Installing LED Strip lights

[masonlvvy]

hi,guys,

I'm putting some LED strip light in my car and I'm new to this so I need some help. Here's my set up: I will have 3 different circuits; under my dash and under my seats (4 strips), all 4 doors (4 strips), and my trunk (2 strips). I want the ones under my dash and seats wired into my gauge lights. I want the ones under the doors wired so that they come on when i open the doors. I want the ones in my trunk wired into my trunk light. They are RGB with a remote so i will have to included an IR sensor in each circuit. I also want to include an override switch for each circuit that will allow me to turn them on, off, or allow the electrical system to control them. Each circuit will be fused, what size should i use? What all do i need for this and how exactly do i do it? What kind of override switch do i need? Do i need capacitors? Do I need resistors?

Thanks.

 

[ttocs]

we need the year of your car to know what wire colors to recomend. Understand that you NEED to test EVERY wire to be sure its the correct wire prior to hooking into circuits that some random dude on the net told you to do. This is really true for any wire you are tapping and with 15 yrs in the install biz I can swear to you I always have checked any wire I was connecting too.

No there is no need for resistors or capacitors. The over-ride switch is just a switch, nothing special. There are a bunch of different types but honestly any type would work. Find a style/color/size you like and we can tell you what to connect too.

As for fuses that will depend on what you bought. Somewhere one the unit or in the instructions there should be a Current rating in either amperage or millamps(A mA) or a fuse as well. Take the current ratings that you find and multiply them by the number of strips you are connecting too. So if you see they have a max current rating of 3 amps and you are hooking 4 of them up you need a 12 amp fuse. you will not find a 12A fuse but in reality a 10A will do just fine as they should not be drawing much current at all.

 

[joekd]

Override switch isn't needed if you simply tap into your OEM dome light wire for the power feed, this way they turn on with the doors and if you turn the light switch all the way, this is how I wired my footwell LED's

As for the trunk I simply tapped into the OEM switch there also

 

[ttocs]

I have lighted door sills that light up with the doors as well but still have a switch I there so I can turn it off for long times when I have the door open. Mine is mainly because the sills light up through an electro-luminescent strip that is driven off of an inductor that can get hot if left on for too long.