interior light wires...?

[VArova87]

got some exterior lights mounted under the body pointed out towards the sides, my goal is to wire them up so they come on with the interior lights. this way when a door is open or i use my remote and the inside lights come on, so will these courtesy lights. but, which wire should i tap into to get the power? where would i find that wire that triggers the interior lights to come on when the doors open, etc...? thanks for the help!


ps - ive got the RAVE software so if it would be easier, just tell me where at in the RAVE manual i could look. thanks.

[Adam in NYC USA]

Get two door switchs for the driver and passenger doors and route it your own way. You look at the existing interior door switch for an idea how to make the holes in the fender. If you want the passenger doors to do the lights, look for the locations for the rear switchs. I would also run two extra wires for the emergency flasher and if you need to operate the lights independently.

The factory lights are driven by the ECU that runs the wiper so I dont know if you want to mess with that. It also does that theatre lighting effect when the doors are closed.

I had put Manik bars and am thinking of putting LED stone lights inside the steps. That way the lights will last about 100,000 hours (I think that is 11 years duration). Those lights are also sturdy enough to take a rock strike directly.

The other place to mount lights like these are in the repeater lamp using a modified three way light receptacle and of course, using the sideview mirrors. One place that nobody has done yet is placing them on the siderail of the roof rack.

Here are some sites for you to check out. The stone LED lights are available on the 4x4 rockcrawler/off-road sites.

http://www.autodirectsave.com/under_...ght_lights.asp
http://www.litewave.co.uk/ground_lighting_area.asp

Postscript: Check out this site for the newest Luxeon lights http://www.superbrightleds.com/mini_tubes.htm

[FelixLockhart]

I second what Adam said, just get some normally-closed momentary triggers and wire them up separately. You could theoretically run a relay off the dome light circuit, but with the dimmer effects and such, it'd probably freak the relay out with the voltage fluctuations

[VArova87]

thanks for the advice! ive already got the LED tubes...just putting a 3 foot tube on each side, no front or rear. im not going for the street car look here, i just want something hidden that will illuminate the ground around me when im getting in/out and standing around the car. so you all are saying i should run whole new switches that sense when the doors are opened/closed? im not sure the power changes would mess with the LEDs bc their is no relay on these tubes. they are off an old kit so they are wired straight to the LEDs, i mean u can hook them up to a 9V and get em to shine.

[Adam in NYC USA]

Originally Posted by VArova87

thanks for the advice! ive already got the LED tubes...just putting a 3 foot tube on each side, no front or rear. im not going for the street car look here, i just want something hidden that will illuminate the ground around me when im getting in/out and standing around the car. so you all are saying i should run whole new switches that sense when the doors are opened/closed? .

It would be the safest if you don't want problems with the theatre lighting effect run by some computer.

Originally Posted by VArova87

im not sure the power changes would mess with the LEDs bc their is no relay on these tubes. they are off an old kit so they are wired straight to the LEDs, i mean u can hook them up to a 9V and get em to shine.

Find out what voltage your tubes work on and then control the relay with the control switches. If the tubes run on 9v, you will have to step down the voltage by some since the battery voltage is running from 12v to 14v running. Maybe you should look at the docs that came with the light tubes.

Check out this site for the new Luxeon lights : http://www.superbrightleds.com/mini_tubes.htm

Adam in NYC

[FelixLockhart]

I just asked Fox about this, he's an electronics expert and builds custom LED projects on a regular basis. Assuming that there are no other controllers or anything in your LED tubes, you could hook them directly to the dome light circuit without damaging anything. HOWEVER, in order to do this, the maximum output voltage cannot exceed the rated voltage of the LED tubes, and if the tubes draw too much current (amps), they'll burn out the controller. The tubes would dim a bit, since LEDs have a voltage range that they'll operate in, but for the most part they'd just turn on and off.

So, yes, you could THEORETICALLY hook them up to the dome lights. BUT, it is not a good solution. The best way would be to put normally-closed momentary contact switches in each door, hook those up to a relay, and hook the relay to the LED tubes. As an added bonus, if you did it this way, you could wire each side of the truck independantly. Have the right side doors control only the right side LEDs, and same for the left.

And Adam is right-on about the voltages. LEDs are especially sensitive to voltage. Too much, and they explode. Too little, and they won't work at all. It would really suck to go to the trouble of installing those and blow the LEDs in the first hour of use.

[Adam in NYC USA]

The above lights I posted use a type of Light Emitting Diode called a "Luxeon", currently available in 1 watt, 3 watt and 7 watt versions.

I make mention of them because one Korean car manufacturer, Hyundai, has announced within the next two years they will be using them for the light source for their headlights in future models.

I can only think that they have some knowledge of more powerful lights and that 5 of the 7 watt Luxeon would make quite a impact on the road.

There are technological knockoffs from the Red Storm and you can see them first as tactical flashlights. Can't wait to see these lights on aftermarket parts (although not as a turn signal!).

Here is one URL of one outfit from Hong Kong on eBay: http://search.ebay.com/search/search...sass=shouji_hk