ModLight2

Description

modLight2 is our modLight module for BMW E38/E39/E53 and Range Rover L322 It is a module that adds many nice features to your car. Many of these features are impossible to just be coded, so they can only be provided by an additional module.

Features

• Welcome lights (lights on unlocking of the car)
• Goodbye lights (lights on locking of the car)
• Follow me home lights (lights on long press of the lock button of the remote controller of your OEM key)
• Double press lock lights (this function is available only on 98+ cars or cars 98+ GM3 general module)
• Triple blinker (comfort turn signals)
• Cornering lights when activate turn signals (fog lamp turn on when activate turn signal)
• Side mirrors folding by the key remote (on lock/on longpress lock/on second press of the lock button)
• Side mirrors unfolding by the key remote (on unlock)
• Welcome message on HIGH IKE screen (on POS1 of the key/on POS2 (ign). List of available welcome messages
• Webasto aux. heater activation by the key remote (on long press. of the lock button/on second press. of the lock button)
• Ventillation activation by the key remote (on long press. of the lock button/on second press. of the lock button)
• Automatic unlock when turn off the engine
• Lights show (modLight light cycles). Lights cycles available

How to install

Instructions manual PDF: modLight2 manual
How to install modLight2 into your car?
You have to properly connect modLight2 to your car's wiring harness.
ModLight2 has 3-pin connector with BROWN, RED and YELLOW wires.
It's highly recommended to use multimeter to pre-check and confirm the power sources of your car's wire harness where you plan to connect modLight2 to.

• The BROWN wire must be connected to GND (ground) of your car's wire harness, which is usually a brown, brown-white or brown-black wire.
• The RED wire must be connected to 12V (permanent) power source from your car's wire harness, which is usually red-green, red-blue or red-white wire.
• The YELLOW wire must be connected to IBUS source (IBUS wire) from your car's wire harness, which is always a white wire with gray stripe and yellow dots.

Please don't use fast wire or T-wire connectors, they will only turn you into issues if you are not sure how to use. The best connection method is splicing (cut 1cm isolation of your car's wire, then splice modLight2's wire there, then isolate). No need of soldering, no need of anything special. ModLight2 consums only 12-20mA of current.
Every E38/E39/E53 and Range Rover L322 has all 3 wires needed inside the trunk, near to the left tail lights.

• On cars, equipped with OEM navigation or CD changer or DSP amplifier, you can find the 3 wires that modLight2 needs inside the wire harness of descibed modules.
• On cars, not equipped with OEM navi, CD changer or DSP, there is always a connector on the internal side of the rear left fender, who has 12V and IBUS wires. In this case, you can use GROUND wire from the left tail light connector or any other ground source nearby.

Troubleshooting

* I already installed my modLight2, but it doesn't work. What to do?

Do the LEDs blink when you are pressing the buttons of modLight2?
- If no, there is no power supply or there is an internal defect in the module. Please measure the voltage (on the white connector of modLight2) between the RED and the BROWN wires. If there is 12V voltage, then there is an internal problem inside the module. Short circuit or any wrong way of connection may break the module and it won't start until properly repair. We have no problem with that and we will not charge our customers if repair is needed, even if the issue is caused by a wrong installation. You only have to send the broken module back to us and we will repair it, then we will return it back to you without any troubles.
- If yes, then the module successfully turns on. The best way to check if "no functions is working" is to enable comfort turn signals, then press the turn signals stalk once and check if modLight2 adds turn signals blinks or not. If it doesn't add blinks to your turn signal, then there is no IBUS source connected to modLight2. There are 2 easy ways to check the IBUS source:

1. Read IBUS communication using IBUS Interface + Navcoder (Windows application). It will immediately show you the IBUS telegrams which the modules are sending to each other. If there are no telegrams, so there is no proper working IBUS on the wire you have your modLight connected to.
2. Measure the voltage between the YELLOW and the BROWN wires of modLight2. If there is proper working IBUS on the yellow wire, the voltage should be around 12V and will float (drops) for a part of the second when there is IBUS activity (you can force IBUS activity by clicking buttons of your key remote or open/close a door).

- If the voltage is 12V and drops when activity, then it seems OK. If the voltage doesn't drop from 12 to 9-10V, but stays stuck on 12V, then there is probably your IBUS source has short circuit to positive.
- If the voltage is not around 12V, but under 10V while there is no activity, then probably there is short circuit to ground or bad connection.

* My folding mirrors stopped folding in by the key remote, but they are still successfully fold-in by the button on the driver's door. What to do?

Do you have IBUS-APP installed into your car? - If yes, then that's the problem. The only one function of modLight2 destroyed by IBUS-APP is "mirrors folding in by the remote".
There is a safety function created and added by BMW in try to avoid mirror's motors damaging. This function activates itself when it detects a problem inside the motors of the side mirrors or when it detects too many "fold-in the side mirrors" diagnostic commands. Everytime you make your modLight2 to fold-in your side mirrors, it sends 4 diagnostic commands to the GM module of your car. Two commands are "GM, tell the door module to fold the left mirror in" and the other two IBUS commands are "GM, tell the door module to fold the right mirror in".
So if you asked modLight to fold-in the mirrors too many times in short time interval, the door module stores an internal error and stops listening for diagnostic commands, because it decides that something is not OK and it's not safe to listen anymore. - If no, then maybe you pressed the lock (or long press of the lock or wherever you have your mirrors folding funtion) too many times for short interval of time. Now you have to unplug the positive terminal of your car's battery to get the IBUS, KBUS and PBUS communication restarted.
If you unplug it just for 1 second, it will be perfect, because the communication will restart, but you won't lose any settings (clock, radio stations stored etc.).