dimming interior led's?

[Big_T]

hello guys, i am adding dimmable led's to the floor of my car and going to wire them into the door jamb switch so my headlamp and the led's will glow blue when the doors open. my question to everyone is... do you know of a relay or a switch that will automatically dim the lights on when i open my door and dim them off when i close my door without having to manually dim them?

 

[ttocs]

all you need to do is hit the right wire and they will come on/off with the doors. I have door-sills that light up and I added a switch so I can turn them off if the door is going to be open for a while but its not normally needed.

 

[greenscobie86]

Scott, Which wires did you use in your car? If you wouldn't mind sharing.

 

[Big_T]

i dont only want them on or off, i know i can tap into the right wire, but i want them to dim on and dim off. so i was thinking i might have to wire in a dimming relay or something. so when i open my door the lights all dim on. and when i close the door the lights dim off.

 

[ttocs]

When I get my car back from the shop today I will try to pry myself away from playing with the new suspension system and see what wires I hit. As for the dimming I am not sure where to send you for that. Never heard of a dimming relay/switch.

 

[greenscobie86]

thank you!!!!! OP, sorry for the OT post.

 

[KillNThrill24]

Scott for the dimming do you think he could wire it in with the actual interior dim switch?

 

[CC'S95GT]

I think what he means is on newer/nicer cars interior lights slowly go from dim to bright when you open the door and vice versa when you close the door.
Unfortunately I don't know if that is a seperate module or a part of the computer program.

 

[KillNThrill24]

^good call i misread that. yeah sounds like he would definitely have to add in a dimming relay. maybe looking at a newer cars wiring harness online would help him in his quest for dimming lights

 

[Big_T]

yes thats what im talking about, and im not to sure how the newer cars do it but i can only assume i would need a dimming relay. just was wondering if anyone out there has done it and if so, how?!

 

[ttocs]

thank you!!!!! OP, sorry for the OT post.

The shops lift had an issue so they didn't get to finish it. They hope to fix the lift monday and get the car back to me tues/wed.

after some thought on dimming the light off it can probably be done with a capicitor and possibly a resistor. I did some searching for 12v dimming relay and could not find anything that was made as a universal part that can go in any car. It would take modifying the part to make it work.

I have access to another site that I am willing to bet I can find my answer. If they don't know your SOL from me. Let me try there and see what I can come back with.

 

[greenscobie86]

Thanks again Scott, much appreciated. Patiently waiting...

 

[ttocs]

ok well the dimming when it turns off will not be a problem. All you need to do is add a capacitor to the circuit and it will hold a small charge after power is cut. That charge will be burned off slowly by the leds as they dim while the voltage drops to 0 the way you want. The number of lights you are running will determin the size cap needed to give them the time to dim that you want.

Now to slowly light up I am waiting for a reply but it should be as simple as adding a resistor to the cap so that it limits the current fed to the cap while it slowly charges. We/you might need to play with the cap/resistor values to get the effect you want but we are talking about $5-10 in parts really. If you figure out how many leds it will power once I am out of the hospital and dig out my old tech-school tool box and componant kit to do some testing to see which values you would need to use to get the effect you want.

 

[ttocs]

you can always do this.

http://pcbheaven.com/circuitpages/LED_Fade_In_Fade_Out_Dimmer/

 

[Big_T]

so its looking like im going to have to make my own circuit board and just plug in all the courtesy led's im going to install and the normal dome light into the board as well as the door jamb switch, and just hide it in the door panel or kick panel somewhere. this should be interesting....

 

[ttocs]

door panel? I have no idea why you would want to put it in there as the 1rst thing that means is you get to pull a wire though to the cabin through one of those little rubber boots. between the door and cabin. Its generally a pain in the ass and really just not needed. Plent of room either down in the kick panels or behind the dash.

 

[Big_T]

like mentioned before, do you know which wire leads from the dome light to the door jamb switch b/c as my car stands now, my dome light is always on and i think its due to faulty wiring b/c my door chime works so i know my door jamb switch is working fine. so if i know what wire leads to the dome light i can look into the wiring... thanks!

 

[ttocs]

oh I missed that it would not turn off. There should be 3 wires that can turn it on if I remember correctly, one from each door as well as the headlight switch.

Pretty sure if you open your door and look up by the hinge you will see a small black button on the door that when the door is open will turn on the light. I have seen before where either something got wedged in there and it either broke the switch or can sometimes get pushed into the door. Take a look at the switch and see if it is intact and if you can push it in and if you do does the light do anything? If everything looks good there then check the passenger door for the same button.

If it looks to be intact and working like the doors, finally you have the headlight switch. Don't be offended by me asking a stupid question but we need to start simple. You don't have the headlight knob turned all the way to the right to make the dash as bright as it can get do you? If so try turning the knob counter clockwise half a turn and see what happens. If that is not the case then I would recomend pulling out the gauges shrowd to expost the headlight switch and the wiring for it. These switches have been known to get hot and fail in some cases to first just check it out to see if it has any areas melted or smells like it has been too hot.

Again I am in the hospital and do not have access to the wire colors off hand. I will see if a friend has access to his color codes but otherwise it will be tues/wed at the earliest I would be able to do much.

 

[Big_T]

well im sry to hear your in the hospital, i hope you get better soon.

but for starters my headlight switch is brand new. one of the first things i bought for the car when i got it. so that works fine and isnt switched on. the passanger door was replaced therefor not having one of those switches but didnt think it should effect it because from what my friend told me (the previous owner of the car) that he opend his door one day and the light came on but then just never turned off so his fix was simply taking out the dome light.

i have a feeling my door jamb switch is good because when i open the door the door chime works fine. i can only assume that the chime and the dome light are wired nearly the same which brings me to my other point that the passenger door having lack of the door jamb switch wouldn't set the light off because if you open my passenger door it doesnt chime. correct me if im wrong please. so i can only assume that maybe the domelight wiring broke somewhere or fell out of the pin, which happend to my side mirror switch. lol