hi there, came across this site while in search of something, someone here might be able to help with, I want to make a custom interior blue LED bar for my car (underseat driver and another for underseat passenger) and for the front grill, I dont have a lot of experience with electronics, but if some one had a (detailed) :? plan on how to make something like a 10 to 15 LED bar for 12V power, maybe I could come up with a good customization....?
thanks in advance!

 

Excuse my ignorance but what would be the purpose of a blue light bar under the front seats? Insect control?? :?

 

your ignorance is excused, by the reply, you either don't have an import car, or just lacking some imagination (no offense intended), but to be a bit more detailed, my Talon has a factory lighting that goes under the dash to iluminate the bottom of the driver and passenger areas, so, if the ilumination is installed from the front border under the seat and properly aimed, it will give a very nice and custom illumination towards the pedals, dash controls and once again, properly aimed, the outside area of the vehicle so you can see what are you stepping out to as you exit the vehicle, (which you dont get with most vehicles), being that as factory, these vehicles don't have a dome light, (it's either the dome light or the nice sliding sun roof), so, i hope this has eased your mind, and stop thinking i have a master plan to globaly eradicate insects, anyways blue lighting looks better at night....thanks

 

Greetings "Gothicvega"

http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homep...Bowden/led.htm

The above link should be most usefull for a novice, though if you want something a little different might I suggest electroluminescent wire?
Often called "Glow" or "Neon" wire.
This is my little brothers Ford Mondeo ST24, glowire trim around the dashboard , E-L sheet light the door pockets and allthough it does not show very well on the pic the led's in the switch clusters on the door for the windows have also been changed to blue.

Attached Images

gw_132.jpg (69.0 KB, 243 views)

 

I am gratefull there is someone here with the will to help and I appretiate it, on a note, I had thought of the wire, also called "EL wire", but the light output is not enough, its mostly like to accent an area, LED is far more brighter and has more customizable applications, I tried to figure out the page link you sent me, but not realy sure how to complete this project, if it is not too much to ask someone here, what kind of (very bright - blue)LED's would I need for a 10 LED bar-and what resistors for them, i assume its one resistor per LED?, the soldering I pretty much can figure it out, just also, how to solder them in a series to were i just connect the hole thing to one power input (vehicle's 12 V) I plan on making three of these, one for driver side, passenger side and front grill ...if there is someone that could help, that would be great...consider it your day's good deed?...LOL

 

You can use one resistor per led but you can save money by connecting the leds into groups of two or three with only a single resistor the page
http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homep...Bowden/led.htm
will calculate the resistor value you require but it needs to know certain details about the led's themselves in order to work it out.
Who are you buying the led's from? post a link and I will have a look at the numbers for you.

 

truth be told, i have no idea where to get the LED's, i was thinking on getting them from radio shack or look for an online source, realy dont know if the blue LEDs come in diferent numbers, so i think i would look for some that would be the brightest, another option is i could get them from EBAY, they usually have lots of 6000 mcd units, unless you could give me a suggestion, and I would search for the LED in certain number?[/b]