Under dash LED lighting

MustangP51 · December 28, 2007

I wanted to do this for a long time, and I finally got some time last week. Very cheap only cost about $8.00 used 5 15,000 MCD 5mm Blue LEDs on each side, mounted on project boards that can be found at Radio Shack. I Highly recommend this, it gets a lot of attention and is a nice accent to any vehicle. This is practice for my chassis under glow project Im doing this spring. What do you guys think?

vroomzoomboom · December 28, 2007

cool, i just did L.E.D.'s in the dash, and door switches. the cluster is another story, i messed that one up!

MustangP51 · December 28, 2007

What happened with the cluster?

shortstack · December 28, 2007

what is the focal degree's on the led's, wide is each board? how did you mont them?
those looks sweet btw

bigapple · December 28, 2007

very nice touch... pretty clean... i commend ur work... looks pretty professional

vroomzoomboom · December 28, 2007

i scraped the coating off the back side, so the green parts were white, i then painted them with modeling paint. when i put it all back together, it was all streaky looking with brush marks. i probably could take it all apart again, and remove the paint, but that is for another day (i just finished it tonight, and don't really want to look at it anymore) plus to add insult to injury, the needles on the gauges are off, so they don't read correctly at the moment.......great :fire::frustrate

MustangP51 · December 28, 2007

westph2k6 said:
What, are you driving a civic? only interior mods on an X should be switches and gages.

I was unaware that Explorers had limitations on what work could be done on them. Perhaps you should take a look around this website to see what can be done with some creativity.

MustangP51 · December 28, 2007

shortstack said:
what is the focal degree's on the led's, wide is each board? how did you mont them?
those looks sweet btw

The LEDs were originally 60 degree focus, but they only made a spotlight, so I ground off the tips to make them disperse the light evenly. I mounted the passenger side with some double sided tape, and on the drivers side I used a zip tie and electrical tape (only temporary). As for the board length I bought the biggest one Radio Shack had and then cut them with the Dremel.

Drivers Side

And no the board is not resting on the brake light switch wiring harness

Pax Side

muzzymaniac · December 28, 2007

Looks good. I'll be doing blue on mine as well. If only time were my friend!
Did you add resistors?

vroomzoomboom · December 28, 2007

i think i might do that, but under the seats

MustangP51 · December 28, 2007

muzzymaniac said:
Looks good. I'll be doing blue on mine as well. If only time were my friend!
Did you add resistors?

Yes I used 5 470 ohm (462 ohm was what the meter showed) resistors.

These are great for finding what resistors you need to use.

http://www.physics.udel.edu/~watson/phys345/decoder/

http://led.linear1.org/1led.wiz

muzzymaniac · December 28, 2007

MustangP51 said:
Yes I used 5 470 ohm (462 ohm was what the meter showed) resistors.

These are great for finding what resistors you need to use.

http://www.physics.udel.edu/~watson/phys345/decoder/

http://led.linear1.org/1led.wiz

Dude!! You are sooo my hero! Those links are just what I needed. I knew that info was out there I just never could hunt it down.

MustangP51 · December 28, 2007

muzzymaniac said:
Dude!! You are sooo my hero! Those links are just what I needed. I knew that info was out there I just never could hunt it down.

Glad to help.

MustangP51 · December 28, 2007

vroomzoomboom said:
i think i might do that, but under the seats

Yea, I think im going to add some under the rear bench seat as well. Good luck with yours.

shortstack · December 28, 2007

what mm are they? (like 10mm or 5mm or 3mm)

ajvisbeen · December 28, 2007

great stuff.. you said you got those from radio shack.. or what??? can you send me a link for ( if possible ) for what you got and how are you gettin the power.. what is it wired into.. .
i want to do this and have some knowledge in the electrical feild...but not with the boards adn leds or whatever.. thanks

MustangP51 · December 29, 2007

shortstack said:
what mm are they? (like 10mm or 5mm or 3mm)

5mm

ajvisbeen said:
great stuff.. you said you got those from radio shack.. or what??? can you send me a link for ( if possible ) for what you got and how are you gettin the power.. what is it wired into.. .
i want to do this and have some knowledge in the electrical feild...but not with the boards adn leds or whatever.. thanks

The LEDs I bought on eBay several years ago in bulk just search "5mm Blue LEDs" try to find a seller that also provides the correct resistors.

The project board is the only thing I bought from Radio Shack. It was a 6x8".
As for the power source, I have several switches on the center console one of witch controls the lights. The switches get their power from the wiring harness for the DC power port in the pax side of the center console.

shortstack · December 29, 2007

i'm going to do this under the rear seats and under the dash, i'll have blue and white leds, i'll have the blue ones on when i have the running/parking lights on, and the white tied into the "dome light/ doorajar light".
you can buy a 50 pack with resistors for like $6.
heres the link to the seller http://search.ebay.com/search/searc...=1&sass=sureelectronics2&fsop=34&fsoo=1&fgtp=
the link is the seller and the 5mm for search

shortstack · January 18, 2008

i just did mine here are some pics of the lights and the board
the blue is about deadon on brightness

the white is brighter then the picture shows

whole thing

i'll get pictures of them in the explorer tonight

NOTE: on the pictures of the lights i cut off the focus part of the led, i just cut it with dikes. The blue ones in the explorer are almost TOO bright, kinda distracting

here are some more pics of them in

with both on

shortstack · January 21, 2008

having the white for the interior light makes it alot nicer, when you have to try and look for something at night you cant see anything on the ground these lights make it way easier and looks cool....... gotta love kids dropping things

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