A light in the storage compartment between the seats was one thing that I have wanted to do for a while. We all know it's been kicked around but we weren't sure how to tackle it. When I found these small micro switches, the same one that I used for the glove box lights I knew what I had to do.
As I mentioned in my post regarding the glove box light, the cost of 10 switches was $5.50 including shipping from Hong Kong.
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http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=320565577829&refid=storeThe LED that I used in this mod was purchased at Oznium.com and cost $3.49 each. It is a "5050 size" surface-mount LED attached it into a tiny, flexible circuit board backed with a piece of 3M tape. There's a built-in resistor and a couple of feet of wire. They are plug and play as all you have to do is hook them up to a 12 volt source. I had considered using 2 here but one is lots of light.
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http://www.oznium.com/prewired-surface-mount-ledI mounted the LED in the centre of the compartment with the pre-installed 3M tape. These tiny LEDs are extremely bright and have a wide viewing angle so they will illuminate evenly with no hot spots.
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As you can see that LED is mounted on a ribbon. I wanted that ribbon to lay flat so I secured the back side of the ribbon where you can't see it with another piece of 3M tape. I have an aversion to drilling holes or gluing anything to the car if it isn't absolutely necessary.
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I made a bracket for the limit switch as I did with the glove box light using the same materials as before. I drilled out the holes in the switch though this time and secured it using small bolts and nylock (nylon locking) nuts. I drilled one hole in the aluminum and adjusted the switch to the proper position. The switch position was out a bit from where I would have liked it so I slotted the bolt hole. After I finalized the switch position, only then did I drill the second hole in the aluminum and fastened the switch permanently to the bracket. When wiring the switch I again used the N.C. (normally closed) contacts.
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I fastened the bracket to the top with 3M tape. Love that stuff. I covered the entire surface and placed it in the position that I had marked when I was making the final switch adjustments in the previous step. I took this picture before I had removed the backing from the last of the 3M tape as you can see it protruding from under the bracket. I cleaned all the surfaces that the tape is to stick to with alcohol prior to installing the tape.
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You can see the switch in this picture if you look closely. It really isn't as visible as it appears though as you don't normally have a camera flash pointed at it. Usually it's in a shadow and more difficult to see. I had considered raising the switch so it was installed in the slot above where I ultimately placed it. My concern was that the arm might get hung up on the sides of the slot as there isn't much clearance. Should that happen then the LED wouldn't turn on.
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I left the ambient lighting on in the room when I set the mod up for testing. You can clearly see what the camera sees as the orange compact florescent lighting and how much it contrasts with the cool white light of the LED. You could get the LED in many other colours including warm white if you prefer but the cool white lights is certainly my preference. I turned off the flash and stood the camera on a ladder in the basement for the picture.
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I hooked the LED up to the same 12 volt source that my glove box light and footwell lighting is hooked to, all off of a 4 amp fuse. Don't know that you would want to run a fuse much larger that that when you consider the small gage of the wire on some of the LEDs
I'm quite happy how it turned out. What's next? I'd like to do something different under the hood but I have yet to decide just what that is!
