Center Console LED Install DIY

Center Console LED Install DIY

You dont need much to do this DIY. Follow the one for changing the color of your bulbs to see how to access the lites.


I am assuming that you have already taken your center console apart and have removed the 2 bulbs.

Get yourself the LED's that you want. I wanted blue and paid TOO much for the 4 that I bought. If you can find a cheaper place then great!




Grab the lite out of the package and solder the proper size resitor to one of the leads. I used a 1.1Kohm resistor. My math said I needed 1Kohm to get 20ma.




I used a dremel tool with a wheel grinder to shave off th head of the LED, this was to widen the beam pattern in hopes of lighting the whole console up.




Next you will need to remove the bulb fromn its base. Its pretty simple to do, just iuse a very small screwdriver and pry the wires up. Then you will see how they wrap around the base of the light. After you have that off the light will oull straight out. If you painted them before like me, you will have to use some good force. the paint helps hold it in place.





Now that you have the lite out, just put your resistor/LED combo back in the whole and wrap the leads around the base oposite of how you just took them off.




The leads will be much thicker than the other lite had, so you will want to flatten them on there good with some pliers. Otherwise you will have a hard time getting it back in the socket.






Now just plug them back in where you took then out of. You will want to feed them in nice and easy, After you have it in before you turn then to lock them in place, turn on the light and push from the back. If the LED does NOT light up, you will want to rotate it 180 degrees to get the polarity right. Check it again to see if it lights. If it does then tighten it up and close it all up.











Here is the night pics with them on. As you can see I need to point the bulbs to the outside edge to light them up nice. I plan on soldering a 3rd bulb in the middle to light up the fan switch. You can all figure out your own way to do that. At least this way you can see what is possible.







Finishing notes:

It appears to have a hot spot on the temp dial. That is only the camera. It actually lights up pretty well. I just need to add that 3rd light to finish it off. I am also looking for low profiule ones I can use to do the buttons as well. If you want to do this in any color other than blue or white it can actually be done VERY cheap! Red LED's can be had for under $1 each. Blue ones are usually around $3 - $5.

This is a VERY rough and fast DIY. If anyone wishes to correct it that is fine. ALso Meth can upload the pics to the server so I can put it in the DIY section next weekend.


Also keep a look out for when I change the color of my CD player to blue as well. That will happen as soon as I find a cheaper LED supplier.
Anyone with info or that can help in that area can Email me.

http://autolumination.com/index.html

pretty cool!!!! So flattening the top with a dremel does make the beam pattern a lto more even and better?

so basically is the resistor gonna be the same for all cars, since it should be the same bulbs and current

If your LED is the same specs as the one I used then yes the resitor should be the same as well.

looking good. but i ened up using a slightly larger rebular bulb for my install and it really lights up good now. did you try adding a larger bulb instead of the led. are you going to change the other bulbs too or just the two center bulbs.

ok so i need to get it down to 20mA basically? this is a good mod but the blue ones cost so much, i'll see if i can find em cheap around here, they were like $2 a piece when i saw last

stinky- why not use a wedge bulb curious. and did ytou cjeck out that link yet? they have a lot of LED everything I think. check it out theymight have what you are looking for.

if not sorry for the waste of time adn search

You cant use a wedge bulb, they dont fit. And I didnt want a bigger bulb I wanted an LED blue color. I had painted blue bulbs but now compared to my LEDS they look almost green. I also have LED's under my front dash lighting the floor up. Actually they are my old washer nozzle led things.

Anyway I am planning on swapping ALL my lights out for leds as soon as I find smaller blue ones. I wish I liked red coz it would be A LOT cheaper to do this for, but I prefer blue!

Also that site didnt have ANY leds in raw form. I dont want to pay somebody else to make somthing I can do. So unless they have the exact bulb that I needed for the same or less than what it cost to do myself. I would rather just do it myself.

If you want cheap Blue LED's then check these out.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3042578669&category=294

They dont look soldered or anything, and you would still need your 1kohm resitor to run them on 12 volts. But you can get 25 of them for $25, thats $1 each! Plsu whatever shipping is. If anyone buys them let me know. Ill buy some leds off you for $1.59 each then.

Or you can get these I guess too!

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3044835411&category=294


I would buy them myself but shipping to Canada usually KILLS Me. By the time I paid all that I am better off getting them for $5 each from my store here.

Hey Stinky I was wondering if there is a name for the size bulb you use behind the air conditioning dials? I haven't even been able to get the stock bulbs from the Toyota dealership here because I accidentally broke one of the stock bulbs (the larger sized one) and radioshack doesn't carry anything that big. Can you recommend any good sites or ANYWHERE online where I can find the blue LEDs?

I dont know what the name or size is for any of those smaller bulbs. If you wanted you could actuallty wire a christmas light to work in there. Just wrap the wires aourn like I show in this DIY. Or jest get yourself some LED's from the auctions above!

got a question, if i wanna put an led for each of the knobs, i figured out how to hoook up three led's in series, so can i just use the power source from the left side bulb and ground it all the way to the right side bulb? the image below shows what i wanna do.

Are you sure you're going to use 3.33 volt LEDs??? I've never seen them, but they may exist. As you've drawn it, you'll get 44 mA of current which will blow them. You'll need a bigger resistor. Use this formula to calculate the resistance you need:

R = ( 14.4 - (n x Vled) ) / Aled,

R is the resistance in kilohms, n is the number of LEDs you want to run in series, Vled is the LED voltage (Volts) and Aled is the LED current (in milliamps). For example if you run three 3.2 volt LEDs rated at 10 mA, the required resistance will be:

( 14.4 - (3 x 3.2) ) / 10 = 0.48 kilohms = 480 ohms

the leds can handle up to 3.8 volts, and i went to this site,
http://metku.net/index.html?sect=view&n=1&path=mods/ledcalc/index_eng
and their calculator is right. i need 20mA of current through each and in order to use a 100Ohm resistor, it will send 3.3 volts through it. remember these are in series, so it works fine. i'll chek my math again, and run it thru someone else. also isnt the battery only supplying 12 volts, not 14.4. your formula is correct, so it would just be dependend on how much voltage is being supplied by the car

yea but the design should be fine right, because i need all three led's or the center knob will be really dark. but theres really no knowing until i try it. i might try it this weekend. oh yea, i got plenty of led's if anyone needs to buy some, PM me.

just answered my own question, the design works. i hooked up a breadboard using a cigarette lighter cord, with bare ends. so i had 100Ohm resistor, 3 leds in series and it worked fine. bright as fuck.

The battery supplies about 12.6 volts, but the alternator output is closer to 14.4. If you use 12 volts in your calculation you'll get more current than you want when the engine's running. What is the voltage rating on the LEDs? Is it 3.8 or 3.3? It's not something you calculate - it's specified by the manufacturer.

Assuming it's a 3.8 volt LED and you use a 100 ohms resistor, when the car is running you'll get 30 mA of current. Can the LEDs handle that - again the maximum current is specified by the manufacturer. If you exceed the rated current they will be very bright, but they will fail sooner or later.

ok the max current is 20mA and the voltage is from 2.8V to 3.8V. So the power supplied when the car is on is 14.4 volts? Are u sure? Cause then i'll change my resistor. I assumed it was always 12, but forgot to take into account when the engines on, its different. thanks for letting me know its different, or else i would have put them in an poof.

Yes. It might not be quite that high, but more than 12 for sure. I'll try measuring mine tonight.

It's important to know the forward voltage of the LED - it's not a range, just a single number. LEDs aren't like resistors. A small change in voltage will result in a large change in current. Do you have any information on the LED? A part number and manufacturer perhaps?

no i got em from my uncle, he has connections, but thats what he gave me as the forward voltage. the reverse voltage is 5V, but i think the max voltage is 3.8V, and thats what i'm gonna plan on running it at. the luminous intensity is 4000mcd at 20mA. so i just need the voltage coming out of the car and i'll be set

If you have a 1 kiloohm resistor (or anything between 600 and 2000 ohms) and a voltmeter, hook up one LED with the resistor and measure the voltage across the resistor. That will be approximately the forward voltage.

yea i'll measure once i find where my meter is. but i emailed my uncle, he said the range is correct, but if i'm using it in a car, he said use 3.5 volts in my calculating the values. also whats the worst i can do, blow the led or the fuse? its all good, i guess. thanks for the help oxymoron

check my car domain i did mine a different way...i took the dash lights u can buy at like walmart or a ricer store and taped it in the console......then i ran the wire in the dash to the out side where i have a 3 plug unit so yea iono i got lazy zero took the picture for me when we had the sf meet

If people are interested I'm selling LED's, free shipping to Canada and the States. 5 for $7.50 CDN, or 10 for 12.50CDN, other quantities too. Each LED is individually tested and includes the necessary resitor to run it from 12V.

I have white LED's and Blue LED's

Blue:
SOURCE MATERIAL:InGaN
EMITTING COLOUR:BLUE
MCD:5000 TYPICAL/6000MAX
REVERSE VOLTAGE:5.0 V
DC FORWARD VOLTAGE:3.3V TYPICAL
DC FORWARD CURRENT:20~30mA

White:
EMITTING COLOUR:White
LUMINOUS INTENSITY-MCD:7000 TYPICAL/8000MAX
REVERSE VOLTAGE:5.0 V
DC FORWARD VOLTAGE:3.3V TYPICAL
DC FORWARD CURRENT:20~30mA

Scott

how about red, if you have AOL Instant messener or MSN, drop me a line i have a few other questions as well otherwise i'm interested in the Red ones

I can only see one picture oin your website?

Also is anyone able to change the color of the central digital clock?

can i use these led??
http://www.radioshack.com/product.a..._name=CTLG_011_006_002_000&product_id=276-316

will these be the same? or i should buy resistors also??