LED interior lighting project

[MountainManJoe]

$22. Yikes. I'll let you test that one

There's no specifications, no heat sink... so I'm a bit skeptical.

[MountainManJoe]

OK I've put together more info for you guys. Yes, this is what happens when work dries up but the weather doesn't. (We even had floods on the Fraser river. The mill my friend works at had to shut down).

Today I'll talk about the dome lights, which take the cylindrical "festoon" bulbs, also called "double wedge", or 211-2 at the auto parts store.

211-2.jpg (19.28 KiB) Viewed 3573 times

This is the light output, power consumption, dimensions etc..

There is a T# classification system for the bulb bases, but I find a lot of it contradicting, non-standard, and quite frankly confusing. Filament C means coiled and 8 is another sub-category, but none of this matters for this bulb. When you buy LEDs on eBay, search for festoon, and they usually come with an adapter that expands to fit, and then it's a matter of cramming in as many LEDs as you can. What becomes more important is the size of the cavity the light goes in.

Depending on your options, there are 6 of these bulbs on your van:

• Front dome light
• middle dome light
• rear door
• doorsteps x3

[MountainManJoe]

OK, now lets change gears and talk about LEDs a bit. Modern LEDs are very powerful and efficient. These aren't your dad's LEDs.

If it looks like this, then throw it out. That's yesterday's technology, but they still try to hock it on eBay as "ultra bright" and similar superlatives. It will have a plastic base instead of leads sticking out, but it's the same thing.



Good LEDs use SMT or Surface Mount Technology. In other words, they are flat. Here are some different kinds...



They are usually designated by a four digit number indicating the dimensions, L x W. Confusingly, sometimes this is in 1/1000" and sometimes in 1/10 mm. PLCC just means the LED chips are mounted in a plastic "carrier" with leads. When it comes to these, bigger is better. The analogy that one 100W bulb is brighter than two 50W bulbs also applies here. The best LED you can get, of the el cheap-o eBay variety, is the 3-chip 5050 PLCC. They are 5.0mm on a side, and they are actually 3 LEDs in one. Here's what it looks like up close ...


Watch out for imitations. Some only have 2 chips.

A word about shopping on eBay ... it's all lies. The parameters listed in the descriptions are fictional or exaggerated. Don't believe the light output specs, or even the panel dimensions. I just saw a description that said 1.2"=42mm, and also claims they packed 4 5050 LEDs into 22mm, which isn't possible. So take everything with a grain of salt, use your common sense, and if something doesn't seem right, it probably isn't. Sometimes the descriptions will have contradictory info. Always use the contact seller button to ask for clarification. If the item you receive doesn't match the description or what they said, then your ass is covered. Even though Shanzhai sellers are sneaky, they are usually cooperative, and will do anything to avoid negative feedback, or paypal claims. Test your items as soon as you receive them! Make sure they work and are exactly as described in every way. Sometimes they will send inferior items that are very similar, but not quite what they advertised. Sometimes the quality is so bad it's useless. 90% of the stuff I've bought had at least one problem, and I ended up getting most of it for free. Respond right away. eBay has time limits for everything including leaving feedback, or even replying to messages, so don't let it sit. If you are buying multiple quantities, ask for a volume discount. They might say, OK if you buy 7, we'll send you 8.

to be continued ....

I conducted a "real-world" test. Photos of that and more info to come, so stay tuned.

[MountainManJoe]

Hey guys. I promise I'll finish this project some day and post my findings.
In the meantime, here's a mini mod I did to replace the inefficient incandescent light in the center console storage.

Here is the OEM fixture. The bottom socket is where power comes in from your harness. The top socket accepts the stock 168 style (wedge) bulb.
The rounded protrusion is a button switch which turns on the lamp when you open your console. The bulb can get very hot, which you can see from the burnt plastic around the socket. It can burn your hand if you're rooting around in there, and I've even seen lamps where the hot filament melts a hole through the glass bulb when it pops. I also thought the location of the stock bulb was extremely stupid, because when the console was fully open, the light is blocked by the inside lip so you couldn't see properly anyway.

When you buy LEDs from eBay, they give you a whole bunch of adapters so you can plug them into various sockets. Since I plan to solder them together in parallel, I had a bunch of extra wedge adapters from the LED arrays previously mentioned in this topics. I decided to use the wedge adapter for this mod, so I could relocate the light elsewhere. It also lets me quickly disconnect it for future maintenance.

A friend of mine gave me some leftover strip LED he had, and I thought this was a perfect application. They are the 5050 variety (referring to the die size: 5.0x5.0mm), which are the largest SMD LEDs used on these strips, and the have the highest light output. They happened to be "warm white" colour temperature, which I like because it gives a soft glow, not cold and piercing like the cool white. You can buy reels of this on eBay very inexpensively.
I took a random piece of sheathed two-conductor wire I had lying around, and soldered it to the two conducting copper pads which straddle the junction of each strip segment. Then I put hot glue and heat shrink tubing on the joint to give the thin wires some mechanical strength. To the other end, I soldered on a pin connecter from the adapter set I mentioned previously. Here you can see all the separate finished pieces in the arrangement I put them in

After removing the center console and tilt-out box, I turned it upside down. There is flat surface just in front of the latch, which is not quite horizontal and faces slightly outward. As it turns out, it provides an ideal mounting spot, and the LED strip has a low enough profile that it doesn't interfere with the console closing. I drilled a hole through the plastic at the switch end of the mounting surface for my wire lead. There is a gap between the backside and the cup holder where you can stuff the lead and lead it to the switch. I had too much extra length so I cable tied it to a hole I made for strain relief, and to keep it from dangling. LED strip usually comes with adhesive backing, but because mine was second hand, it was dirty and no longer sticky. I cleaned it off and used two-sided carpet tape to hold it down, which is incredibly strong. Unfortunately, the hot snot and heat-shrink I used on the joint made it too stiff, and I had trouble getting it into place, which is why it looks crooked. I had to carve the hole a bit bigger with a knife. With a bit of trimming I fit three segments of 3 LEDs which make 9. Be careful doing this because if you trim too much, you'll cut the invisible traces, and since each segment is connected in series, it'll go out like a crappy set of xmas tree lights. Here it is installed, and a detail of the hole I poked the cable through. (Sorry for the crap photo ... lighting in the parkade isn't the greatest)

[MountainManJoe]

... and here is the finished product. It's really bright. A huge improvement from before. (my photo hardly does it justice)

(by the way, the four screws in the bottom are the ones you use to remove the tray)