It's nice to finally have some light inside the 4Runner.







I used the square 80 mA Superflux LEDs and tied the ground (via a relay) to the dome light circuit. These LEDs are much brighter than the regular 5 mm round LEDs and the two anodes and two cathodes make it easy to mount them to a RadioShack-type circuit board.

I am only running them at 62 mA, so they could actually put out more light. The power requirements for the entire array is still less than the draw from just the stock dome alone.



I am happy with the results. Ricey? Perhaps, but very functional!

 

now that is pretty darn neat! Good work!

Do you have any in the cargo area? I am always dropping crap and it would be nice to be able to find it without using a flashlight. Can you post up how you did it in more detail? Thanks! and again, good work.

 

very nice i wanna do something like that

 

wow,
Another Thing TO add to the list of things to do to Tess...
Like Matt Said, Could you go into a little more detail?

 

Is that wired into the door switch, so when you open the door, they all come on? I like how much light they put out either way though. Nice work!

 

Looks good, although a little bright for my liking. I would just be able to see all of the dirt on the floor then...lol.

I was wondering what type of deck you have that matches the green OEM dash lights.

 

its a pioneer mine is the same color

 

Dang, that's BRIGHT.

I was thinking about doing the same thing, but a little differently. Since the switches for the doors are right there anyway, I was just going to put the LED inline with the switch for the door. You said they don't draw much current, and since I've already got an LED in the factory dome light, I don't think it would cause any problems. Plus the passenger light would only turn on with the passenger door etc.

Details on these LEDs? Where you got them, how much they cost?

 

wow very bright.

im going for a softer look, ill go with cold cathodes. directron has good deals on them if any one is interested. http://directron.com/clk12wt.html for white, and the whole lot: http://directron.com/coldcathode.html

as for the cargo area, ill probably go with those LEDs you used.

 

Nice!

 

The brightness is exaggerated since I was taking 6 second time exposure photos in my dark garage. The light appears to be hotspotting the floormats, but in reality the light is very uniform. These will sure make it easier to find things at night while camping.

Not yet, that will be next. I will also have two surface-mount LEDs installed on the rear hatch so it illuminates the ground behind the truck when the rear liftgate is open.


The LEDs are wired exactly like the stock dome light--they have 12 volts constant power and the circuit is completed when one of the four doors is opened and the circuit goes to ground.

Hey Parrish, good to see you on Yotatech! Superflux is a trademark of Lumileds-Philips, which are known for their consistent brightness and high quality. The imitation Ebay ones really can't compare. Lumileds does not make a white Superflux LED, which is where the chinese "Pirahna" LED picks up the slack. I was advised by an electronics forum to order these at $1.49 each. Whatever you get, use a wideangle LED; the regular 5mm ones will spotlight the floor rather than illuminate it.

I think your idea of supplying 12V constant to the anode and the ground to the door pin switch would work fine.

Cold cathode is cool...I've heard some things about the heat and high power switching inverters that made me a bit nervous to use them on a 4WD truck.

 

That is just to cool.
Am very interested in how it all got done. (tech write up)
Automotive electronics and me don't really get along sometimes.
You definitely need to come out to one of the Nor-Cal meets so we can all get a good look at your handy work.

 

ken,

you have to do a writeup! i like this wiring method than the direct connect method to the dome light.

bob

 

Folks...

The magic word that you're all looking for is "Luxeon". Root information is available from Phillip's site but hit up Google to find the best prices. _SHOP_!!! the prices have come down a LOT in even the last 6 months. For this application, you don't need anything more than a "1 watt" lamp (on each side).

The lamps are VERY VERY bright in comparison to normal LEDs, you may have seen them used in a commercial rocklight product.

A couple of things to point out...

• If Paddle took those shots with a digital camera, then you'll see the lamps much brighter in terms of relative light than normal. That's due to how the CCD imager in the camera works. The contrast won't be as stark in real life.
  
• Controlling the brightness of these lamps is very easy. Don't think that you have to pick a dimmer lamp to get "dimmer".
  
  
• The lamps are best controlled by a "constant current" source - this is NOT the same as a normal bulb. Hitting up these two articles will give you a lot of background:
  http://www.instructables.com/id/E0TL4RID3YEWIJMKVI/
  http://www.instructables.com/id/ERVLPDU5XVEWOF31U3/

Paddle, dude! Nice work man.

 

Thanks for the complements. As midiwall mentioned, the camera really exaggerates the light output. Notice the first photo I posted where the center of the floormat is illuminated so brightly that you can't see the pattern on the mat? It doesn't look like that in real life--the entire floormat appears to have uniform brightness in all directions. I think the Superflux style LEDs are perfect for interior lighting. They are compact and since I am running these at 75% power, they put out no noticeable heat.

Midiwall--as much as I like the Luxeon Stars (I will likely be using something similar for my rocklights), they are going to be obnoxiously bright inside. They draw nearly six times the power of the Superflux too; 350 mA compared to 60-80 mA, and they produce quite a bit of heat. In my case, the rear LED modules are attached to the bottoms of the seats.

And yes, constant current is where it's at. I spent more hours than I want to admit reading about the different ways to hook up LEDs. In the end, I did not find one article that had *everything* you need to know, such as how to calculate the amounts of heat that would produced from each component. Due to the interest here, I just may post up a mini-write up.

Did I mention that LEDs are cool? Now I have to upgrade my interior light because it looks like an ugly yellow compared to the footwell lights.

 

very nice work! looks good!

 

I would definately love to see a write up.

Cargo area (as was said) and possibly underhood are two applications I'd consider like this as well.

 

Underhood would be very easy. One fused 12V connection from the battery to the LED array, then connect the ground to the hoodpin switch....done!

 

I was considering doing something like this, but I get really lazy when it gets cold outside. Maybe one day I will have a shop. Really good work, excellent choise of LED's. I might have to do the same next summer.

 

After giving this some thought, you would have to isolate each LED from ground at each door with a diode (think of it as a one-way valve). Otherwise, if any one door was opened, a path to ground would be provided at each of the remaining three door pins, which means all of the LEDs would still illuminate.