Interior LED's

[sjgYFZ200]

hey guys, heres my idea. i wanna cut the mitsubishi logo out of the center of my dashboard on the passenger side...and then hook up a red LED that lights it up at night. what do i need to do to run it off the car's current? because the electric on the car will easially fry the LED.
thanks alot

 

[cuttheduck]

Thats why leds use resistors.

 

[sjgYFZ200]

im new to this stuff...resistors?

 

[Flat Tire]

no offense buddy, but if you don't even know what a resistor is, then i wouldn't even bother with the project you're trying to attempt.... BUT.... do a search on LED's on here and you'll see that you need to wire one inline with the LED...this allows the car's current voltage to light up the LED with out frying it.... you'll use the same resistor as you would for the HVAC lights or any other dash light that you would convert...i wanna say it's a 550 but i'm not sure off the top of my head

 

[turbo98eclipse]

yea...just go 2 like raido shack n get some resistors...100 or 150 ohm i 4got...connect then somewheres along the the "positive" end of the led (the longer of the 2 wires that comes out the led) and then connect the wires to the same power source that 1 of your power sources r connected 2...like the raido or headlights or somethin...then u could go 2 auto zone n get a on/off switch n mount that someplace...so the leds will always b ready 2 come on, but u just control when they come on so that they wont b on when u dont want them 2..like daytime i guess any more questions feel free to ask

 

[turbo98eclipse]

and ur gonna need more than just 1 led...unless ur cut out is really small. go on ebay, u can get like 100 leds 4 really cheep compared 2 raido shack which is like $3 for 1 led

 

[sjgYFZ200]

i dont know much about LED's, but im sure i would have no problem learning. ok, so it seems liek that approach would be alot of work. how about if i just hooked up a red light behind it? and heres my other question...on a 1g, the passenger side dash...is there an airbag behind it? and if there is...you probably cant take it off to cut the logo out right?

 

[turbo98eclipse]

red light? no...maybe a red neon a small stick...i donno bout 1g's i gotta 2g dont u have a car manual or somethin 2 tell u if it has airbags?

 

[Xero_Tolerance]

1gs don't have airbags so no worries about that. There's just some foam type stuff and metal under the 1g passenger side dash. I don't know how you want to create your logo or whatever, but there isn't a whole lot of room to put a light behind anywhere there. There's like 1/2 inch of so of the foam and then the metal right under that and I don't think that metal will be very easy to mess around with. If I were you I'd try to fiberglass it, but that's a P.I.T.A. I could take a pic of what the dash looks like tomorrow if you want, mine's ripped up at the moment. I'm trying to vinyl the dash.

 

[talontsiawd]

I would not use an led, you will get bright spots. Use some sort of neon tube, depending on the size. If you can fit a diffuser (what you see infront of floresent lights in schools, offices, etc.) you will have better light despersion.

 

[sjgYFZ200]

ok heres what i did. i took the lid off my center console, and cut the three diamonds into that. then where i cut it out, i pained the holes red. then i cut out plexiglass to fit over that so its flush with the rest of the console, then i took 3 red LED's, drilled thro the plastic on the bottom of the console lid, put the LED's thro that, and then wired the LED's to come on when i turn on my dash lights. its pretty cool and its definatly not a hack job. ill get some pics when i can