Under seat lighting

[Christato71]

Should I use flexible LED strips or those neon cathodes? And how would I go about mounting them under the seats? Also, where would be the easiest place to tap into for power?

[Lucalare]

I would use LEDs, I put cold cathodes in my front foot wells and one is already going bad. as for the power source I tapped them into the light that does the gear indicator by the shift knob(automatic). This way the foot well lights come on automatically when it's dark, are adjustable by the dimmer switch, and it dims the light on the shift bezel a little bit, which was too dim to begin with IMO.

[Chris2000]

and it dims the light on the shift bezel a little bit, which was too dim to begin with IMO.



? What?

[Lucalare]

oops, too bright is what I meant to say, lol.

[Christato71]

how would I get the wires out of the center console area if I was to tap into the gear indicator area?

[Lucalare]

I ran them under the HVAC knob/CD player area, all the way to the front of the center thing (can't think of the name), then just up to the cold cathodes which were attached to the underside of the dash with double sided tape.

[kwhauck]

Cold cathodes.......

[Lucalare]

Yeah junk I know, but I got them for 10 bucks(should have told me something). Hoping to switch to LEDs when spring comes and I can work in the car without freezing.

[cherrington17]

one of the cathodes is already not working!?! sorry dude.... i'll be sure to test everything more thoroughly next time. :(

I'd swap the connectors around, and see if its that spot on the transformer, or if its the light itself. (if the other goes out, you'll know)


as for the lighting... Leds are the way to go. www.oznium.com has led strips that are easy to work with. You can DIY, like I did, but it takes a bunch more work.

I stray away from cathodes, because they are fragile, and require a transformer

[Bigshot44]

Instead of making a new thread just thought I'd ask here. I Just got some led strips and gonna tap to the gear indicator light. Would I be able to attach all 4 to it or possibly six eventually. And how would I go about doing that.

[cherrington17]

Instead of making a new thread just thought I'd ask here. I Just got some led strips and gonna tap to the gear indicator light. Would I be able to attach all 4 to it or possibly six eventually. And how would I go about doing that.

Barrier strips, with a jumper.
(seen here: http://www.aleromod.com/forums/showthread.php?t=8404)

the jumper is a piece of metal shaped like UUUUUU you put that under the screws of one side of the barrier strip... thus making them all the same connection.

so if you have a 4 location barrier strip(has 8 terminals), you merge them all with a jumper... (presumably using 1 location is your power input) you now have 7 power outputs.

[Lucalare]

one of the cathodes is already not working!?! sorry dude.... i'll be sure to test everything more thoroughly next time. :(

I'd swap the connectors around, and see if its that spot on the transformer, or if its the light itself. (if the other goes out, you'll know)




The one I have on the passenger side foot well goes dim sometimes, and I have to jiggle the wires to make it match the other side for brightness. I doubt it's the transformer because I put the new one I bought in first, I'm going to use the one you sent me for the rear seats. I'll double check how well it's plugged in, and try like you said, if the transformer is the problem I'm going to slap myself.