I thought I'd share some pics with everyone. I just finished (for now ) installing 14 CCFL lights inside my xB ride. Now I've got some serious light inside!

Some details:
+ I choose to go with white CCFLs for all of them. (I'd rather have good map-reading light than fancy colored light. )
+ All but two are 6" CCFLs. The two under the dash are 12" CCFLs.
+ I've got a master SPDT switch that:
__1. Enables all lights to run normally.
__2. Disables (cuts power to) all lights.
__3. Overrides and turns all lights on, regardless of any settings/switches.
+ The in-door lights are wired to only come on when that particular door is open only.
+ Each of the overhead lights (and the under-dash lights) are controlled via a SPDT switch in each door's plastic cover that:
__1. Turns on the light.
__2. Disables the light (turns it off).
__3. Turns on the light when any door is open.
+ The dome light CCFLs are wired to the factory dome. When switched to ON, they come on. When switched to OFF, they turn off. When switched to DOOR, they come on with the door circuit and fade out nicely with the factory dome light.
+ Currently the hatch lights are wired to come on whenever any door is open. In the next few weeks I'll finish wiring them to come on only when the hatch is open. Also, I'm thinking about putting two more 6" CCFLs in the hatch itself, to light up the ground at night when I open the hatch.

And now...the pictures!

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Back view with the camera flash on.

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Back view.

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Back view. (Longer exposure.)

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Dome lights, off.

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Dome lights.

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Dome lights, from behind.

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In-door light for front door(s), off.

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In-door light for front door(s).

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In-door light for read door(s), off.

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In-door light for read door(s).

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Front seat overhead light, off. (Driver side, to be exact.)

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Front seat overhead light.

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Front seat overhead light, off. (Passenger side, to be exact.)

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One of the two hatch lights, off.

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Hatch lights.

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Front (driver) in-door and under-dash lights.

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Fron (passenger) in-door and under-dash lights.

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Cheers!

 

A brotha could go blind with all that light in there! Very cool and looks labor intensive. Great Job!!

 

Lots of work there. Nice job.

 

This is pimp

I want to do similar but i don't want any of the tubes to be visible. With that being said, having light from the headliner will be almost impossible not being seen ... so i'd just have it ground level. Anyhow, i think it's classy.

 

I think its a bit of overkill for me personally, but hey if you like it thats all that matters, mod on brother. Do you have an alarm and do they blink with it, sure would make it easy to find your car, just look for the glowing box.

 

Yep, most definitely overkill...just the way I like it!

FYI: Anyone who wants just a little more light in their box could add just the two CCFLs next to the dome light. Those two alone light up the inside pretty good.

Heh! Good idea! I'll have to think about that.

 

Where can i purchase the tubes at? They have the inverters built in to each tube and the have 2 wires for 12v right?

 

I dont like to post negative things but I like the idea but not the idea of seing the actual bulb, only supposed to see the light, but still cool

 

I bought a bunch of 6" CCFLs from www.elwirecheap.com and carefully took them apart. Then I rebuilt them like you see in the pictures. The inverters are separate from the tubes (look on the web site above), and they are indeed driven by 12V. (One inverter can drive 2 CCFLs.)

 

If you mean you don't like to see the actual CCFL tube itself, I totally agree with you. That's why when I built these, I put a frosted hi-temp gel (sorta like paper, only plastic) inside each of the plastic tubes in order to mask the CCFL tube itself. It also helps to diffuse the light so it isn't too harsh to look at when it's on.

 

How did you do the wiring to work the 'thodes off the dome light?

 

I think we seriously need a tech write up of how to get LEDs and Cathodes to light up adn turn off with the dome light. This seems to be a popular question

 

Yup...Im still working on it.

The best idea I have had was to use the switch that detects if the door is open/closed for the ground wires, then run power off the fused 12V source, but I need a torx (sp) screwdriver to pull that switch off and tap into it.

Of course then, the lights come on only when the door is physically openend/closed and do not work off the keyless entry and I would have to leave doors open to keep the light on.

 

Props to a poster on ScionEvolution for this, although I am still a bit unsure as to what to do with the info:

You'll need a relay for sure. Here's a little diagram. Find the red/white door trigger wire on the top of the fuse box. It's in a 9 pin plug facing the rear of the car.
Wire like so -

On the relay, wire post labeled 87 to a 12v constant wire with a fuse. Easy to use the main wire on the ignition harness. On post 86, wire to the red/white trigger wire. Wire post 85 to the same 12v wire for post 87. MAKE SURE YOU USE FUSES ON BOTH!. Wire post 30 to the power wire on the LED set.

Standard disclaimer. Do this at your own risk. Make sure you've got the right wires and that they're fused. Don't cry to me if you fuse box let out the magic smoke, because we all know electronics run entirely on smoke.

 

That is a sweet setup you got yourself! And diffusing the light was a stroke of genius!

 

The dome light works off of a "switched ground" - that means one side always has +12V, and the other side is grounded when the light is suppose to come on. When you switch the dome light to "ON", it simply grounds that side. Switching it to "DOOR" connected that side to the door circuit, which is also +12V when the light should be off, and gets connected to ground when the light should be on.

If all you want to do is attach an inverter for CCFLs to the dome light, just hook up the positive side to +12V, and attach the negative side to the far side of the dome light. (The side that's furthest from the dome switch.) It would be a very good idea to put a diode in the negative line before connecting to the dome light, just to make sure the +12V from the door circuit doesn't try to go back into the inverter the wrong way.

Now, since I wanted to be able to override the CCFLs and turn them on no matter what the dome switch was set to, I ended up using a relay to switch the negative line to ground when the override line was powered up.

One last thing to note: When the dome light goes into that fade-out mode, the door circuit it actually pulsed. It goes through a PWM (Pulse-Width Modulation) circuit that toggles that line between +12V and 0, varying the pulse width until it fades out completely. If you put a relay on the door circuit, the relay will buzz (quite loudly!) while the light fades out. Interestingly, the CCFL inverters really like this and will also fade the CCFLs out very nicely (if the inverter is hooked to the dome light directly). CCFL inverters apparently don't like partial voltage - they like 0V or +12V, nothing inbetween. So having the door circuit driven by PWM is good.

 

Thanks! But using the diffuse gel was more of an act of self-preservation. CCFLs are wonderful (God knows I 'em!), but they're really harsh to look at directly. Those tiny tubes are just too bright for me to even glance at without getting temporary blindness. (Obviously a serious concern if you're the driver!) So I spent a week looking around for something to diffuse them down without dimming them too much. Finally found a good balance using a frosted gel sheet (cut down to size) that's meant for theatre lights.

 

Bravo on the wiring, but I personally prefer the light source to be hidden.

 

Someone help me find my mouse, I'm blinded from looking at the pics.

Nice work. Props on the labor.

 

Wow thats a lot of tubes. Do you have any feed back when they are all on?