The LED Q&A Thread

[bt2580]

Originally Posted by VisualAuraVA

I followed all the steps for to change the key ring. but my leds stay on all the time know. Does anybody know why this is.

Is it bad for the battery to be running this led at all times.

It sounds as though something is grounding out inside of the key ring assy. There is a wire that provides constant power that runs to that particular bulb(same as dome circuit, different ground). Take it back apart and check all the connections. Also see if the light will go off while the ring is not mounted. That will tell you if it is in the way the ring is sitting.

Originally Posted by porschebk85

Hey bt2580, you wouldn't make a led suggestion guide for 2nd Gen Altima too would you?

I'll work on it when I get a chance.

Originally Posted by drums4metallica

is there a way to change the color of the light like where ur speedometer and all that stuff is? Because I just got a new head unit which has blue lights around its dials and everything and the orange and the blue look kind of tacky.

No, not really. The 02-04 were done with standard bulbs that fire through a tinted piece of plastic. There is the option of using overlays on these, and I have heard that they work pretty well...

Nissan Custom Glow Gauges, Custom Gauges by Speedhut

I believe that 05-06 have leds in them already, that fire through a similar piece of plastic.

[Zyphron]

Originally Posted by bt2580

Here are some upcoming projects that I plan to tackle...
-Use of strip lights for underhood lighting, with a pin switch & relay
-Find an economical way to do turn signals in mirror housings
-Adding in door courtesy lights for the rear doors

as for the 2nd. Ive seen it done. pretty simple and straight forward you Drill Holes for the LED's in the painted outer housing, the part where its Indented. measuring is Key, pick up 6 amber LED's and wire them up in a Series. with a 15ohm 1/4W resistor IIRC
then you just need to run your wires from the front Turns to the Mirror. sadly its in the door so you have to run the wires thought that boot and out the kick panel then wire them up to the respective signals


and for the third one. Ive done it myself. Its a BITCH but worth it.

Since those step lights work off the same circut as the dome. they go on based on any door being open (Including the rear. ive tried tapping into the switch for the circuit. but it was late and i was tired/confused so I chose a much easier/more obvious route.

Basically you just Tap the wires going into the front doors. (drivers works fine) and run them to the B pillar then in the rear door and through the boot

then its all a matter of getting the right bulb..

Ive done Mine with cathodes. its Brighter, cheaper and pretty easy to wire up.
I can do a writeup if anyone is Interested



I will Be changing over to LED's. Considering my Freakin sister keeps kicking the cathodes and snaping them in half.

BTW Its ALMOST impossible to kick em but she manages....... (you have to close the ****ing door on your foot to do it.) but the rest of them have lasted since nov 07 Just Perfectly. all 4 doors still light up like the day they were new.

FYI Each door has 2 cathodes and 1 inverter. (she breaks the inner one, I replace it and she breaks it again.

if you have other ways In mind, Id like to hear em. since my next project is the Signal mirrors and a LED brake light mod.

Also. ive seen an Alty with it. and i think tarik attempted it. But ive been looking at the Door handle Lights.. and Cant for the Life of me figure it out. how you run the wire up under the Handle. where do you Drill? ect. I see the bolts, and it looks like it comes off but i dont want to Get into it for fear i cant get it back on. my old mercury had Springs in the handle. and once you pop it off it was Impossible to get back on.


oh, Cup holder LED mods!
Cubby hole LED's!

In therory it would be possible for LEGAL Amber underglow yes? (thats really a question for CHP: would you pull that guy over?)

and finally Hoping you can elighten me on it. but how the hell did you rig up that Dome replacment LED strip that runs across the front of your windshield. im looking at doing that but id like to know if there was anything in particualar you did.

the reason I say dome replacment is im Hoping it can do just that. replace my Dome. as much as I love my 48 LED Dome people get in my car and are all pissed off when the damn thing blinds them. its blinded me quite a few time as well so I just leave it off.

[VisualAuraVA]

Originally Posted by bt2580

It sounds as though something is grounding out inside of the key ring assy. There is a wire that provides constant power that runs to that particular bulb(same as dome circuit, different ground). Take it back apart and check all the connections. Also see if the light will go off while the ring is not mounted. That will tell you if it is in the way the ring is sitting.

Would you happen to know what wire is the constant power wire. Becuase when i had my led connected it would work anytime i put the ground of the led to any part of my car. Am i puttin it on wrong? Would it have something to do with the wires that go around the ring in that black tube?

Thanks again for all the advice guys.

[drums4metallica]

how would I get the overlays in and where can I actually purchase them?

[bt2580]

Originally Posted by VisualAuraVA

Would you happen to know what wire is the constant power wire. Becuase when i had my led connected it would work anytime i put the ground of the led to any part of my car. Am i puttin it on wrong? Would it have something to do with the wires that go around the ring in that black tube?

Thanks again for all the advice guys.

Constant power is pink/blk line. The red/yellow wire is the ground.

Also, check to make sure that the little wires coming out on the bulb itself are not bent across and touching each other...

[bt2580]

Originally Posted by drums4metallica

how would I get the overlays in and where can I actually purchase them?

That link I posted in that other post is where you can get them...Installing them will be a little difficult. You have to take the whole gauge cluster out of the car and take it apart...not bad until you get to the needles for the gauges. That's the hard part.

[bt2580]

Originally Posted by Zyphron

as for the 2nd. Ive seen it done. pretty simple and straight forward you Drill Holes for the LED's in the painted outer housing, the part where its Indented. measuring is Key, pick up 6 amber LED's and wire them up in a Series. with a 15ohm 1/4W resistor IIRC
then you just need to run your wires from the front Turns to the Mirror. sadly its in the door so you have to run the wires thought that boot and out the kick panel then wire them up to the respective signals


and for the third one. Ive done it myself. Its a BITCH but worth it.

Since those step lights work off the same circut as the dome. they go on based on any door being open (Including the rear. ive tried tapping into the switch for the circuit. but it was late and i was tired/confused so I chose a much easier/more obvious route.

Basically you just Tap the wires going into the front doors. (drivers works fine) and run them to the B pillar then in the rear door and through the boot

then its all a matter of getting the right bulb..

Ive done Mine with cathodes. its Brighter, cheaper and pretty easy to wire up.
I can do a writeup if anyone is Interested



I will Be changing over to LED's. Considering my Freakin sister keeps kicking the cathodes and snaping them in half.

BTW Its ALMOST impossible to kick em but she manages....... (you have to close the ****ing door on your foot to do it.) but the rest of them have lasted since nov 07 Just Perfectly. all 4 doors still light up like the day they were new.

FYI Each door has 2 cathodes and 1 inverter. (she breaks the inner one, I replace it and she breaks it again.

if you have other ways In mind, Id like to hear em. since my next project is the Signal mirrors and a LED brake light mod.

Also. ive seen an Alty with it. and i think tarik attempted it. But ive been looking at the Door handle Lights.. and Cant for the Life of me figure it out. how you run the wire up under the Handle. where do you Drill? ect. I see the bolts, and it looks like it comes off but i dont want to Get into it for fear i cant get it back on. my old mercury had Springs in the handle. and once you pop it off it was Impossible to get back on.


oh, Cup holder LED mods!
Cubby hole LED's!

In therory it would be possible for LEGAL Amber underglow yes? (thats really a question for CHP: would you pull that guy over?)

and finally Hoping you can elighten me on it. but how the hell did you rig up that Dome replacment LED strip that runs across the front of your windshield. im looking at doing that but id like to know if there was anything in particualar you did.

the reason I say dome replacment is im Hoping it can do just that. replace my Dome. as much as I love my 48 LED Dome people get in my car and are all pissed off when the damn thing blinds them. its blinded me quite a few time as well so I just leave it off.

Thanks for the info...I appreciate it, and pretty much already knew what I was facing on each project...

My thought for the turn signal mirrors is to make something a little more along the lines of the Active Tuning design...rather than drilling and putting individual LEDs. I would prefer to have a single replaceable bulb when done...I also would actually get the pins to add the wires into the blank slots that are in the plugs for the mirrors now, and tap the turn signals down by the BCM rather than under the hood.

As for the rear doors, I intend to mount a fixture that is the same as the ones in the front door...Running a strip light on the bottom would be easier, but I am after an OE appearance...

I have done a little bit of playing around with the underlighting of the door handles, and gave up on the project till later. It is easy enough to wire a strip light or something else under there, but the issue I saw was that the handle is made out of opaque plastic that allows the light to shine through the handle and paint...and TBH it looks like crap. In order to make this mod work, I would definitely recommend pulling the door handles, priming the underside, and painting them.

The third brake light in my car is done with LEDs already. I used 3 of the 48 led boards inside of it. They are literally wedged into the housing and all wired together...Simple

As to the amber underglow...Technically, it could get you a ticket even though it is an approved color for sidemarkers. It could be considered 'distracting' to other drivers.

Lastly, the window strips. Mine are not wired as a replacement for my dome light. They are hooked into the dome circuit and controlled via another switch. The answer is quite simple though...Pull the dome bulb, and solder wires to both end tabs that the bulb fits into. Your power and ground wires for both strips will have to attach to the tabs...You cannot just pull the hot leg and expect it to work with a ground elsewhere. That will allow you to run the wires above the headliner, and also retain the operation of the dome light's switch...

[bt2580]

There have been a few comments about the accessory lights in my car...Here is a link and a brief writeup about the wiring....

Tapping the Dome Light Circuit...2002-2004, Gen3 Altima

And some pics on the car...Bottom of page

http://www.cardomain.com/ride/3074232/2

[Zyphron]

thx for the link BT.

another question, How bright is that strip? bright enough to replace the dome?

and the Puddle lights. how long of a strip did you use?

And Kudos on rigging up the 3156 to 3157 bulb for the rear.. the thought entered my head once I just wish they made a red/white one. Id be all over that

I was thinking of Working it as a Tail Light/blinker. where it's dim and brightens up when your hit the flasher. alas, im not 100% on the legality of it.

[bt2580]

Originally Posted by Zyphron

thx for the link BT.

another question, How bright is that strip? bright enough to replace the dome?

and the Puddle lights. how long of a strip did you use?

And Kudos on rigging up the 3156 to 3157 bulb for the rear.. the thought entered my head once I just wish they made a red/white one. Id be all over that

I was thinking of Working it as a Tail Light/blinker. where it's dim and brightens up when your hit the flasher. alas, im not 100% on the legality of it.

Pretty damn bright...The pic on my CD page is with my dome light off...It is only the front and rear window strips on.

The strip lights used for my puddles are 6 feet long each. They don't show up during daylight and are not obnoxious at night like neon is.

[bt2580]

When I was playing around with the LED light for my auto shifter, I noticed that even with a bright bulb, it got lost in the housing due to it's black color. I considered using foil tape, but then found a can of spray chrome in my cabinet...Couple coats of that, and the bulb now had a reflective surface to bounce the light around more.

I recently replaced the setup in my 3rd brake light with this bulb...
1 EA V-LEDS RED 14 M-SMT 5W HIGH POWER 3RD BRAKE LIGHT BULB T15 T-15 516 579 901 904 906 908 909 912 914 915 916 917 918 920 921 922 923 926 927 928 939
and repainted the inside of the 3rd brake light housing as well.

BTW, that red bulb is the red version of the ones used in my reverse lights, and is quite bright.

***NEW STOP TAIL LIGHT COMING SOON***
I was at V-LEDS this evening and got to play with a new 3157 prototype bulb. The parking circuit is a bit brighter than my current bulbs, but the brake light circuit is easily 3 TIMES brighter. Unfortunately, they were only shipped ONE bulb so far, otherwise I would have stolen 2 of them.

[htsource]

I got my new shipment from V-LED's and for some reason, I can't get this 57 map light to work:

2 HID WHITE SMT 5 LED LIGHT BULBS 1895 53 57 182 BA9s

I have this one and it's working fine:

2 HID WHITE HIGH POWER FLANK LED BULBS 1895 53 57 BA9s

I thought the 5 LED would be brighter so I was thinking of using those.

Thanks.

[htsource]

I also got these for license plate:

2 HID 5K WHITE SMT 5 LED LIGHT BULBS 194 168 158 2821

But I found them to be too bright, I actually like those from new Lexus - not too bright on the license plate. But I don't know which one to pick from V-LEDS site. I could always use these for the doors.

Thanks again.

[bt2580]

Originally Posted by htsource

I got my new shipment from V-LED's and for some reason, I can't get this 57 map light to work:

2 HID WHITE SMT 5 LED LIGHT BULBS 1895 53 57 182 BA9s

I have this one and it's working fine:

2 HID WHITE HIGH POWER FLANK LED BULBS 1895 53 57 BA9s

I thought the 5 LED would be brighter so I was thinking of using those.

Thanks.

The reason why that one bulb works and the other does not is because the flank has a bridge rectifier built into it. This allows the polarity to be either direction in the bulb holder and the light will fire. The 5 led bulb does not have the rectifier...

Originally Posted by htsource

I also got these for license plate:

2 HID 5K WHITE SMT 5 LED LIGHT BULBS 194 168 158 2821

But I found them to be too bright, I actually like those from new Lexus - not too bright on the license plate. But I don't know which one to pick from V-LEDS site. I could always use these for the doors.

Thanks again.

Those were too bright? Those are the same ones I am running in my car, and IMO, it looks good, even on a mostly white plate.

There really is not another option on those...Flank bulbs will not work because the way the socket locks, it puts the light path at a weird angle, and they do not offer that design with less output...

[theonedub]

any update on that new 3157?