led's in vent
Member
Joined: Nov 2004
Posts: 39
From: St. Louis, MO
Just did mine yesterday, so I thought I'd jump in... I used the single LED's from autosone - they come in a three pack, and cost $10 for three. They were especially easy to mount, fir the center ones just pop off the center console, for the outside ones just remove the speaker grills. I just drilled 1/4 inch holes in the vent duct where I wanted to mount them, then fed the LED's through. Took about 2 hours for the whole deal, including wiring. You can tap into the cig lighter wiring very easily, and get the large switch from Lowes that looks completly factory and mounts in the holes in the center dash.
And so where does one challenge for the title of LED king? By the end of tomorrow night I'll be set up with the following: Air vents, door handles, ceiling lit from upward lighting on side posts, 12" under dash and 2 under each seat, center console aimed down to cupholders, 12" on bottom of rear seats, and all 6 speaker grills lit up. Not to mention 2 12" tubes in the sub box, and 2 12" in the front grill. More to come on the outside soon....
madcap
And so where does one challenge for the title of LED king? By the end of tomorrow night I'll be set up with the following: Air vents, door handles, ceiling lit from upward lighting on side posts, 12" under dash and 2 under each seat, center console aimed down to cupholders, 12" on bottom of rear seats, and all 6 speaker grills lit up. Not to mention 2 12" tubes in the sub box, and 2 12" in the front grill. More to come on the outside soon....
madcap
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From: Fortress of ScioNRG
Originally Posted by Max2k
I also was thinking how rad it would be to have LEDs that lit up blue when the air conditioning is on and red when the heat is on.
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From: Fortress of ScioNRG
now, questions.
do you think it would be better to have the temp dial control the color, or the ac button.
(what if you have the heat dialed up and ac on, for defrosting the windshield???)
do you think it would be better to have the temp dial control the color, or the ac button.
(what if you have the heat dialed up and ac on, for defrosting the windshield???)
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Scikotics
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Joined: Jun 2004
Posts: 178
From: Florida / BFE
Vent Lights
Helllo all I bought some single led lights that are 12v and they are connected in series example:
+-+-+-+-+-+-
but anyway i extended the wires because they came in two sets of four which works out since we have four vents on our XB's then since I have a limited i just wired them right to the interior lighting so now its controlled by the switch on the center console but basically you could just wire it to the cigerette lighter since it shuts off with the ignition. I purchased them at Advanced auto parts here locally for 5.99 for the set of two stringers. I used red because it was the closest i could find to orange.
Above the steering wheel is the stack of lights and my dash in disorder......
In order to get my LED's in I just pulled off the vent tube from the vent itself it just pops off plus the center ones are right there you just stick them on the flatest surface then put everything back on in reverse. No hassles really but if you go to my car domain page you'll see that I'm forever taking it apart. I've added loads of stuff and I still have a box load of things to put in but not enuff time for it. Work is keeping me tied up.
Victor
http://members.cardomain.com/humpty_111
+-+-+-+-+-+-
but anyway i extended the wires because they came in two sets of four which works out since we have four vents on our XB's then since I have a limited i just wired them right to the interior lighting so now its controlled by the switch on the center console but basically you could just wire it to the cigerette lighter since it shuts off with the ignition. I purchased them at Advanced auto parts here locally for 5.99 for the set of two stringers. I used red because it was the closest i could find to orange.
Above the steering wheel is the stack of lights and my dash in disorder......
In order to get my LED's in I just pulled off the vent tube from the vent itself it just pops off plus the center ones are right there you just stick them on the flatest surface then put everything back on in reverse. No hassles really but if you go to my car domain page you'll see that I'm forever taking it apart. I've added loads of stuff and I still have a box load of things to put in but not enuff time for it. Work is keeping me tied up.
Victor
http://members.cardomain.com/humpty_111
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Scikotics
SL Member
Joined: Jun 2004
Posts: 178
From: Florida / BFE
Vent Lights
Helllo all I bought some single led lights that are 12v and they are connected in series example:
+-+-+-+-+-+-
but anyway i extended the wires because they came in two sets of four which works out since we have four vents on our XB's then since I have a limited i just wired them right to the interior lighting so now its controlled by the switch on the center console but basically you could just wire it to the cigerette lighter since it shuts off with the ignition. I purchased them at Advanced auto parts here locally for 5.99 for the set of two stringers. I used red because it was the closest i could find to orange.
Above the steering wheel is the stack of lights and my dash in disorder......
In order to get my LED's in I just pulled off the vent tube from the vent itself it just pops off plus the center ones are right there you just stick them on the flatest surface then put everything back on in reverse. No hassles really but if you go to my car domain page you'll see that I'm forever taking it apart. I've added loads of stuff and I still have a box load of things to put in but not enuff time for it. Work is keeping me tied up.
Victor
http://members.cardomain.com/humpty_111
+-+-+-+-+-+-
but anyway i extended the wires because they came in two sets of four which works out since we have four vents on our XB's then since I have a limited i just wired them right to the interior lighting so now its controlled by the switch on the center console but basically you could just wire it to the cigerette lighter since it shuts off with the ignition. I purchased them at Advanced auto parts here locally for 5.99 for the set of two stringers. I used red because it was the closest i could find to orange.
Above the steering wheel is the stack of lights and my dash in disorder......
In order to get my LED's in I just pulled off the vent tube from the vent itself it just pops off plus the center ones are right there you just stick them on the flatest surface then put everything back on in reverse. No hassles really but if you go to my car domain page you'll see that I'm forever taking it apart. I've added loads of stuff and I still have a box load of things to put in but not enuff time for it. Work is keeping me tied up.
Victor
http://members.cardomain.com/humpty_111
Senior Member
Scikotics
SL Member
Joined: Jun 2004
Posts: 178
From: Florida / BFE
Vent Lights
Helllo all I bought some single led lights that are 12v and they are connected in series example:
+-+-+-+-+-+-
but anyway i extended the wires because they came in two sets of four which works out since we have four vents on our XB's then since I have a limited i just wired them right to the interior lighting so now its controlled by the switch on the center console but basically you could just wire it to the cigerette lighter since it shuts off with the ignition. I purchased them at Advanced auto parts here locally for 5.99 for the set of two stringers. I used red because it was the closest i could find to orange.
Above the steering wheel is the stack of lights and my dash in disorder......
In order to get my LED's in I just pulled off the vent tube from the vent itself it just pops off plus the center ones are right there you just stick them on the flatest surface then put everything back on in reverse. No hassles really but if you go to my car domain page you'll see that I'm forever taking it apart. I've added loads of stuff and I still have a box load of things to put in but not enuff time for it. Work is keeping me tied up.
Victor
http://members.cardomain.com/humpty_111
+-+-+-+-+-+-
but anyway i extended the wires because they came in two sets of four which works out since we have four vents on our XB's then since I have a limited i just wired them right to the interior lighting so now its controlled by the switch on the center console but basically you could just wire it to the cigerette lighter since it shuts off with the ignition. I purchased them at Advanced auto parts here locally for 5.99 for the set of two stringers. I used red because it was the closest i could find to orange.
Above the steering wheel is the stack of lights and my dash in disorder......
In order to get my LED's in I just pulled off the vent tube from the vent itself it just pops off plus the center ones are right there you just stick them on the flatest surface then put everything back on in reverse. No hassles really but if you go to my car domain page you'll see that I'm forever taking it apart. I've added loads of stuff and I still have a box load of things to put in but not enuff time for it. Work is keeping me tied up.
Victor
http://members.cardomain.com/humpty_111
Member
Joined: Nov 2004
Posts: 39
From: St. Louis, MO
Originally Posted by ScummyMcOwnage
Originally Posted by Fujiz_xb
post pics
Wound up going with cold cathode tubes for most of the 12" lights, seems to have a lot better dispersion. Let me know what you think - the pics are at least OK...madcap
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Posts: 361
From: Pittsburgh, PA
those cold cathodes overpower the vents, so its kinda hard to tell in the pics unless you are looking for them. I cant see any in your two center vents either. Did you decide to not do them?
EDIT: I see them now, in the second pic :oops:
EDIT: I see them now, in the second pic :oops:
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Joined: Sep 2004
Posts: 13,706
From: Sacramento, CA / Nor*Cal
Originally Posted by Ashe_WCM
Originally Posted by hotbox05
Originally Posted by hotbox05
so what size resistor would i need if i'm running 5000mcd leds?
however if you look you can find preresistored LEDS at autozone/advanceauto
Member
Joined: Nov 2004
Posts: 39
From: St. Louis, MO
Originally Posted by ScummyMcOwnage
thats what I figured. good job man.
oh yeah, how much of that can you see from outside of the car at night...cops tend to not like blue if you can see it....
oh yeah, how much of that can you see from outside of the car at night...cops tend to not like blue if you can see it....
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OhioScions
SL Member
Joined: Sep 2004
Posts: 169
From: Cleveland
mad cap:
How do you wire into the cig lighter? I know nothing about electrical. So please explain in a "for dummies" way. I want to put leds in my air vents, and I was thinking in my door cubby holes at the bottom, so the light glows up the door.
How do you wire into the cig lighter? I know nothing about electrical. So please explain in a "for dummies" way. I want to put leds in my air vents, and I was thinking in my door cubby holes at the bottom, so the light glows up the door.
Member
Joined: Nov 2004
Posts: 39
From: St. Louis, MO
I'll give it my best shot...
The first thing to note - the power lead going to the cig ligher is switched by the ignition - it's only on then the car's on, basically. If you pull off the section of dash around the stereo area, you can access the cig lighter's wiring fairly easily.
There are 2 wires going into the cig lighter, one + and one ground. I fogot the color codes already, but you can use an led light to figure it out. Just put the negative lead from an LED to a good grounding spot on the frame, and touch each bare wire going to the cig lighter with the + wire from the LED - when the LED lights, you have your positive.
From there it's pretty simple, just mount the LED's how you want them, and run all of the positive wires together, and all of the negative ones together. Then just tap them into the + and groung wires going to the gic plug. I actually ran all my + wires into one larger wire, then used a crimp on wire tap thing from autozone to attach it to the + leading to the cig lighter. Repeat for the ground.
Hope that helps... feel free to shoot me an e-mail if you need further assistance...
PS - forgot to mention one other thing. IF you want to add a switch, you can easily, just run one wire from the + lead for the cig lighter to the switch, and attach the + leads for the LED's to the other pole on the switch.
The first thing to note - the power lead going to the cig ligher is switched by the ignition - it's only on then the car's on, basically. If you pull off the section of dash around the stereo area, you can access the cig lighter's wiring fairly easily.
There are 2 wires going into the cig lighter, one + and one ground. I fogot the color codes already, but you can use an led light to figure it out. Just put the negative lead from an LED to a good grounding spot on the frame, and touch each bare wire going to the cig lighter with the + wire from the LED - when the LED lights, you have your positive.
From there it's pretty simple, just mount the LED's how you want them, and run all of the positive wires together, and all of the negative ones together. Then just tap them into the + and groung wires going to the gic plug. I actually ran all my + wires into one larger wire, then used a crimp on wire tap thing from autozone to attach it to the + leading to the cig lighter. Repeat for the ground.
Hope that helps... feel free to shoot me an e-mail if you need further assistance...
PS - forgot to mention one other thing. IF you want to add a switch, you can easily, just run one wire from the + lead for the cig lighter to the switch, and attach the + leads for the LED's to the other pole on the switch.