DIY: Under Center Compartment LED's
08-29-2015, 03:28 PM
#1
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Posts: 51
DIY: Under Center Compartment LED's
So that compartment just above the cup holders, below the compartment (or Easy Bake Oven) could use some light you think? Well here is how to do it.
These LED's will tie into the the light of the compartment above it. I have mine wired to turn on with the lights rather then the door. So everything comes on at once.
If you have light knowledge of wiring you can wire to whatever power works for what your doing. Have them both on with doors, both on with lights or one with one, one with the other. That's your call.
Here is how it looks when turning on the headlights.
Things you'll need:
1. Shrink wrap
2. Wire Cutters/Strippers
3. Glue/Adhesive
4. LED's
5. Hot Glue / Hot Glue Gun
5. 10k Ohm Resisters x2
6. Small drill, or anyway to make a small hole for LED's to push through
I used these LED's. They can be used in some places on the car. There super bright, already have a resister in line with the positive lead (the metal legs that stick out), and super cheap on Amazon.
You can do this with regular LED's of your choice of color. When using these, bend the legs stright, and they pull right out of the wedge housing.
The lead with the resister is the positive lead.
Now take your compartment, and measure across. This is a good habit to get into. You want them to be equal distance apart from either side, and equal distance from front to back. Even lighting.
There are no specific measurements this is all preference.
Then mark with pencil where you want your LED's to be placed.
Then drill your holes.
Push your LED up from the inside of the compartment so the legs go out of the top side. Then bend the legs flat to opposite sides. This will hold them in place while you work.
Flip the console over, your LEDs if using flat ones, might be crooked as you see here. Straighten them out. No this won't make a difference in the light, but clean installs is a good practice. Anytime you work on your car, you should be learning.
Mark your positive and negative legs so you don't have confusing. Everything is polarity specific. Get it wrong, it won't work. It won't hurt anything but your time.
Now take 2 red wires and 2 black wires. Slide shrink wrap onto each one before soldering to each LED. When your done you can take a lighter to it, so the wire and lead of the LED is covered.
Red to each positive, Black to each negative.
Then hot glue, or adhesive them in place on the top of the console.
These LED's will tie into the the light of the compartment above it. I have mine wired to turn on with the lights rather then the door. So everything comes on at once.
If you have light knowledge of wiring you can wire to whatever power works for what your doing. Have them both on with doors, both on with lights or one with one, one with the other. That's your call.
Here is how it looks when turning on the headlights.
Things you'll need:
1. Shrink wrap
2. Wire Cutters/Strippers
3. Glue/Adhesive
4. LED's
5. Hot Glue / Hot Glue Gun
5. 10k Ohm Resisters x2
6. Small drill, or anyway to make a small hole for LED's to push through
I used these LED's. They can be used in some places on the car. There super bright, already have a resister in line with the positive lead (the metal legs that stick out), and super cheap on Amazon.
You can do this with regular LED's of your choice of color. When using these, bend the legs stright, and they pull right out of the wedge housing.
The lead with the resister is the positive lead.
Now take your compartment, and measure across. This is a good habit to get into. You want them to be equal distance apart from either side, and equal distance from front to back. Even lighting.
There are no specific measurements this is all preference.
Then mark with pencil where you want your LED's to be placed.
Then drill your holes.
Push your LED up from the inside of the compartment so the legs go out of the top side. Then bend the legs flat to opposite sides. This will hold them in place while you work.
Flip the console over, your LEDs if using flat ones, might be crooked as you see here. Straighten them out. No this won't make a difference in the light, but clean installs is a good practice. Anytime you work on your car, you should be learning.
Mark your positive and negative legs so you don't have confusing. Everything is polarity specific. Get it wrong, it won't work. It won't hurt anything but your time.
Now take 2 red wires and 2 black wires. Slide shrink wrap onto each one before soldering to each LED. When your done you can take a lighter to it, so the wire and lead of the LED is covered.
Red to each positive, Black to each negative.
Then hot glue, or adhesive them in place on the top of the console.
08-29-2015, 03:29 PM
#2
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SL Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: Jul 2015
Posts: 51
This step is important. Connectors. You can either use old computer cables, the molex connectors, or go online and get a two wire connector. This is important because as you take your car apart in the future, you will want to just be able to unplug your mods. Just as you can unplug the factory stuff to take the console apart.
We all know how crap it would be if everything was soldered and you couldn't unplug a connector.
Take your connector with two wires, red and black. Attach both red wires from the LED's to the red wire on the connector. Attach both black wires to the black wire on the connector.
Your console is now done.
Now we need to figure out which is positive and negative on your center compartment.
So if your power is coming from the compartment light, you can look down the connector, and you'll see two metal prongs inside that the wires are attached to.
With the other side of the connector, you want to push two stripped wire ends of that into those two holes. Like this
Positive is on top, Negative is on bottom. As shown in the photo. When you push them in, you want to make sure they are completely touching the metal prongs inside to your wires on your connector.
When you think they are completely touching, you can now hot glue them in. While hot gluing, make sure your pushing each wire down. This way they don't lift up when your putting in the glue.
So. Hot glue? Yeah! If you didn't get it, pull it off and do it again.
So now when the two connectors are plugged in, the power travels to the original compartment, goes through the connector you added to it, down the wire and into your LED's in your lower console and lights them up!
I do worry this might not be clear enough for those who are absolutely new to this. I would also recommend this as a first time soldering project! Great reward when your finished, could inspire you to go further even. There are loads of room for error.
So if you have any questions on steps you are unsure of, ask and I'll reply pretty quickly unless I'm in school it might take a bit but not long at all.
We all know how crap it would be if everything was soldered and you couldn't unplug a connector.
Take your connector with two wires, red and black. Attach both red wires from the LED's to the red wire on the connector. Attach both black wires to the black wire on the connector.
Your console is now done.
Now we need to figure out which is positive and negative on your center compartment.
So if your power is coming from the compartment light, you can look down the connector, and you'll see two metal prongs inside that the wires are attached to.
With the other side of the connector, you want to push two stripped wire ends of that into those two holes. Like this
Positive is on top, Negative is on bottom. As shown in the photo. When you push them in, you want to make sure they are completely touching the metal prongs inside to your wires on your connector.
When you think they are completely touching, you can now hot glue them in. While hot gluing, make sure your pushing each wire down. This way they don't lift up when your putting in the glue.
So. Hot glue? Yeah! If you didn't get it, pull it off and do it again.
So now when the two connectors are plugged in, the power travels to the original compartment, goes through the connector you added to it, down the wire and into your LED's in your lower console and lights them up!
I do worry this might not be clear enough for those who are absolutely new to this. I would also recommend this as a first time soldering project! Great reward when your finished, could inspire you to go further even. There are loads of room for error.
So if you have any questions on steps you are unsure of, ask and I'll reply pretty quickly unless I'm in school it might take a bit but not long at all.
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