Vent ideas

[Merzbow]

SOOOOO bored and lacking money I've been thinking of cheap little things to do to the Vibe.I was thining first of wiring in little baby LEDs in the a/c vents.Also thinking about somehow rigging up some little servos in each vent, allowing them to be opened and closed by a switch.Both mods are 100% useless but they seem VERY entertaining Your opinions?BTW, I know these ideas have nothing to do with gauges, but it's late and I wasn't thinking clearly

[ColonelPanic]

You can always put a gauge in a vent! How about that? I saw a Tibby the other day where the guy took a fricken tach and stuck it in one of the air vents on his center stack... LOL! Like the one directly in front of him wasn't good enough, he needed one to the right as well, but anyway.... It did look cool, if it weren't a redundant gauge, that would have rocked..Anywho, you could easily do the LED's in the vent stuff for dirt cheap. And it does look great in person, I've seen 'em. The mechanized ones sound pretty spiffy, that'd be more work and money though.

[Merzbow]

Wonderful. I've been toying with the LED idea for about a year now (removed) goes to show you how lazy I am. But I cannot figure out all the resistor b/s. I was gonna buy some LEDs at Radio Shack but I was not sure how to wire them.

[zionzr2]

i thought someone around here put a Air/Fuel Mix guage in the driver center vent.

[Merzbow]

Devlop did on his turbo Vibe.I dont feel like gettin an A-pillar pod so I might do the same.

[djb383]

SOOOOO bored and lacking money I've been thinking of cheap little things to do to the Vibe.Save your money, it might be worth something some day!

[theangrydwarf1]

Quote, originally posted by Merzbow » But I cannot figure out all the resistor b/s. I was gonna buy some LEDs at Radio Shack but I was not sure how to wire them.Merz, if you look at the LED and see a flat spot near the base of it, thats the negative post. The other side is tied to the postitve (5 or 12volt). To be on the safe side you need some 200 ohm resistors (color code for these is red,black,brown) to solder to the positive post. If you have any questions feel free to ask.

[SuperSpeedWagon]

Dude I just posted that up last night on my a/c controls thats freakin crazy you were thinking the same thing go ahead and look at my topic http://forums.genvibe.com/zerothread?id=23178 but let me know how yours turns out and post up some pix I'll do the same when Im done lol good luck

[ColonelPanic]

Merz, you could always spend more dough and get some LED's that already have the resistors built-in that were designed for automotive use. That way, just feed them +12V, stick the other wire to ground and viola. Here are a few different ones to choose from. I've bought from these guys several times, http://www.superbrightleds.com/mini_tubes.htm

[Merzbow]

HAHA I cannot save money. I don't make enough to save and pay bills so.

[djb383]

Quote, originally posted by Merzbow »HAHA I cannot save money. I don't make enough to save and pay bills so.If you make any money at all, you make enough to save something. You have to remember to pay yourself first, before anybody else. If you save just a $100/mo. (most of us waste that on pizza and other junk each month) and invest it in good growth mutual funds averaging 12%, you will have $1.2 million in 40 years or age 58 in your case. What you have, that a lot of us don't, is time. Now, go make yourself a millionaire, all it takes is a little time.

[Merzbow]

lol thanks. I save some but I have certain opinions on where we will be in 40 years that I don't want to get started on. I am getting more hours and a raise so saving will be easier. I want to get a house withinn hte next 5 years so I will have something to work for.Anyways I don't really do anything except go to car shows and work on other people's cars which is why I like to sp[ent money on mine. That's pretty much my only hobby lol.

[Lancer]

You could try this?Didn't take too long. Just need a steady hand with the drill. http://forums.genvibe.com/zerothread?id=17204

[ColonelPanic]

I had done the same myself at one time... here are all the pics of what was at one time...

[Merzbow]

That is bad (removed)....Which of the LEDs did you use? I might do that under the radio that looks wonderful! Hope you don't mind if I steal your idea!

[ColonelPanic]

Any sort of original ideas I've had/implemented are always released as open source, so you can feel free to do whatever you want with them. The bezel LED's, I think you'll be stealing Lancer's idea, he's the first one I recall doing that. The bezel LED's in the pics were actually the purple ones, I do believe. Think blacklight. I had some blue ones in there later. Those were simple LED's you just had to drill into the bezel and snap into place. I tapped into the power wire for the rear defrost switch backlighting (green wire, iirc) so they were only on with the lights and could be dimmed with the dimmer control. Grounded to the radio bolt.Here are some similar. I can't recall where I bought mine from, but they were cheaper (albeit slightly.)The under dash LED's were Electropods, but they're hard to find now. The superbrightleds.com addy I linked to earlier sells similar ones. You can still find the Electropods here and there but they're $12/each.

[damronjr]

Cool idea, how hard is it to wire up those LED's and where do you buy stuff like that?

[SuperSpeedWagon]

Well the stuff you can buy at AutoZone, Advance Auto Parts, you know auto stores the wiring is not that hard just takes time, and you have to know where you want then. good luck man

[ColonelPanic]

You can use an Add-A-Circuit and tap into the CIG fuse, I believe, for power if you need it. That will be switched with the ignition. Add a switch somewhere, scroll down to the bottom here for switches that will fit in the blanks to the left of the wheel. You can get ground by removing the kick panel trim cover on the driver's side and ground it to one of the dash bolts. Mount them, done!The bezel lights, like I did, you can just stick the positive wire through the back of the connector where the green wire is and just kinda tape it in place. Ground to the radio bolt, and it will be all set to come on and off with the lights and dim with the dimmer.It is easy but the wiring can get a bit difficult to manage when you start adding a crapload of stuff.

[jeffgtx]

i got my 12V ready LEDs at circuit city. come in packs of four in various colors.http://forums.genvibe.com/zerothread?id=16833

[Merzbow]

I didn't even see the pics Lancer posted!Yeah Lancer's is what I am looking for....red LEDs would be what I want. Thanks for the pics!