To avoid stepping into mud or puddles when getting out of the car at night, we suggest installing additional lighting for the disembarkation area. Where is the best place to mount the external lighting and how to connect it most conveniently, read on..
Anton-FatTony › Blog › LED door lighting
Door lighting is not only a beautiful, but also a functional addition to any car, regardless of whether you are into tuning or not, everyone wants to see exactly where you place your foot when leaving the car... Door lighting is extremely useful, because no matter where you stop, You will always know where exactly you are going, because everyone is familiar with the situation when, having stopped at night in an unlit area, getting out of the car, your foot falls into a puddle, mud or something similar, you will agree, not a pleasant surprise...
And of course we must not forget about the aesthetic component of door edge lighting: even if you choose white lighting, you will always be the center of attention. But why limit yourself to just white? Your choice of backlight in any color: blue, red, green, yellow, orange, purple, etc.
Now a few words about the technology: To make door lights, we use a fully sealed LED strip of IP65 standard with increased brightness, which gives rich, even light and at the same time lasts much longer than its cheaper counterparts.
All connections and wires are reliably soldered and sealed, which makes the entire structure as reliable and durable as possible.
The connection is made to the standard wiring using Smart Connection; if the car is equipped with its own diagnostic system, adjustments are made using standard dealer equipment to ensure correct and error-free operation of the entire system.
In addition to illuminating the edges of the doors, we also suggest illuminating the trunk space, which is also quite functional, since now you can see everything that is in it not in the dim light of the standard lamp. The trunk lighting, by the way, looks quite beautiful not only in the evening, but also during the day, giving the car a certain charm.
You can find out the cost of work on lighting the interior of your car by phone or on our website:
And I remind you again:
On the eve of Valentine's Day, we, the team at Tuning Atelier Fat-Tony, want to congratulate you on this wonderful holiday and inform you that on February 14, everyone who signed up with us for any work, be it installing acoustics, illuminating the underbody or interior of a car, reupholstering vinyl of the body or interior, in general, for all all work, we give a 14% discount
Please your loved ones with an extraordinary gift: give them the embodiment of their dream associated with a personal car, let there be something special in it that will remind them of you every day they spend with their car.
February 14th 14% discount on all work at Tuning Atelier Fat-Tony! Don't miss your chance to please your loved ones!
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OSRAM › Blog › Interior lighting tuning: functionality and beauty
Until recently, car interior lighting was limited to a single ceiling lamp. But the level of comfort gradually increased. And now automakers are adding navigational directional lamps, lights in the glove compartment, illuminated vanity mirrors, lighting for thresholds, interior door handles, and even footwell lighting.
But this was not enough for tuning fans. They began to highlight niches, chairs, controls and interior elements. Car interiors began to flicker, pulsate and change colors at the owner's request.
Today we’ll talk about how to modify your interior lighting yourself.
Traffic regulations very strictly regulate the color, brightness, type and location of external lighting devices. But you won’t be fined for interior lighting tuning. But it is worth considering that turning on the interior lights at night reduces visual acuity. Even an ordinary lamp above the driver worsens the sensitivity of the retina, the eyes are less able to distinguish dark objects.
We recommend turning off the interior lighting while driving.
The pioneers of domestic lighting tuning simply replaced ordinary lamps in the ceiling lamps of their “nines” with blue or green ones. It looked impressive, but had to sacrifice functionality. It became impossible to see anything in the dim blue light.
Today, the best functional tuning of a ceiling lamp is the installation of LED white light lamps. They burn brightly and consume much less electricity than regular ones. This will be appreciated by absent-minded drivers who forget the light in the cabin at night. With LED lamps, the battery, of course, will not discharge so quickly.
You can also modify the instrument panel. For example, change the color of the backlight or make it brighter. To do this, you will have to tinker with dismantling the panel and replacing the lamps with diodes. But you can choose the lamps so that the shield becomes multi-colored, the main thing is to buy diodes with the right base and not to overdo it with the brightness.
Legroom
The designers of expensive luxury cars were the first to come up with the idea of illuminating the legs of passengers. It looks beautiful, creates a cozy atmosphere in the cabin and makes it easier to navigate in the dark. Gradually, this option appeared on cheaper cars.
You can mount the footlights yourself. Special LED strips will help you, which are attached with double-sided tape in an inconspicuous place and connected to the cigarette lighter. The main thing is to hide the wires properly so as not to spoil the whole look.
DIY car door lighting
Door lighting , unfortunately, is not available in every car; as a rule, “foreign” models, mainly the latest ones, are equipped with this useful “feature”. For example, I don’t understand why “our” cars are not equipped with such a useful and at the same time simple function as illuminated door handles . Why does a simple ordinary car enthusiast have the intelligence and time to do such tuning with his own hands , but automakers do not?
But everyone, probably, once had to touch the entire door by touch in search of the handle, until the driver turns on the light in the cabin. What’s most interesting is that for ten years now room switches have been equipped with a mini-backlight that helps you find the treasured key in the dark. Well, okay, let it remain on their conscience, fortunately we have hands and brains, with the help of which, we car enthusiasts, we can make up for the omissions and shortcomings of the domestic and “foreign” automobile industry.
Today I will share my experience and tell you how to illuminate door handles.
So let's get started...
In order to make door lights you will need:
- Soldering iron;
- Male/female connectors;
- Light-emitting diode;
- Resistor;
- A piece of wire;
- Masking tape;
- Organic glass;
- Sealant.
If you have everything you need, you can start.
1. First of all, you should wrap the handle itself with masking tape so as not to damage it, but this is not critical, for example, I have it covered with nickel, so I was worried about damaging it inadvertently.
2. Now, you should make a marking and mark the place where the “window” will be placed, through which the light will ooze.
3. To do this, drill a hole of the required size and correct everything with sandpaper.
4. The next step, cutting and preparing 4 mm plexiglass, in order to mount it into our formed window, using fine sandpaper you need to make the surface matte so that the light diffuses and looks softer.
5. I tried to fit the manufactured element as accurately as possible, so that nothing could be felt to the touch; in short, the illumination of the door handles was muddled “to the brand.”
6. Now we arm ourselves with a soldering iron and solder the diode with a resistor and make a bend of the required shape, after which we install and fix it with sealant.
7. When everything has dried and hardened, we install the male/female connectors and make the connection to the dimensions.
That's all, now we can safely say that DIY door lighting is ready! Check it out and show off to your friends :-). I hope the article was useful to you and you found what you were looking for. I look forward to your comments and feedback. Thanks everyone, good luck!
AlexxxGray › Blog › Lighting in the car door. Let there be light!
“Should I or should I not illuminate my car door?” — If such a question is relevant for someone, then my advice is yes, definitely do it (if you haven’t installed it yet). There are quite a few reasons for this - such as simple modding - the desire to highlight the individuality of your car or pretentious pampering,
and for practical reasons - illumination of the boarding area
and door end lighting to warn passing vehicles. And this means the safety of passengers getting out of the car.
To be honest, the first installation of lighting for the landing zone in the door was inspired by pathos. This idea is not expensive and it is not very difficult to implement. I purchased sets of lights with my car's logos and an electrician installed everything within 1 hour. It looked very impressive in the dark. But time passed and the door lighting itself became something familiar and ordinary. Then the not-so-pleasant moments began: 1) over time, the logo began to fade 2) within a year, the backlights in two doors burned out 3) the battery charge dropped catastrophically quickly (within 2 weeks of the car being idle in the garage, you could end up with a pile of iron with locked doors and not responding to alarm). At that time, I did not associate current leaks with the lighting until a global rework of the electrical system began. As it turned out later, the diodes in the backlight not only shine well, but also do not heat up so much. Over the course of a year of operation, the diodes managed to melt the plastic lenses, which is why the logo turned out to be “insane”, and the design on the lens simply began to fade. Perhaps this is a problem with the manufacturer of my backlight, and not with everyone, but as they say, “a residue remains...” In addition, it turned out that the cable (thin two-core in transparent silicone protection), which was routed for backlighting, had become frayed and punished over the course of a year. Lights with the logo and wires took their rightful place in the trash. But since I was already deeply hooked on this topic (damn, it’s convenient to see where you’re stepping :))) and there were still holes in the plastic, I decided that I’d still make some lighting in the doors. I didn’t want to bother with the logo anymore, so the choice was towards more light and moisture protection. We bought these things that are used mainly for running lights.
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Features of the procedure for installing lighting in a car door
There is no need to prove that car illumination helps you navigate at dusk, and even more so in complete darkness. Such decoration can well be considered one of the varieties of modern tuning, fortunately, in terms of cost, such decoration will be the most budgetary.
You also need to think about how to implement your idea, because here, too, there are options: the backlight can turn on when you turn the key in the ignition, when you open the door, or by pressing a separate key/button. And each option involves the use of different sets of tools.
As for the element base, the choice here is not so great: mainly either neon lamps or LED radiation sources are used for illumination.
How to make car interior lighting with your own hands?
Internal car tuning is very popular.
And this is understandable, because any driver wants his car to impress not only pedestrians and other drivers, but also those who ride in the same cabin with him. And sometimes, you just want to please yourself with individual car interior lighting. Installing lighting in the car interior with your own hands is not a difficult procedure. To do this, you need to purchase high-quality material and prepare tools, as well as think in advance about what exactly you want to emphasize with the help of light.
How and in what places is LED lighting most often installed? What is the effect, from an aesthetic and functional point of view, of additional LED lighting? You will get answers to all these questions in this article.
LED lighting when opening car doors
It is very inconvenient to feel around in the dark with your foot when getting out of the car, for fear of stepping into a puddle or mud. In order to avoid such troubles, you can tune your car using lights that will light up when the doors are opened.
Illumination of the doors, as well as the interior and bottom of the car is not only a functional tool that helps when getting out of the car. It is also considered an effective way to lightly decorate a vehicle.
A variety of service shops install lights that light up when the doors are opened. You can turn to them for help or handle the task yourself.
There are two types of lanterns that are used for this purpose:
- LEDs;
- neon lighting.
Neon car door lights
How to choose lighting for a car interior?
Before starting work, you need to choose a place to place the interior lighting, its type, and also take care of the activation mechanism. For example, appliances and/or door opening mechanisms can be controlled by remote control. The best option is a combination of devices.
Today the market offers us two modernization options:
There is a clear advantage to first lighting a car's interior. This is the ease of installation of the tape. There is no need to purchase additional mounting hardware for installation. The LED strip included in the kit is simply attached to double-sided tape. A standard size lamp can be powered by a cigarette lighter and illuminate other small parts of the interior.
The positive properties of diodes include shock/strength and high tightness, as well as long-term operation in comparison with other interior lighting devices. It is important that the car's LED lighting turns on instantly. This allows you to create different lighting effects.
You can also create neon lighting for the car interior yourself. This will be a bright light, with the help of which a large space will be illuminated. Unfortunately, neon-based lamps are technically complex devices, and also very capricious in their operation. Neon lighting often burns out when constantly turned on/off, and is highly fragile.
LED backlight
As the name implies, LED lighting uses LED lights as a light source.
Among its advantages are the following:
- Easy to install, you can do it yourself.
- When doing the work yourself, you do not need separate fastenings - the diode tape, as a rule, has a self-adhesive coating.
- If you use separate small diode-type lights, you have the opportunity to insert them even into ordinary places for installing standard lighting sources.
- Short on-off periods make it possible to use such lights not only when opening doors, but also for light and music in the car interior.
- The diode strip withstands shocks and environmental influences well. The main danger is that sometimes you can confuse the polarity when installing it yourself.
How to properly install an LED strip for car interior LED lighting?
Installation of a car with LED strip is carried out according to the standard scheme. First of all, you need to purchase a set of wires, heat shrink tubing, and tape.
It, like individual diodes, is purchased at automobile markets and/or in specialized automobile stores. You should not skimp on the quality and length of the tape; experts advise stocking up on good LEDs. It’s better to buy more diode strip than to realize at the last moment that you don’t have enough.
In addition to interior design, diode strips are actively used to illuminate car wheels.
Step-by-step instructions for diode connection of car interior lighting
Arrangement of lighting in the car, with your own hands, should begin with the instrument panel of the vehicle. To do this, standard equipment is removed: instruments, panel lighting, and diodes are installed. The installation process is very simple, since the diodes have bases similar to factory equipment.
Then you need to determine the installation locations. Many people prefer to mount diodes along the entire perimeter of the ceiling, parallel to the car body pillars. The summer is laid gradually, and the remains can be cut off.
The cut points are clearly visible: they are marked with special membranes. After the procedure, do not forget to clean the ends of the cut and solder them together. We close the connections with bushings and heat them with a hairdryer. In this case, it is better not to use an industrial hair dryer, since there is a high risk of overheating; an alternative is a regular household appliance.
Switching on is carried out similarly to the circuit of neon lamps. You need to be especially careful at this moment and not confuse the polarity points that are indicated on the tapes at the cut points.
Essentially, this is where the workflow ends. There is nothing complicated. Only the installation must be carried out sequentially and be careful about small elements when connecting them.
An important aspect when working is the combination of lighting aesthetics and its functionality, which will be discussed below.
Aesthetic and functional components of lighting in the car interior
Vehicle interior lighting, which is done on your own, simultaneously solves a number of problems:
Determining the functionality of lighting in a car interior is often somewhat more difficult. For many cars, installing additional lighting (tuning) is an opportunity to create comfortable conditions for passengers and the driver at night, which include:
It is also worth mentioning that the interior lighting can be synchronized with the subwoofer installed in the car's interior. This gives many interesting moments, in particular the pulsation of light to the beat of music, changing the color of the backlight, etc.
We can talk for a long time about useful functions, but we will focus on the above combinations.
Design aspect of lighting in the car interior
It is important to choose niches for car interior lighting and decide how to illuminate them. You can place and make lighting in the car interior in any place you like. But do not forget about the practical side of the issue. The most successful is the installation of lighting in the glove compartment, in the foot area and in the rear of the car, where passengers are located.
Interestingly, the rear seat lighting is the most productive. This applies to accessories and individual parts, including door handles. Car interior lighting as decor will look effective on air duct grilles and/or around the entire perimeter of the doors. You can combine directional light, or its individual elements, using a cigarette lighter or other electrical on-board network.
You can limit yourself to one-time activation and/or connect on an ongoing basis after dark. There are no clear recommendations on the use of one color scheme or another. However, the lighting in the car interior should be “polite”, that is, not irritate passengers, not be in the eyes, etc.
The main thing is that the chosen color does not distract the driver from driving, and corresponds to the general concept of the car’s interior.
DIY LED lighting installation
In order to get the job done, we will need:
- heat shrink pipe;
- electric wires;
- LED strip and LED lights.
If we buy factory tape, it is already ready for use. If you purchased a product that is sold by the meter, you will have to prepare it first.
Installation is carried out, as a rule, on the dashboard, in places where lamps and standard lighting elements are located. They can be simply replaced with LEDs if desired. The base of the diode lamp is the same as that of a standard lamp, so replacement is carried out without any difficulties.
Next, you need to install the tape at the bottom in the foot area and around the perimeter of the top of the car. After the necessary measurements, cut off the amount of tape that is needed. Cuts should be made in areas where solder contacts are located.
When measuring, you need to provide some excess wires for reserve. After cutting and soldering to the contacts of the tape, you need to put on the heat-shrinkable tube and heat it with a hair dryer until there is no shrinkage. We process the following fragments in a similar way.
The connection must be made through an RGB block container or in the same way as neon lights. This will ensure that the lighting turns on when the car doors are opened. It is very important to maintain the correct polarity here - this was discussed above.
After connecting it yourself, the car door lights will be ready for use - check its operation. If everything is in order, you can be congratulated on your success.
What tools and materials are needed for additional interior lighting?
Using one or another version of car interior lighting, you will need the most common tools and consumables. Including:
From consumables:
In operation, individual lighting components must be connected to each other using a multi-core cable. In this case, the useful area of the cores should be 1–2 mm. Those places where soldering occurred, as well as connecting contacts, must be covered with insulating material. In the process of checking and monitoring the correct installation of car interior lighting with your own hands, you must use a multimeter.
What do you need to know about car interior lighting with cold neon?
You can add individuality to your car and make it stand out from the general flow of traffic using cold neon, which looks original and is very effective. Today, neon lighting is one of the most common methods of interior tuning. This option has the following advantages:
Do-it-yourself car interior lighting using cold neon is not only beautiful, but also practical. Such tuning allows you to protect you and your passengers, and provides a huge field for imagination. By making lighting in the car interior with your own hands, you can get a single-color light, or in different colors, using different patterns, colors and combining their quantities. Installation with neon material is a minimum cost and minor interference in the electrical system of the car, which does not affect the stable operation of other (standard) vehicle systems.
Installation of lighting based on neon lamps
Neon has been used in advertising as an inexpensive and economical light source for a very long time. Today it is being actively replaced by LED technologies, but motorists like the diffused glow that characterizes neon lamps. In terms of service life, they are noticeably inferior to LED prototypes, but this does not stop decoration lovers.
If you intend to use neon lighting when opening a car door, then the easiest way to implement your plan is to use a neon cord. It resembles LED strips in appearance and is mounted according to the same principle.
First, you need to dismantle the sill trims, and then carefully lay out the neon cords of the required length along the outer edge. It is advisable that after installing the casing in place, it should be positioned close to the backlight cable. In exactly the same way we install neon electrical wiring on the car door limit switches.
This type of lighting is more difficult to install than LEDs, since neon lamps are more capricious and can be easily damaged. In addition, they are very demanding in terms of operating conditions.
To secure the edges of the tape, we will need fastening elements such as self-tapping screws, tie clamps and aluminum corners. The corners are cut exactly to the size of the neon tracks, they are mounted under the dashboard using self-tapping screws. Clamps are needed to attach neon lamps to the corners. One end of the tape is connected to the door opening sensor, the other to the power source.
With this method of installing car door lights with your own hands, the illumination will light up automatically when the doors are opened.
Tuning interior lighting when opening the car doors
Every motorist wants to improve the operating conditions of his vehicle. In this article we will talk about how to illuminate car thresholds and doors when opening them with your own hands. In fact, this function is not the most important when using a car, however, it adds aesthetics to the car and practicality for the driver and passengers at night.
Backlighting is one of the most popular types of tuning; it makes your car more practical and doesn’t break your pocket.
Many drivers believe that taking on such work without experience is an impossible task, and yet it is possible to install interior lighting in a vehicle without the help of specialists, although this is a very labor-intensive process.
Neon lights
With neon lighting, things are a little more complicated. Here is a short list of characteristics of neon lamps:
- Brightness and saturation of lighting.
- Complexity of installation, which makes it difficult to install it yourself.
- Flashlights are quite demanding in terms of operating conditions.
- Poor response to rhythmic on-off cycle.
- Lack of resistance to mechanical damage.
Let's look at how you can install neon lights at the bottom of the car interior with your own hands, and lay an LED strip along the ceiling so that the backlight with the car brand logo in the door is triggered when the car doors are opened.
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Neon illumination of the front car door
Technology and features of installing lighting in a vehicle interior with your own hands
Interior lighting is not only a practical solution for illuminating a car at night, but also a modern type of tuning and decoration of a vehicle. Initially, you need to set the right tasks for yourself so that the result meets your expectations. The set of tools and the specifics of the work depend on exactly which areas of the interior you want to tune - these could be the car's sills, handles, dashboard, driver's foot lighting, and how the lighting should work - when you open the door, when you turn on the ignition, or on a special button. .
And also decide which lighting devices you want to use to illuminate the car interior. Most often, LEDs or neon glow elements are used for these purposes.
Car door illumination using LEDs
You can decorate the interior of a vehicle using LED strip. The tape is easier to install with your own hands, as it has a special self-adhesive coating and therefore does not require additional fasteners. It is also shock-resistant and can withstand different weather conditions well.
Purchasing special LED strips for car lighting can greatly facilitate the work of installing them, but their price category is much higher than LEDs per meter. It is necessary to improve and adapt the meter tape to the vehicle using a soldering iron.
To work, you will need to purchase heat-shrinkable pipe, LED strip and electrical wires. First, we try on the LED strip to the threshold of the car and cut off the required piece, it is better to take it with a small gap. To one end of the LED strip you need to solder two wires, minus and plus. For convenience, you can install female terminals on their ends. Separately, it is necessary to prepare four electrical wires with male terminals.
We insulate the soldering areas using heat-shrinkable tubing. The modules are ready to use. Next, you need to remove the trim from the doors and sills of the vehicle and install the developed blanks.
Two wires with male terminals on each door must be routed through the hinge, so they will stick out from it. We tighten the negative wires to the ends of the right and left doors, respectively. This will ensure that the threshold is illuminated exactly from the side where the car opens.
We connect the negative electrical wires to the diode modules, and connect the positive wires to any permanent positive in the vehicle. This could be a car's standard light source, a cigarette lighter, or a battery plus. It is important here not to confuse the polarity of the electrical wires. We check the operation of the installed LEDs. If everything is done correctly, they will light up every time the car is opened. We put the casing in place and enjoy the result.
Similarly, you can illuminate the dashboard of a vehicle, the driver’s feet or door handles. And also the negative ends of the wires can be brought out to a separate button. In this case, the backlight will only work when you turn it on yourself.
Installing neon lighting in the car interior
Neon lighting fixtures have a diffused glow, which greatly attracts the attention of car enthusiasts. Although, on the other hand, if we compare LED and neon devices in terms of service life, the former are distinguished by a long period of operation.
If you want neon lighting for the car interior, then the easiest way to work is with a neon cord. It is sold similarly to LED strips by the meter and is installed according to the same principle. For installation, it is necessary to remove the threshold covers and lay out neon cords of the required length along the outer edge. Ideally, when installing the casing in its place, it should be flush with the neon cable. Similarly to the previous method, we bring out the electrical wires to the ends of the doors and to the power supply.
Neon lamps are a more difficult lighting material to install, as they are prone to mechanical damage and are demanding in terms of operating conditions. To install neon lamps, you will need clamps, screws and aluminum corners. The aluminum corner is cut to the size of the neon light sources and attached in places above the dashboard using self-tapping screws. The same is done in the rear passenger seats. Neon light sources are attached to the installed corners with clamps. Wires are supplied to the door opening sensor and power supply to ensure that the lighting devices are turned on when the door is opened.
DIY installation of LEDs and logo lighting
So, it has already been said above that it is quite possible to install door lighting in a car with your own hands - be it laser with an attractive logo or a simpler one. Let us consider in this paragraph what is necessary for this, and, of course, what the sequence of actions should be. Let's start by selecting the right tools and materials. We will need four LED bulbs, a special lamp used to illuminate license plates (also 4 pieces), electrical wires, corrugation and a utility knife. Having prepared all the tools, you can get down to business.
First, it’s worth taking care of the wires, because they are entrusted with a very important mission - supplying power to lighting devices. In order to avoid incidents that may arise with electricians, all wires should be laid to the door in a special corrugation. In general, if you want simple lighting, then connect one cable with the plus to the car’s lighting system, and the minus to the door limit switch. It is a button, when pressed, some signal action occurs. So, for example, it is thanks to this element that a symbol lights up on the instrument panel, notifying us that the doors are not closed well enough or are completely open.
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The simplest lighting method was presented above; now let’s look at a more interesting option for organizing lighting in the form of a logo for car doors. To do this, you need a special laser lamp, which is also very easy to buy. Next, you should dismantle the door trim and choose the most suitable place where it will be installed. Then we drill a hole with a special drill; it should have the same diameter as the lens, and install the above-mentioned laser illumination with the logo in a strictly vertical position.
The laser comes with instructions that describe in detail how to connect this item to the car wiring with your own hands. Having fixed all the elements that the laser illumination kit contains, we return the door trim to its original place. The new option will not only add comfort to the owner’s life, but will also emphasize the style and individuality of your car.
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