backlit window controls

mcgusto82 · Post by **mcgusto82** » Sat Oct 01, 2005 2:03 pm

i really wanted to have window switches that lit up, so i did something about it. i know it's small potatoes but, so what???i got power from the radio dimmer wire. i get dimness control, and they work automatically. not really looking for a tuner look. i really wanted a stock look.you can see where i located 1 of the two lights. that is a 194 size bulb on a socket. taped on to the door panel. a LED isn't a good option here because they tend to light up like a bean ray. i needed a light that would spread and light everything. the window module doesn't have much cavities for the light to go thru straight.that's how the light was positioned after a few tries. took me two days to finally position it just right for the corect lighting. can't really adjust the light during the day, so i did it at sunset. i ran out of light the first day. had to rush the second day.where my finger tip is, i made a cavity for the LED to light thru. The LED was usufull and light up the door handle and lock. everything is red to keep it looking clean.i will get some pictures of the final look. my camera ran out of bateries. But i do gotta say, it look nice. the light shines thru the back and looks like it's supposed to be there. no wires and light inside.

Toasted7 · Post by **Toasted7** » Sun Oct 02, 2005 10:58 am

I want to see what it looks like when it is done... I think that's a really good idea!

ColonelPanic · Post by **ColonelPanic** » Sun Oct 02, 2005 11:22 am

I'm interested to see the end result too.

mcgusto82 · Post by **mcgusto82** » Tue Oct 04, 2005 8:43 am

the lighting is bright and visible to the naked eye. But my camera just can't seem to capture a good shot. sorry guys. looks like there won't be any finish pitures. If any of you are near yonkers, NY. come see it for yourselfs. lol

northvibe · Post by **northvibe** » Tue Oct 04, 2005 9:04 am

nooooooooooooooooooooo, i wanted to see pics too just take a trip around the country showing us

ColonelPanic · Post by **ColonelPanic** » Tue Oct 04, 2005 10:01 am

Rats. Your camera have a manual mode? Maybe that would help, if you could dork around with the exposure settings and what not...

mcgusto82 · Post by **mcgusto82** » Tue Oct 04, 2005 11:28 am

i have two cameras. the crappy one, has a manual mode. i can try it with it.

ColonelPanic · Post by **ColonelPanic** » Wed Oct 26, 2005 4:01 pm

Thanks for sharing this great idea... I liked it so much, of course, I had to copy off you. The project is still in "beta" status so there is plenty of room left for tweaking and hopefully, improvement. I decided to stick with one of the white LED accent lights that I bought a long time ago but never really found a use for. It has three white LED's mounted in a triangle, and the lens over top of them does a good job at overcoming the LED's narrow viewing angles. I just stuck it to the door panel with double sided tape. To get power, I decided to stick with the ground and positive going to the window switch. To avoid cutting up the wiring, I decided to just try to feed the wires down into the back side of the connector far enough that they would stay in contact with the terminals on the wiring harness. Taped them in to keep them in there. This probably won't last long, if I had to guess. The good: I didn't have to run wiring through the door panel and out the door to under the dash to connect it to something. The bad: Any time the ignition is on, the LED's are on. Not really a big deal to me though. The end result is a soft blue/white glow around the outer edges of the switches. The switches on the left side light up nicely... The right switches aren't as well lit - the front switch has some light around it, but the rear switch has very little, if any. I'll try to reposition the LED module some other time to get as equal coverage as possible.Not a bad start, I think... I'm going to play around with this stuff some more and see what happens. it isn't the brightest at the moment, but it is a heck of a lot better than that crappy, dimly lit AUTO.

mcgusto82 · Post by **mcgusto82** » Wed Oct 26, 2005 11:14 pm

looks good. have you thought about oing with red like the rest of the dash?

ToolGuy · Post by **ToolGuy** » Thu Oct 27, 2005 12:32 am

Great idea Mcgusto and CP! I too took my switches apart and noticed there was not much I could do to light the other three like the driver. I also thought I could upgrade the driver LED with a larger LED, that would help that switch only though. I ended up putting it all back together and did nothing...This idea may be a possibility!

ColonelPanic · Post by **ColonelPanic** » Thu Oct 27, 2005 1:43 am

Quote, originally posted by mcgusto82 Â»looks good. have you thought about oing with red like the rest of the dash?Honestly, no. I have blue LED's mounted in the bottom of the radio bezel that shine down on the hvac knobs, and I also have two different sets of LED's under the dash that are independently switched, those are blue and purple. So this goes with my "theme" better.

northvibe · Post by **northvibe** » Thu Oct 27, 2005 1:50 am

colonelpanic, do you have more pics of your leds? id like to see them to get a ideas for mine.

mcgusto82 · Post by **mcgusto82** » Thu Oct 27, 2005 6:20 am

Quote, originally posted by ColonelPanic Â»Honestly, no. I have blue LED's mounted in the bottom of the radio bezel that shine down on the hvac knobs, and I also have two different sets of LED's under the dash that are independently switched, those are blue and purple. So this goes with my "theme" better.what theme is that? RAINBOW??)

ColonelPanic · Post by **ColonelPanic** » Thu Oct 27, 2005 5:52 pm

Quote, originally posted by northvibe Â»colonelpanic, do you have more pics of your leds? id like to see them to get a ideas for mine.Oh, I have a pic or two here. Some things have changed, some haven't. At one point in time, I had two sets of LED's under the dash - blue and some color changing ones. I've since removed the color changing ones and replaced those with the purple, which are basically blacklights (they always look blue in the pics though.) Then there are two blue LED's in the bottom of the radio bezel. The most recent pic of my setup is here although methinks the ones in the radio bezel were purple at the time that pic was taken. I've got a thread over here in regards to where I bought them/etc.mcgusto, yes, my whole theme is rainbow, kinda like skittles. I almost went with red under the dash, but I thought that was too much red for me. So I mixed it up, quite a bit. lol!Back to the sweet backlit window controls, I had my first drive longer than a few minutes with 'em tonight. I'm really liking the way they turned out. I plan on improving what I have though, I am going to add a second LED module in there like the one that is already there. These guys were the source of these particular LED's if anybody is curious. I hope you didn't mind that I copied your idea, mcgusto. It is a good one. Those LED's I have under the dash actually shine in a wide enough pattern that the light hits the window controls on the door panel, but this makes it that much nicer.

mcgusto82 · Post by **mcgusto82** » Fri Oct 28, 2005 1:12 am

now that i see the whole picture. it looks really good.i wish there was a resonably easy way to change all the interior lighting to blue. a dark mystirious blue.mind?? why would i?? that's why i posted. share my ideas. i hope all you guys do too.

ColonelPanic · Post by **ColonelPanic** » Sun Oct 30, 2005 9:44 am

I added the second LED module in there tonight to brighten it up a bit. Turned out nice. I had to play around with the mounting location of the second one, as the first attempt had it mounted too low and the light was shining through the right rear window switch bright enough that it was annoying. I think it turned out ok for the most part. It looks a lot brighter in person. http://img.photobucket.com/alb...6.jpgh ... lb...8.jpg

mcgusto82 · Post by **mcgusto82** » Sun Oct 30, 2005 10:53 am

looks nice. get a full shot of the entire cabin.

ToolGuy · Post by **ToolGuy** » Mon Jan 02, 2006 7:27 am

Finally got around to doing this... I improved on the existing lighting of the word AUTO in the drivers side window switch.I took the switch apart, unsoldered the small green LED and soldered in a larger RED LED. NOTE: There are typically two types of LED's sold, one with a pointed beam and one with a more spread out beam. The spread out beam is what I used. I had this LED sitting around so it cost me nothing. I suppose it would cost a couple of bucks if bought from Radio Shack. The entire process took me 15 minutes, no cutting re-wiring necessary and the LED fit in the hole with room to spare. The difference is just what I was looking for! It illuminated the switch more and was not obnoxious that it stuck out in the corner of your eye as you drove. Plus, it matches the existing red lighting in the car!Here is a pic, it is the best I could do to try and capture the red glow!

Attached files

ToolGuy · Post by **ToolGuy** » Mon Jan 02, 2006 7:46 am

Here is the switch taken apart, my thumb is next to the green LED. The new red LED is 2.5 times larger than the green.

Attached files

backlit window controls

backlit window controls

Re: backlit window controls (mcgusto82)

Re: backlit window controls (Toasted7)

Re: backlit window controls (ColonelPanic)

Re: backlit window controls (mcgusto82)

Re: backlit window controls (ColonelPanic)

Re: backlit window controls (mcgusto82)

Re: backlit window controls (ColonelPanic)

Re: backlit window controls (mcgusto82)

Re: backlit window controls (mcgusto82)

Re: backlit window controls (ColonelPanic)

Re: (northvibe)

Re: (ColonelPanic)

Re: (ColonelPanic)

Re: backlit window controls (mcgusto82)

Re: backlit window controls (MiVibe-ToolGuy)