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Old 09-12-2014, 04:02 AM   #1
Trentin24
Trentin24
 
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Drives: 2011 2SS/RS
Join Date: Jan 2013
Location: Washington
Posts: 1,377
LED Strip Wiring Help

I have been browsing around the lighting forums lately and saw some footwell lighting mods and thought they looked good. I would purchase them from Gen5 but I want to learn how to do it myself, I believe I have a pretty good idea on how to do it, but I'd rather not guess when it comes to wiring...
I plan on doing both front and rear.

So I plan on running two strips (red and white) to two switches. I have nothing in hand so picturing it is kind of a problem.
So I am thinking solder + and - wires on both led strips and running them to a 3 prong rocker switch; + from car, + from led, - from car and led.

I would like the fronts to come on with the lights when the doors are unlocked/ opened, and also on a switch. Not sure how to wire that. Another issue is that I want both red and white led lights wired, but do not want them to come on at the same time when doors are unlocked.. I'd like to be able to choose which ones come on, such as red one time and white the next.

The only thing I can think of is tapping into a wire that is always hot when the car is on as my +. Like the 4 pack gauges or something. Turning it off when I don't want it on and turning it into the on position when I get out of my car, that way one of them is on the next time I open my doors.

Next thing is dimming. I have a white led as my dome light and it is too bright most of the time and I am going to assume 5050 led's at the feet are going to be too bright. Can I install a dimmer switch? Where would I get one? Or would tapping into the 4 gauge lights (dim-able) allow me to control the brightness through controller on the car? (I would prefer a dimmer switch)

Another thing I am going to be worried about is power being drawn from them while my car is off. I know we have a cutoff switch that kills the dome light after it has been left on for a certain amount of time, but I am not sure if I will need to be worried about it.

I know we have experts here on the forums and would like your help.

I have a terrible schematic I drew up on paint, keep in mind that I am on a laptop and do not have a mouse haha. (Yellow= white)
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