sry if this has already been asked, i've read pretty much every led thread on here over the past couple months and my question seems a little more complex than anything i have seen...

first off i bought the OEM illumination lights which i must say i was VERY disappointed with... so using the same wiring i basically swapped out the led strips, and cupholder leds, while adding a few more ... it looks rly good but this is what i want to happen:

i want the lights to operate exactly like the dome lights, turn on when i unlock the car etc... this is a simple tap into the dome light power source. thats easy enough. but i also want them to stay on when the doors are shut unlike the dome lights. how would i do this?

one solution i came up with is to replace the OEM switch with a simple 2 way switch that would switch the power source from DOME to CIG. the only thing is i would like them to stay on when the doors are shut without me having to switch to CIG power...

so if it is possible to have it do all that together (turn on like dome lights, and then stay on after door is shut) then the 2nd switch option would be to just cut the power completely.

and just another question that might widen up solution possibilities. do they make 3 way switches for our cars that would fit in those slots? the button switch i have already has 4 settings (footwells light up only, cupholders only, both on, both off) but idk if that could be integrated into this new lighting arrangement... i rly only want all of them on or off at the same time so the current setting on that switch is kind of annoying

thanks for any ideas or comments

You could prolly run the dome power and the cig power to the strips. It should act like an and gate. on if either or both are on and off if they are both off.

Sounds to me like that idea wouldn't be a gate at all. That might make the cig lighter power the dome lights all the time. Besides.. an AND gate is exactly what it sounds like... Cig power AND dome power would have to be present before the lights would come one. I believe OR gate is what you're looking for.

You might check digikey.com and see if you can find a through-hole OR gate FET. You'll need something that works at 12V and can source the amount of power that your lights require. A regular logic-level gate will not be able to power your lights.

This solution would likely require some simple soldering.

It is possible to do what you were trying to accomplished..

But you need to understand better of how the dome light work..
- basically there are two wires
- Positive wire is constant on
- Negative/ground is the one that controls the current
- So once you understand that, you should be able to tap into dome light wire

Yes, I do have OEM style 3 way switch (on-off-on) that fit perfectly in there..

Another, simpler way that you could do this without using a switch would be to wire your voltage sources to a relay. Since all you need is for the LED strips to turn on when a voltage is present, then you can get away with a simple relay.

Simple 12V relay.. very cheap.
http://search.digikey.com/scripts/DkSearch/dksus.dll?Detail&name=255-1828-ND

Here's the link to the datasheet so you can actually hook it up properly.
http://pewa.panasonic.com/pcsd/product/auto/pdf/mech_eng_cb.pdf

It will click on when either the cig lighter or the dome light sources are available, and back off again once both sources are gone. Should work perfectly for what you're trying to do.