# Dome light for car?



## Hellbore

I want to add some LED dome / map lights to the interior of my car. I would like to have several LED's at different locations to provide more even lighting inside the cabin of the car vs. the stock dome light which casts a lot of shadows and really doesn't illuminate the back at all. 

I have the LED and driver parts figured out but I'm looking for something I can use for an aftermarket enclosure / housing. Preferrably it would be small and flat on the back to aid mounting and have a diffuser lense of some kind. Any ideas?


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## TorchBoy




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## Smile

:shakehead


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## coolwaters

i heard people were moding all their lights to LEDs. and decreasing something like 300w to 40s...pretty nice


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## TorchBoy

This would have to be one of the slowest-growing threads I've seen.


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## coolwaters

im scared to wire my outside lights because its not compliant with DOT...


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## bfg9000

Look at the pictures here.

Might be a good idea to peruse the local junkyards, because a lot of economy cars have just this kind of dome light as stock--some even with a three way switch (off, door switched, on). The switch is important because the thermonuclear blast of just three stars running off a Kennan will definitely overwhelm night-adapted eyes, and if you then add even more dome lights...

I like to thermal epoxy stars directly to the car body steel, but at a more reasonable <350mA drive level even a star with no thermal path will probably do OK.


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## coolwaters

lol 1w+ led seem to be overkill for interior lights. some superflux or a few 5mm leds should work fine and they dont need to be mounted to heatsinks.


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## shortstack

6 or 8 10mm leds work perfect. 5mm are to small. 1w might be over kill, but if you can put it in there then i would do it.


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## NE450No2

I have spent a fair amount of time in a vehicle on the road, in the dark.

I use a Petzl led head light with 3 different levels of brighteness.

Where ever I look, the level of brightness I have selected is there.


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## voodoochylde

I haven't added any extra light positions but I did replace my wedge dome light in my 1999 Subaru Impreza with two Cree XR-E Q5's driven at 1A...

Hid the driver and capacitor behind the dome light assembly (facing the roof) and squished in a slim 30mm fan behind the two LED's. 

Output is...well...somewhat bright. Lights up the whole car (plus most of the surrounding area) with one light source.


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## TorchBoy

A little fan is a good idea. I reduced my twin P4 setup from 750 mA to 500 mA because of heat.

Got any photos?


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## voodoochylde

I don't have any pix at the moment but I'll try to get some. It's nothing special...no real attachment except for a semi-liberal application of Tac-Pack to hold the driver and LED's in place. The fan is just held in with some 4-40 screws.

I used fans as I wanted full output but with no 'sink the LED's were going from ambient (around 60*F) to over 200*F in less than 20 seconds. Sometimes I like to read in my car so I needed to cool these little buggers down!


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## TorchBoy

That makes me feel better about mine - without the car's original plastic diffuser in place while testing at 750 mA they were getting up to about that temperature after 4 or 5 minutes. Poor LEDs.


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## mikek753

which one from DX you can recommend as replacement for 12V 8W bulb?
I'd like to get about 2x more light at far less power draw.

as example:
http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.15648
http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.15636
http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.12742

thanks.


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## TorchBoy

Do you want exactly 2x the light? What do you have at the moment?

BTW, you might like to change the "https" to "http" in that last one.


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## mikek753

TorchBoy said:


> Do you want exactly 2x the light? What do you have at the moment?
> 
> BTW, you might like to change the "https" to "http" in that last one.



not exact, just about - need from 1.5x to 4x more light
I have old plain 12V 8W bulb

tnx


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## TorchBoy

I personally wouldn't bother with the 9 LED one since the 12 LED version is only 17 cents more. So do you want lots of light (12 LEDs), or _lots_ of light (20 LEDs)? And how much do you want to splash out on it?


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## mikek753

TorchBoy said:


> I personally wouldn't bother with the 9 LED one since the 12 LED version is only 17 cents more. So do you want lots of light (12 LEDs), or _lots_ of light (20 LEDs)? And how much do you want to splash out on it?



this isn't about price, but some reports about 12 LED version started coming with 3 resistors only instead of 12.


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## TorchBoy

I completely fail to see any problem. If you don't like the 12 LED version and you have the money for the 20 LED version then buy it instead. Or go for a dimmer and cheaper 9 LED version. Does it really matter that much?

Or you could do it "properly" and build your own.


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## mikek753

thanks for the info.
I went here as this comment by Budget puzzled me:

"With a more careful look at this product from the blowup of the pictures it can be seen that there are 6 sets of 3 paralleled triple emitters and one set of two. They are using the same layout they did with the 20 smd LED rectangular boards. The black chip is just a different value of resistor for the two string of LEDs. 
Not only are they underprotected with 120 ohm resistors but the poor practice of paralleling emitters puts them at even greater risk of failure."

I'm not h/w engineer - far from expert, but have some knowledge for this matter.

I have a kid and can start engine without checking for dome light (on or off), as it can be on I don't want get it burned one day as result of saving pennies on this board design.

Also, I think that 20 (3 leds) can be overkill.
How much more light it produces over 8W bulb?
This dome light will be on when I drive at night for my kid - and I don't want over distraction by too much light ether.

One thing when you can see / try it - another when you can't.
That's why I asking questions from you - experts :wave:


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## TorchBoy

mikek753 said:


> This dome light will be on when I drive at night for my kid - and I don't want over distraction by too much light ether.


Without getting into why you want to, I suggest you try using a map light instead. They are designed to be directional, so as to distract the driver as little as possible. Driving with the dome light on at night isn't a good idea even if you don't uprate it.


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