Retrofit Ambient Light on Dashboard for MK7 Golf R

[madwazzabi]

@madwazzabi is your car pre-facelift? If so you need to look into the leuchte channels in BCM adaptation. You'll want to do some searching for googling for "BCM leuchte," and read up. But part of The various channel names corresponds to the plug and pin of the BCM.

Most of the channels will be assigned already for your existing external lights but there will be some unused channels. They will not have anything assigned for their light function. They may or may not have their other fields populated, max brightness, when they come on, bulb type etc. since all that is ignored for unused channels.

You can pick an unused channel and wire into it or tie into an existing channel. You can't give the channels custom names. I've never seen a slider for rear doors, for example. But, for example, there is a channel for panoramic roof ambient lighting. You could assign that function to a spare pin and wire it to your rear door lighting. That slider would then control those lights.

If your car is facelift things are somewhat more complicated, and I can't help you, lol.

Mine is pre-facelift.

To my understanding from Mr-Fix tutorials, you can program to add the sliders and he had successfully tied LEDs to sliders associated to instrument lighting for cubby and cup holder lights but that channel is still only tied to headlight/parking light.

My worry about using one of the leuchte channels is that, from scanning my OBD11, I don't see a "Lasttype" associated to ambient lighting so no amount of programming will get me what I wish to achieve.

 

[madwazzabi]

I doubt you ever will on a Mk7 or MK7.5 Golf as the rear doors are piggy backed of the front door controllers...so if the front door is set to max power the rear door will be the same...

Now on the Audi MQB they have separate rear door controllers...so it is possible..

People mentioning Audis when the Golf is wired differently just confuses matters.

I believe getting the rear slider might be possible, getting the rear slider to control anything is the hard part. This might be a question for DV52 but do door controllers and/or BCM able to have their output custom programmed to any available function found in the MQB platform? Or is it fixed selection based on the equipment? (eg. Rear door controller is programmed based on firmware and is recognized as such on the canbus network, therefore if you had a rear door controller you'd see it on Vagcom/OBD11 with rear ambient lighting setting, adding the rear ambient light slider to the infotainment system is simply linking pre-programmed control units together) If so, then game over, I'd never buy rear door controllers just to get rear ambient lighting controls.

But if the BCM can be programmed to control the ambient lighting channel then a solution may exist.

The next short cut I'm thinking is splicing the footwell light circuit to feed the rear door ambient lights.

 

[madwazzabi]

I doubt you ever will on a Mk7 or MK7.5 Golf as the rear doors are piggy backed of the front door controllers...so if the front door is set to max power the rear door will be the same...

Now on the Audi MQB they have separate rear door controllers...so it is possible..

People mentioning Audis when the Golf is wired differently just confuses matters.

I forgot to add, I don't really NEED to have the rear separately controlled. I'm fine with tapping off the existing ambient lighting circuit in the front door controllers. The issue is that if getting wires to the TTH# door connector is a PITA then having to do it to the TTV# connector is just asking for more suffering to tie into the ambient lighting circuit. Finding an alternate that keeps as much of the original functionality would be best. Either from seeing if the BCM can be coded to make a spare output associated to ambient lighting, or tap a circuit not in the door that has the same functions as the ambient lighting (eg. the footwell lights) although the latter would compromise on individual controllability.

 

[madwazzabi]

At least in my car my ambient lights only turn on with the headlights.

I'm going to guess it would be because your car originally didn't have auto headlight? Mine has auto headlights, and when the daylight sensor determines it is dark, things like the folding mirror puddle lights, ambient lighting, footwell lights would turn on when you unlock and/or open the door. Quite a nice feel when you enter your car.

 

[xabhax]

I'm going to guess it would be because your car originally didn't have auto headlight? Mine has auto headlights, and when the daylight sensor determines it is dark, things like the folding mirror puddle lights, ambient lighting, footwell lights would turn on when you unlock and/or open the door. Quite a nice feel when you enter your car.

Ya, but puddle lights and footwell lights come on when unlocking, just not the door straps. Those only when lights are on.

 

[Cuzoe]

I would actually be less worried about getting a given slider working than with getting a "rear door" slider at all. I'm specifically talking about rear door for the reason that @golfdave mentioned. Because there are no control modules back there it's not likely there is any menu option named "rear door" to enable.

My understanding is that there's no way to name any of the sliders, but you can choose what they control, within certain limits of course.

So with regard to one of your questions... Based on what I have seen in the adaptations of my BCM you should be able to assign at least four, but I think five, ambient light channels. From translating the German in the channels I found that would be footwell, doors, cockpit/front (used for cup holders on Audi MQB, maybe storage area too), and overhead/pano roof. I can't remember if those last two were combined or not, that's why I say four maybe five

Anyway, I need to get in my car and select the drop-downs from my unassigned BCM pins to confirm which of those are actually addressable to a BCM pin. @mr-fix talks about these in a thread over on RossTech where he's done lots of investigation/testing. As an example it seems that the door slider may only able to control output from the door control modules... Which is why there is not a separate front and rear door slider, no rear door module on a Golf. Similarly, he supposes the roof slider is actually controlling LIN bus output to the roof module, which then controls the lighting.

He does suspect that there are two groups (Ambient Light 3 and 4) that should be assignable to BCM pins, which allow for the dual color (red/white) LEDs on some (non US) cars to change. Red when driving mode is selected to sport, white at all other times. I'm keen to agree with this theory. My suspicion would be that the LEDs in these cars are actually tricolor but the BCM never applies voltage to both anodes so you never see the combined (third) color.

Inability to select a Lasttype for a given selection would suggest that slider/group is not directly tied to the BCM but instead to one of the modules (door, roof). No need for Lasttype where the only thing that would ever be connected is an LED. But something with direct BCM control like footwells needs to have Lasttype selection.

When I get the time I very much planning to dig into what's possible with regard to ambient lighting on pre-facelift cars. Tangentially related to your questions there are options in our BCM for color selection by driving profile and color selector via the MIB. There are also 15 unassigned LIN bus channels (makes sense for the typical 16 total, BCM master and up to 15 slave modules). I don't know how or where these channels would be connected. I need to subscribe to Erwin and pull some ROW facelift car drawings. Our pre-facelift BCMs also lack the color list adaptations, but I'm not yet worried about that.

 

[mr-fix]

My suspicion would be that the LEDs in these cars are actually tricolor but the BCM never applies voltage to both anodes so you never see the combined (third) color.

I believe those are bi-color. EU door cards for standard and GTI golfs are using the same ambient light element but depending on the power polarity you will get white or red light. Here's a demo:

Some sliders control CAN-BUS devices (door modules), some LIN-BUS devices (roof light), some sliders control BCM pins directly (ambientlicht2 for cupholder lights).
Here's a demo: I'v changed adaptation of my DRL LEDs to use the broghtness passed from the ambientlicht2 slider:

This way I can control DRL brightness from the infotainment screen.

 

[Cuzoe]

I believe those are bi-color. EU door cards for standard and GTI golfs are using the same ambient light element but depending on the power polarity you will get white or red light.

Ahhh I see, only two wires on the LED. So our BCM is capable of alternately providing power/ground on the same pin. Awesomeness.

Some sliders control CAN-BUS devices (door modules), some LIN-BUS devices (roof light), some sliders control BCM pins directly (ambientlicht2 for cupholder lights).
Here's a demo: I've changed adaptation of my DRL LEDs to use the broghtness passed from the ambientlicht2 slider... This way I can control DRL brightness from the infotainment screen.

Yea I've been "studying" that thread. Nice work there. I wish VAG would "leak" a document with all the capabilities and system design/theory for the BCM, haha.

 

[madwazzabi]

This is very helpful information. I wouldn't care if the slider wasn't called rear door ambient, I'd very much be content just having a slider, whatever spare BCM output that my trim never came with originally, to control the rear door ambient. Two sliders if possible to do the dash above the glove box too.

Now I'm wondering how the programming works, is it just a black box as long as it knows what components it has? For cars with no auto lighting, I found it interesting that the door card ambient light and footwell lights have divergent programming depending on if daylight sensor is available or not. (footwell turns on when unlocking doors, opening door(?), and with headlight/parking light system while ambient is only with headlight/parking light system. While with daylight sensor, footwell and door card ambient lighting have the same behaviour, turns on when doors are opened along with headlight/parking light system.)

I'm hoping that the cup holder, pano light and front/rear background light will also have the same program as the footwell/ambient when daylight sensor is available.

I kindly ask if links to the threads in the rosstech forum along with any tutorial threads that had added wiring to the BCM could be added for my convenience. Please and thanks.

 

[golfdave]

Right I've done alot of digging in the ERWIN books I have & looked at the PDF drawing I have for the door controllers (DV52 gave to me).

The Germans call it "Ambientebeleuchtung" (for the door light strip)

Only marked for the T32pin connector on the highline door controller Pin 8

However ERWIN also shows that the light behind the door handle is attached to pin3, on the T32 connector which is marked as "TIGL (Tuerinnengriffbeleuchtung)"

So you will have to piggy back any rear door wiring from the front door controller..

 

[madwazzabi]

Right I've done alot of digging in the ERWIN books I have & looked at the PDF drawing I have for the door controllers (DV52 gave to me).

The Germans call it "Ambientebeleuchtung" (for the door light strip)

Only marked for the T32pin connector on the highline door controller Pin 8

However ERWIN also shows that the light behind the door handle is attached to pin3, on the T32 connector which is marked as "TIGL (Tuerinnengriffbeleuchtung)"

So you will have to piggy back any rear door wiring from the front door controller..

@golfdave Yes, this is how I understood this and the most ideal configuration.
- splice Ambientebeleuchtung output of each front door controller, run the pair of wiring to the TTV# door connectors, from the sill, splice again and run to dash above glovebox and run a pair to the rear door TTH# connector, then run the pair from the TTH# to the newly added light strip on the rear door.

This is the base retrofit idea, but the "hardest" install as it requires fishing wiring to the TTV# connectors and TTH# connectors that so far I've read is not easy. All the other alternatives being discussed is to avoid fishing the wiring to half the door connectors...

Option #1 - rear door controllers, the idea is if they were cost effective, would rear door controllers be recognized under the mk7 platform with some tweaks to adaptations or would the car need to be recognized as an Audi A3 (controllers, software, etc.) before it would actually recognize it? if the latter, then I agree, no way this is feasible. But, mention of cup holder ambient lighting being an Audi function and was able to be activated by Mr-Fix for use on his Golf, sounds like we very well could add rear door controllers, and that this solution is simply just not economical.

Option #2 - Use a spare BCM output that isn't used in our trim level. eg. cup holder and just run a pair of wires from the BCM in the front to the dash above glovebox and to the rear door TTH# connectors and make these ambient lights associated to the cup holder channel. I don't mind that it isn't properly labelled ambient lighting in the options screen, but if it functions all the same as the ambient lighting and footwell lighting that came stock with my GTI, I'm happy as this is all that I want to achieve.

Option #3 - Splice from the footwell lights for dash above glovebox light and rear door card ambient lighting. This is probably the easiest cheap and cheerful option but dimming is tied to the footwell lighting. if you run door cards and foot well at the same levels all the time (eg. 100% all) then this is not an issue. I replaced my footwell lamps with brighter ones from Aliexpress so I actually do run different brightness between the footwell and door cards so this too has some compromises.

 

[Cuzoe]

@madwazzabi it might be helpful to not think of the programming as divergent, but just as different. Any given (BCM controlled) light can have multiple functions assigned. Those functions have priorities. So the footwell lights can be programmed to come on in multiple cases. Likewise with the brightness. My footwells are currently set for brightness based on x58d (the interior light brightness roller by the light switch) anytime the lights are on and the doors are closed. But if a door is open they go full bright.

I suppose, now that I have retrofitted auto headlights I could try re-programming my footwells to use that input. But I've also seen the proper programming to make use of the slider, so that's my next change most likely.

As for the blackbox... it's more that the BCM doesn't really care what components it has. It's just inputs/outputs based on programming. Some of those inputs/outputs have pre-assigned names (like footwell). But the BCM does not know/care whether you actually connected that output to the footwell lights. Our challenge is to find out what pre-assigned names correspond to which outputs, what that specific output is capable of, and then use that output how we see fit.

 

[madwazzabi]

@madwazzabi it might be helpful to not think of the programming as divergent, but just as different. Any given (BCM controlled) light can have multiple functions assigned. Those functions have priorities. So the footwell lights can be programmed to come on in multiple cases. Likewise with the brightness. My footwells are currently set for brightness based on x58d (the interior light brightness roller by the light switch) anytime the lights are on and the doors are closed. But if a door is open they go full bright.

I suppose, now that I have retrofitted auto headlights I could try re-programming my footwells to use that input. But I've also seen the proper programming to make use of the slider, so that's my next change most likely.

As for the blackbox... it's more that the BCM doesn't really care what components it has. It's just inputs/outputs based on programming. Some of those inputs/outputs have pre-assigned names (like footwell). But the BCM does not know/care whether you actually connected that output to the footwell lights. Our challenge is to find out what pre-assigned names correspond to which outputs, what that specific output is capable of, and then use that output how we see fit.

Agreed, if the BCM has a pre-assigned output that I can assign to one of the spare pins to operate exactly the same as the footwell output with its own slider I'd be one happy camper. The cupholder output sounds like the answer. I think the video only demonstrated it, looking to see if @mr-fix had a full written tutorial on that one.

 

[golfdave]

I think the video only demonstrated it, looking to see if @mr-fix had a full written tutorial on that one.

From what I have seen of his videos (specifically ones re the MK7 Golf) he only started uploading basic info videos on the MK7 Golf in April 2018...then he joined this forum in August 2019...& then loads more videos appeared.

I get the feeling that hes cribbing (badly) all the info from this forum & Ross-tech, including some of my threads that I started way back in 2015...as I can find the info existing further back in date than his videos..

All to push his Youtube videos/subscribers/ad money....


The above is my personal opinion based on what I see...

 

[2018gti]

From what I have seen of his videos (specifically ones re the MK7 Golf) he only started uploading basic info videos on the MK7 Golf in April 2018...then he joined this forum in August 2019...& then loads more videos appeared.

I get the feeling that hes cribbing (badly) all the info from this forum & Ross-tech, including some of my threads that I started way back in 2015...as I can find the info existing further back in date than his videos..

All to push his Youtube videos/subscribers/ad money....


The above is my personal opinion based on what I see...

If you're gonna be petty about someone making helpful videos with.. uh.. publicly available information, why don't you set up your own YouTube channel man?

Not all of us get defensive when things we post online for free get made into videos.

I have posted several coding tweaks over the past few years, including one that mr-fix picked up on. Do you see me whining about it like I personally invented the Volkswagen Body Control Module?