- :
- Mazda CX-5 Touring w/bose-tech
from another thread that i participated in decided to explore options for modifying some overhead ambient lights that are becoming popular.
the center console is the most obvious place, so i pulled mine out and checked for places that could work, here's some pics of what i found
you need to open the sunglasses holder and remove the two screws inside there, then carefully angle the piece down and disconnect the three harnesses (lights/power, moonroof controls, and what i believe is the voice control/bluetooth phone mic)
here it is removed and the 'inside'
there's the spot that is the other little grill opposite where the microphone pickup and two spots located right near the moonroof control
here is an 'outside' shot of the overhead with the locations marked
here is an angle shot of what looked like good places near the moonroof control
here is a closeup of the location
and an outside shot of where those locations would be
here is a closeup of the inside of that open grate opposite the mic
and an outside close shot of same spot
i'm trying to find options for lights, but unfortunately most blue leds (what i would use) are very high powered and therefore too bright, in lumens and 'color' i like the royal blue i've seen used in fishtanks for 'moonlights' but those are all very high power lights and have large'ish starplate mounts which would make mounting them somewhat difficult in this application. so if i can find a lower frequency led (less than 465nm or so) and then just bump up the resistor needed to drop the forward current and hopefully make the led 'darker' so the lighting isn't too harsh
from what i've seen in other places of people making up setups like this the best method is to drill a hole same size or slightly smaller than whatever your source is (smd, standard led, whatever) and mount the light on the inside(possibly even with a spacer to move it farther from the hole) so that it doesn't protrude thru the hole, that helps keep there from being a 'point of light' in your view that would be too noticeable and possibly distracting.
here's examples of what this guy did in his jeep
http://i317.photobucket.com/albums/mm387/Muddy4dsm/2012-01-26195335.jpg
http://i317.photobucket.com/albums/mm387/Muddy4dsm/2012-02-12133943.jpg
the center console is the most obvious place, so i pulled mine out and checked for places that could work, here's some pics of what i found
you need to open the sunglasses holder and remove the two screws inside there, then carefully angle the piece down and disconnect the three harnesses (lights/power, moonroof controls, and what i believe is the voice control/bluetooth phone mic)
here it is removed and the 'inside'
there's the spot that is the other little grill opposite where the microphone pickup and two spots located right near the moonroof control
here is an 'outside' shot of the overhead with the locations marked
here is an angle shot of what looked like good places near the moonroof control
here is a closeup of the location
and an outside shot of where those locations would be
here is a closeup of the inside of that open grate opposite the mic
and an outside close shot of same spot
i'm trying to find options for lights, but unfortunately most blue leds (what i would use) are very high powered and therefore too bright, in lumens and 'color' i like the royal blue i've seen used in fishtanks for 'moonlights' but those are all very high power lights and have large'ish starplate mounts which would make mounting them somewhat difficult in this application. so if i can find a lower frequency led (less than 465nm or so) and then just bump up the resistor needed to drop the forward current and hopefully make the led 'darker' so the lighting isn't too harsh
from what i've seen in other places of people making up setups like this the best method is to drill a hole same size or slightly smaller than whatever your source is (smd, standard led, whatever) and mount the light on the inside(possibly even with a spacer to move it farther from the hole) so that it doesn't protrude thru the hole, that helps keep there from being a 'point of light' in your view that would be too noticeable and possibly distracting.
here's examples of what this guy did in his jeep
http://i317.photobucket.com/albums/mm387/Muddy4dsm/2012-01-26195335.jpg
http://i317.photobucket.com/albums/mm387/Muddy4dsm/2012-02-12133943.jpg