I bought the parts i needed. Blue LED's from RadioShack that look like the pic below. Holders for each (that don't look quite like the ones in the how-to but same idea). 22-gauge wires. a duck-bill toggle switch. and but connectors (the kind you crimp on each side that look like a mini-pvc pipe). and an Add-a-circuit to hook everything up with.
My problem: everything seems ready to go, but before i got to drilling holes i tested hooking it up with a spare led i bought. The wires coming out of the LEDs are so thin and short, i can't make the connects hold on to them! They go in deep enough but they don't crimp down enough. i can't think of how to hook it up reliably so they won't fall off from vibration.
First, a word of caution. The cars electrical system operates off 12VDC. Most LED's Im aware of operate somewhere around 3 - 5VDC. So unless there is something to limit the current such as a resistor or voltage regulator, I wouldnt expect those LED's to last more than a minute or two. Ive worked in electronics my whole life and unless the LED has a 12VDC operating voltage I wouldnt expect it to work long.
Now,as to connecting them up. What you will need in addition to what is listed is some heat shrink tubing, about 1/8 or 1/16" diameter, the 1/16" I think would be better. You may need a solder gun and solder but you may be able to get away without it.
What I would do is take the wire you are using to connect the LED's to the power source and strip back about 1.5" of the insulation. Cut you a piece of the heat shrink tubing that is as long as the LED wire and slip it over the wire you stripped the insulation off of. Twist the wire around the LED wire tightly then pull the heat shrink tubing up over that and then use a lighter to shrink the tubing. The tubing will shrink to about half its size when exposed to heat. Dont put the flame of the lighter in direct contact with the heat shrink tubing, just hold it an inch or so away and pass it along the length of the tubing until it shrinks down. Repeat the process for the other wire.
The tightness of the heat shrink tubing should hold the wire in place on the LED so that it wont come off very easily. As well it will insulate the connection from shorting out against something or touching the other LED wire and shorting out there.
If you have any questions, I'll try and help out, but I really think you are either going to need a 12VDC LED or something that will limit the current or voltage to the LED.
____________________ My car is a synner! It uses Amsoil Synthetic Lubricants.
2001 Pontiac Grand Prix GTP
It whines a lot, but I like it
If you put them in series they will drop the voltage across each diode....so you wont need the resistor...or if you put them in parallel you will need a resistor to knock it down to 3-5 volts.
____________________ Captain Morgan and Dr.Pepper are my homies....
audiojunkie wrote: If you put them in series they will drop the voltage across each diode....so you wont need the resistor...or if you put them in parallel you will need a resistor to knock it down to 3-5 volts.
Good point audiojunkie. The instructions weren't real clear on that point so I made an assumption each one was on its own leg with the switch in common. So yeah you could put four of them in series (which is how many vents there are) and all should be well. I think what would be even cooler would be some tri-color LED's so you could kinda change the color according to mood or set up or whatever, would go well if you had one of those multi-colored instrument cluster displays.
The soldering is an option, I think he could get away with just wrapping the wires around the LED leads since there isnt a whole lot of current being used depending on the LED being used. But for a standard LED I dont think he would be using over 100mA between the four vents. The LED leads are square in shape so wrapping the wire around them should cause the wires to grip especially well on the corners. When I used to use a wire wrapping tool we counted on it in fact and most tie downs (especially in telecommunications) that use wire wrapping have square posts so that the wire grips on the corners. Usually makes for a really good connection if done right, the only difference being is that we would use solid wire instead of stranded, but it should still work well.
____________________ My car is a synner! It uses Amsoil Synthetic Lubricants.
2001 Pontiac Grand Prix GTP
It whines a lot, but I like it
Talk to Dan (FX3) I don't think he did that particular mod, be he did do a whole lot with LED's. I know he changed the color of the power window/lock switches, and maybe behind the A/C controls as well.
And I helped a guy make some dash lights with LED's because he could not afford a new cluster.
I would suggest soldering the legs of the LED's to the wire and use shrink wrap over the evposed wiring. SS's method may work also but I tend to rely on solder to hold everything together.
I say do the paralled and If I remember correctly we used 5 or 6 LED's(you can hide some behind the dash where they are not seen) to even out the voltage.
You need to know the power draw and current(milliamps)(usually 15Ma) of the LED.
Plug that info into the calculators below and you should have the resistor size needed.
5mm 5v LED's. I bought 4 already. not sure of the mA. I'll have to find out. I think my dad has a soldering kit, i'll check that out. If i need to do more then 4 to even it out, anyone think of another cool place to put one or two? rofl. maybe glove box just for giggles. who knows.
____________________ 01 ZX3 in French Blue
Fog Light Mod // Intermittent Wipers // Clear Side Markers // Back 3 Tinted // Painted HVAC vents (courtesy of MustFCS) // De-badged // Eurostar LED Tail lights // SilverStar Head light bulbs // Upper Grill Light Delete
Some day I will practice small-soldering and get rid of the icky green. I don't hate the color itself, but could the Ford people have possibly found a more heinous shade?
ok, 4 LEDs, 5v each, 30mA. (don't have the packaging so did a search for what i bought on radioshack.com and i think this is the same thing). Safe to do in line without some new-fangled resistor-ma-bob? lol.
i'm brainless at this stuff, the mod i linked makes it sound easier then all this darn math! haha
Last edited on Fri Jul 15th, 2005 09:25 am by Trogson
____________________ 01 ZX3 in French Blue
Fog Light Mod // Intermittent Wipers // Clear Side Markers // Back 3 Tinted // Painted HVAC vents (courtesy of MustFCS) // De-badged // Eurostar LED Tail lights // SilverStar Head light bulbs // Upper Grill Light Delete
if that's the same page you showed me ages ago, i remember looking at it, and thinking his math was right. but uppon further inpection, i realize he didn't take any of this into account.
for example. he suggests testing the LED's on a 9v battery.
"I always check my lights before I wire them up in the car on a 9 volt battery. Put the pos. wire to one side and neg. wire to the other side and the LED should light up. If not, then you have a faulty light. "
LED's have polarity, so if you did this backwards you'd think you had a faulty LED.
looks like a good mod, but it definetly needs more thought than this guy put into it.
____________________ 04 ZY ZX3/2.3L PZEV/K&N Typhoon CAI/FS race exaust/SVT suspension/black 18" L8 rims/FS front stress bar/steeda STS/black projector LED headlights (HID)/black alteza taillights/smoked side markers/euro upper front grille/euro LED 3rd brake lights/
The LED calculators say that the 4 at 5v won't work in a series. You will have to run 1 wire to 2 and another to the other 2. You can try them all on the same but they may either be dim or not light up at all.
