Hey guys and gals, I need some help if anyone can with some LED strips I'm trying to make as interior light that turn on when the door is open and turn off when door is closed (just like factory map and dome lights).
Here's what I got going on so far. I've spent about 8hours tinkering and thinking on how to make this work, but nothing has worked so far. I tried to just simply wire in the LEDs strips + and - to the factory dome light on the a-pillar, but LEDs stayed on constantly, due to I'm sure their low power need.
here is the product I bought...
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/?cmd=ViewItem&_trksid=p3984.m1497.l2649&item=130556701108
So far I'm at a lost at how to get these hooked up correctly. Do I need some kind of resistor at the end of the power wire from the LED strips before it goes to the power wire from the car? (Also these two LED strips who are wired in parallel)
Thank you all!
why not try grounding to the door plungers, when i did my neons this way i had to ground to them. there was two ground coming off the plunger. one was an on off type ground. the other was the slowly powering off ground. if you connect to this one your lights will likely stay on and not turn off. if you attach to the other ground they should go on and off as the door opens and closes. and u will have to run a ground to each door plunger so they go on or off no matter which door is openened
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sndsgood wrote:why not try grounding to the door plungers, when i did my neons this way i had to ground to them. there was two ground coming off the plunger. one was an on off type ground. the other was the slowly powering off ground. if you connect to this one your lights will likely stay on and not turn off. if you attach to the other ground they should go on and off as the door opens and closes. and u will have to run a ground to each door plunger so they go on or off no matter which door is openened
So what your saying is to ground each individual strip (driverside, pass-side) to there own door plugs. And more pricsisly to connect each ground wire from the LED strip to "...on off type ground"? Correct?
Should I leave my power wire connected to my constant 12v?
Problem solved 
I did what sndsgood said too do. Hooked driver side LED ground to green/black wire from door jam plug and passenger-side LED ground to light blue from passenger-side door jam plug. Both now turn on when their corresponding doors are open and then each closes when their corresponding door is closed.
I would like to try and get both to turn on and off when just one door is opened, but for now this will work (it might grow on me). But if anyone knows how to do that, please let me know.
Thank you sndsgood!!
It's much appricated!
.
If you want both to turn on/off at the same time, hook them both to the same gounding point.
car audio noob since 1984.
Rich Grayo Jr. wrote:If you want both to turn on/off at the same time, hook them both to the same gounding point.
This doesn't work I found out. If both LED strips are tied in parallel and ground to, lets say, the drive side popper, when the door is closed the passenger LED will stay on.
Rich Grayo's method should work. Sounds like you wired something incorrectly. If you wire all the LED strips to the same pos or neg wire they will all act the same.
Instead of doing the door popper itself, you could actually just wire to the dome light wiring, which has to come down somewhere near the door. You just gotta be sure as to whether or not the light is positive or negative switched.
the dome light is grounded too the whole delayed turnofff which when you add extra light scourses to that. it tends to just stay on. or at least that was the issue i had with tyring to do it with neons. that was why i went to the door plunger itself. seems weird that when you ground to the opposite plunger they stay on. i ddint have any issues that i can remember with mine. heck i think i had 3 total grounds for each neon in mine. one to the drivers door plunger, one to the passenger door plunger and then a switched ground so i could just have them on with the flip of a switch.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/sndsgood/ https://www.facebook.com/#!/Square1Photography
Nando wrote:Rich Grayo Jr. wrote:If you want both to turn on/off at the same time, hook them both to the same gounding point.
This doesn't work I found out. If both LED strips are tied in parallel and ground to, lets say, the drive side popper, when the door is closed the passenger LED will stay on.
It'll work... I had to wire in a diode to isolate the current, otherwise the current stays completed. It's weird. So diode isolate each door plunger the same as you would if you were installing door trigger sensors on an alarm.
Sorry for the rookie question, but can you give me a better idea on where to find that positive wire for the dome light?
IE... i assume the a-pillar on the driver side?
Michael Walker wrote:IE... i assume the a-pillar on the driver side?
Did you manage to solve this problem in the end?
Ecoled
Ok i got a question here has anyone tried to wire the ground to the dimmer?
