About to black the headlights out and add the audi...ish leds

Here is what i'm going to be working on this week:

http://i663.photobucket.com/albums/u...g/DSC_0090.jpg

I don't plan on using the entire strip, i'm still measuring and trying to find the perfect length, so it's not too much.

Here is everything going in:http://i663.photobucket.com/albums/u...g/DSC_0092.jpg

I also have a strip of amber colored leds, I'm just undecided on how much and where to put it inside the headlight. The orange reflectors are definitely coming out. I think i'm going to add just a very small strip of amber leds to the bottom of the corners where the orange reflectors were. I'll post pictures of the finished product.

Where did you get the LED strip? I'm also thinking of doing something similar... would love to see the results ;)

superbright leds.com They are local here in the St. Louis area, so I just ordered and then stopped by and picked them up. I think i'm going to hit them up and see if they will replace the leds in my speedometer and dash. If I take everything apart and just drop off the circuit board to them, I wonder how much they would charge to replace the ugly green leds with some nice blue ones.

The ugly green are not LED's lol.

I know they're not bulbs. So if they're not LEDs and they're not bulbs, then what is making them emit that green color? I've pulled the dash apart and the only bulbs back there are the ones for the low fuel indicator and the turn signals. There is a circuit board behind all of that and I assumed there were small green LEDs on it. I'm curious to know what they are then.

Just to clarify, I have an 2010 Aveo 5, that's 2nd gen. I know the 1st gen dash was different.

It's a moot point anyways, I called Superbright LEDs and they won't do modifications. They suggested a local computer store though, so I might give them a buzz.

The joey mod is not as simple as the how-to was making it out to be. I'm having issues getting the two pieces apart. I've already broken a piece of the gray rear part, which I know is where one of the bolts goes through to hold it onto the car. I'm hoping to finish everything and then superglue that piece back on tight.

Unless the 2nd Gens are different, I am pretty sure they are sockets that kinda screw into the Circuit board. The bulb would be on the other side. I wasn't thinking about car year when I posted, sorry.

Lovely idea, i don't really like that kind of led strip tho, but I'm curious to see the result!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by RoRo

The joey mod is not as simple as the how-to was making it out to be. I'm having issues getting the two pieces apart. I've already broken a piece of the gray rear part, which I know is where one of the bolts goes through to hold it onto the car. I'm hoping to finish everything and then superglue that piece back on tight.

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which did you follow? did you figure it out?

Yeah, I was about to throw in the towel, but I just threw the thing back in the oven and heated it longer. I have everything separated now. I'm off to Home Depot to get a 12v power supply and some wiring, switch, etc...so I can turn these on and off whenever I want.
The joey mod is quite simple, but you have to heat the headlights up longer then what that how-to suggested for best results.

Alright, I have everything in. I'm just holding off on adding the switch for the leds in the headlights because I want to do it right and I don't have time to open my HVAC dash to install a switch like I want. So they are in and wired up but I won't have time until next week to get them hooked up. I'm debating whether to order a 12v power source from Superbrightleds.com as well because I hooked them up to the car battery and they stayed on all the time even when the car was off. I keep reading on these forums that people are saying to wire them into something like the cigarette lighter that is only giving off power when the car is on, but I have no idea how to splice into that wiring.

Why not splice into your headlamps, this way they will turn off and on with the lights. You can pick up splice conecters that want harm your wiring. Just pinch them over the leads and your set.

Did you take pics of how you did everything?????

Quote:

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Originally Posted by LarsBud

Why not splice into your headlamps, this way they will turn off and on with the lights. You can pick up splice conecters that want harm your wiring. Just pinch them over the leads and your set.

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He said in a previous post that he wants the ability to turn them on and off as he pleases.

And please don't use ScotchLocks on ANYTHING where there is moisture. There is ZERO corrosion protection with those and they DO damage your wiring, much more than a good splice.

A little update with some pics:

Alright, i'm really pleased with everything. The blacked out headlights look great with the tinted windows and silver/black accent rims so far. Sorry I don't have any full body shots yet, it's raining outside, so i'll take some better shots tomorrow or the next day.

http://i663.photobucket.com/albums/u...g/DSC02454.jpg
http://i663.photobucket.com/albums/u...g/DSC02456.jpg

Here are a couple shots to show you what I did with the amber leds replacing the side marker. I put a piece of electrical tape over each opening that was left behind in the headlight and then put a strip of amber leds inside. I didn't want to overdo it because I didn't want it looking like a semi or xmas tree or anything.
http://i663.photobucket.com/albums/u...g/DSC02461.jpg
http://i663.photobucket.com/albums/u...g/DSC02462.jpg

And lastly, a picture of the switch that i'll be installing in the HVAC dash to control the LEDS in the headlights:
http://i663.photobucket.com/albums/u...g/DSC02460.jpg

I picked that up at Radioshack, they have 3-4 drawers just full of switches that you can choose from. I picked this one because it has a blue light inside of it, which I mistakingly thought would turn on when I flipped the switch; however, upon getting it home and looking at it closer, the blue light is constantly on regardless of the switch position. I'm hoping it will look good in my dash with the blue lights coming off of my Alpine head unit. Oh well, if I end up not liking it, it was only $4.


A couple questions (1) I'm pretty sure I can splice that into the cig lighter wires to give it power for the blue light, but when I have the headlight LEDS attached to that, will they need separate power, or will the power from the cig lighter that is powering the blue light in this switch also power the LEDS? (2) If you can see the plug looking thing on the bottom of this switch, I know that is what I need to hook up each positive wire from my headlight LEDS to, but is there something out there I can use to secure this connection or do I have to jimmy-rigg it and just wrap the wires around it? (3) You can't really see it in the picture, but surrounding the blue area of that switch are some black flexible plastic pieces, which help give it friction to stay in place, but i'm wondering once I drill the hole in my HVAC dash to accomodate this, is there something anyone would recommend to keep this switch in place?

I was already planning on drilling the hole smaller and then forcing this switch in and hoping that the flexible pieces keep it snugly in place, but there has to be a better plan.

I think I just answered question #1, but I could be wrong. I just did a little experiment and touched the wires from that switch to the battery to power up the blue light. I then, as best I could with the only 2 hands I have, connected the positive wire from one of the headlight LEDs, grounded the negative wire, and nothing happened. I then double checked the LEDs by connecting them to the battery and they turned on. So it looks like i'll need a separate power source for the LEDs.

I would really appreciate a little help with this, but nobody is chiming in.
Here is the 12v power supply I bought from the same company:

http://i663.photobucket.com/albums/u...g/DSC02463.jpg

On the input side it has 3 wires, a ground, neutral, and live. On the output side it only has a red and black. I'm trying to map this out how I want it. I need to wire both sets of LEDS into this and then into the switch you see besides the power supply and also from the picture a few posts ago. I understand the output from this 12v power supply will go to each LED in the headlight, but the input side is what is throwing me off. Where the confusion is coming in is where do I add the power supply (car battery) into all of this, or do I even need to?

Wire it like a car horn, run the power through the lights, and use the switch on the ground side. Downside is if you get a short it will come on and stay on. so in a verbal map it will go, Source -, Load, Switch, ground (car chassis), back to source +

12V DC circuits really don't seperate ground and neutral, that has me confused a bit. If it comes down to it just use the neutral side, or tie them together.

You should be able to Daisy chain the lights without hurting voltage.

I already know that this is going to be more than enough voltage for the LED in each headlight. I'm confused about your verbal map. It sounds like you're running everything into the output side of this 12v driver. That doesn't make sense. Maybe, I'm just confusing myself.

Simplest terms......[Car battery ----- live (input)], [ground (input) ---somewhere on the car], [(output) +/- ----------switch] [switch ----------------------LEDS] ????

Would that work?

I'd have to see myself what your trying to do, I don't get it from the pictures I guess.

My idea might work it might not.

A horn is wired from the battery to the horn to the switch to the ground.

I don't see why you need a neutral and ground either, Unless there are connections I'm missing on your LED set up.

Give me a model number or something on that power supply. . . I think I get it. But I need the specs on that thing. If I'm right that is to convert 120AC to 12V DC Like a wall charger for a cordless drill. If that is true you don't need it, just leave it out and you will be fine.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by daug1502

My idea might work it might not.

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Well that solves everything..J/K

The LEDs only have a positive and negative wire coming from them.

I bought this from the same website that sells the LEDs. It's a waterproof electronic LED driver. 12V 0.42A

Model WPS-12VDC-5W

I bought it because I hooked up the LEDS directly to the car battery and they stayed on all the time even when the car was off. So I figured I needed to buy a switch and a separate power supply so I can control when they turn on and off.

I'm guessing superbrightleds.com? first thing that popped up in google was for landscape lighting. that's a power supply more akin to a laptop computer than a battery, and is what I was afraid of. You don't need that powersupply it's just a transformer. Be useful for testing LED's before putting them in your car, just wire it up to a 3 wire plug with a ground and some insulated gator clips on the other end.

Did you have the LED's hooked up with the switch the first time? If it didn't work get out a continuity tester and make sure the switch is actually good. The way you wired it the first time is right, the power just didn't get interrupted for some reason.

Note: the wiring method I mentioned earlier would be a way to save on wire. Just ground on the switch side instead of running a wire into the cab and back out to the lights.

No, I didn't have the switch in that circuit the first time. I don't know why, but I thought if I hooked the LEDs up to the car battery, they would only come on when the car was turned on. So when they stayed on, I knew I needed some kind of switch. I just don't know how to incorporate a switch into all of this. LEDs ----- switch and then switch ------ car battery???

Do I pretty much have a $10 paper weight now with this LED driver or what? Can I still use it in my set-up?

I've got 3 days off work and have plenty of time to do the drilling, removing of dash etc.. to do this the right way now.

Thanks for answering all my questions. I appreciate your time.

The Driver is useless sorry.

You have options on wiring and Don't have to wire back to the battery, the ground just attaches to the frame/body of the car so that's a great ground site. If you prefer the batter that doesn't hurt either.

Option 1 battery, to switch, to lights, to ground (this probably make the most sense to many people)

Option 2 battery, to lights, to switch, to ground (this is actually how a car horn is wired, and I think some other circuits. It will also save wire, unless you run back to the battery)

A note on grounding to the frame/body, for anyone who is not familiar with vehicle electronics. with a very few exceptions, most of your vehicles electronics run their ground through the vehicle frame/body. This includes your stereo, and subwoofer amp. Also your vehicle horn and lights use this method. If you look at the ground from your battery you will see that the main connection is directly to the body of the car. Just some good information for people wanting to add custom lighting and other effects to their vehicles.

Finished product:
http://i663.photobucket.com/albums/u...g/DSC_0101.jpg
http://i663.photobucket.com/albums/u...g/DSC_0100.jpg

and the switch:
http://i663.photobucket.com/albums/u...g/DSC_0097.jpg

Thank you Daug for all of the help. Much appreciated!

Looks great!

Any time, I am just glad I could help.

Oh, I also wanted to add that the green color is definitely coming from tiny tiny diodes or LEDS on a circuit board inside the dash. I pulled it all off again today, but didn't take the circuit board all the way out because you have to undo the gauge needles to do that and I didn't feel like getting that involved. Anyways, part of the circuit board you can gently bend up and look at and you can see the very small boxes, smaller than a tic tac, that are attached to the circuit board that are directly in back of where the lights come on for TPMS, etc on the dash. I'm going to do some more research and find out how hard/easy it is to uninstall the gauge needles from the dashboard so I can get those tiny lights replaced.

That is not good news then. Your best chance would be to try to see if they are lit white. If they are you might be able to make changes to the gauge faces themselves and get a color change that way. If they are lit green then I don't know.

If you take it apart again get some pics if possible, maybe someone will know a trick.

Really nice look, two thumbs up man!!

For your gauges check out black cat customs website. They sell the led lighting kit with the color of your choice, plus the instructions and support are really really good. As far as led strips, why not relay them from the parking lights? That way you won't have to worry about a switch left on (not that leds would drain your battery overnight), and it looks clean only on with the rest of the lights. If you want them to act as drls, wire them directly to transmission relay/fuse if you have auto, or to the e-brake switch on manual.

... I been wondering how to do that. I want to defeat that stupid 6v relay for the DRL's through the headlights and just put in my own. Never thought of just running from the e-brake switch. Now I got some work to do. Thanks serega.

if they are attached to the ebrake switch, they will still be on when the headlights are on.

I will probably disconnect and maybe remove the stock DRL set up and make my own for the aftermarket ones. When I can get the time I'm going to look it over.

http://www.aveoforum.com/forum/f83/c...dlights-11977/ Here's my setup =] I like yours as well!