LED Conversion - Cheap interior mod, check it out

Ever think those lights on the doors that light up the window controllers are too dim? well i personally thought they were useless, so i changed them completely

http://community.webshots.com/photo/63977702/75300563JDOvNl
http://community.webshots.com/photo/63977702/75300644mjChLW

Since they are controlled with the dimmer i used the stock wiring with a LED (Blue 5000 MCDs), 470 ohm resistor, 22 ga. wiring, butt connectors crimped to the end then heat shrink tubing over it all, drilled the original housing out with a 1/4" bit, installed a black LED holder into the place, inserted the LED bent the wires down to the plastic an hot glued it all to keep it neat

Looks good, didnt notice if your interior was camaro or firebird, but for the firebird, red would be good to match all the gauges. the factory lights usually are too dim or burn out quick.

won't the hotglue melt with the heat of everyday driving?

That looks good! It's damn bright too! Is that at all distracting at night?

i took the hotglue melting into consideration which is why i threw some epoxy onto it also...i just didnt want to go with epoxy directly on top of the light because i didnt know how corrosive it may act to it. as for it being distracting, not really, i think my pioneer screen is more of a distraction actually. btw yes its a camaro but red would prolly look very good in a TA / Firdbird

Hey those look cool. I think they would look even better if they were hidden from view (the LED itself).

why did u use a resistor,

Originally posted by blackz151
why did u use a resistor,

You have to used resistors with LEDs, they limit the amount of current that goes into the LED, if you don't they will "POP", and I do mean that literially... they will explode.

Plus most of the time you get the wrong color out of them as well...unless the glass on the diode itself is the actual color, but on the clear ones the wrong color emits when too much voltage is applied...try it sometime :p

yes a resistor must be used they pop on contact with the 12v if not, u watch a spark inside it then it smells like its burnt, as for them being discolored...the ones i bought were all clear made from that ingan source material, they are very very blue as you can see in the picture, and if you dont want a focused light beam now, they come in a frosted lens other then clear so the light gets evenly dispersed =)

Originally posted by pu12en12g
Hey those look cool. I think they would look even better if they were hidden from view (the LED itself).

i was thinkin about recessing them but since they are clear to begin with, it blends right in with the black panel, an the holder is black as well no one has noticed they were there until the headlights went on =) but a stealth install would look pretty good IMO too, thanks for the comments everyone =) they meant alot even on somethin this small specially commin from brent an paul who have seen it all when it comes to these cars altmost makes me cry :cry: lol thanks though

that looks great, but i dont understand how you would install the led's , can you explain more in like idiot terms for me please.

Maybe a pic of the wiring could help me understand better.

Originally posted by thabomb180
that looks great, but i dont understand how you would install the led's , can you explain more in like idiot terms for me please.

Maybe a pic of the wiring could help me understand better.

id love to help ya out, im making a wiring diagram and install guide as we speak, then brent can put it on his site, if your from edision we could meet up someplace im like 10 mins from edison, and as for idiot terms lol i just learned all of this starting friday night til now lol, just look up some stuff

where are you from? maybe we can meet up sometime and you can help me install the lights.

south amboy

Originally posted by BIGKerneL44
id love to help ya out, im making a wiring diagram and install guide as we speak, then brent can put it on his site, if your from edision we could meet up someplace im like 10 mins from edison, and as for idiot terms lol i just learned all of this starting friday night til now lol, just look up some stuff

If you'd like to write something up with some good details and pics, I'd be more than happy to stick it on my server for you. No pop-ups, no limitations... you'll be good to go :D

brent btw, did u ever get that front bumper removal and install guide? i made a very veryyyyyy detailed page of it, i coulda swore i sent you it but i never got a reply LMK if you want to host that too

moreeee LED mods....ok so i got like 80 more im thinkin of places to put them....an not be tacky

http://community.webshots.com/photo/63977702/75455469tsWkVU

the pic is very bad quality, its actually very well lit in person, but since i didnt use a flash the bottom came out poorly but if i used a flash you wouldnt see it anyway, but you get the point....expect a write up on this as well

looks awesome!!
:bow:

i like it!

Originally posted by BIGKerneL44
brent btw, did u ever get that front bumper removal and install guide? i made a very veryyyyyy detailed page of it, i coulda swore i sent you it but i never got a reply LMK if you want to host that too

I don't recall ever getting that :( If you can easily email it over to me again, it would be appreciated!

brent ill shoot it over as soon as i water mark the pics with camaroz28.com, free, an my nick embedded into it....im sick of those damn ebayer scammers sellin stuff we give out for free....really tweaks my melons lol. so as soon as i do this they are all yours for the posting.....u will not see BUMPER COVER REMOVAL GUIDE +25 HP!!! on ebay for sale lol let alone listed 1,000 times

hey, those looks sweet. I wonder if it'll be too much to put LED lights in the speaker holes?

im gonna let you know tomorrow about the speakers, i wired up 4 leds with enough wire in a daisy chain kinda rig around the speakers but i didnt get around to wire them up to the switch yet....but ill keep everyone posted, im convertinge every bulb in the car to LED cept the headlights, those will be phillips HID when i have the $$...the tailights are done except the turn signals because i couldnt find the replacement flasher needed =/

hey how did u do ur HAVC?? i wuz just gonna do it. what kinda bulb did u use?

i didnt use a bulb i used LEDs wired them into the stock harness and sealed them in

ur the man! :bow: :bow:

if u need help or any diagrams an pics lemme kno ill b glad to help

can you please email me the diagram or post them on here or something?

What are the specs on the LED and were did you get them from?

Interior Night shot (not finished) (dash still apart)

http://community.webshots.com/photo/63977702/75715003JHgham

Custom headlight controller

http://community.webshots.com/photo/63977702/75715794pERzRw

Originally posted by Cerwin Vega Fan
What are the specs on the LED and were did you get them from?

SOURCE MATERIAL:InGaN
EMITTING COLOUR:BLUE
LENS TYPE:WATER CLEAR
LUMINOUS INTENSITY-MCD:2000 TYPICAL/3000MAX
REVERSE VOLTAGE:5.0 V
DC FORWARD VOLTAGE:3.3V TYPICAL
DC FORWARD CURRENT:20~30mA
VIEWING ANGLE:± 10°
LEAD SOLDERING TEMP:260oC for 5 seconds

User: cwithk on eBay sold me the LEDs in a pack of 100, tell him you heard from me he may hook you up, very reasonable person to deal with.

Cool, I take it you are using high intensity led's with a low viewing angle?:confused:

Cool I was right.:)

How much did it run you for the pack of 100? Also did they come with resistors?

Can the little + and - pins on an LED be bent or will this affect the LED's performance?

Nah it shouldn't affect the LED's performance at all, I have even shortened the pins before and they still work just fine...so I wouldn't worry about it if you need to bend them

LEDs were $8 for 100 + shipping from hong kong which was like $7 an a resistor is cheap if u buy them in a bulk pack if not its like .20 cents each (which is cheap except when you have 100 leds lol

i just took my gauge cluster out and i bout the 194 led bulds now how the hell do u get the old bulbs out and the 194 some one help!!!

Where did you get the other little parts you mentioned? As far as the resistors, little LED base/holder and such. I am supposing somehwere like Radio Shack or something? I may play a little with some LED's - but I am just sticking with white. :)

looks real nice
i did the same exact thing on my bird a few weeks ago.. one of those burned out so i switched in some blue leds i got off ebaty from hong kong... looks real nice
and btw.. nice radio... i think i have the exact same one

just ordered 50 5mm 4kmcd blue and 50 5mm 5kmcd white from the guy off ebay. i paid $10 for the blue and $14 for the white. that includes shipping and free resistors for 12v operation! :cool: im only gonna use a few on my car, but can sell some plus use on other things...

Originally posted by blackz151
i just took my gauge cluster out and i bout the 194 led bulds now how the hell do u get the old bulbs out and the 194 some one help!!!

just pull them straight out besure not to break the bottom piece off, and LEDs are polarity sensitive, make sure u get the +/- in the right slots

Originally posted by sic-v6
just ordered 50 5mm 4kmcd blue and 50 5mm 5kmcd white from the guy off ebay. i paid $10 for the blue and $14 for the white. that includes shipping and free resistors for 12v operation! :cool: im only gonna use a few on my car, but can sell some plus use on other things...

what user sold you those?

sic-v6 - if you get them and want to sell a couple of the blue, I would be interested in a few. Get back with me.

Originally posted by BIGKerneL44
what user sold you those?

i got them from the same guy you got your leds from.

oh and im not sure how many i will have left over to sell. first i gotta see what im going to do with them, plus i already told a few friends id sell them some. so im not sure what i will have left over...

where to get the other stuff..... Well... seeing I'm one of the people who like to play Tim Allen and blow electronic stuff up on my way to making things work right... and am a half-sparky... I typically get my parts from....

www.partsexpress.com
www.digikey.com
www.mouser.com
www.alliedelec.com
www.superbrightleds.com

those just to name a few....

that listing on Ebay is pretty good actually... I'm probably going to be ordering some stuff from him as well.. my only thing was... how long did it take for you to get your order????


And how much of a sparky am I... Well.. I built my own tail light sequencers, LED bulbs, 2 totally custom mini-switched switch panels, custom microswitch controlled Line-Lock controller... and as we speak I'm building my own shift-lite, and one-touch sunroof controls for my GFs jetta.... actually I'm going to go finish making the circuit boards after I get done looking at the board...

Originally posted by 97FormulaWS-6
Well.. I built my own tail light sequencers, LED bulbs, 2 totally custom mini-switched switch panels, custom microswitch controlled Line-Lock controller... I sent you a private message.

I would also be interested in knowing how long it takes for this stuff to get here. I had to go white. (http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2536821865) (<--- P.S. There's a link there.)

little bit over 5 business days for me, don't worry this guy is a very good seller im on my 5th purchase from him. send an email if it hasnt arrived yet

Originally posted by BIGKerneL44
id love to help ya out, im making a wiring diagram and install guide as we speak, then brent can put it on his site... And how is that guide coming???
Got my LED's and resistors - just wondering how you wired it?

I may try the stealth install, but I need to find some LED holders/bases - where did you get yours? I am going to try using the 5mm lights - although I kind of wish I would have bought 3mm's...

But e-mail me that guide or something if you got it, I'd like to check it out.

i need to put the install guide on hold for a few more days, im in the process of graduating HS this week so im a little tied up, ill let you know when its done.

Got my blue LED's today and started adding. I have done a stealth install on the door switch panel lights. I took the stock bulb holder with bulb. Removed the bulb and bulled the guts out of the holder. I then put the LED in the bulbs place. Wedged it in, soldered the resistor on the + wire, soldered all the connections. I taped everything up since I don;'t have any heat shrink. It looks stock from the outside till you turn the lights on. I then went on and did the Headlight control. This took a little more work. I will take a few pics when done.

if you choose to do the AC/Heat controls try not to disconnect the hot/cold knob and the vent selector/defroster because i did and now its a mess, if i choose max as its on like defroster, i gotta take it back out and turn it til it matches again.

Duly noted.

lol trusssssssst me on this one :o

Well, I've almost got everything switched over to Blue LED's. All I have left is the radio and the Fog light and ASR switches.

I still have quite a few 5mm blue LED's left. Anyone have any 3mm blues they want to swap?

Will post some pics soon.

you did the defroster? lmk how that worked if u did it

i just got my leds and im starting to convet the bulbs. i started with the head light/interior light switches. did you just put one led where that tiny bulb is, or did you get rid of that clear plastic piece and put more leds? if you only did one how did you hook it up? oh and there are 2 wires for the bulb... the gray one is the (+) and black (-) right?

Originally posted by sic-v6
i just got my leds and im starting to convet the bulbs. i started with the head light/interior light switches. did you just put one led where that tiny bulb is, or did you get rid of that clear plastic piece and put more leds? if you only did one how did you hook it up? oh and there are 2 wires for the bulb... the gray one is the (+) and black (-) right?

Correct on the +/-'s but no i left the clear plastic because it disperses light equally, i put 3 LED bulbs in though, one for each knob so it illuminates it all nicely, i took a dremel and cut a little section out to house the LED better........hehehe look what we started...stock lighting sucks, if anyone is interested in converting their entire interior and exterior to LED bulbs let me know, i have a source that i cannot name here because they arent a paying supporter that would gladly hook you up with a good price, it was a burden to spend $150 on LED lighting, but it was every bulb including the turn signals, the quality cant be beat, the luminosity cant be matched, and the interior lighting is actually visible now....o and if you leave your lights on inside the car.....your battery wont be dead for a month....did i mention the 10+ year lifespan on these bulbs? or theres no filaments so viberations from our lovely LT1/LS1 motors wont effect them at all....along with the low power consumption so the power is directed where its needed? all very small things that i think were worth while buying into. :D an if not....wouldnt b the first $150 i wasted on this car

I'd like to know where to get a kit to swap everything over to LEDs. Please PM me with the info.

http://www.angelfire.com/mech/thedarkangel/interiorlighting.htm
Here are a couple quick pics of the interior with the blue LED's so far.

well now im working on the lights for the door controls and the lights for the fan, hot/cold, vent selector... i really want that bright so i have it set up for 11 leds just for that part. im going to do 2 sets of 4 leds in series and 1 set of 3 leds in series. think i can run those all on the one wire that the old bulbs are hooked up to?

Yeah, you should be fine since they draw so little current and running them is series, you won't need a resistor.

Originally posted by Dark Angel
Yeah, you should be fine since they draw so little current and running them is series, you won't need a resistor.

You ALWAYS need a resistor :rolleyes: if you want to hook them up w/o one have fun... they'll most likely last about 1-5 seconds then "POP"... All LED's are is a Diode, a One-Way valve for electricity... they can only handle a small amount of current, that's what the resistor does, limit the amount of current that's going through the LED.

THe Size of the Resistor can be figured out really really easially.

Most LED's are rated safely at 20mA, or .020 amps (I);
Your car runs at 12V (V);
Ohms law V=IR 12/.020=600ohms.

Typically you round up the Resistor values, most people use 1K for a single LED. If you're wiring them in Series, add up the Amps (I) then insert them into the equasion.

but if you still don't want to run resistors... be my guest:cool:

or, if u wanna try not using a resistor, take a 9v battery hook the LEDs +/- ends up accordingly and watch the bright spark =). Now thats only 9v....image the 12v.....:rolleyes: definately use a resistor

do the wedge style bulbs from superbrightleds come with resistors? or do I need to go to radio shack?

the wedge style 194's w/ 3mm LEDs have built resistors inside the housing they are not needed, what u will need to do though is bend the prongs into place into your stock housing and solder it if you would like, if it doesnt work flip the LED around because they are polarity sensitive

Actually the resistor is there to limit the voltage. They are designed to use 3.3V, so the resistor limits the voltage. It uses 9 volts, so that there is only 3V on the LED, but if you have 4 LED's it's not needed. And if you have 3, you can get away without out it, but may want to put a smaller on in. The current, is what the LED draws. An LED isn't a straight diode. It uses the voltage and current to make light. Just due to the nature of them, there is very little current draw. The resistor that is put inline with them negates most of the advantage of the lower current draw. If you hook 3 in series, you should see a 4V current drop across each. I had 3 hooked together and straight to the battery. They were on for 40 minutes with no problem running at 4V. I now have 4 hooked together. They are a little dimmer and reading 2.8V. They have been on for over an hour. This is the basis of electronics.
Try hooking your 600ohm resistor to 4 LED's in series and see how bright they are, if they work.

I wish this post would have come up sooner. I wanted to change to burnt interior bulbs to blue LED when the burnt out to match my instrument cluster, but I couldn't figure out why one just wouldn't fire, and the other would just make my dimmer fuse blow. Oh well, I know now.

Can you please let me know when you have an install/wiring guide for this mod. They look great!!

sure will, im actually working on it tonight

[i]Try hooking your 600ohm resistor to 4 LED's in series and see how bright they are, if they work. [/B]

obviously you can't read.... if one LED draws 20mA, and you have 4.. that's = to 80mA... run that through Ohms law and you get what?

150 ohms... that's the size resistor you need... not 600:rolleyes:

A resistor will drop the voltage, correct.... all components have a voltage drop, even the diodes, most normal diodes are 0.7V, most LEDs are ~2v. But a resistor by it's nature also limits the current draw, not just to drop the voltage.

Originally posted by 97FormulaWS-6
obviously you can't read.... if one LED draws 20mA, and you have 4.. that's = to 80mA... run that through Ohms law and you get what?

150 ohms... that's the size resistor you need... not 600:rolleyes:

A resistor will drop the voltage, correct.... all components have a voltage drop, even the diodes, most normal diodes are 0.7V, most LEDs are ~2v. But a resistor by it's nature also limits the current draw, not just to drop the voltage.

Exactly, im using 470 ohms they work perfectly, extremely bright i bought several hundered tried out different resistor sizes and didnt experience any drop in brightness until i used a 500 ohm resistor.

For anyone wondering about not using a resistor, here is the disclaimer from Superbrightleds.com

GENERAL LED HANDLING PRECAUTIONS:

CAUTION: The light output from Super Bright Leds is intense enough to injure human eyes at close range. You should never look directly at the LED source for more than a few seconds.

CAUTION: LEDS are static sensitive devices. Observe static sensitivity handling precautions, such as wearing a grounded wrist strap when handling.

When forming leads, the leads should be bent at a point at least 3 mm from the base of the led.

Avoid damage to LEDS by soldering for no longer than 3 seconds with 700° iron.

LED life expectancy is based on current and temperature. You can expect our LEDS to last approximately 100,000 hours at 20 ma with ambient temperature of 20° C.

DO NOT use LEDS without a current limiting resistor is series with the LED. The forward voltage rating is TYPICAL and can vary from part to part, so while some LEDS may work fine just connected to a battery of the proper voltage, other will be over driven and destroyed. ALWAYS USE A RESISTOR IN SERIES WITH THE LED OR LEDS

i only have one led in the car so far. im still working on the others... but today i noticed the led was flashing bright then going dim... the resistor was real hot also, and would heat up right away... i got the resistors with the leds. it looks like it says 470 ohm on the bag for the resistors.. and they are yellow/purple/black/black/brown striped.. any ideas?

Its a 5 band 470 ohm resistor, but the tolerance is only 1% try using one of the same ohms with a tolerance of 5% and whats the specs on the LED? i use 1/2 watt 470 ohm resistors w/ 5% tolerance

SOURCE MATERIAL:InGaN
EMITTING COLOUR:BLUE
LENS TYPE:WATER CLEAR
LUMINOUS INTENSITY-MCD:3000 TYPICAL/4000MAX
REVERSE VOLTAGE:5.0 V
DC FORWARD VOLTAGE:3.3V TYPICAL
DC FORWARD CURRENT:20mA
VIEWING ANGLE:± 10°

yeah same as mine, i been using a 1/2 watt 470 ohm 5% tolerance resistor, goodluck =)

im just about done with the hvac controls. pic (http://community.webshots.com/sym/image6/3/41/97/78734197fteqNU_ph.jpg) only problem is getting the hot/cold section to light up just as bright. no matter where i put an led, i can see where it is and wont light up the entire section.. i need a solid ring of light. so i think im going to make a "halo" and use 2 leds to light that part up..

Originally posted by sic-v6
im just about done with the hvac controls. pic (http://community.webshots.com/sym/image6/3/41/97/78734197fteqNU_ph.jpg) only problem is getting the hot/cold section to light up just as bright. no matter where i put an led, i can see where it is and wont light up the entire section.. i need a solid ring of light. so i think im going to make a "halo" and use 2 leds to light that part up..

Sic those look great, how many did you end up using? as for the heat/cool controls you can either A) drill into the plastic with a dremel an embed the LED or use 3mm LEDs and aim them towards it

right now i used 9 leds. i tried 4 in series, but they were really dim. 3 in series werent bad but 2 in series are perfect. and when i do the hot/cold section i think im gonna use 2 so thats 11 total.

It is hard to wire these things in series esp. when you have 4 or more in a row.

Try wiring them paralel (sp. is wrong I know - drinking wine all night) then you will get even illumination across the band

Originally posted by IBLUEBY
It is hard to wire these things in series esp. when you have 4 or more in a row.

Try wiring them paralel (sp. is wrong I know - drinking wine all night) then you will get even illumination across the band

as long as you size the resistor accordingly everything lights up fine...

I did my gague lights doors and HAVC and it looks great! The HVAC i did with 4 leds and its bright as hell. I just can figure out how to do the defroster and asr swtich. Any help?

i think everyone is stuck on the defroster, asr, an fog =/

:mad:

I haven't tried yet... but can't you take apart the switch? or is it a sealed piece?


I swapped a bunch of switches by taking them apart in my GF's Jetta...

it comes apart very easily actually, but even with a 3mm led its a tight fit, i dont know the power output to the switch for the stock light either :rolleyes:

Welllll...since the last post on this was on my birthday, I think I will just bring it back up to the top, it's been a while.

I hope all these guys involved are still following the board.

I got my door courtesy lights wired in with the white LED's (same setup as your BIGKernel) and now all the rest of my lights look like poop. I am waiting on the gauge lights for a bit, but would like to go ahead and get the light controller switch and HVAC knobs lit up with the white.

So - how many did you guys use on the HVAC? I noticed in a couple of the pics (BIGKern and Dark Angel's) that they looked like the warm side on the center knob wasn't lit up well - I want a pretty well lit up panel, BUT don't want it to blind me.

And how many did you use on the light switch panel and how does it light up?

And lastly - I have 5mm's - would I be better off by getting some 3's?

yeah the hvac controls were too dull for my liking so i took the 5mms out and put a 3mm behind each of the icons with some 3M magic tape to make the appearance more opaque an frosted so the light jus didnt come through an blind me, definately get 3mms

i dont have any pics cuz my car has been in the shop for the past 2 months getting new toys :cool: so im keepin it there until the budget for it runs out until then im rockin the new infiniti :bow:

I think it looks great!

Actually my HVAC are lit pretty evenly. I will try and take a better pic this weekend.