Celica Forums General Discussion Exterior LED install up where the dome light is?

I was wondering if anyone knows how I could mount maybe 2 tiny LED's like they have in some Lexus models, so it'll light up a very small area and not be bothering while driving. Possibly hook it up to a switch or something.

Yeah, you could. I'm no electrical expert or anything, but here's what you may need to do.

Solder some resistors onto the LED's you will be using, and hook the positive and negative leads into the bulb housing. As for the switch, you could always hook that up to the dome fuse, as opposed to running wires up to the dome light itself.

Just a guess though.

Have you just considered swapping blue lights (or whatever color you want to use) for the dull yellow lights that are already in there, and lining the inside of the dome light with some thin acetate tape the same color of the light that you put in, as to somewhat dull the light coming out? If that even makes any sense.

Might be a lot easier on ya.

LED'S can handle 12 V these days so no need for the resistor..

I don't know what type of LED's you are talking about, but the majority of them cannot.

Hmm sweet, what kind of LED would work for something like this? Thanks

true, i was making some angel eyes. and i put the LED to a 12v energy source and it burnt out my LED. using a resistor is the best way to go because LED are hella expensive

The kind that you would need you could get at a Radio Shack. But if I were you, I'd try the second method that does not involve hard wiring LED's.

Some LED that has resistor build into it...
Typically 194 LED...
Just LED alone does from around 1 volt to 4 volt...
It varies a little...

I used a LED bar designed for inner door mounting. It's flexible, has an sticky backing and contains 4 LED's (blue or red are your only choices for color). It's realllllllllly bright!

I tried to use two 3mm LED's but found the solder typically let go as the contact points got quite hot.

Not sure if US Walmarts are carrying them, but up here you can score a 4 pak of blue or red resistors for $8. They are pre-wired with resistors for any 12v application.

Here's a link to the light bar I'm speaking of:
http://www.import-performance-parts.com/pilot_led_parking_signal_lights.html

You have to use a resistor to limit the current unless one is already built in. About 20 mA is a good number for an led. Remember V = I*R.

I took out my bulb and replaced it with all LEDs. It wasn't hard, but it was alittle costly. I used 12 LEDs, 6 blue, 6 white. I got them from Radio Shack. They were the brightest ones they had, and they better be for $5 a piece!! I filled up the entire space the bulb was in with a piece of thin card board. Then i used a hole puncher to punce out all the holes for the LEDs. Since there are 3.5 volt LEDs, I wired 3 sets of 4 in series. 3.5 X 4 = 14Volts which is perfect. My DigiCam cant capture the colors perfectly. The blue LEDs are not greenish like in the pic, they are a perfect blue. Its hard to explain the light difference between this and a regular bulb. The light is just more clean and crisp..

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wow that's pretty cool good job, if I were to install just 2 LED's next to the moon roof control in that little space, would I need to get resistors?

yes you would, and the value of it depends on the LEDs mA rateing. The bright ones use 20mA and need 3.6 Vols each, and you want to use 2 of them. So: 3.6 X 2 = 7.2. The voltage in you car go up to 14, so 14-7.2=6.8. So, you need a Resistor that will drop 6.8 volts at 20mA. since R=V/I, 6.8/.02= 340. You will need a 340 OHm Res. You take all 3 things and wire them in series. And remember, a LED will not work if put in backwards...

can you make an install guide

Yeah, make an install guide, i wanna do that, it looks nice!

I just bought some LEDs yesterday. The APC brand. (don't ask how much I paid ) I desoldered the switch and battery from the LEDs, but I tested them with a battery (AA) and they wouldn't turn on. I tried taking the solder off with an iron, but they still don't work. You think I burned them out? Could it be that I overheated and ruined the wire. What do you guys think? I can't take them back now.

you would need at least 2 AAs( 3 volts ) to light it up. 1 AA is just 1.5 volts, it's not enough. Also, make sure you try swaping the LED wires on the bats. If you have the + side of the bat goin to the - of the LED it woun't work. It woun't hurt it, it just woun't light up. It should look like:
LED wire+ [+bat::Bat-][+bat::Bat-]-LED wire

hmm I have two of those LED's left over from installing RJautowork's gauges. I wonder how many volts each of those LED's are?