LED Ambient light...

I have loved everything about my Legacy wagon since they day I bought it...except for one thing. When you open the doors at night the only light that lights up the interior is the dome light at the far end of the sunroof. Now maybe I'm getting old , but it never seemed to give enough light to see anything up front...so I decided to change that.

 

I first looked at wiring up the map lights to activate, but I couldn't figure out an easy place to splice into, to get door activation and I didn't want to lose their functionality. So I settled on something I had done on my last car as more of an aesthetic change...I added an interior ambient LED into the map light console. It was fairly easy and straightforward. The overhead map light lens comes apart by following the directions in the manual for changing bulbs. The rest of the consol is held up with just 2 screws and there is already power up there because of the pre-wiring for the auto-dim mirror. Stays on all the time and actually adds a nice glow to the cabin at night.

 

Brian

Brian, did you consider using a stronger bulb for the dome light? I think that would make the car light brighter. Personally I like it as it is. Btw, the red led light is nice looking since the dash lights are red as well! K.

Very cool! Did you wire a resistor in with the LED? Is there an illumination lead up there? I can't recall if the compass LED display dims or not; if so, there should be a +12V up there that's only hot when the headlights are on. Craig

[quote name='fbi012']Brian, did you consider using a stronger bulb for the dome light? I think that would make the car light brighter. Personally I like it as it is. Btw, the red led light is nice looking since the dash lights are red as well! K.[/QUOTE] I thought about a brighter bulb, but didn't want to make the whole car brighter, just the front. In the end it turned out better than I thought because I haven't turned on a map light since I put it in. The red was a requirement...easier on the eyes at night...plus, like you said, it matches :) Brian

[quote name='c_hunter']Very cool! Did you wire a resistor in with the LED? Is there an illumination lead up there? I can't recall if the compass LED display dims or not; if so, there should be a +12V up there that's only hot when the headlights are on. Craig[/QUOTE] Craig- Yes it does have a resistor pre-wired in (have to confess I found these at some speed shop in a dollar bin about a year ago). I looked for switched power on the mirror harness and only found one, but I bet there is another switched one that works with the headlights. That's gonna be my project when I install the auto-dim mirror in the spring. Brian

Neat- man I'm finding a lot of cool and not too expensive things to do to my car on this board today :cool:

If I remember correctly, you'll need roughly a 220 Ohm resistor for the average red LED. But it's been 16+ years since I did this, so maybe I don't remember correctly. I had the same kind of thing in my X-1/9 back in those days. I had a tiny orange LED that I attached to a nice black pair of wires which I glued to the leading edge of the black mirror arm. The mirror was in-between my eyes and the LED so it didn't bother me but I was able to hold up my cassette tapes and read them at night. The light output was considerably less than the pictures above I think.

a lot of the new LED's have resistors built in...even easier!

[quote name='beatcoaster']a lot of the new LED's have resistors built in...even easier![/QUOTE] Please tell me more. I have seen a few blinking LEDs that have that ability, but I haven't yet seen a regular raw, solder-wires-to-the-anode-and-cathode-leads LED that can do it. Can you provide a link of some sort? I'm aware that you can drive most LEDs at up to 5V instead of 1.7V to 2.5V but I'm not aware of any that can readily handle 14V.

I really like this idea, as I was used to a Audi A4 with the ambient lighting. A couple of questions for you. 1. is the LED very visable during the day? Looks like from your pic taht it reflects off the back of the passenger seatbelt indicator quite a bit. 2. I took apart the map light console today and found that the cover is two piece, did you cut out any of the gray piece for the light to show better? 3. I bought a Radio Shack red LED today with a resistor built in for about $1.50 and tested it witht he auot dim mirror wiring, what did you use to tap the power? 4. I really want it to only come on at night with the headlights, has anyone founda way to wire it as such? I really would like to do this mod, but I do not know much about wiring and such. If someone can tell me which color wires to connect that would be great. Today I got the LED to light by trial and error touching the connections to two of the three pins in the connector and reversing hte order. Thanks in advance!

There is switched power up there, but no illumination lead as far as I can tell. Best you can do (without running wire) is to tap into one of the switched power leads that goes to the auto-dim mirror or visors. So it would be on in the daytime too, but probably not noticed. On last thing I need ot check out is if the "passenger" idiot light up there dims at night. If so, there may be a illumination lead going into that light module. You can also tap into the illumination fuse at the fuse panel and run a wire up to the overhead console. I have another topic in this forum where I used that to illuminate the wheel wells with LEDs. I may work on this today. I was thinking of putting the LED behind the rearview mirror somewhere. When I positioned it in the map light last night like Brian did, it reflected off the rearview mirror a little. So I am going to play with the position and aiming today and see where the best mounting point is. I still like Brian's mounting technique because everything is hidden and clean (it even looks better than the exposed LED in my wife's TSX). BTW, he did drill a hole in the opaque shield behind the map light lens. Craig

I did the mod in the same location as Brian, and it came out great. I tapped into the blue (switched +) and black (-) wires in the harness for the auto-dim mirror/compass. Thanks to Brian for the idea! Craig

are you using aligator clips? to tap the power? what are u using?

[quote name='Decay']I really like this idea, as I was used to a Audi A4 with the ambient lighting. A couple of questions for you. 1. is the LED very visable during the day? Looks like from your pic taht it reflects off the back of the passenger seatbelt indicator quite a bit. 2. I took apart the map light console today and found that the cover is two piece, did you cut out any of the gray piece for the light to show better? 3. I bought a Radio Shack red LED today with a resistor built in for about $1.50 and tested it witht he auot dim mirror wiring, what did you use to tap the power? 4. I really want it to only come on at night with the headlights, has anyone founda way to wire it as such? Thanks in advance![/QUOTE] Decay...sorry been working too much...trying to pay for my Pinks :) To answer your questions... 1) Yes it is visible during the day. It did it on a lark one day and didn't really hunt for a switched wire. It is hidden behind the seatbelt piece and I never notice it. 2)I took apart that grey piece, drilled a hole through it (actually had a small round indent I used for a guide), drilled a hole in the clear piece and used a small grommet attached to the LED to sandwich between the two pieces and hold it into place. 3)Used one of those cheap splicing clips that clip onto one wire and let you run the other into it with a flat connector. 4)c_hunter is the man for that see his post :[url]http://legacygt.com/forums/showthread.php?t=4413[/url] Brian

[quote name='c_hunter']I did the mod in the same location as Brian, and it came out great. I tapped into the blue (switched +) and black (-) wires in the harness for the auto-dim mirror/compass. Thanks to Brian for the idea! Craig[/QUOTE] NP Craig...saw your LED footwell mod and it looks great! I need to get some time to finish mine, I set the lights but never wired them up... Brian

[quote name='Decay']are you using aligator clips? to tap the power? what are u using?[/QUOTE] I removed the pins from the connector going to the mirror, and crimped my LED wires into the pins, then stuck them back into the connector. You could also use a wiretap connector, which basically just crims the wires all together. Craig

[quote name='Wraith']2)I took apart that grey piece, drilled a hole through it (actually had a small round indent I used for a guide), drilled a hole in the clear piece and used a small grommet attached to the LED to sandwich between the two pieces and hold it into place.[/QUOTE] Brian -- I ended up drilling through the opaque piece, but not through the lens itself. The LED is taped to the frame of the overhead console -- it pokes down into the hole I drilled, and rests against the lens when everything is snapped back together. Seems to work OK in my darkened garage, the real test will be when I drive at night! BTW I dropped a screw under the front seat and of course it went into a hole in the carpet and down into the bowels of the floor. Took about 20 minutes to fish it out with much frustration. I have to remember to stuff a rag in that hole -- as often as I drop change down between the seat and the center console, having a gaping hole is asking for trouble. Craig

Hi all, BMW does this in most (if not all) of their newer models. In their applications, the LED is recessed maybe 1/4" into the overhead module so that the glare isn't an issue. It also looks like they use some sort of colorized cover that diffuses the light a bit. Maybe you could make a diffuser like that with a bit of plexiglass that's been rough-sanded to cut down on glare???

As I found in anoter mod, masking tape makes an excellent diffuser for LEDs. Craig

I'm going to have to try this Ambient Lighting mod soon :D

I plan to do this too! My 05 Honda Accord has this from the factory and its very nice at night since it lights up the cupholders.

Volkswagon has this also. They have the light in the rear view mirror, which happens to be the same unit we have in the Legacy.

Is this at all distracting while driving along at night? I just wonder about a bright red light catching my eye.

I like my dash nice and dark and the ones in the Volkswagon aren't that bad since it's red. If you do it right, you don't see the light source.

I tapped into the black and green wire of the Autodim mirror. It stays on as long as the ignition is on, I dont want it to always be on... I didnt look more of an Illumination wire but I think this will be fine. If anyone knows of a better solution lemme know before I finish this up.