interior "theatre lighting" effect

I got in a buddy's explorer and it was at night and when we opened the doors the lights came on (he has blue interior dome lighting) and when we shut the doors the lights waited approx. 3 sec and thenn slowly dimmed as though we were in a theatre. It was the coolest thing!!

I asked him how he did that and he didnt know. He said it came like that when he bought it.

Does anyone here know how something like that can be done?? I would love to do that to mine!!

 

[tac0meat]

http://208.38.138.31/forums/showthread.php?threadid=27312&highlight=dome

cant remember the out come, but i think it wasnt so good i would love to have the same thing in mine as well

 

[glc8937]

I found a guy at work who said he knows exactly how to do the lighting mod and that is easy fairly easy. He said he had to do that as a class project when he went through automotive school years ago. He said he couldn't remember everything involved off-hand but that he has it all wrote down with skidmatics at his house.

I will bug him until he brings it in. He said it is just a capacitor mounted under the dash and spliced into door pin wiring and a couple of other little things. Said it takes about half hour to do it all.

I will let you know when he brings it in to me!!

 

[Frank-D]

Hi there,

I learned it when I study my job,a long time ago(maybe5 or 6 years)!I can`t remember how to do it, but I`ll look for the "diagramm"(think you know what I wont to say-in german it called"Schaltplan"?!If you know what`s that in english post it!).If I have it I reply again-give me a few days. Here in Germany you can buy the complett electronic system for about 10-20 German Marks(5-10US$).

So long

 

[Rydogg]

Didn't want those people to forget about this post since many people are eager to make the modification on their X. I took it upon myself to bump this back up to the top of the forum...

 

[glc8937]

Sorry guys! I forgot to come back and tell you that I did get a skidmatic of how the lighting works. Unfortunately my electrical knowledge does not support the understanding that is needed. The guy I work explained it in a way that sounds easy enough but I think it was easy for him because he knows all about that stuff. I have a copy of the skidmatic and can try and take a pic of it with my digital camera and post it for those who may want to try and make heads or tails out of it. He even included radioshack part numbers of everything that you need.

If anyone would like to post the drawing just let me know and I will see what I can do.

Oh yeah....I plan to have this guy I work with do my lighting when it gets cooler out in a month or two so I will be able to answer more question once I see how he does it.

 

[beavis195]

please post the drawing!

 

[glc8937]

Drawing posted

For some reason the quality of the pic is perfect when I open it but when put on this site it is being "blurred". I will try and repost a better pic after work.
The part numbers at radio shack that are needed are as follows:
1) 100 resistor 271-1108
2) 220 mfd capacitor 272-1017
3) 220 Transistor 276-2068
4) heat sink?? 276-1368
Dead Link Removed

 

[eguiyab]

bump

the pic dont show

 

[glc8937]

Ooops! Sorry about that. I deleted the pic out of my fotoalbum. I will take another pic and post it again. May not be until the weekend though. My brother is using my digital camera to take some pics of his boat on the water.

 

[FitzMatt]

That would be cool.

 

[glc8937]

Skidmatic

This is the exact drawing that my friend gave me. He used it to install it in his Explorer.
Dead Link Removed

 

[glc8937]

For some reason the quality of the pic is getting distorted when linked here. If you want a much clearer pic just click in my signature "MyExplorerPics" and you will see the drawing there which is better.

 

[adambone]

To refer back to Frank-D's earlier question, "Schaltplan" in German, means "connection diagram" in english. (See, all of those German classes in high school became useful sooner or later)

 

[tac0meat]

thanx glc8937, im gonna be picking up the parts while im at work today, i am still a little unclear as to where to atatch this circuit, i mean i can build it jsut where and how do i hook it up?

 

[glc8937]

Taco..lol...that's where I got a little confused myself. I will talk to the guy at work tonight and see if I can get a better idea of where he mounted the stuff. He is going to hook mine up for me but not for a few more weeks.

I see what I can do for you!

 

[Rydogg]

GLC - I just wanted to say thank you since you are doing us all a huge favor. However, everytime that I click on your link "MYEXPLORERPICS" nothing comes up. It seems to always happen with fototime.com for some reason. It just says web page timed out or web page not responding. It is very strange and I am not sure if others are having the same problem or if it is my POS computer/internet connection. Thanks again and hopefully I can get to that page sooner or later to see the diagram...

 

[tac0meat]

ok i bought everything today, plus a few little extras:

radio shack catalog numbers:
276.1373 transitor mounting hardware kit (mount the transistor to the heatsink
276.1372 heat sink grease
270.283 project box with pc board

if your gonna be talking to the guy who installed this in his x could you find out the "theory" behind this schematic, you know, how it works. it also seems to me that there is a connection missing in the schematic, i see one for a ground lead, and the one that connects to the dome light switch but shouldnt there be one for a power lead as well?

also how long will it take the lights to dim out? by putting a larger or smaller capacitor in there could i increase or decrease the amount of time it takes to dim out?

sorry for all the questions but i just want to make sure i connect everything correctly before a short out my entire electrical system

 

[glc8937]

Rydogg...My fototime free period isn't up until 9-3-01. I just tried it and it worked so I am a little confused. I will email the pic to you when I am done with this thread and hopefully it will work.

Taco...that guy called in sick but I will take all your questions to him tomorrow night (tuesday night). You did buy the one thing I forgot to mention which was the project box. He said he mounted everything in the project box and had one wire coming out of each end. One was the one that spliced into the door jam wiring and one that was the ground. You are correct about the size of the capacitor changing how long the dim takes. He said the first one he used took like an hour so he tried several til he found the one that worked. He said it is around 3-5 seconds. He did mention that he has the original project box laying in his garage so when I see him tuesday night I will ask him your questions and ask that he allow me to have the project box so I can take some digital pics of it. I know he also said that he zip-tied the project box to some other wiring under the dash.

I will keep you informed.

 

[glc8937]

I am getting ready to head off to work but it just dawned on me that the power lead that you think is missing might be the wire that connects to the door jam wiring.

1 wire coming out of each end of project box. 1 is the ground. The other splices into door jam wiring which would become your power lead. When the door is opened it will activate the capacitor and deactivate it when the door is closed.

I will let you know what he says though.