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The blue LEDs on my gauges are the ones from auto store that you plug into socket, never really felt the need to cut em up and wire em.

And technically yes, you can splice into em...
Dunno if I would though, personally lol

Haha, getting a little on the dangerous side are we? Now that we successfully installed some trunk lighting

 
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haha yep! you could say that

i was thinkin about gettin some more of those strips and just lightin it up nice inside my car. and the only source really that would be easy enough to do would be those neon tube things that are gettin their power from the cigarette lighter thing. but i dunno if they would pull enough power to work right.

what about a switch? how do those work? you flip it, and everything turns on. and vice-versa.. still havent figured that out. i mean i know how to flip a switch, but not how to wire it all up..

 
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Just install the switch in line the ground or power wire. All the switch does (when open) is interrupt the electrical current going to your setup. Therefore, if you close the switch, it'll turn everything on.

Here's that wiring diagram I mentioned way back when


The transistor I used is a TIP31 transistor, and here's the pin layout when looking at the front of the transistor


I didn't make it as an automotive application, but since it's a 12VDC power supply, it'll work just fine. Also, the reason the audio input looks funny is because I used a headphone jack. The 2 prongs are left and right channels, and the bottom is the ground. You can easily use your speaker system tapped into this setup

 
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i feel like i need to go to school to understand that. haha.. sorry, i almost just need to see it, then i can probably do it. thanks for sharin that though, i do appreciate it. i need like a "electic for dummies" book. lol

 
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made this. dont make fun of me.. lol

i was thinking of getting 2 LED light strips, wiring them together, and connecting them to a car charger and hooking them up under my seat with my cigarette lighter extension that i already have (that powers my other 2 neon tubes).

is this possible? and will this way work? please let me know. thanx

 
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In theory, probably

thing is, most phone chargers convert to 5V, which I doubt is enough to power the 12V LEDs

 
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it doesnt have to be a car charger, radioshack sells those 12v socket connectors you can use. so long as the led strips have built in resistors (most do), then you're fine.

 
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sweeeet.. i might do this soon then. i just thought of this cuz my extension thing i have under my seat only has 3 sockets.. and there are 2 neon tubes connected already, so i figured, wire 2 strips together then plug it in.

i dont know if it would look good as a solid color though, bc my front neon or whatever beats to the bass. i could change that though.. there's an option on the actual tube that you can adjust.

what do you think? about blinking to music in the front and solid in the back/under the seats..? lame? ok?

 
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Loving all these LED setups, super cool..

 
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i know me too.. im tryin to figure it all out cuz i wanna do it! lol

im still waitin to hear from someone on here about how to wire them behind the air vents.. and about that switch thingy.. i have NO idea how to wire up anything from that post ^^ up there from RiceBoy. although it is appreciated that you shared it

i even looked up stuff on youtube. no really good explanation videos.. just "here's what i did! look at it! just look at it!" lol..

i did find a 12v car charger for a garmin system thing.. would that work for what i was talkin about? instead of one for a phone? i couldnt find anything on radioshack.com

 
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I think I may be able to wire something up to show you. If I have an extra transistor laying around.. lol

 
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that'd be cool more of a hands on/seeing kinda person to be honest. unless it's furniture.. i can build stuff from diagrams all day long with that. lol..

 
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I did a quick photoshop version.. looks almost the same as the wiring diagram I posted.. except with an actual transistor and real LEDs.. hahaha

 
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haha that works!

 
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here ya go



The speaker +/- can be almost anything, so long as sound signals travel through it: radio harness output, tap it off the speakers, amplifier output.. The stronger the signal (or louder, I've found by using a headphone jack), the brighter or more frequent it'll illuminate the LEDs. I'm sure though, too strong a signal will make the LEDs be on the entire time. I think a resistor (or adjustable/variable resistor) in that line will work though.

Also, the +12VDC side can be anything producing a 12 volts when you want the lights to work. So, if you only want them to be on when you turn your lights on, find a wire thats only hot when the parking lights/headlights are on. The -12VDC can be attached to pretty much any bare metal, as long as it completes the circuit.

oh, and if you want more than 4 LEDs, and some electical guru correct me if I'm wrong, just wire another 4-LED set in parallel to the 4 I laid out.

edit: it never occurred to me to show you the actual box I made, so here it is, with labels so you can kinda see it.. even though it looks like a mess of wires.. lol

 
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Looks fun, did ya use acrylic?

 
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I had a big plexiglass sheet lying around, so I cut it up and used hot glue as the adhesive for everything. Sanded it with some 800 grit sandpaper to help diffuse the light.

 
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Hmm, whered you get such a thin piece?
It's dam expensive for a huge *** sheet of it

 
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home depot.. I had it for when we did outdoor performances in band when I was in high school. Held the sheet music down..

The stuff I have is about .1"/2.5mm thick, and the sheet I had was probably... 1.5-2 feet wide, about a foot tall maybe?

I took a quick video of the box in action, just because I'm bored.. lol

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=llRBBCkKjeQ[/youtube]

BTW, J5 FTW

 
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thats cool! thank you for showin me how to do all that! i like the idea u had of sanding it.. really gives it a "frost" look and spreads out the light when its on

 
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NERD ALERT!!!!

If anybody wants to get REALLY adventurous http://sparky3489.webs.com/vumeterproject.htm

 
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you should post that in the led forum on hidplanet.com lol they would get a kick out of it. i know the basics but when guys bust out those diagrams im totally lost.

 
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Looks like a fun project

I'm almost certain you can get everything at Fry's

Looking a little closer at the schematic, I'm pretty sure you can use the same circuitry to make an LED throttle position indicator if you wanted one.. lol

 
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Yep, I really want to try something similar, but never could **** my self to do so.

 
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You could actually skip the whole board etching part. You can buy circuit boards and connect each hole with a wire. Sure, it'll be messier on the backside of the board, but still functional.

 
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Where's the fun in that, LOL.

 
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The fun is creating a maze of wires on the back of the circuit board! Chances are, you'll have one, MAYBE two different colors.. hahaha

if you do it wrong, instead of making a cool VU meter display, you'll end up with some pyrotechnics.. hahaha

 
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im still wondering about LEDs in the vents. just sayin......... lol

 
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LOL sorry! I just took out the radio console, detached the radio part, drilled holes into the bottom of the vent things, just big enough to fit the LED. then I found a wire that was hot only when the dash lights were on and wired it in there. I don't have any progress pics, nor do I anticipate ripping open my dash any time soon.. Sorry..

Just make sure if you wire an LED directly to a 12V line, have a 470ohm resistor in line, usually before the LED (install it on the positive side)