Ambient lighting

[Nick-C]

hi, I am looking to fit LED strip lights in the top and bottom of the door cards and also in the front and rear footwell. I have bought 300mm long self adhesive red strip lights rated at 12 volt. They are obviously to bright and have found that if I wire a pair in series with a 1k resistor they are about the right brightness. What I am looking for is an output that is only on when the headlights are on. I thought I would have an illuminated cigarette lighter point but I don’t. I am considering picking up a feed from the illuminated door switches but I am concerned that I may put to much load on the circuit! 2 led strip lights at 12v with a 1k resistor is drawing about 20 ma. Has anybody done this before? And can you advise where to get a feed from. Many Thanks Guys.

 

[Pauly]

Lower powered tape or cut it shorter ??

 

[Nick-C]

Lower powered tape or cut it shorter ??

20 ma (mili amp) is very low, but just worried by the Time I have 2/3 sets I could be drawing 60ma. This is still only 0.060 of an amp but dont know the capabilities of the circuit. A standard single led draws about 8ma so these are really good, would hate to “fry” the circuit though. For info a standard cigarette lighter bulb draws 80ma as I have just measured the one in our car. Cheers

 

[Pauly]

The ambient lighting circuit is wired in 0.35mm cable so is good for a few amps

 

[Nick-C]

Thanks, that is a fair point, I just didn’t want to blow something up and cause more problems. I will look into this a bit further and slowly load the circuit. I suppose the worst I could do is blow the dimmer switch. Thanks for your thought!!