I was thinking of my next project and while doing some sound deadening on my doors and trunk, I decided I want to do a bunch of accent lighting. I wanted to add more LED's to the doors (puddle lights), add LED's to the footwells and under the seats, and I am considering of doing some engine bay lighting and maybe some LED lighting under the car and behind the wheels just for kicks, but I'm just thinking about it right now... I mainly want to get the interior done.

So... I pulled a search and we have a good thread going for how to wire the footwell LED's to the dome lights. Could anyone give me some pointers on how to set up an independent circuit on a switch for such lighting? I think the best would be to wire them to the dome lights so they dim and light up when doors open, but I wanted to give them a switch so I can light them with just a click.

I also wanted to find out what I would need for a typical lighting circuit on a car. So far my shopping list consists of:

- bulbs and bulb sockets or CCFL tubes
- switches
- wiring
- relay or relays
- resistor???

Since I am thinking of adding various lighting areas (engine bay, under carriage, interior), I would need to have a central area where everything connects and to run switches to my dash somewhere... Or maybe a relay for each different area. Are there relays that can power several electrical circuits independently (so I can have, let's say, 3 switches on my dash to control each lighting area independently of one another).

I am not sure if relays work as resistors as well or if I need to worry about resistors at all. For example if I get a bunch of LED's that run on 3v, I'll need to slow that down from 12v or whatever our car batteries run at, correct? Where would I wire the resistor? Would I maybe need to use a fuse instead? What if I use both to be safe?

As far as I know, I'll probably be running:
- lighting connecting to + battery port
- other end of lighting connecting to relay
- relay connecting to switch
- switch connecting to an indicator light (to tell me when something is switched on or off)
- switch connecting to - battery port

Could anyone help out with some of the info? I searched the net for some basics and our forums as well, but nothing on this big of a scale.

Long post, but maybe others can get creative and launch some lighting projects of their own! But please share some info on this so I can get started on mine soon! Thanks in advance.

 

bump... anyone done something like this?