Interior Floor Lights?

[Carl Slaughter]

This is the "basic" circuit I used: http://www.pcbheaven.com/circuitpages/LED_PWM_Dimmer/

 

I added another diode, so I can add the dome light (full brightness) switch. This is connected to the output then to the dome light (similar to how people do the fog/driving+ bright light mod)

 

I used a 10 turn POT so I had greater adjustment on the brightness.

 

I used just standard switching transistors that are only 500-600ma current draw, so depending on how many LED's you are going to power you may need to add multiple Transistor switching circuits otherwise your will burn up the little guy LOL.

 

I am using 4 12v LED strips that already have current limiting built in, they draw about 80-90ma each so running 4 of these I should be fine.

 

Once I get this connected, while the dash lights are on, I will then adjust the brightness on this circuit to closely match the absent lighting for the cabin/footwell lighting, then when the door opens they should come on full brightness.

 

I may not even need this complex of a setup providing that when connected the dash lighting will be bright enough yet not too bright, although based on my measurements in my case they will be almost full brightness even when the dash lights are mid brightness, thus the need for this circuit.

 

Making the connection is going to be a tough decision for me as I don't want the use power taps crimped on the wires, so what I will probably do is the take the corresponding pins out of their related connectors (including a ground) and carefully solder another wire to the pin itself and re-insert it back into the connector so once re-assembled it will simple appear that there are two wires connect to that pin of the connector (I have done this in the past when I did direct radar deter connection to my rearview mirror in previous vehicles).

 

I will be using heavy stranded phone cord (hard to find this stuff these days) to go from my circuit to the LED strips this way I will not need to find ground points for each of the 4 locations, I can just go from point to point with one wire (2 connectors). I haven't decided if I am going to put connectors on each LED strip, I probably will. These will be simple 2 pin/male female computer pin connects similar those that you would use for jumper or speaker/pc fan connectors and cover them using shrink tubing. (I will take some photos of that as well).

 

Sorry I am slow about this, but I don't have a lot of time to fiddle with this stuff and I don't rush my work :-)

[TXTruk15]

this is great, thanks for taking the time to write this out and share it - I agree on taking more time and doing it up right - hate crimping/tapping onto the wires, seems like that's not going to last for the long run....

[Carl Slaughter]

Progress. So far successful. However the following is not for the squeamish lol.

You have to be very carful when dissembling these connectors because the tabs are very fragile. I broke one not even trying to use much force. You have to remove the brown retaining clip before you can remove the pins from the connector. So unless you just want to make more work for yourself, and the face there is not a lot of room to work, cutting and splicing the wires or using wire tapes as indicated by other forum users then you have been warned lol.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Carl Slaughter]

In image 4 I am showing where the tab has to be released to pull the pin out. It is not necessarily the right wire that needs to be removed.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Photo eight shows the ground where are used rather than connecting to a bowl or other chassis ground inside the truck.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Carl Slaughter]

https://vimeo.com/158995114

Video of the results.

 

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[TXTruk15]

this is great, thx for the very detailed pix and the writeup, really appreciate it!

[Carl Slaughter]

Okay I now have one light strip connected to the drivers side. I am not completely satisfied with both the color of these strips and their location. Since the are light LED strips with double sided tape, I stuck it on the back side of the plastic air vent and it was the logical location. I did not point them down but to the back as I didn't want the light TOO bright.

 

With that being said, it works exactly as I wanted/expected when the door opens they brighten up with the dome lights, then when the door closes they dim down the the set brightness of the 555 timber/dimmer circuit. Wit the LED strip mounted in the location it is at it privets the right amount of ambient light I wanted. Now I just need to run the wire to the other locations and mount the lights.

 

The led strips I got off eBay ($8 for 8 strips) seem a bit blue, so I am going to do some more research and see if I can find some that are more white. The ones I have have 10 LED's per strip so I could probably get by with 5 LED's per strip and that would provide adequate light. I can't get a video of this as it is way too dark.

[BeauTie]

Okay, I just finished installing some LED footwell lights using the same process Carl volunteered. As Carl warned, it wasn't the most fun experience but I certainly appreciate him posting the detailed photos and information. Here are a few of my observations.

 

I knew that Carl broke a tab on the brown clip as he showed in his photos so I was really trying to be careful but I broke one completely off and cracked another one so it's not trivial to get that clip off without breaking the tabs. I used superglue to fix the tabs and it went back together fine.

 

I used a dental pick to release the tab so I could extract the grey wire/contact. I soldered the new wire on the neck of that contact just like Carl did.

 

To get a ground connection, I just tapped into one of the black wires in the bottom row of connector X4 which is basically in the center of his photo in post #20 of this thread. I think pins 44-50 are all grounds so I just picked one and soldered my ground wire to that.

 

Now, I'm just waiting for darkness so I can see how they look and evaluate the positioning of the lights.

 

Thanks Carl!