Paul350z - How did you wire your Cold Flourescent light in the cubby?
11-14-2005, 10:39 AM
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Paul350z - How did you wire your Cold Flourescent light in the cubby?
I bought the same one you have from Fry's. In blue too =). It came as a two pack.
How did you wire it?
Another question.....
Is anyone concerned with the power wires in the cubby being so close to the gas tank? What if there is a car crash? Is there a chance the wires would touch the fuel and cause an explosion?
How did you wire it?
Another question.....
Is anyone concerned with the power wires in the cubby being so close to the gas tank? What if there is a car crash? Is there a chance the wires would touch the fuel and cause an explosion?
11-14-2005, 04:50 PM
#2
The cold cathodes are wired to a "logic steering" circuit that is connected to the door switches. This same circuit turns on the foot well lights as well.
I suppose I need to make a diagram of this but lets see what words can do. First the pins in the doors send a ground signal to the body control module. When the driver's door is open and the keys are in the slot the beep chimes in to remind you. When the passenger's door opens that same chime doesn't go off. Open either door and the lights go on.
So what I had to do was to recreate the logic steering circuit that the BCM uses with two little diodes. You can get them for like five for a dollar or two at Radio Shack, the ones I used were out of a wall wart power transformer that I had laying around. Any two diodes capable of 12V and few watts will work.
The cold cathode power supply is wired into the battery connection of my amplifier stack so that the lights work even with the car off. The ground is fed from the circuit.
The circuit is arranged in a "T" with the bottom leg going to the cold cathode power supple and the two two legs being the diodes. The DC current can only flow in one direction - into the circut once you get the two diodes in the right direction. IIRC the diodes "face out" with the blunt ends together and the tapered ends facing outwards and connected to the pin switches.
When the door opens the ground logic flows though the diode it's connected to and to the cold cathode supply causing it to light but is blocked by the other diode on the far door. It's reversed biased preventing the BCM from seeing the other door opened.
I suppose I could have gone into the BCM's output and tapped into there running the wire that feeds the festoon lights in the ceiling back to the distribution for the lights but I wasn't sure that the Nissan circuit would handle the three cold cathode systems running (left, right, and amplifier). The amplifier was an after thought as I had a kit laying around and the distribution was right there.
Kind of rice but it's not noticable until I slide the chair forward.
An earlier picture from when I just had a tube on the top. There's now one top and bottom as shown above.
I suppose I need to make a diagram of this but lets see what words can do. First the pins in the doors send a ground signal to the body control module. When the driver's door is open and the keys are in the slot the beep chimes in to remind you. When the passenger's door opens that same chime doesn't go off. Open either door and the lights go on.
So what I had to do was to recreate the logic steering circuit that the BCM uses with two little diodes. You can get them for like five for a dollar or two at Radio Shack, the ones I used were out of a wall wart power transformer that I had laying around. Any two diodes capable of 12V and few watts will work.
The cold cathode power supply is wired into the battery connection of my amplifier stack so that the lights work even with the car off. The ground is fed from the circuit.
The circuit is arranged in a "T" with the bottom leg going to the cold cathode power supple and the two two legs being the diodes. The DC current can only flow in one direction - into the circut once you get the two diodes in the right direction. IIRC the diodes "face out" with the blunt ends together and the tapered ends facing outwards and connected to the pin switches.
When the door opens the ground logic flows though the diode it's connected to and to the cold cathode supply causing it to light but is blocked by the other diode on the far door. It's reversed biased preventing the BCM from seeing the other door opened.
I suppose I could have gone into the BCM's output and tapped into there running the wire that feeds the festoon lights in the ceiling back to the distribution for the lights but I wasn't sure that the Nissan circuit would handle the three cold cathode systems running (left, right, and amplifier). The amplifier was an after thought as I had a kit laying around and the distribution was right there.
Kind of rice but it's not noticable until I slide the chair forward.
An earlier picture from when I just had a tube on the top. There's now one top and bottom as shown above.
11-14-2005, 04:54 PM
#3
Car crash?
You'd have to drive the car on the road for that to happen right? I've got 1500 miles on the car and its 8 months old.
There's plenty of electronics in that part of the car even without thinking of the 12VDC power distribution and cap there along with the two rather large amplifiers. Just on the center line between the two cubbys is the air bag diagnosis, and a couple other black boxes. Gasoline is rather difficult to ignite, the fuel/air ratio has to be just right and I'm not worried about it at all.
You'd have to drive the car on the road for that to happen right? I've got 1500 miles on the car and its 8 months old.
There's plenty of electronics in that part of the car even without thinking of the 12VDC power distribution and cap there along with the two rather large amplifiers. Just on the center line between the two cubbys is the air bag diagnosis, and a couple other black boxes. Gasoline is rather difficult to ignite, the fuel/air ratio has to be just right and I'm not worried about it at all.
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