Adding more lights to come on when doors are open?

[guccimane]

so I have a 2000 Camry LE and I want to mod in some 12v LEDs to come on when door(s) are open/ajar.

I want to put the LEDs where the passenger and drive put their feet. So where do I splice in the LEDs to?

I was thinking of potentially hooking it into the dome light, but wiring it all the way up there through the roof would be a PITA no doubt. so are there any circuits near the glove box or something (perhaps behind the center/radio console?) where I can hook up these 12V LEDs?

Thanks for any advice! i just need to know where/what wires to hook them up to!

[carsrus]

You it hit right on the spot. Get some tubes or strips and wire them on the dome circuit. Its do-able and the best effect would be to wire to the dome.

Take off the dome lens and youll see what I mean. Its a multi ground setup and if you want the strips to come on with the door opening you'll need straight 12v(from anywhere) and ground from the door switch.

[Mister_Perkins]

Cool idea I think that would look neat

[DM616]

I think it would be easier to just tap into each door switch jamb for the ground and the power be a fuse. I do not know what color the wire is, but it might be red after looking at some diagram...

[xpeed]

I've tried this when I tried to install some LEDs for puddle lights. Let's just say, after opening the doors, jambs, and headliner, I gave up. 4 hours of trying to figure out for a small puddle light wasn't worth the time for me. I hope you have better luck.

[Chris Crash]

I would just pull off the trim piece that the seatbelt goes behind on the drivers side and tap into the dome light circuit there.

[guccimane]

hey yall, sorry for the lack of response to this thread by me, but I think you all will be impressed with how I'm planning on doing it now after brainstorming with my buddies:

(this is essentially a copy and paste of the response I sent to a dude who PMd me inquiring about the project when I posted this thread back in June):

this project idea has been changed a bit (for the better)

basically, now I want to have a strip of red LEDs on constant brightness all the time, so they'll slowly become more and more noticeable as it gets dark. they'll be in the footwells, by the way, just like the white LED strips.

as for the white LED strips, I want those to come on gradually (to 100% brightness over about ~2 seconds) when a door is ajar and come on to instant brightness when the dome light is turned on manually.

I may just have both manual and door "turn ons" come on gradually, however, because I'm 99% certain having a separate startup style for each of the two functions would be too complex of a circuit/wiring job.

in addition, I'll try and make the red LEDs shut off when the white ones come on. Not sure how I'll do that, though, but I'll probably need some serious circuit design help. maybe a relay is what I need? not sure.

I'll post updates to TN when I do it, though. I'm out in Utah right now (and hence away from my Camry) till August 2nd, so it'll hopefully be within the first few weeks of August I get it done.

and if anyone's curious, I plan on making a distribution block out of a screw terminal strip like so. I'll kind of 'jumper' the respective rows to have them conduct across the length of the strip. this is gonna be fun and will hopefully look really cool.

Any suggestions or ideas for improvements or implementation? I'm all ears

[BoyBlue]

All i can say is Good Luck and you better make a DIY cuz i tried and failed at this LOL!

[guccimane]

Originally Posted by BoyBlue

All i can say is Good Luck and you better make a DIY cuz i tried and failed at this LOL!

thanks man!

for reference, here's how I plan on getting the reds to turn off when the whites are on: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/34749650/how...ds%20setup.pdf

all i'm using is a simple 12VDC SPDT automotive relay. now we'll have to see if this actually works in reality, though it should work without a problem.

i'll update this thread again when I'm starting to work on it and maybe do up a DIY guide

[Silent Runner]

I'll throw in a warning when wiring into your dome and/or other interior lighting circuits for the car. Be carefull about how much current they draw, and how well insulated and isolated your wiring is from the existing systems. I wired LED's into my dome light to increase its lighting level. It handled the LED's just fine, but heat from the stock bulb melted some insulation and shorted the LED wiring to ground. This burned out not only a fuse, but also my Integration Relay (fades the interior lights out), which was a bit tough to figure out and repair. This "Integration Relay" has power draw limitations and can easily be burned out by adding even a relatively small additional amount of current (burned out another one adding a slightly brighter bulb). Still, I like the idea, and I still want to add some interior lighting details to my own Camry.

[pmesfun]

^+1 Be careful, I blew out the Headlight ON circuit in the integration relay a couple years ago, still haven't got around to replacing it because the AUTO mode still works. Good luck.