DIY: door handle LEDs
#124
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Originally Posted by friskoplayer
many kids these day can afford anything. kids with a ps3. wii xbox 360 computer.. btw..rc cars aint 1000.
#125
Prick of the month
^^True, a friend of mine has a couple R/C cars and an R/C heli that he's put some money into that are pretty damn fast. These things run on a gas/oil mix too, you can upgrade the motors and tweak the fuel pumps, even different tires and wheels.
#128
i got my gas rc car when i was a kid. it doesnt cost 1k. it only cost 1k is because you want the stores to build it for you it cost me $250 if you build it yourself. and mines probably faster than yours. mines went 50 mph. and this is a car forum why are u discussing how to put LED onto your rc car. its a totally different concept. go to some rc forum and ask
#132
ZK.TBK.SCR.BIA.X408
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sooo in essence you could do this same procedure and fashion two rods from your blinds, a little work with the dremel and have some homemade LED side mirror blinkers? just tap it to the wire that goes to your blinkers and your all set. right?
#133
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I have now completed this installation and I wanted to point out a few things to anyone trying this. First off the write up from CaliChris it great, and very detailed so wicked job. I wanted to mention a few points.
By making the modification you are turning on the interior door lights on both driver and passenger door. This is why the resulting fuse blew as the lights on each door draw approximately 1-2 amps. Add that with your interior light and voila. The current draw on these LED's with a resistor as low as 470ohm (assuming 14.4V) is max 3 milli-amp each. This means 4 LEDS would be max of 12 miliamps ( or 12/1000th) of an amp. This is less than your radio uses on standby.
Secondly I would suggest you look to adjust/change the bulb in the doors or interior light to one of an LED fashion to lower the overall current. Fuse ratings are set by ACURA based on not only the load but the wire they specify. They use a smaller wire on lower current circuits as its always cheaper. Although you may think 2 lights loading on this is minimal, this resulting current increase easily overload the wire and cause a fire. Same logic you use in your house wiring, you never put a larger fuse on and existing circuit or you can have big fire.
Also as with any wiring project I would suggest adding an inline fuse at minimum from the dome trigger you tap into. If the wire you have run to either the connectors or inside the door shorts out you could seriously damage your wiring harness and againt risk a fire.
I personally have run my power from a new circuity with a simple 5A 12v Relay as not to load the dome circuit. Also if you wire the LED resistors right after the fuse after the dome trigger you make it wiring better as any short circuits downstream of the connection (door or otherwise) will be limited by the current of the resistor and cant damage wires etc.
Lastly I also couldnt get the wires to run cleanly through the side without any rubbing no matter how hard I tried. The clearance wasnt there. What I did was drill a hold inside the door in between the two rubber bumb stops. This allowed the wire to still go through the side and be mounted out of sight but to run free and clear. I hope to be posting a pic shortly on this.
Thanks again for the great DIY, no one in my area has this sort of mod so its sweet.
By making the modification you are turning on the interior door lights on both driver and passenger door. This is why the resulting fuse blew as the lights on each door draw approximately 1-2 amps. Add that with your interior light and voila. The current draw on these LED's with a resistor as low as 470ohm (assuming 14.4V) is max 3 milli-amp each. This means 4 LEDS would be max of 12 miliamps ( or 12/1000th) of an amp. This is less than your radio uses on standby.
Secondly I would suggest you look to adjust/change the bulb in the doors or interior light to one of an LED fashion to lower the overall current. Fuse ratings are set by ACURA based on not only the load but the wire they specify. They use a smaller wire on lower current circuits as its always cheaper. Although you may think 2 lights loading on this is minimal, this resulting current increase easily overload the wire and cause a fire. Same logic you use in your house wiring, you never put a larger fuse on and existing circuit or you can have big fire.
Also as with any wiring project I would suggest adding an inline fuse at minimum from the dome trigger you tap into. If the wire you have run to either the connectors or inside the door shorts out you could seriously damage your wiring harness and againt risk a fire.
I personally have run my power from a new circuity with a simple 5A 12v Relay as not to load the dome circuit. Also if you wire the LED resistors right after the fuse after the dome trigger you make it wiring better as any short circuits downstream of the connection (door or otherwise) will be limited by the current of the resistor and cant damage wires etc.
Lastly I also couldnt get the wires to run cleanly through the side without any rubbing no matter how hard I tried. The clearance wasnt there. What I did was drill a hold inside the door in between the two rubber bumb stops. This allowed the wire to still go through the side and be mounted out of sight but to run free and clear. I hope to be posting a pic shortly on this.
Thanks again for the great DIY, no one in my area has this sort of mod so its sweet.
#134
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aight soo if anyone knows which chord goes to the blinker i'd greatly appreciate a little help, Im going to tap the led in the door to the the overhead lights and the blinker and see how it works out.
#135
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Wow, how do you guys figure this stuff out? Seriously impressed.
Couple questions:
Ebayed some LEDS: http://cgi.ebay.com/100X-UltraBright...QQcmdZViewItem
-100 10,000mcd Ultra bright white LCDs with resistors. Pretty sure this is what I want right?
-Do I need to do anything specific to my battery before doing this, seems like some guys recommend unhooking it... I really don't want to electrocute myself... or more importantly ruin my car
-Do I need to get different fuses, like the 10amp one?
-Can someone elaborate on the process behind "Tapping" into the existing wires. I understand the basic idea behind it... I just don't know how to tap wires... or how to wire wires to other wires/dome trigger (?).
I'm pretty determined to do this mod. But if you guys think that maybe this is out of my league, I'm happy to listen. I know my limitations. sort of...
Thanks, jp
Couple questions:
Ebayed some LEDS: http://cgi.ebay.com/100X-UltraBright...QQcmdZViewItem
-100 10,000mcd Ultra bright white LCDs with resistors. Pretty sure this is what I want right?
-Do I need to do anything specific to my battery before doing this, seems like some guys recommend unhooking it... I really don't want to electrocute myself... or more importantly ruin my car
-Do I need to get different fuses, like the 10amp one?
-Can someone elaborate on the process behind "Tapping" into the existing wires. I understand the basic idea behind it... I just don't know how to tap wires... or how to wire wires to other wires/dome trigger (?).
I'm pretty determined to do this mod. But if you guys think that maybe this is out of my league, I'm happy to listen. I know my limitations. sort of...
Thanks, jp
#137
Simple, yet complicated.
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OK I have went over this DIY 10 times but for some reason my LEDS only work when i open the door, i have tapped in to the correct wires, anyone help WTF?
#138
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I think i figured it out. The Wiring in the CL and the TL are different. ANy CL owers do this mod? Anywho working on figuring what needs to be different for the CL should have it figured after work will post results.
#141
lowrider
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Originally Posted by BOSSIN$TL
aight soo if anyone knows which chord goes to the blinker i'd greatly appreciate a little help, Im going to tap the led in the door to the the overhead lights and the blinker and see how it works out.
#142
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Can't i just wire it directly to the dome light? i mean if i figure out a way to run a tap straight from the dome light to the doors can this work?
OR can i use a fuse tap (http://www.nocablezone.com/images/fuse.jpg) and tap the fuse for the domelight??
OR can i use a fuse tap (http://www.nocablezone.com/images/fuse.jpg) and tap the fuse for the domelight??
Last edited by nayaab88; 08-24-2008 at 03:47 AM.
#143
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That looks amazing!!! i was wondering how easy is it to have these door handle LED's connected to the blinkers?? that way they're like side markers.
has anyone tried it yet? can anyone make a D.I.Y for linking them to the blinkers...that would be very helpful.
has anyone tried it yet? can anyone make a D.I.Y for linking them to the blinkers...that would be very helpful.
#145
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I know the resistor is to reduce power going to the l.e.d. Instead of having to go through all that soldering couldn't you have just put a higher reister on the main powerline ? Yes I know you would still need to change the bulbs but this would eliminate it?
#147
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so why do u need to tap into the driver side? I tough the wires from the driver side connect to the passenger side. so why tap the driver side? what to tap.?
#149
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leds dont go all the way off
hi i have this mod done and was working perfectly until i replaced the interior bulbs with leds also. now the door handle leds and the leds on the inside of the doors dont go all the way off but have a faint glow even when they should be completely off. did i screw something up or do i just need to put a load resistor in there somewhere? i dont want my battery going dead, yeah i know leds barely sip power but sometimes i go a week or two without driving my car.
#150
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I am finding one part of the DIY confusing. Why am I tapping into each door light? Shouldn't I just run the wires to each door handle LED, and have them all connect and then just tap once into the dome light? I don't understand why I need to individually tap into the door lights? Also can I just run all the lines connected to a fuse tap in the dome light spot?
#151
'13 Hyundai Sonata
They all need to be connected to the wire because if they aren't then you won't get power to them. Also they all will come on when you unlock your doors.
#152
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Yea I got that. I just don't see why i'm tapping wires on both sides of the car? Wouldn't it be less work to wire all the LED wires together and then only tap the dome light once?
#153
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After rereading the instructions for the tenth time, I can only conclude that the DIY lists 2 different ways to wire these lights. Either by tapping into the door lights (first method shown), or tapping directly into the dome light (second method shown), can anyone confirm this for me? I don't want to end up tapping into more wires than I have too.
#154
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1134 don't do it that way.... I made that mistake and it cost me $300 for a new fuse module. I'm scared to even try it again. It looked cool when I had the 3 lights working until I blew it when I connected the 4th. Take the time connect the left side to the drivers side and the right to the passenger side, I connected it all to the passenger side not knowing that the driver side had it to, make sure you disconnect the battery if your wires touch it will blow the fuse, but when I did that I caused my dome light to stay on thats when i found out that I blew the module
#155
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1134 don't do it that way.... I made that mistake and it cost me $300 for a new fuse module. I'm scared to even try it again. It looked cool when I had the 3 lights working until I blew it when I connected the 4th. Take the time connect the left side to the drivers side and the right to the passenger side, I connected it all to the passenger side not knowing that the driver side had it to, make sure you disconnect the battery if your wires touch it will blow the fuse, but when I did that I caused my dome light to stay on thats when i found out that I blew the module
#158
Great idea and job! looks great!
I'll share some of my "learning's" with my TL!
I'll share some of my "learning's" with my TL!
#160
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this is a rough guess here an would like this to be verified but, i think you have your power hooked up to the wrong fuse. check the diagram on the fuse box and make sure your power is hooked up to the dome light one.