Seeing as I am keeping my model X for the foreseeable future until CT or new MX comes out. I've decided to improve the MX for a lot of the night driving that I do.
First step we need to connect the high beam to the car; you can’t do that in the normal way as the high beam is controlled by CANBUS. I looked at the CANM8 that can either read the CANBUS signals wirelessly or wired. Both you need to dig out your wire harness and find the CANBUS data lines.
I found a solution by a Norwegian company called Bilkomponenter. They have a module that you just plug in to either of your headlights and its passes through this magic module. Also has an additional feature that you can turn off your lightbar by flashing it 6 times. (Copper mate tells me it complies with rules to have the ability to turn the light bar off - A Win not having to run cables through the firewall!!). This solution is great!
I was only going to use the lightbar for my longer night drives, so I decided to get a 40" Dual Row Lightforce lightbar with SeaSuckers to stick to it to the roof (By the way I also use SeaSucker Roof Racks - They are great!). Wired it all up, and Holy Crap! this thing is bright.
Few issues with this solution. First of all, whenever I wanted to use it, I would have to duct tape a cable up my windscreen (not that much of an issue), Second, the model X is an aerodynamic car (kinda), and messing with this takes a hit to efficiency, a big one. For example, my regular Horsham to Keith run I use about 72% of my battery. With the lightbar 85%.
Knowing this is not going to work long term, I purchased a 30" Single Row lightbar from Lightforce again so I don’t need to rewire what I had already done.
Looking at a more permanent solution it was time to rip my bumper off. The only place to mount it is in the bottom air intake. I added some reinforcement so it doesn’t bounce.
Testing so far does not show any issues with heat or air intake. I monitor this with a CANBUS data collector.
Hit me up if you want more technical information on how I wired this up.
Links:
“Magic” module converts CANBUS to Relay: Adapter til ekstralys/ledbar Tesla Model X - Bilkomponenter.no
Lightbar: Viper 30 Inch Single Row LED Light Bar
Video:
First step we need to connect the high beam to the car; you can’t do that in the normal way as the high beam is controlled by CANBUS. I looked at the CANM8 that can either read the CANBUS signals wirelessly or wired. Both you need to dig out your wire harness and find the CANBUS data lines.
I found a solution by a Norwegian company called Bilkomponenter. They have a module that you just plug in to either of your headlights and its passes through this magic module. Also has an additional feature that you can turn off your lightbar by flashing it 6 times. (Copper mate tells me it complies with rules to have the ability to turn the light bar off - A Win not having to run cables through the firewall!!). This solution is great!
I was only going to use the lightbar for my longer night drives, so I decided to get a 40" Dual Row Lightforce lightbar with SeaSuckers to stick to it to the roof (By the way I also use SeaSucker Roof Racks - They are great!). Wired it all up, and Holy Crap! this thing is bright.
Few issues with this solution. First of all, whenever I wanted to use it, I would have to duct tape a cable up my windscreen (not that much of an issue), Second, the model X is an aerodynamic car (kinda), and messing with this takes a hit to efficiency, a big one. For example, my regular Horsham to Keith run I use about 72% of my battery. With the lightbar 85%.
Knowing this is not going to work long term, I purchased a 30" Single Row lightbar from Lightforce again so I don’t need to rewire what I had already done.
Looking at a more permanent solution it was time to rip my bumper off. The only place to mount it is in the bottom air intake. I added some reinforcement so it doesn’t bounce.
Testing so far does not show any issues with heat or air intake. I monitor this with a CANBUS data collector.
Hit me up if you want more technical information on how I wired this up.
Links:
“Magic” module converts CANBUS to Relay: Adapter til ekstralys/ledbar Tesla Model X - Bilkomponenter.no
Lightbar: Viper 30 Inch Single Row LED Light Bar
Video:
