interior light switching

I have a 2001 hyundai coupe and want to switch the interior lights on via the door locks for entry and the ignition switch when turned off for exiting and locking the car. The circuit would have a built in delay and fade rather than just swithch off.

I am a complete novice, not having done anything other than wire a plug since building a simple wireless at school.

Where should I start and any books worth reading before I do

thanks

Some bright spark can help me

Enjoy your search! It's called a PIC or PICAXE or uPC etc. There are some products that might do what you want - try searching this forum else mp3car.com - I was involved in some discussions late last year (I think...?).

oldspark wrote: Enjoy your search! It's called a PIC or PICAXE or uPC etc. There are some products that might do what you want - try searching this forum else mp3car.com - I was involved in some discussions late last year (I think...?).

Could I not just use latching relays, taking the pulse from the central locking modual to turn on the light and another from the ignition switch (engine start) to switch off

If i use the relays would I loose the ability to fade 

Some bright spark can help me

If you do it with relays you will lose the ability to fade. Other then that it can be done. By the time you try to get it to act the way you want it to and do all you would like it to do a programmable solution as mentioned above would be the best route. With a microcontroller you can pulse width modulate the output to create a smooth dimming effect.Kevin Pierson