led power source

Hi guys. putting together a pretty simple led interior system into my car but im not too sure how i should power it. I know i can hook onto the back of the cig lighter, but then i dont think i will have a fuse, and seeing as im having 6 sets of LEDs then i realy want one. I have a power cable coming from the battery to power my amp, and that has an inline fuse. Im wondering if there is any way to hook into this, and if there is will it affect the power going to the amp? and in turn affect my bass levels?? Any suggestions guys? the set up im having is just from the power source, to a switch to each of the LEDs to the ground. Any help would be great, thanks!

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-Burgies

Also just checking if i take the ground wire from one LED set and wire it to the positive of another will the circuit work?

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-Burgies

We need to know more about the LEDs to answer your last question. Are they set up to run on 12 volts? Do you have to install a resistor in line with the Packs?

Yeah they are made to be powered by the cig lighter but ill just cut the wires, i dont know bout the resistor but that prob means i dont

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-Burgies

If they are designed to plug into the lighter, you can not run them in series.  It won't hurt anything, they will be very dim.

can you recommend any way to have the three sets, (each set is a pair) working nicely?

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-Burgies

What are you ultimately trying to do with them?  Have them on all the time and just control them with the switch?  Or do you want to do something more advanced like have them on with the doors are open?  Have them on when the ignition is on?  Have them come on above a certain motor RPM?  Have them come on when the volume of the radio surpasses a preset threshold, have them come on when you are rolling the windows down, have them come one when the head lights are on, have them come on with the parking lights are on, have them come on when the brake lights are on, have them come on when the fog lights are on, have them come on when the bright lights are on, have them come on when the dome light is on, have them come on when the little light in the passengers visor vanity light comes on, have them come on when your fuel is low, or when you have plenty of fuel, how about when you hit the lock button, followed by the unlock button, then back to the lock button?

Sorry for all the questions, I guess I need to look in to getting one of those crystal balls I keep hearing about....

But, seriously, the reason I ask is because if you hook them up to constant power and rely on yourself remembering to turn the switch off each time you leave the car after your first dead battery you'll be back here asking us how to rewire the LEDs so that they do one of the things mentioned above (or maybe something I missed as that is by no means a complete list of what we can do).

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Kevin Pierson

I was just planning on controlling them with a switch, and the ignition would have to be on too for the cig lighter to power them i beleive, had no idea you could do some much stuff with them, i was thinking about the whole leaving them on thing, and also not wanting to accidently hitting it on with a cop car next to me so im going to use a missle switch so its really obvious when they are on, you know, besides the glow. :P

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-Burgies

If you want an ignition source of power then you can't hook in to your audio amp, unless you use a relay.

Do you know how much current each LED stick uses?  I would guess that you could wire them right off your cigarette lighter with no issues.  You could then use the switch to turn them on and off without fear of forgetting to turn them off.

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Kevin Pierson

So i would need to wire each one to the switch instead of having them in a series? So instead of

Power -> switch -> LED 1 -> LED 2 -> LED 3 -> Ground

i would need

Power switch -> LED 1 -> ground

                     -> LED 2 -> ground

                      -> LED 3 -> ground

would the second one mean that they dont dim from having too many lights???

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-Burgies

after doing some more reading around forums im 99% sure that the second way will work without loss of brightness, if anyone does have any thing to add please do, just want to confirm that the cig lighter has a fuse???

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-Burgies