*How To* Wire Interior Neons
Due to the large amount of replies and questions after I posted me interior neon pics from my Mazda Protg 5, Ive decided to make a How To guide for installing interior neons in your car. I ask that you please read the whole guide before asking any questions about installing them, since this guide should cover the complete installation.
Objects Required:
*Neon Tubes (any color) (they can be the ones with a cigarette lighter plug or with 2 wires).
*Power Distribution Block, or Neon Interface (neither is necessary, however they will make this install MUCH quicker and easier).
-Power distribution blocks can be purchased at stores such as Pep Boys or Auto Zone. Power distribution blocks either plug into a cigarette lighter or can be directly wired to your battery (both ways provide you with at least one positive and negative wire terminal).
-Neon Interfaces give you one module to control your neon lights from with several options for how the lights work. The one which I bought (while Im currently writing this the interface is in the mail coming to me) is made by Street Glow (or OPTX, which is the same company, however costs less from some odd reason). This box has to be directly wired to your cars battery or another power source. Here is a pic of the interface:
This unit is basically a power distribution block with more features. It allows you to turn the neons on into full on mode, or flash to the beat mode. Even if your neon tubes came with a feature to flash to the beat, this unit will work much better since it will always have the neons on it flash to the beat EXACTLY at the same time, and you only have to hit one switch to turn this mode on, rather than a switch for each neon individually. This unit will control up to 16 neon tubes at once.
*Double Sided tape, zip ties, or any kind of tape to help secure the neon tubes.
Tools that are not required, but are useful:
*Wire stripper
Installing The Neon Tubes once you have all the products:
Step 1: Deciding where you want to put your neon tubes and your distribution block.
First you must decide where you want to mount each neon tube. The most common places are below the dash in the front foot wells, and under the front two seats. This configuration should allow even light distribution to light up both your front and rear floors. You also need to decide where you want to mount your power distribution block or Neon interface, since these units have the power switches to turn all the neons on (unless you wire a separate switch elsewhere for them) and they should be in a convenient place for you to reach to turn the neons on. Also remember that youre going to have to run the wires from each neon to this unit, so it shouldnt be in a hard to reach place.
Step 2: Mount the neons into the places youre planning to put them.
In the protg 5, I found that it was easy to place the front right neon on the part of the dash that sticks out as it ends below the steering wheel. Here are pics of where I mounted them in each part of the car:
Front left Neon (Under the driver dash)(you wont have the blue wirethats my subwoofer amp power wire). The camera is against one of the pedals, looking up towards the driver seat. Double sided tape and zip ties should hold this in nicely. This is the most important tube to secure well, so secure it well so that it wont fall when youre driving and cause an accident!:
Front right neon: (Under the passenger dash). This tube was mounted right onto the bottom of the dash as far back as it can be placed. Its a bit tricky to mount this one, but remember that it doesnt have to be hidden well from when youre down there working on it. If you tape it to that little ceiling you cant see the tube at all when youre sitting anywhere in the car or outside looking in. I secured it on the right side using a zip tie to that clear plastic tube thats already there. The left side takes some creativity. Double sided tape works pretty well, but if your passenger kicks the neon by accident it wont hold (I know this from experience).
Rear Neons (Under the drivers seat). I mounted this neon right after where the carpet ends covering the back of the seat. I used zipties and tape to secure these to wires I had for side airbags. Use whatever you can to tie to, or use double sided tape if you can get it to hold there. Make sure its mounted far enough back so that passengers in the rear seats wont kick them by accident.
Step 3: Wiring the neons (if your neon tubes did not come with cigarette lighter plugs on the end of their wires, skip this step)(also skip this step if you wanna be lazy and just get a quadrasocket adapter and plug in 4 cigarette lighter plugs.which will look bad and be a nuisance).
Cut the cigarette lighter plug off of the end of the wire of the neon tube as done in the picture below.
Next, strip the ends of the two wires, and connect the red wire to the red terminal on the power distribution block (or the neon interface) and plug the black wire into the black terminal (if you have a black wire with a white stripe instead of a red wire then plug then striped wire into the red terminal). If you have for example, 4 neons and only 2 sets of positive and negative terminals, twist tow positive and negative wires together and have them share a terminal(as done below). If you have more neons than your power distribution block says it can support in its specs, than you will need to buy a 2nd one, or one with more terminals.
Finally, plug in the power distribution block into the cigarette lighter socket, or wire the positive and negative wires to your cars battery if it needs to be hard wired. Mount the power distribution block somewhere where you can access it, since the switch to turn the noens on is on the side of the power distribution block or neon interface. Now just hide all your neon wires so they arent visible and youre finished!
Here are a few pics of what mine looks like now (I installed it the way described above, and I temporarily used a power distribution block).
If you have any other questions feel free to ask them here or e-mail me at Matt_Miller@Comcast.net.
I am not responsible for any problems that may occur while doing this install, however you should be perfectly fine if you follow these instructions carefully.
I do have a paypal account, and although I dont ask for any money for this, I do appreciate donations, so if you found this how to helpful, and are feeling generous, please send me a small donation via paypal to Matt_Miller@Comcast.net
Thanks!
-DaViper
Due to the large amount of replies and questions after I posted me interior neon pics from my Mazda Protg 5, Ive decided to make a How To guide for installing interior neons in your car. I ask that you please read the whole guide before asking any questions about installing them, since this guide should cover the complete installation.
Objects Required:
*Neon Tubes (any color) (they can be the ones with a cigarette lighter plug or with 2 wires).
*Power Distribution Block, or Neon Interface (neither is necessary, however they will make this install MUCH quicker and easier).
-Power distribution blocks can be purchased at stores such as Pep Boys or Auto Zone. Power distribution blocks either plug into a cigarette lighter or can be directly wired to your battery (both ways provide you with at least one positive and negative wire terminal).
-Neon Interfaces give you one module to control your neon lights from with several options for how the lights work. The one which I bought (while Im currently writing this the interface is in the mail coming to me) is made by Street Glow (or OPTX, which is the same company, however costs less from some odd reason). This box has to be directly wired to your cars battery or another power source. Here is a pic of the interface:
This unit is basically a power distribution block with more features. It allows you to turn the neons on into full on mode, or flash to the beat mode. Even if your neon tubes came with a feature to flash to the beat, this unit will work much better since it will always have the neons on it flash to the beat EXACTLY at the same time, and you only have to hit one switch to turn this mode on, rather than a switch for each neon individually. This unit will control up to 16 neon tubes at once.
*Double Sided tape, zip ties, or any kind of tape to help secure the neon tubes.
Tools that are not required, but are useful:
*Wire stripper
Installing The Neon Tubes once you have all the products:
Step 1: Deciding where you want to put your neon tubes and your distribution block.
First you must decide where you want to mount each neon tube. The most common places are below the dash in the front foot wells, and under the front two seats. This configuration should allow even light distribution to light up both your front and rear floors. You also need to decide where you want to mount your power distribution block or Neon interface, since these units have the power switches to turn all the neons on (unless you wire a separate switch elsewhere for them) and they should be in a convenient place for you to reach to turn the neons on. Also remember that youre going to have to run the wires from each neon to this unit, so it shouldnt be in a hard to reach place.
Step 2: Mount the neons into the places youre planning to put them.
In the protg 5, I found that it was easy to place the front right neon on the part of the dash that sticks out as it ends below the steering wheel. Here are pics of where I mounted them in each part of the car:
Front left Neon (Under the driver dash)(you wont have the blue wirethats my subwoofer amp power wire). The camera is against one of the pedals, looking up towards the driver seat. Double sided tape and zip ties should hold this in nicely. This is the most important tube to secure well, so secure it well so that it wont fall when youre driving and cause an accident!:
Front right neon: (Under the passenger dash). This tube was mounted right onto the bottom of the dash as far back as it can be placed. Its a bit tricky to mount this one, but remember that it doesnt have to be hidden well from when youre down there working on it. If you tape it to that little ceiling you cant see the tube at all when youre sitting anywhere in the car or outside looking in. I secured it on the right side using a zip tie to that clear plastic tube thats already there. The left side takes some creativity. Double sided tape works pretty well, but if your passenger kicks the neon by accident it wont hold (I know this from experience).
Rear Neons (Under the drivers seat). I mounted this neon right after where the carpet ends covering the back of the seat. I used zipties and tape to secure these to wires I had for side airbags. Use whatever you can to tie to, or use double sided tape if you can get it to hold there. Make sure its mounted far enough back so that passengers in the rear seats wont kick them by accident.
Step 3: Wiring the neons (if your neon tubes did not come with cigarette lighter plugs on the end of their wires, skip this step)(also skip this step if you wanna be lazy and just get a quadrasocket adapter and plug in 4 cigarette lighter plugs.which will look bad and be a nuisance).
Cut the cigarette lighter plug off of the end of the wire of the neon tube as done in the picture below.
Next, strip the ends of the two wires, and connect the red wire to the red terminal on the power distribution block (or the neon interface) and plug the black wire into the black terminal (if you have a black wire with a white stripe instead of a red wire then plug then striped wire into the red terminal). If you have for example, 4 neons and only 2 sets of positive and negative terminals, twist tow positive and negative wires together and have them share a terminal(as done below). If you have more neons than your power distribution block says it can support in its specs, than you will need to buy a 2nd one, or one with more terminals.
Finally, plug in the power distribution block into the cigarette lighter socket, or wire the positive and negative wires to your cars battery if it needs to be hard wired. Mount the power distribution block somewhere where you can access it, since the switch to turn the noens on is on the side of the power distribution block or neon interface. Now just hide all your neon wires so they arent visible and youre finished!
Here are a few pics of what mine looks like now (I installed it the way described above, and I temporarily used a power distribution block).
If you have any other questions feel free to ask them here or e-mail me at Matt_Miller@Comcast.net.
I am not responsible for any problems that may occur while doing this install, however you should be perfectly fine if you follow these instructions carefully.
I do have a paypal account, and although I dont ask for any money for this, I do appreciate donations, so if you found this how to helpful, and are feeling generous, please send me a small donation via paypal to Matt_Miller@Comcast.net
Thanks!
-DaViper
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