"Mood Lighting" installed

[jfanaselle]

My girlfriend's Rogue came with factory installed "mood lighting," which is a small amber LED installed between the two map lights that turns on when the head lights are on.

I decided I wanted something like this in my car because it looks really good at night. It gives just enough light to allow you to see what you're doing inside the car in the dark, but not enough to bother you or be noticable if you're underneith any sort of light.

I purchased some amber LED's with pre-soldered resistors on ebay and went to radio shack to pick up an LED holder. Below are some pics:





I wired it into the dimmer switch so it's controlled the same as interior illumination. As soon as the sun goes down, I'll take some pics while it's illuminated. The LED holder is a little on the large side, but I chose this one because it shields the LED enough so that you only see the light it casts, not the actual lamp. Another option would have been to recess it and poke a small hole (that's how it is in the Rogue) so that it shines through, but I wasn't sure I could aim it correctly.

[bdu]

Funny, my V has a small amber LED right there as well, it's a display to tell me that I have a paired bluetooth phone in the car.

[jfanaselle]

Yeah, I know the convience package has the LED to show you when you've paired a phone. However, that's just an "indicator" type LED and doesn't actually illuminate the cabin.

Here's what it looks like illuminated:

[NY.AD.MAN]

That's actually a pretty cool idea...

Now if only someone would design a blue and white gauge cluster....

[xtwoonamatchx]

lookin good.... got a question tho, HOW DO YOU GET THE HVAC leds to show up on the camera? my lights just dont show up on it...

lol... but good, functional idea.

[jfanaselle]

You need a camera where you can control the shutter speed manually. Then, you need to set a VERY slow speed (I used 5 seconds) and fix the camera to something solid.

Usually, I would use a tripod. But for this pic, I sat in the back seat and raised the head-rest on the driver's seat. Then, I wedged the camera under the head-rest and wrapped the neck strap around the bars.

Then, to make sure there's absolutely no movement during those 5 seconds, I used the self-timer to take the pic. That way, I could have my hands totally clear of the camera and the camera could be still for a few seconds before it actually starts taking the picture.

[evoxpisces]

Me likes!

[blindsnyper]

that just put me in the "mood"