small pull down draw

[skippy41]

Do any of the Octys have a light in the small pull down draw on the right of the steering wheel, if not could someone suggest something for fitting one.

I use this for change and its a bugger to see anything at night

[cheezemonkhai]

Couple of low power red, green yellow or white LED's to give as much light as you need.

5mm 12V LEDs > Maplin

Couple of the Superbright Greens in the draw and then run a wire to a switch and then to a switched live (ignition on) from the back of the fuse box and to an earth point around there.

LEDs plus wire I'd guess 3 and then mount them with hot glue or similar in 3 small holes in the top back of that draw.

You will need to work out the voltages and current, but you might need a resistor in line with each LED.

A with of heatshrink over any wiring and bob's your uncle.

[rurwin]

The LEDs referenced above already have resistors inside them, so you can just connect them up. Remember to wire them the correct way: the short leg (and the flat on the side of the plastic,) is the negative terminal. Strangely the green and superbright-green seem to be identical in every respect.

You will need a resistor in line with normal LEDs, otherwise you wont even see a flash as the fine wire inside fuses. For standard LEDs you want to get 20mA going through them. There will be 2.5V across the LED, so subtract this from the battery voltage.

resistance=(voltage - voltsdrop) / current

For superbright LEDs the required current and voltage drop vary.

[sebulbus]

Use LED series parallel array wizard .

As mentioned above, the fwd current of most LEDs is 20mA 2.5V, but some of the blue and white ones can be 40mA, you'll find that on the box.

edit: Use 13.7 for the source voltage, 12 is a bit too optimistic, and with LEDs it does matter.

[skippy41]

Thanks for that but Iv only just got past wiring a 3 pin domestic plug LOL

I have recently changed to LED lights for my taxi sign got them on a strip from letter-craft

open the sign remove bulbs, wipe down inside , stick strip down , then cut main wire at plug, drill a hole to take wire, pull wire through tie a knot in wire to stop it dropping out, strip ends and solder to strip, remove red sticky backing that shows when sign put back together and there you have a sign that can be seen for a very long distance.

Cost for 36 inch strip £15 guaranteed for 15 years.

Right you have given me an idea, I could get a 3 inch strip and stick it inside the draw and use a couple of cable locks or cut my roof light cable and solder a power supply to them this way when I turn my meter off the lights go out.

The taxi meter is capable of running a 48 inch strip without any problems.

I have the power supply to the roof sign joined just inside the drivers door with mail female connectors so that if the sign needs to come off for going on holidays ( whats one of them lol) it can be removed easily

[sebulbus]

You can make a Y adapter at that plug and plug both or just one, as needed, or if the plus are too large just use T splices on any switched live that does the job.

I spliced into the dome light for the footwell lights in mine, there's a tutorial here somewhere. You could do the same, or you could tap into the dash illumination wire at the light switch so the light is only on with the rest of them, and it's intensity is adjustable for extra wow factor.

Hey, I think this will be my next DIY project.

[Taxi 219]

I use one of these they are so much easier:

[skippy41]

AHH you like playing pick up the coins LOL once the spring weakens, the door pockets dont look deep enough for one of those to hang them on, they look like they catch the inner sill when you open the door

I like out of sight out of mind especially with all these druggies and Ned's on the go in some areas

[Taxi 219]

Mines hung on the door pocket no problem and no springs gone yet after 2 years.

[skippy41]

Taxi how many miles has yours done to require a DMF???

[Taxi 219]

Only 23K

Its playing up now especially when 4 up in the car.

[skippy41]

Only 23K

Its playing up now especially when 4 up in the car.

Still under warranty then, you better be quick in getting its in

[cheezemonkhai]

Looking at those LED's you should be able to get away with just 2 in the back top.

It's really easy to do, just drill 2 small holes that are just big enough to work the led through and then glue the LED's in with something not too much.

I personally wouldn't wire it to the dimmer as I like the dash to be very dimly lit at night, but that would then make the box quite dimly lit, which defeats the point of doing this.

You would only need 12V wire that is good for say 5A and even that would be overkill, then wire it to the fusebox with a 5A fuse.

Here is a diagram with the switch show as [sW] between the feed from the fusebox and the wires to the the LEDs.

LED1                +   -
                   |   |
                   |   |
                   |   |
                  /     \
Fusebox---[sW]---12V       Ground pin
                  \     /
                   |   |
                   |   |
                   |   |
LED2                +   -

Obviously, you do this at your own risk and I am not responisble for you following this suggestion. Errors and omissions excepted.

Check that your car has a negative earth too. (Most modern cars do)

[rurwin]

Yes, dead easy with those 12V ones. You could even use screw terminals if you didn't want to solder. No maths involved.

The only danger is that the voltage may be a bit too high with the engine running. Their maximum voltage is 14V, and the car's voltage can be above that. But if they fail you'll only have to fit new ones, with resistors. No worries. We'll do the maths. Almost as easy. Not even any soldering unless you want to.

[cheezemonkhai]

Yes, dead easy with those 12V ones. You could even use screw terminals if you didn't want to solder. No maths involved.

The only danger is that the voltage may be a bit too high with the engine running. Their maximum voltage is 14V, and the car's voltage can be above that. But if they fail you'll only have to fit new ones, with resistors. No worries. We'll do the maths. Almost as easy. Not even any soldering unless you want to.

In fact if you wanted to be sure you could put a small resistor in just after the switch or to be properly clever one of these just before each LED:

1A Top Value Positive Fixed Voltage Regulators > Maplin

That would take a suitable input voltage and regulate it to the selected voltage (12v would be the one you wanted).

Nice and easy to do.

Where are you based in the UK as somebody might help you out if you're near them.

Edited 26 September, 2008 by cheezemonkhai

[sebulbus]

That's surely overkill, plus those will sync alot of heat. Just consider the whole blob a 12V LED and put enough resistance on to help it happily survive 14V, but I had those 3 LED modules with resistance wired directly to my car as footwell lights since last winter and all is nice.

They didn't get hot to the touch yet, not with minutes with them on in the trials.

[cheezemonkhai]

Oh yes, it's certainly overkill

[rurwin]

Not only overkill; it may not work. The 7812-type regulators require at least 14V to operate. I suppose under that they'll probably just pass the input voltage through, but I'd have to try it to be sure.

Where are you based in the UK as somebody might help you out if you're near them.

Bung a fiver at the charity of your choice, and I'll make up three for you and post them.

Edited 26 September, 2008 by rurwin

[cheezemonkhai]

Not only overkill; it may not work. The 7812-type regulators require at least 14V to operate. I suppose under that they'll probably just pass the input voltage through, but I'd have to try it to be sure.

Bung a fiver at the charity of your choice, and I'll make up three for you and post them.

It depends on the device in question. Some pass the 12v through some don't.

If you used 9v/5v LED's you could use one of those to regulate your 12V ish down to power the LEDs directly.

Either way it was said tongue in cheek.

[sebulbus]

Enough beating around the bush. Surely, you could use additional resistance, even a power regulator to power those led sticks, but there's some tolerance built in. If your car doesn't go high enough to fry the stereo those will work. Just wire them the proper way around and be done with it.

[skippy41]

Problem solved, went to £ land and got a set, its a device that fits the rim of a baseball cap, removed the clips, used a bit of blue tack, stuck it just above the handle so the draw clears when opening and bobs your uncle it runs off batteries but it only on for a min or so at a time