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

[RoRo]

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.

[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.

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

[YnotVW]

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.

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.

[RoRo]

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.




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.



And lastly, a picture of the switch that i'll be installing in the HVAC dash to control the LEDS in the headlights:


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.

[RoRo]

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.

[RoRo]

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:



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?

[daug1502]

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.

[RoRo]

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?

[daug1502]

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.

[daug1502]

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.