April 27, 2010

I am finally done all my exams. Hurray.  Finally, I can install the first of my 5 LED strips.  Wanting to fully do a LED conversion for interior, I've ordered a 60 cm white LED strip from eBay.  Of course, again with my free money from Swagbucks, I've paid $0 for this strip, which originally is priced at $5 with shipping.  The quality is acceptable, with a few LED bulbs that are whitish yellow, and the rest purplish white like my interior map lights.  A DIY/post will be written up soon for that as well.  Nonetheless, this strip was placed in my trunk, replacing the yellow 168 bulb.  I am very satisfied with my work, except for my junk electrical skills which cost me 2 7.5 amp fuses.  Below is a DIY for anyone wishing to follow suit.  The ideology is same for other vehicles, but you would need to just test the polarity of the wires and items.


Here is the DIY for LED Trunk Conversion:

1. Tools needed are 1 LED strip of your choice of color and size.  I went with white, 60cm.  You need 2 Quick connectors (Parallel or T-taps 22-18awg) would suffice for a neat job instead of cutting the wires and soldering.  You also need electrical tape, 16 awg wire, multimeter, wire stripper, scissors, crimper, 9v battery, flathead screwdriver, and flashlight.

(60 cm White LED Strip Ordered from Ebay)

(22-18 awg Quick connectors, wire stripper, 16awg wire, tape, multimeter, crimper, 9v battery, scissors, flathead screwdriver)

2. Remove the existing light cover as if you were changing your trunk bulb.  Basically, get a screwdriver and push into the tab and pull out the cover.  Your instruction manual should tell you how to do this.  For the civic, you can remove the entire cover.  I think it is ok to leave your cover on if you cannot do so but you should remove the light bulb because you do not want to draw extra current in your circuit, and it'll ruin the LED lighting.

3. Once the cover is removed, note the wires going into the blue adapter that you will be tapping into.  White wire is positive and blue is negative.  The reason for a multimeter is to check your polarity if you're doing this for another vehicle as the wires are different.  While on the topic of testing for polarity, your LED strip's polarity can be tested with the 9v battery.  LEDs work one way so polarity matters.  Simply place one end of the wire on the positive node and the other on the negative.  If it lights up, remember which wire is positive/negative.  If not, reverse it.

4. With that said, now comes the fun but scary part.  Scary is because I shorted circuit twice.  Grab one quick connector (I used parallel ones because I can't find T-tap ones).  Place one of them into the slot for the wire you wish to tap into such as the blue wire.  By the way, start with the blue wire because it's negative.  You won't risk unnecessarily shorting stuff.  Place the wire of the LED strip (corresponding polarity) to the other slot so that when you crimp it, it'll connect the two wires.  Depending on whether your original wire is long enough, you may need to extend your wire like I did.  I simply cut an extra feet of 16awg, stripped one end of it and twisted the wire from the LED to it.  Yes, you can solder but I couldn't find any in my home.  Once everything is ready, you can close the quick connector.  I've found out that you need to first use the crimper and clamp the metal splitter down before you can close it.  Make sure the connection's tight or you'll risk shorting your wires and blowing the fuse :(  If you do blow your fuse, its #22 in the engine bay that you'll need to switch out.  I ran out of 7.5A, so I used a 10A.  Safe?  I don't know but I'll switch back soon after I am done my second part of this project.

(There's the blue adaptor, the blue wire which is negative, the white wire which is positive, red wires are for extensions)

5. Repeat for the other wire.  It should light up if it works.  If not, you either mixed up the polarity of the wires or your connections are loose.  If your LED flickers, it's most likely that your connectors are not clamping the wires tightly.

6. Attach where you want the LED strip to be.  I held it in place with electric tape, although the 3M doublesided tape works just as well.

7. Tuck all the wires in neatly and witness your masterpiece.  Use more electric tape if necessary =)

Finished product (well, I did not tuck the wires yet).

(Looking in from inside the car with seats folded of course)