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

[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!

[BigKevSeattle]

So I would basically need to buy a switch that is On / Off/ On?

Diodes? That's crazy.. Just follow my original instructions for linking your AMP steps to your dome light using a $15 relay from the store. Once you have done that, you are basically there. Then you have my instructions for dome light, their instructions for using the door signaling. Last step, toss a switch between the two options to chose which signaling you want to use, they both do the same thing just at different times.

Also, linking to your door lock won't work because door lock is momentary. You need something that provides constant negative grounding. The dome light provides constant 12v positive, that's why we use a relay switch. It receives that 12v positive signal and charges an internal magnet that in turn close the gate leading to a ground signal thereby providing constant negative grounding the entire time the gate is closed (aka the entire time the dome light is on.) One REALLY fun thing with this solution (for when the doors are off) is that magnet goes bonkers when the dome lights "dim" down, so it gives this little buzzing sound that warns you that the steps are about to retract. Once it's done buzzing, you have 2 seconds to either hop in or press the unlock button on your key fob to give yourself "bonus time."

Here, I whipped up a pretty Visio diagram to explain it better. You could get fancy and go with a three position switch instead of the two position switch I described here. Then you could set it so position 1 leads to the door solution, position 2 goes to nothing and position 3 goes to the dome light solution. By doing that, you'll get a way to deactivate the AMP steps from retracting entirely by putting it into position 2 (basically neutral because you never connect a grounding wire to one of position two's leads.)

Attachment 1647

[Timmy]

So I would basically need to buy a switch that is On / Off/ On?

If you are looking to control where you signaling comes from, the yes, just a simple switch to change your grounding source. You don't need a switch if you don't want it. It doesn't have to be a three position, it could be just a two position. I just tossed out the idea of a three position because then you can effectively turn "off" the signaling all together, say if you were off-roading and you didn't want your steps to ever retract.

[BigKevSeattle]

So , switch aside, I took it to another shop today to get them to work off the dome light. They couldn't get it to work either. Printed out your step by step instructions and they still had the same problem. Steps would go down with dome light and then wouldn't go back up unless you manually turn off the dome light with the tree.

[Timmy]

So , switch aside, I took it to another shop today to get them to work off the dome light. They couldn't get it to work either. Printed out your step by step instructions and they still had the same problem. Steps would go down with dome light and then wouldn't go back up unless you manually turn off the dome light with the tree.

If you can take pics and post them here, I can probably help more. It's hard to help without seeing pictures of what was done.

You mention the steps would go up if you manually turned off the lights with switch on the turn signal stalk. So when the dome lights go off on their own, after a bit of time, the steps don't go up? That is odd, odd, odd. What is different with the lights turning off on their own versus turning off via the manual switch? I just can't see a difference. I mean, the lights either have power to them, or they don't! How can cutting the power to the lights via the switch produce a different result than the lights losing power due to the timer turning them off?

Anyway, get me a picture of the relay switch they put in, as best as you can given it will probably be in tight quarters. I'd say post it here in the forums versus sending it to me in a private message as obviously the more we can publish for all to see, the more others can be helped out by this.

[Timmy]

So , switch aside, I took it to another shop today to get them to work off the dome light. They couldn't get it to work either. Printed out your step by step instructions and they still had the same problem. Steps would go down with dome light and then wouldn't go back up unless you manually turn off the dome light with the tree.

You know, in looking back, I see I don't have a diagram of what the relay switch would look like without the switch in place. Obviously getting this working without the switch is primary, so maybe if I whip up a diagram of what that would look like so you can get that working first, then the adding a switch later would be easier. Let me see what I can put together.

[Timmy]

Okay, here's a little diagram. Now, a WARNING!!! I'm creating this from memory, so I may not have the correct wires on the correct posts of the relay switch, but this should get your installers close. I was able to figure this out with nothing but a $5 circuit tester that I would either ground or attach to a positive signal and then touch various parts of the relay as I had the relay hooked up to the ground or amp signaling wire. The point is, any installer worth their salt should be able to look at this, grab a relay, grab a circuit tester and figure it out if what I have drawn up here is not 100% accurate, because the idea itself is so damn simple it's retarded. You have a relay that receives a signal, the relay in turn activates an internal switch that completes the circuit on the opposing posts. When you complete the circuit on the opposing posts, you complete it to a source and destination that you want paired together, (say a signaling wire to a ground, as in our example here, though it could have been external lights positive wire to a 30amp positive feed from the battery so the lights turn on.)

Hope this helps, and as I said before, send me pics of your relay switch and I'll try to help out more.