This is my OG secret to making Switchback Modules, back before you could buy them.
I put a product list together for you in Amazon:
https://amzn.to/3v8a1O6
Relay Video I mentioned:
https://youtu.be/zGlWCBoQSyo
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A lot of builds that i do have switchback lights inside and switchback just means that it's white that changes to amber with the turn signal, like i'm, going to show you right now and then it goes back to white after that's over now. Normally, when i do switchback jobs, i use something from morimoto called an exchange driver, but sometimes i don't have these things on hand and i still need to be able to make something switch back or it's really powerful and this thing's not strong enough to handle all The amps, so i'm going to show you a way that you can build your own switchback driver using a couple dollars worth of parts in about five minutes, so this is actually what we're gon na make. This is the old school switchback module that i used to do 10 years ago. It's bulky it's kind of ugly, but dude.

It works really really well, let's talk about the components needed to make this and we'll start changing it up. All right here is a standard bosch style. 5 pin relay i'm going to link all of this stuff up in the description, so you can just buy it on amazon, it's quick and easy and, of course, with prime shipping. It shows up in like a day.

Second, off i've got just a handful of little female connectors. We're gon na connect those to the wires that i'm about to clip in a second, and this is our magic ingredient. This is a little diode. This is an in4007 diode, because you know knowing the serial numbers on diodes is a thing: okay, next we're going to grab our wires.

Now, i'm just going to cut the wires that i think, are the appropriate color. So we've got red and black for power and ground white and amber for our led colors and i'm gon na cut these. I don't know about nine ten inches and then we're gon na just connect all the little connectors to the ends of them. Next.

Another super important part that we need is a 4700 micro farad capacitor. This is a little 25 volt version. We're going to show you how to install this to the relay in a bit oh and the last little ingredient that we need for our mixture. Here is just some heat shrink to cover it up.

You could use tape, you don't have to be fancy, it doesn't even really matter. I just like to use it all right. So, let's first start by just stripping the ends of our wires. Second, we are going to put all of our connectors on now.

We are going to make one little change to our five pin relay we're gon na turn it into a four pin relay and that's because we don't need this top pin where the power comes out after the relay is switched. That'll make sense in a little while all right, so i'm going to put my little uh capacitor right, where this guy's at so i need to pop that thing off and then we get to the next step, we're actually going to put the capacitor in an arrangement. Just like that, so we're going to have power coming in here back out through there and then our trigger wire and our ground wire. If you want another video specifically about different ways, you can use relays check out that video i'm gon na link it up.
I'm just gon na show it because if i link it then you'll leave this video, but definitely in the description i'm gon na put this video. So you can learn more about cool things. You can do with relays all right, so we are going to put our ground wire and our trigger wire plugged into the relay, and we want to look for this little line on the capacitor, because that we're going to have to line up with our ground wire. So now i'm going to strip the wires right just a little bit on here, so that i can wrap them around.

The little leads coming from this capacitor and then we're going to make one more change before we finish up so about an inch up on the wire i'm just going to strip the wire back a little bit so that i'm going to be able to wrap it Around the capacitor, and now i'm going to solder up these wires to the leads from the capacitor all right and just another great excuse to buy yourself. A quad hands is soldering up something weird like this. We've got all these things that you have to hold on to. Instead, quad hands is doing it for me, okay, this is an interesting thing, so we're going to take this diode, and this is going to be like a one-way valve.

It's only going to let power flow through and we're going to use it for the turn signal. So when the turn signal sends power down into this yellow wire, what we want to do is put a little one-way valve in between it and the capacitor, and what that's going to do is it's going to make it to where only the power that's being sucked Out of this, actual relay is going to come from the capacitor and it's not going to allow the turn signal itself to suck power out of the capacitor. So that might not make sense, but that's why we're doing it and if you just follow the instructions. This will work, so i want to cut this yellow wire right here now.

I want to add this capacitor and i want to make sure that the little strip is aiming down, so the power flows into the capacitor. Now i'm going to solder that to the lead going into the cap, now i'm going to strip our yellow wire again, i'm going to wrap it around this dude and then i will solder it on there as well. Now, if you have heat shrink, you could use that if you've got some electric tape, you could use that as well. The only thing i'm going to suggest is that you trim any little sharp pieces off of your little assembly here.

Okay, so put my little piece of heat shrink on there. I'm gon na clip this wire off so that we don't have anything pokey coming off on that side. Now, we've actually got our whole little system done. The only thing that we need to do is just have to plug in our white output and the red input, and we have a little switchback set up here: okay and just to keep everything nice and tidy we've got our little fly.

Ride. Green heat shrink that i'm going to throw on mainly just for branding's sake, but it will kind of keep things all together for us. Okay, now before i plug this thing in, i want to test my part. So i want to make sure that if i put up power and ground for these things that everything is going to work as it should so there is our power and there is our ground wire and with this lightning bolt the way it's going to work.
Is it's just going to turn all white all at once now, if i hook up this amber wire, then, instead of being white, it would just light up amber. If i had both of them connected right now, then it would be white and amber together, which is definitely not the kind of look that what we want. So we're going to plug this thing in first all right. I want to explain the connections really quick, because we've got our ground wire coming from the lightning bolt, that's actually plugged into the box right here with the ground wire and now we've got our amber wire.

So what i want to do is i want to connect that with the input for turn signal on our switchback module, and then i already have this little guy, which is a flasher relay setup, and i'm going to connect the flash relay to that so that when We turn it on it's going to blink, just like a car would now. Meanwhile, we've got our white input for the lightning bolt and i want to send that to the white output from the switchback module and if it works, which it does when we turn it on. Power comes into the relay and back out the white wire down into the lightning bolt. Now everything works.

Well, when i hit the button, our little flasher relay right here is going to get power and it's going to send a pulse on and off down this yellow wire and that's what we get now we have our white that is turned off, while it's flashing amber And after the amber is done, it switches back to white, we got a switchback module, it can handle a ton of power up to. I guess it's a 40 amp relay so assuming that we do this with something strong like a light bar and we have hardcore. Like amber turn signals going out, this thing's going to be able to handle it, and we don't have to rely on buying something like an exchange driver or something that might hit the limits of what it can handle on a little circuit board. This is like a full hardcore, beefy way to go about making a switchback module and it was super cheap.

So let me know if you're ever going to use this and in what application you choose to make a switchback module for your truck your car, your boat. I don't know whatever. Let me know in the comments below.

By Chris

8 thoughts on “EASIEST Way To Make a SWITCHBACK MODULE”
  1. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Jason hernandez says:

    Has anyone made it and not need a load resistor for it.. I have a similar setup but with a pcb 12v relay.. I've located my side marker lights and turn signal lights the prob is when I have my headlights on and activate the turn signal it doesn't blink but if I turn off my headlights it works ? I know I'm missing something to this and if this can work on a gtr I sure can make it work on my ford .. thanks any advice given. Also will u need a flasher relay to go along with this aswell?

  2. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Blackout K says:

    I’m looking back at this and thinking, is the pin that you remove still usable if not removed? I want my rear blinkers to blink but running lights to blink between the blinkers flashes. The lights all run on the same circuit and I don’t want to overpower and blow out the lights. The blinker lights will be brighter than the running lights. Not 100% how to achieve this for my application. Any advice would be awesome 😊

    -Joe

  3. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Blackout K says:

    Great video and explanation!

    I’m using these to rewire my Vland Santa Fe sport tail lamps. Running an additional wire to my reverse light sockets to make them and the blinker housing switchback blinkers/brake lights while rewiring the current brakes to be the running lights. I have pods mounted on my trailer hitch tied into my reverse lamp fuse with a relay. I won’t be losing my reverse light function.

    -Joe

  4. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars NZ Home says:

    what about the clicking relay sound? do switchback modules have less sound? also you didn't mention about how long between turning the turn signal off and having the white light come back on, is it faster with switchback modules? these are just two questions that come to mind watching your great vid.

  5. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Lei Sarmiento says:

    This old school was so interesting.
    Ive been watching all you video.
    But this time .
    May i ask if this is possible to apply in motorcycle with 12volt battery or do i need to change the load of capacitor. Hope you will see this .
    Im from the Philippines. Thank you.
    And more power to you.

  6. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars hubioggimo PL says:

    I made a lot of switchback modules, but instead using relay i use P-Mosfet, it will be quiet, smaller and you can use smaller capacitor 😀
    I convert red USA blinker in tail lights to yellow EU and I have to make parts as small as possible and thats why i prefer Pmos

    Great vid as allways 👍

  7. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars a friend says:

    Yo, bro! I need an answer, stat! (kidding, lol). I was on your main page looking for the vid on removing light shells (and I think re-installing/gluing, etc), but I can't find. Can you provide a link, and if I can pick your brain here regarding, what's the safest, most effective way (tools, etc) for removing the headlight shell on a 17 Maxima? (for my future DIY module/DRL light mods). Great channel! Thanks! =).

  8. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars ian Wakefield says:

    Hi there, from sunny Wales, UK. I actually made something very similar for my motorcycle. It took a couple of attempts to get it to work how i wanted it to . I wanted the white drl to just dim ( 50%) when the turn signal was on, then return to 100% when the turn signal finished. Looks really cool. Keep up the good work. 👍🏻

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