dome light led conversion

Printed From: the12volt.com
Forum Name: Lights, Neon, LEDs, HIDs
Forum Discription: Under Car Lighting, Strobe Lights, Fog Lights, Headlights, HIDs, DRL, Tail Lights, Brake Lights, Dashboard Lights, WigWag, etc.
URL: https://www.the12volt.com/installbay/forum_posts.asp?tid=101635
Printed Date: July 16, 2025 at 9:28 AM

Topic: dome light led conversion

Posted By: lak8
Subject: dome light led conversion
Date Posted: January 27, 2008 at 6:39 PM

Hi all,

Ok, Well there was a super good deal today at a local store for "stick and click LED lights". This got me thinking becuase i always wanted to change the lights in my map and dome light in my car to a nice bright white light for quite some time now. Lets just say i stocked up on them heh.

Anyways i took a few of the lights apart and heres what i found. Each one has its own pcb with 3leds on it and a 10ohm resistor all wired parallel. All controled by 3AAA batterys. 4.5volts

So its in this order for the connection on the pcb: (+)positve ---> 10ohm ---> switch ---> 3 led parallel ---> (-)negitve

Now my questions is: How do i wire this up to my dome and map lights in my car that draws about 12v-14.4v I have it planed out so far or how many leds will be in each. For the dome im going to have 5 x 3led (total 15leds) and the map will have 2 x 3led (total of 6leds)

If you need any more information please let me know

Replies:

Posted By: lak8
Date Posted: January 28, 2008 at 5:15 PM

To better help, i thought ill'd take a picture of front and back of the pcb.

Let me know if i should replace the 10ohm with the 120ohm or should i just rewire the whole thing. If so were would i find pcb

[IMG]https://img.photobucket.com/albums/v210/lak8integra/P1010038.jpg[/IMG]

Posted By: i am an idiot
Date Posted: January 28, 2008 at 5:22 PM

Just replace the 10 ohm with anything between 470 to 680 ohms.

Posted By: Chris Luongo
Date Posted: February 09, 2008 at 10:57 AM

Depending on your budget, skill, and how much light you want, there are other options out there.

First, it's good to know what type of bulbs your car has from the factory. www.sylvania.com or maybe www.autozone.com should have ways to look up your bulb numbers.

--eBay has lots of drop-in replacements, in various colors. Quality and brigtness can vary, but it's easy and relatively inexpensive.

--www.ledvault.com makes products specifically for Camaro and Firebird. His products may or may not fit your car, but looking at his photos might give you some ideas on how to make your own setup.

Here's a set of his installation instructions, with very nice photos, and you can see just what he is making/selling: https://www.armorysound.com/forumsadv/showthread.php?p=31

--Here is a really nice forum if you want to get more involved:
https://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/forumdisplay.php?f=87

It's a flashlight forum, with an automotive section. A lot of people there who know a LOT about LEDs, and well worth looking at.

Posted By: mickey1031
Date Posted: March 20, 2008 at 9:14 PM

I looked over on the other fourm and it just looks to me everyone likes to fight with each other LOL

But i did how ever like the LED con. for the reverse lights the guy did. I would love to know more on how to do it.

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just a man trying to make a nice toy car out of a monte carlo SS