Spivic

I am thinking about installing either LEDs or neon tubes in my car, which is a '98 Civic HX. I would put them under the dash near your feet up front and under the front seats for the back. I want them to turn on when the doors are opened, and have all of them turn on regardless of what door is opened. I also want them to turn off when the door is closed. I understand that to do this I will need to connect the ground to the door pin, and will probably need to wire all of them together and connect a ground to each door pin to achieve the on/off when any door is opened/closed. I am unsure as to where I would connect the power source though. I read that connecting it to the battery can drain the battery even if they are not on. And also, I want them to turn on before the car is on. So, if I go out to get in the car, and right when I first open the door before turning the car on, I want them to turn on. Any ideas on how this would work?

On top of that, I would like to install some sound activated neon tubes, the really skinny kind from EL Glow. I want to have the tubing in a circle around each visible speaker in the vehicle. It comes with a little device that senses the sound and makes the tube light up, which is easy enough. However, the tubing comes in one long strip. Is it possible to cut the tubing but use some wire snips to remove some neon casing and reveal some wires in order to run them all to the sound sensing device and splice them into the one wire running into the device? Also, where would the device connect to in order to have constant power? I don't want to use the cigarette lighter, as that is kind of tacky

Going back to the LEDs or neon tubes that would be used as courtesy lighting, would those be possible to wire to work as sound activated lights as well? If so, how could I go about doing that? I saw a video on YouTube where a guy ran them so they could be turned on within the car, but did not turn on when the door was opened and off when closed. They could then be turned on to sound activated mode and would react to the music. So, I feel like whatever brand he used should be able to be wired to turn on and off with the opening and closing of the door.

Finally, would it make sense to purchase an amp to run these wires into to provide the extra power? I don't know if that would work or not, I just don't want to burn the lights out or destroy my battery. And also, if I can get the speaker glow to work as well as the courtesy lights, I feel like if the courtesy lights were also sound activated, my car would look like a New York dance club rolling down the street at night. So, if you have any suggestions or opinions I would appreciate it. Thanks guys!

TiggerDX

iTrader: (1)

It's unlikely you can have the sound activated lights turn on with the doors as they are wired to a microphone that needs sound. There would have to be a continuous sound to keep them activated.

Spivic

Ok, so you can't run a wire from the lights to the door pin, as well as to the sound device? That wouldn't accomplish both?

TiggerDX

iTrader: (1)

You would need to add some type of device to keep the power from feeding backwards into the sound control device. You would have 2 sets of power feeding the same lights and the power from each source would feed to the other source. In addition, when the sound activation was on, it would probably make your overhead lights activate as well. It could be done but the costs and headaches might not be worth it.
Now if the control box has an external trigger that allows for a signal that will turn on a continuous setting, then that would work. But that's pretty unlikely.

GolNat

iTrader: (7)

Hooking the led strips directly to the battery will not drain the battery if they are off. I would wire them directly to a +12v source and wire the negative to the door triggers. You could use the dome light to trigger the LEDs so tht if any door was opened it would turn them on. You can't just wire them straight into the dome light but you could use the dome light signal to trigger a relay to turn the LEDs on. Also your battery will be fine in handleing the power no amp needed. LEDs don't draw much current. You can also hook up both the sound activation box and the door trigger to the same power source if you use diodes to isolate everything. Also use relay's in order to keep the current draw down on any one circuit and to help isolate.

Spivic

Thanks for the input guys, I hadn't even thought about wiring to the dome light haha. In order to make this an easier task I may just install two separate sets of lights. One for the courtesy lighting and other set that is sound activated. relieves a bit of the headache.