Dashboard lighting circuit

[joeallenpro]

I'm adding some lights...

I've put LED footwell lights in successfully - the front dome lights have extremely handy exposed connections to hook some wiring onto, so I have some 12V LED strips that fade on and off with the dome lights when the doors open / unlock etc (was very easy with a pair of crocodile clips)

I'm now trying to hook up some more 12V LEDs to the dashboard lighting circuit... Is there any easy spot to hook onto?? I'm trying to avoid cutting or soldering any of the original cabling.

Does anyone know if the LEDs for the electric window switches are 12V?

I will reward with pics and a quick how-to once I'm done

[joeallenpro]

I was thinking of jumping onto the bulb behind the cigarette lighter ring, that should hopefully do the trick...

Does anybody know how to get to that bulb?

Thanks

[jimbo_tdi]

Hiya buddy, do you mind taking some pics of where you connected the LEDs to the dome light? I can't figure it out for the life of me!

[joeallenpro]

Yeah I'll take some pictures on Saturday but I'll try explaining...

First, get to the main dome, you'll notice that all of the bulbs just twist into position on metal mounts.

Thome metal mounts are the contacts for the bulbs, so essentially all you have to do is have your wires touching those mounts.

An easy way of doing it is just connecting to the mounts for the center bulb, that way your LEDs will fade on and off with the dome.

Of course make sure you have positive and negative the correct way round, and be careful not to short out any of the other contacts, it's a bit of a maze.

[joeallenpro]

Here you go...



I've connected the negative (black) to the negative contact for the center bulb.
Then the positive (red) to the positive of the driver's reading light bulb.

By doing it this way, they're easy spots to hook crocodile clips onto, and the LEDs will fade on and off with the dome... Opening/closing the doors, or locking/unlocking the car. Also switching the dome lights on using the large switch will also turn on the LEDs.

I've managed to connect LEDs in both the front & back footwells. Each footwell uses a 12v strip of 6 SMD LEDs