only way the dome lights are being used is to pull a tiny little draw off the hot wire of the dome lights to power the relay switch, which in turn grounds the signaling wire on the opposite poles for the Amp steps.

If you'd like, first disconnect your door wiring from the setup entirely and if still doesn't work as desire. If not snap a pic of your relay and get it over to me which will help me better understand your wiring.

FWIW... I have two relays, one for each step. I did this because I basically was replicating the existing setup where each step was grabbing it's signaling from each door independently. If I was to do it all again, I'd go with just a single relay switch that is then connected up to wiring for both steps at the same time. That way both steps are receiving the exact same grounding signal at the exact same time. Right now, one relay switch is just a HAIR faster than the other, so my steps deploy and retract at slightly different times. Now mind you, when I say a HAIR faster, I am literally talking maybe a 1/4 second at best. It's enough to bug me, but not enough to cause me to go re-wire it using a single relay (which honestly, would take, ohh, um... 10 minutes to toss a wire from say the drivers side to the passenger side?)

Also, another FWIW... I run my system off my dome lights exclusively. I originally thought I would switch back to using the door signaling when I put the doors on but I don't because it's not worth it. The OEM Amp solution allows the steps to deploy/retract independently of each other, and they don't retract when you open up the rear tail gate. In my solution, both steps retract all the time, no matter what door is open, and even if I unlock the vehicle while walking up to it. Big whoop, that tiny difference in how they operate was just not worth alternating between the two different signals based on when I have the doors on and off.

Timmy- one question. When you disconnect the door harness and remove the doors- the dome lights don't work- so how will they power the steps? I just unplugged the door harnesses and tried it. Nothing. Could this be due to them wiring to the door switch and the dome light circuit simultaneously?

[Timmy]

Timmy- one question. When you disconnect the door harness and remove the doors- the dome lights don't work- so how will they power the steps? I just unplugged the door harnesses and tried it. Nothing. Could this be due to them wiring to the door switch and the dome light circuit simultaneously?

What you are describing is not my experience. My dome lights still work even with the doors off. When I press the unlock button on my key fob, the dome lights come on with all the doors off. When I turn the toggle switch on my light stalk to turn on the interior lights, my dome lights come on, and then when I turn the switch off, my dome lights go off. When I open my rear tailgate, my lights go on and when I close the rear tailgate, the lights go off after a certain amount of time.

It is possible that if they wired the door signalling in with the dome lights to the same relay, that it might have really foobar'd something. Who knows, maybe it actually blew a fuse?

Seattle eh? I was over there with my Jeep just a few months ago. Do you ever make it over to Spokane?

I see you sent me PM. If you'd like, I can send you my email address via PM, though I suspect this discussion is worth having posted publicly to help others.

[BigKevSeattle]

I'm working with some contractors from Spokane right now. Carpita Construction. I'll pm you my number. Give me a call sometime

[Timmy]

I'm working with some contractors from Spokane right now. Carpita Construction. I'll pm you my number. Give me a call sometime

Cool! Sadly the east side of the state is a little limited on trails, but I'd be happy to take you where I can when you are here. We did a Black-Friday Jeep trip to a local area just after Thanksgiving, but man, the DNR put four Kelly humps in the path so we had to find an alternative route, which turned into following an ATV route to get around it all. To say my Jeep got scraped up would be an understatement. I really hate when the states block off access to our parks from off-road vehicles!