Custom Lighting - Splicing The Right Wires

[Duffman]

Okay, for those of you who have done far more custom interior lighting than I ever have *looks at Josh and his snakes*... I'm working on my own custom gauge cluster project, similar to Josh's (with the CCFL lights) and I'm trying to figure out the best way to connect my "extra" lighting. I want it to be connected in with the lighting in the rest of the gauage cluster, meaning that when I turn on my parking lights or my headlights, my own custom stuff would light up with the car's own lights. I'm assuming that I would need to splice into something to get the power - and I would most likely accomplish this with some bullet connectors and my own harness (meaning that if I wanted to remove the extra lighting/wiring, all I would need to do is disconnect the harness and reconnect the other bullet connectors, essentially allowing it to be more or less "back to stock").

Here's a diagram of what I was thinking of...



The only question I have left is, where is the best area to splice in between "From Car" and "To Wherever" to get into the circuit? It would need to be something that could handle a little bit of power (nothing too much, just a few CCFL tubes and perhaps some LEDs later on). If you can think of a couple locations, so I can keep from putting too much of a load on one line (I might do some other stuff later on, as I get inspiration) that would be awesome. Thanks in advance!

[lilm]

to do that just splice into a exsiting line as long as its not too much power you shouldnt have a problem and dont splice everyting off one wire


best way ive found to pick a wire is chilton/haynes manuel and a test light


ohh and one thing ive learned is that inline fuses are a good thing

[pythonjosh]

All the backlights in the cluster are all on the same circuit. All run from the same + and - leads. I totally removed all the incandescents in there tho.
Your diagram will suffice for your purposes also. What are you doin back there?

[Duffman]

All the backlights in the cluster are all on the same circuit. All run from the same + and - leads. I totally removed all the incandescents in there tho.
Your diagram will suffice for your purposes also. What are you doin back there?

I was working on two projects - one is complete and one is going to take a lot more work to be "finished". One was the Door Lighting - I used two 6" White CCFL tubes, one for each side. I was originally thinking of wiring them up on a three-way switch, so they could either be On, Off, or Door (like the dome light is), but that turned out to take a LOT more time and planning than my tired Friday night brain wanted to wrap itself around... so for now, I'll live with "It turns on when I open my door and turns off when I close it". I'm working on the positioning still - I'm not sure if I like it closer to the seats, or moved all the way forward near the front of the cabin.

My other project is along the lines of what you were doing - I'm using two (so far) 3" White CCFL tubes in the gauge cluster. The ones from Optx (http://www.optxbystreetglow.com/ultrami ... ttubes.htm) that I picked up fit inside the cluster where I was wanting them (behind the speedo, arund the 40-100 mph range), so right now I'm just trying to figure out how to get a little more light out of them. I was thinking of possibly using some kind of metallic / reflective spraypaint or something - I'm thinking that if the inside plastic of the cluster were a chrome-looking silver instead of white, it would reflect a lot more of the light outward. The results thus far haven't been bad; I am still using my LEDs with them, however, so there is a mild difference in the intensity of the light. I'd try going for just using five of the 3" CCFL tubes, but I don't trust that they will be bright enough. I almost think it would be more practical to figure out how the wiring from the ES300 cluster differs from the Camry/Solara cluster and trying to make my own adaptor harness... lol

Be sure to let us know how your cluster project is going - you're good inspiration for the rest of us.

[woa_its_j3ff]

to do that just splice into a exsiting line as long as its not too much power you shouldnt have a problem and dont splice everyting off one wire


best way ive found to pick a wire is chilton/haynes manuel and a test light


ohh and one thing ive learned is that inline fuses are a good thing

exactly. agree with him 100%. i have the same thing done to my car. same way.

[Duffman]

I ended up feeding off the 4-ga positive feed from my battery to the amp in the back, and running that to the front of the car via a 12-ga wire. I popped a 15-amp inline fuse into that, and made my connections from there.

[Duffman]

Here's a shot of what I've got so far (combination of CCFL / LED in the Gauge Cluster isn't pleasing me - the colors are slightly off so I will likely end up working with a bunch of LEDs)... next steps are changing the HVAC lighting to White, the Keyring to White, and replacing the fuse-style dome light / map light with something a little less yellow!

[woa_its_j3ff]

Here's a shot of what I've got so far (combination of CCFL / LED in the Gauge Cluster isn't pleasing me - the colors are slightly off so I will likely end up working with a bunch of LEDs)... next steps are changing the HVAC lighting to White, the Keyring to White, and replacing the fuse-style dome light / map light with something a little less yellow!

look GREAT man. =)

[pythonjosh]

wow ya I'm def impressed! I like the cluster!

[hskrsolara]

where exactly did you place the tubes behind the cluster? that light looks really uniform!

[pythonjosh]

Hey Duff, your next project is your HVAC controls

[Sap Z]

thats beautiful..

[Duffman]

Hey Duff, your next project is your HVAC controls

I'd start on that today if I knew how the [censored] to get the stupid thing out. There's a cable that connects to the air/heat dial in the middle, and I can't figure out for the life of me how to get it loose - or to get the HVAC unit out of the dash enough for me to even get to it.

where exactly did you place the tubes behind the cluster? that light looks really uniform!

So far, I have one of the 3" tubes behind the Speedo - I used some of that foamy-looking 3M double-sided tape to hold one end onto the white raised spot where the middle wire cluster plugs in, and the other end stuck to the left turn signal tube... thing. The other one is behind the Tach, and it took a LOT of work to put it in there properly. I'm planning to pull the LEDs and try three more CCFL tubes, possibly including a 6" one. I was also thinking of trying some kind of metallic spray paint or hobby paint to give the back surfaces of the cluster a little more reflection, hopefully pushing more light outward. Not sure what exactly I'm going to use for that yet, as the only thing I found on Krylon's site that was metallic didn't say a thing about working with plastic.

[pythonjosh]

Hey Duff, your next project is your HVAC controls

I'd start on that today if I knew how the [censored] to get the stupid thing out. There's a cable that connects to the air/heat dial in the middle, and I can't figure out for the life of me how to get it loose - or to get the HVAC unit out of the dash enough for me to even get to it.

Hence why I haven't done mine yet. That cable is a pain the donkeysass