G'day. I been thinking about putting some lights under my dash to light up the floorpan area. My question is, would this wiring system work? I was going to get a 5v converter and a 3 way switch. I turn on the system with a separate switch then select what color i want my floorpan to be. I.e, Red, Green or Blue. As you can see the LED's are all hooked up by one earth lead. Positive is controlled by the 3 way switch and will only supply power to the led colour that is selected. As red is selected, only red LED's are lit up.

 

What do you think? Let me know, good or bad.

 

Cheers, Johno :locked:

 

Edited March 7, 200917 yr by Johno

Why don't you just get 12V LEDs?

is it cool to ground the lights thru the switch?

why don't you just solder 480-560 ohm resistors to each postive leg of the leds and switch the earth's to all of them?

I will most likely ground all the LED's to the chassis. It doesn't not need to be off the switch. I Asked someone about 12v LED's and they said there is no such thing. So there is 12v LED"s?

Jaycar is your friend :D

 

They actually these pretty nifty LED packs I discovered not long ago, prewired for 12v in groups of 3, variety of colours. Handy. Cheap too.

Jaycar is your friend :cool:

 

They actually these pretty nifty LED packs I discovered not long ago, prewired for 12v in groups of 3, variety of colours. Handy. Cheap too.

:D Might have to look into that, thanks!

Edited March 10, 200917 yr by Johno

:D Might have to look into that, thanks!

 

I have built a few 12 volt led kits from oatley electronics all seem to work well, much cheaper than a retail shop.

http://secure.oatleyelectronics.com//index...d43ab7f96cc98ad

A 12V LED is just an LED and a resistor in one package. As someone previously mentioned, wire the led's in batches of 3 leds in series to make a circuit that has enough resistance to not burn them out.

middys sell 12v led's cheap as.

The best, cheapest and most reliable option is to purchase standard led's and solder the resistors to them....you can get them from Tandy's, Dick Smith's Jaycar etc.....it has been done so many times, very simple

I have used the pre wired ones you can get off ebay. Infact i used them in the dash as indicator, highbeam, oil pressure etc lights mounted in chrome bezels from Dick Smith.

 

They come pre wired with resistors and long wire leads.

$10-$15 will get you 20 pre wired LED's delivered to your door.

 

Last time i bought super bright blue LED's, the pricetage was a few bucks each....

EBAY

 

Alternatively, why don't you consider using cold cathode tubes or the likes of. Plenty of light and only two wires to connect.

Edited March 21, 200917 yr by kangaroosa

Thanks for all the advice :y:

 

Building it and designing it will be way more fun i think but i'l have to see what jaycar has. Shouldn't be hard to build just not that good with the soldering iron. Sorry i'm a bit of a noob when it come's to electronics.. What would happen if i solder 500 ohm resistors to the positive lead on the LED?

 

"edit" thanks kanga for the advice about the tubes. I have had tubes under the dash before but they are a bit too bright and bulky. The led's will be tucked away under the dash in a corner. I'm not sure but i don't think they can change colours eather.

Edited March 21, 200917 yr by Johno