Interior Lighting

[MrShadow]

G'Day,
I'm looking at installing some Neons and EL cable in the car, and would like them hooked up to the interior cabin lighting (the dimming circuit). James (ahb11m) knows what I'm doing, the rest of you can wait till the jobs done :P :P My questions are:

1) Does anybody know where the dimming control is? I'm hoping it's not actually in the light fitting in the roof, that'd really **** me as I'd have to run iwres from it, back down under the dash. Two words come to mind...

2) If it's not, can anybody tell me how to identify which wires these are. I'd like to tap into them under the dash, if possible. I've had a look, and as you can imagine, there's hundreds (OK, mabey not hundreds) of wires. It wouldn't be the "Cabin" fuse would it (ie "Cabin" only does the cabin light)? That'd make my life much easier.

3) How the f@&k do you get to the back of the fuse box? I just can't figure it out, mabey I'm just thick. Hmm, actually, I'm sure that's it. :lol:

[Dogo]

the cabin fuse is most likely before the dimmer. so not much use.

i think the dimmer is in the CPU. theres a topic on this somewhere - a search or a flick thru the Interior section would find it. i think it was the 'what have u done with ur interior lighting' topic.

as for how to get to the back of the fuse box ... i *think* the trim over that area has a few screws, then u need to remove the door sills as the plastic goes under them. then it should pull out - there may be a clip behind - i cant remember off hand but can check it out if u still need

[platypus]

1) **** that?
2) i said use the fuse box!
3) pull the panels harder!

what you really need to do is use a relay... but not too sure if it will be able to fade.... not overly important

sorry if it hadn't of rained i could of discussed it with you!!!!
either open up the fuse box, and tap into the wire that says cabin.... best way to double check the wire is to use your multimeter, second would be open the door and rmeove the cabin fuse... you will know quick smart when you hit it!!! make sure there is no V present when you close the door.... (or light fades anyway..)

there are things called fuse taps, you could dodgy it together with these... (they fit in with your fuse... dodgy style) or you could use a quick connect on the cabin fuse wiring... that would be my chosen point of contact

then run into a relay switch which will control your lights, without overloading your interior lights!!

[mrpayner]

Another person you can ask [when she comes back to ADSL land] is Kitty.. she has her lovely blue neons hooked into the dimming circuit..

AP

[Dogo]

at a guess i would expect the cabin fuse to sit before the relay that switches on the interior lights. because of that, if u tapped into the cabin fuse, make sure u run the ground back into the same circuit rather than grounding to chassis as u normally would.

i would still stick to the wires connecting to the cpu, as the plugs are easier to get to from memory than the fuse box.

[Dogo]

hunting thru wiring diags again. this time looking the the internal interconnecting diagram of the joint box.

looking at diagrams I-5 and T-2 I can see that the interior light runs +ve direct from the fuse, then it's -ve runs to the cpu ( with the switch/dimmer ) to ground.

so to have ur neons dim and go on/off etc with interior lights, do the same. power them with contstant -ve , then ground to that wire at the cpu.

with the kick panel trim removed, u should see a number plugs on the rear facing side ( the side covered in fuses ). at the top is a single horizontal plug, all the ones around it go vertically. ( the plug in question is J-10 ). u want the R/W wire. it should be in the middle

[platypus]

hunting thru wiring diags again. this time looking the the internal interconnecting diagram of the joint box.

damn mine only came with a glove box!

dogo, with that setup you'd be wanting to run a negative switching realay ya?
i was thinking that you could of course do the door switch, but then you don't get the full effect of the fade, and neons all turn off together etc

[JynX]

You dont need a relay and they tend to not like variable signals either.

Just tap a direct 12V source (fused ideally) and then run your ground wire to that wire dogo mentioned. The dimmer/switch will control the on/off state of your lighting. You may want to consider another switch so you can turn it on/off from the cabin as well.

[MrShadow]

Legendry guys, I love this forum. I'll check out the plugs etc tonight (borrow Mr Multimeter from work ). And I'll try and get into contact with Kitty.

So basically, take a +ve line from the Cabin fuse, run that through my Neons/EL cables, and run the ground to the CPU.

with the kick panel trim removed, u should see a number plugs on the rear facing side ( the side covered in fuses ). at the top is a single horizontal plug, all the ones around it go vertically. ( the plug in question is J-10 ). u want the R/W wire. it should be in the middle

Does that refer to the cable running into the CPU, or is that the +ve wire?

Once again, thanks!

[Dogo]

that wire is the one to the cpu. ie the one u run the neons' -ve to.

it'd be worth checking with a multimeter or a small bulb just to make sure that it works the way I think it does

i'd a bit concerned that if u run too much power into that line that it could blow the dimmer perhaps. i have no idea what it can handle.

the wiring diagrams also mention "Courtesy Lights". does any1 know if that would refer to the lights at the base of the doors ? there are also "Spot Lights" mentioned in here but i'd say they are the 2 circle lights in the roof.

[JynX]

Could be either the door lights or the roof lights. Spot lights could be roof lights or spotties in the frontbar.

Ergh.

[MrShadow]

i'd a bit concerned that if u run too much power into that line that it could blow the dimmer perhaps. i have no idea what it can handle.

Yes, that thought had crossed my mind as well. I suppose I could always design a circuit that detects when the door is open, when it is closed, and keep the lights on for 15 seconds after or so. That'd be a pain in the arse. How many neons is Kitty running, does anybody know?

[mrpayner]

Shes got 2 neons under the dash and bright blue LED's in the entry lights in the doors.. They stay on with the overhead light [also with blue LED's] and fade out after the default time....

AP

[MrShadow]

Cool. Does anybody know if CCFL's draw more power (amps) than Neons? I'd like to keep current to a minimum, so there's less chance of blowing the CPU (which would bad, mmkay?)

[cgunther]

Jaycar have a kit for dimming your interior lights. You'd need to build it yourself. Its $10.75. I don't know how much current it would handle, but someone at one of their stores should be able to tell you. It would probably be better than overloading your cars computer.

http://www1.jaycar.com.au/productView.asp?ID=KA1793

[Cosmo Dude]

A relay is your safest bet, it will draw less current than the neons. If you place a relay across the key lamp, it's easy to access the wiring and a switch close to the lamp would be convenient to operate. WGAF what current the neons draws then.

[Pernod]

I have actually run a wire loop from the spare connection on the passengers side of the dome lamp, down the side and forward.

A relay is no good on the dimming circuit as it will click loudly while the circuit is dimming.

If you run it from the dome lamp, take care not to short the wire loop (ie connecting them without a light attached) as this is how I blew my iternal computer) - but the dimmer worked perfectally with the neons untill I went to add to it and shorted it.

Looked Primo - just ask kitty, she loves hers dimming (so did I, still trying to fix them!)

[Pernod]

Oops, forgot to post this from my favourites ;-)

timer
The '3 min timer' is already designed to run on 12V - Just increase the size of the variable resistor to shorten it down to approx 15 sec (or whatever)


I have a dimmer circuit in my favourites at work which is really good - i'll dig it out tomorrow, or in the meantime, heres the simpler one
Dimmer

[mrpayner]

This article on the Autospeed.com might be of some interest to some people if they are members of the autospeed newsletter website.. They've got a story on a Jaycar Interior Light Delay for Cars kit (Cat. No. KA 1793).. Not sure how effective this would be but it's worth a look all the same

AP

[platypus]

i'd a bit concerned that if u run too much power into that line that it could blow the dimmer perhaps. i have no idea what it can handle.

hence the relay suggestion... but you won't fade with that... the interior lights will fade, and when there is too littel current for the realy it will open, adn cut the power.. mmmkay?