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***EDIT***
(MORE PICS HAVE BEEN ADDED TO THE THREAD)
The power to activate the relay comes from the trunk release switch light only because as long as the dash lights up whether its because the doors have been opened or that the headlights are on, my ambient lighting will light up.
I bought a harness from ebay that contained the front LEDS and the rear LEDS, its from a ford flex i think (doesnt matter what its from I just needed the LEDs)
I also bought the lens covers from ebay that snap into the back of the console and then snap into the LED.
I also have the cup holder ring! the only thing thats not factory about this install is the controller and of course the wiring to power it up. i am using a relay and tapped into an illumination wire in the console (tried park light wire but it wasnt working for me at all)
I can set it to the ice blue to match the car, but in this pic its just set to blue. I can dim it also - however this pic was taken with a very slow shutter speed to enhance all the lighting so it looks super bright.
if you do this without the ford controller and use your own with the ford LED lights, remember it has to be a "common cathode" rgb controller and not "common anode" - MOST LED lighting i seem to find is common anode.
The biggest problem im having right now is that when i start the car, there seems to be a voltage spike causing my controller to reset and turn red instead of stay where i left it. So I'm going to try a relay with a resistor.
the controller is a tiny little box that is zip tied up under the dash, and has a little black IR sensor (its very small, TINY is more of the word) that sticks out just far enough so that the remote can see it.
im having trouble tho, the wire im using to power the relay is not strong enough, i really need to use the park light wire, but using the park light wire from the switch is not working at all!
anyone know of a good wire to use so when the interior lights turn on when i open doors or when the park/head lamps are on?
i would tap into the overhead/map lights or radio harness. i think the parking light wire in the switch is only a negative trigger for the SJB.
if i overhead lights it wont turn on when i turn the park lamps on and would only work when i open the doors..
you think maybe the wire at the SJB would be better than off the switch? I dont know what difference it would make, i woudlnt expect it to make a difference at all tho.
what i figured out is, the buzzing is happening when the dash lights are lit for daytime. which means BARELY lit.. so the relay doesnt get enough power, this is due to the sensor that says "okay its daylight , no need to go full power" so then as soon as i pull into the garage, it clicks on.
So with that said, at night time this is a perfect place to get power from to power the relay because its on when i open the doors, on when headlights are on, etc (as long as its night time)
I was thinking of adding the dome light 12v to the same relay as well, but adding a diode to each of the 2 wires feeding the relay trigger wires that way when the dome is on, it wont be trying to force power back up to the dash lights and vice versa, so that way even in the day time this relay gets enough power to click on when i open the doors in the daytime..
probably doesnt make any sense for what ive just written out but oh well.
just gotta find the right diode to use for these wires and I should be good to go!
1N4001 or 1n4004? can anyone make any recommendation?
i have the gt500 door panels which already had the LED built into it, I just wired it.
I'll update my pic maybe tonight, ive also got the lit door sills.
I used the ford wire harness's with the LED's from ford but wired them into a controller i bought on ebay for 8$
just keep in mind that FORD's LED's are COMMON CATHODE and MOST controllers will be COMMON ANODE so its VERY important that you get the same controller to match your LED's
if you use your own LED's or LED strip or whatever, chances are they will be common anode, so you then just need a common anode rbg controller.
I can set my lights to any color combination i want, more than the 7 colors ford offers, but i would have liked to of had it all done when i bought the car.
Cool! thanks for the tip DJ. Thing is I dont really care to change the color. Im just going to add Blue LEDs to the doors and figure out where to wire them up to.
Cool! thanks for the tip DJ. Thing is I dont really care to change the color. Im just going to add Blue LEDs to the doors and figure out where to wire them up to.
Your work, looks really good!
Thanks!
its not so much that i care to change the colors, its that i can match up my dash and gauges perfectly! (however in the pic its just set to blue rather than ice blue or cyan)
2/11/14, 07:50 AM
