LED placement ideas :)

[Karona]

Hello all,

I recently received 4 LED strips (30cm, 15 LEDs per strip), as well as 20m(60ft?) of cheap double stranded wire. Now last night, I brought down 1 of my strips to place around the Qx4 in hopes of helping me decide the best place to put them, and how much wire I'll need to cut. Currently I have a rocker switch installed into a blank spot on the left of the steering wheel (Picture below, the spot under "SECURITY" if that wasn't obvious :P). Powered from the 'mirrors fuse' (9/10), grounded to a random piece of metal within that area, with the ACC being sent down a wire which runs from the switch to the grill of the truck (this was from a previous project).




Below I will provide a handful of pictures I took of the various placements I could think of, with the purpose of hopefully receiving comments and criticisms, as well as potentially providing other LED fans with ideas for their future projects. I understand that these images may be offensive, but please understand they were merely ideas in which I'm sharing (wiring and placement obviously are not precise as there were simply tests) with hopes of ideas being shared with me in turn (or even the sharing of similar images of your own LED lit vehicles.)

Well enough talking, take a gander and let me know what you think!


















I'm personally leaning towards front grill, foot-well and wheel-well lighting (not on the same switch of course), but I'm having trouble deciding as there are only 4 strips..

[Karona]

(Sorry for the double post)

But if there is any interest, I can get some pictures of the wiring/switch, etc

[atraudes]

If you were to run them on the exterior somewhere, I'd say one of the first two would be best (both?). My official vote would be inside under the dash, but only because I like to keep a low profile You may want to confirm the legality of the outside options too...

What about under the doors and wire them so they light up with the interior lights? That might look pretty wicked and would probably be pretty useful to boot OR under the dash and doors, wired with the interior lights?

I've toyed with the idea of putting orange lights in the front wheel wells to act as turn signals, but I'm still torn on whether I should or not

What color are they? They look violet and blue, but I can't decide which it is.

Let us know what you end up going with!

[atraudes]

After further consideration, I decided I'm definitely not feeling the 3rd and 4th options...

[Karona]

The lights are solid blue, the pictures came out very purple though, must have been correcting for lighting or something on my phone.

Oh wow, I actually have not even considered both of the front grill options, I like it, thanks a lot for your post, I'll be sure to share any pictures I take of finished products, might work on it this weekend. The foot-well and door lights to go on with the dome would be pretty cool, I'll have to take that into consideration, would be best if there were a fuse for that by the drivers side.

As for legality, most visible lights that aren't stock would be considered illegal in Canada while driving (underbody, wheel well, grill [unless it's a yellow/white strip or two perhaps {drls}]). Lights that are blue, and/or red are also charge'able but if it's not being projected outwards you can likely fight them in court..

[Karona]

Just a follow up, I installed 2 strips for the footwell lighting, and I also found a little sound activated neon tube my dad has had since his Nissan Pulsar days lol.

It's a video btw

https://goo.gl/photos/8Edn8Dmib1jmbvM89

[atraudes]

Prince, huh? Nice Check out Sam Sparro if you haven't already. I heard his second album was very Prince-like.

Puntastic that the pulasting light came out of a Pulsar

[Karona]

Prince, huh? Nice Check out Sam Sparro if you haven't already. I heard his second album was very Prince-like.

Puntastic that the pulasting light came out of a Pulsar

Haha! Yeah, I love Prince, saw him live once two, great performer, master musician, what's not to love? (except maybe his more experimental stuff that didn't always come out well... rap and gospel?). Never heard of Sam Sparro but I'll check out his second album, thanks. And yup, didn't think about that one lol, pulsar puns, I'd love to have one of those pulsars now though, I know my dad still has feelings for the Pulsar lol, talks about it from time to time :P

Anyway!

Here are some closer to finished products of my LED installations. (Thanks for the idea, Atraudes, keeping the lights in the interior seems like such a better idea to attract less attention, and to keep the lights in good condition. Canadian weather can be brutal.)

• - 4 Blue LED strips for footwell lighting (30cm, 15 SMD's per strip)

• - 2 White Map Light LEDs (BA9S)

• - 2 White Reverse Light LEDs (1157? Can't remember)

I still have quite a few LEDs on the way; white Dome light, white vanity mirror lights, light blue (ice blue) licence plate lights, and ice blue cluster lights.
I've never removed the cluster before so I'm a little afraid, but I would really love to change the white into a blue'ish white