| From | Message |
jim
Dodge Dakota
JOIN HERE
2/16/2008
21:26:16
|
 Subject: interior lighting
IP: Logged
Message:
Im wanting to add lighting under the dash to shine down on the floor and I know how to do that, but I want to be able to dim them. Any ideas? thanks
|
.boB
Dodge Dakota
JOIN HERE
2/16/2008
23:25:58
|  RE: interior lighting
IP: Logged
Message:
What you want is a variable resister, or a rheostat. Radio Shack has a bunch of them.
|
jim
Dodge Dakota
JOIN HERE
2/17/2008
16:52:10
| RE: interior lighting
IP: Logged
Message:
Im familiar with that part but Im wondering what to use as the light. I want to have a blue light coming from under there and I was thinking of using LEDs or neons but I dont know if they can dim. The only light I know that is able to dim is incandescent. I dont really want to use incandescent because the heat and other unwanted by-products.
|
.boB
Dodge Dakota
JOIN HERE
2/19/2008
23:25:29
| RE: interior lighting
IP: Logged
Message:
There are a number of LED's available on the market. Do a web search and you'll find them.
I'm not an electonic whiz by any stretch of the imagination. But I don't believe a simple rheostat can control the light output of an LED. I they're either on of off.
But, you can put the LED's in groups, and control each one with a differant switch. Turn on 1,2,3, or 4 LED's in each group to control the light output.
|
jim
Dodge Dakota
JOIN HERE
2/22/2008
20:33:25
| RE: interior lighting
IP: Logged
Message:
thanks for the reply boB, never even thought of that
|
Mike98
Dodge Dakota
JOIN HERE
2/26/2008
08:23:58
| RE: interior lighting
IP: Logged
Message:
You can dim LEDs but it is a bit more difficult than with an incandescent. The amount of light that comes out of a LED is proportional to the amount of current that passes through it. But LEDs have an exponential current-voltage characteristic, that's the challenge.
If you hook the LED up to the car's 12V, you must place a resistor in series with it to limit its maximum current. You can search the web to figure out how large a resistor you need based on the LED you are using. Now if you also insert a potentiometer (variable resistor w/knob) in series with the other resistor, whose value goes from 0 to ~ 5 times the other resistance, then you can effectively dim the LED. When the potentiometer is at zero ohms, the light will be at the maximum. Increasing the potentiometer resistance knob will dim the light.
You can do this trick with several LEDs. If they're all identical you can use one resistor and one potentiometer for all the LEDS, but you'll have to change the value of the resistor and potentiometer depending on how many LEDs you have.
|
| | P 1 |
|
Post a reply to this message:
Username Registration: Optional
All visitors are allowed to post messages
|
