WHITE INTERIOR LIGHTS -- LOSE THE INCADESCENTS !!!
 

About a year ago, when Bonnie became a member of our family, I set out to change the interior bulbs to a whiter light (incadescents are a pet peve of mine). With my background in electronics, it was easy to do myself. I've recieved several comments from being really neat to being really helpful. Then, someone told me I should share the wealth. So, here is what they look like, and how to do it (not just for the Bonneville, either). This page will be updated as people bring flaws to my attention.

Oh, and it cost less than $20 to do it yourself, too !!! Spread this link around, and if you have questions or would like to order pre-made units, contact me at: glanghus@hotmail.com.

http://www.public.iastate.edu/~glang...nie/bonnie.htm

Enjoy!!!

Just one addition...
 

I should add that this can be done with any color, for those of you who would like a red-orange glow :) (yes, I considered that as well)

Also, I'm designing a unit right now using cutomizable color LED's that will cast a particular light and intensity in the corners of the front of the interior of the car and under the back seats (possibly other areas???). It's a neat mod that's done quite a bit here in Iowa with single color, single intensity incadescents. I'm trying to find a good microcontroller to program that will contain programs and dimming and whatnot. I'll let you know when that's ready :)

Benefits of that system over traditional systems would be the intensity, color variation, programs (auto color change with fade in fade out every so many minutes, discrete color per location, with rotation or random change per selectable time frame, etc., settings for turning on when it gets dark, turning on and fading in when car starts, etc. etc. etc.), very, very small power consumption, and low to no heat emission for safer performance in a wider range of environments.

Yes, I date girls and occasionally get out and party, LOL! This jjust happens to be a small hobby of mine ;)

Any girls at ISU looking for a good time?!

Dude! Great write up!! The onlyt thing I would suggest would be more pictures of the finished products (The door "bulbs", etc).

I got a new page on my favorites and a new idea for this summer!

Sweet! Thanks for posting this...I have been planning on changing the incandessants myself this summer, but I was just going to go with a whiter bulb...the LED idea is a great one!

I prefer my interior lights red :wink: Nice work though.

Re: WHITE INTERIOR LIGHTS -- LOSE THE INCADESCENTS !!!
 

Very cool. 8) Think I might try that myself sometime...

Red Lights...
 

Before I decided to go witha white light, I ordered some red/orange agilent LED's. They cast the same color as the original instruments, which is neither red nor orange. I really wanted to put them in, but decided to go practical instead of cool :(

Yes, I hope finding things @ night isn't as hard as i've heard.

Re: Red Lights...
 

Well, if you think about it, red light doesn't affect your night vision (which is why astronomers prefer to use red flashlights when reading starcharts at night), so having all red interior lights could actually serve a practical (and safety) purpose.

Your writeup came at a great time, since earlier this week I had actually placed an order for ten 16,000mcd 8mm white LED's that I plan to install in the overhead courtesy lamps. Initially I had planned to install Luxeon III LED's, but they require more careful voltage and current regulation, as well as dealing with excessive heat dissipation. On top of that, they're wickedly expensive LED's, so I wouldn't want to accidentally burn one out.

For the courtesy lamps, I intend to build a very small current regulator to drive the LED's using the LM317 voltage regulator since they use 100mA @ 3.4-3.6VDC, and considering that it's $25 worth of LED's alone, I think a $2 current regulator on each of the four lamps is a solid safety net.

I also got four 3mm LED's that I want to install in the doors (replace the ones already in the front doors, and install them in the rear to mimic the front) that illuminate the door handles and window switches.

Now that's just the overhead lamps...for the floors and doors, I got six 12" white cold cathode flourescent lamps (one below the driver and passenger side dash, two underneath each seat, at the front and rear). For each door I got four 4" CCFL lamps to stick in the current dual incandescent lamp holders.

According to UPS and USPS, the CCFL's and stuff for the current regulators have arrived at home (get off for spring break tomorrow!), so if I get over this cold, I'll have them installed by the end of this weekend and will report back on how they look and what it took to get them installed.

I've never relamped any of the interior lights, so I'm not entirely sure if any of them are industry standard bulbs, but many manufacturers have begun making LED lamp assemblies with standard bases. Depending on how much time you want to spend on a project like this vs. how much you're willing to spend, it might be worth it to search around for drop-in LED replacement bulbs.

The company I dealt with was called LEDtronics: http://www.ledtronics.com/

Keep in mind though, when I was buying from them, I was buying for industrial customers, so I didn't pay too much attention to price tags ;)

EDIT: After a quick search at AutoZone's website and a cross-ref search at LEDtronics, it looks like they carry or can make pretty much every bulb ever used in any automobile. :) For example, The cool white (8000K) replacements for the interior courtesy lights (168s) come 6 to a package for $24, but it looks like they have minimum orders of 10 packages -- maybe this is a job for DeathRat?

-b