DIY: Here it is Dashboard ambient lighting ABL

[cjh1505]

orange lights now i need to find some orange door and dash panels for my iom cammy....oh wait still waiting for my car grrrrrrrrrrrr............

[Tecca]

Originally Posted by Jayhawk500

It's good to see that the members here are so good.
It makes you wonder why Engineers get paid so much to come up with an idea, put it in and then remove part of a system and not figure out how to fix the problem.
CUDOS to you TECCBOX. I will be waiting to complete my dash.
Thanks for taking the initiative!

Hey now don't be bashing us engineers we have a hard life you know.

I will probably be using the 2.2mm but the pictures I have posted are of .9mm

Yes you can make any size you want, the soldering is pretty easy.

It looks like the wiring will work and be dimmable but trying to find the other end of the connector Might have to end up splicing it.

If you guys are looking to use this stuff to light up the floor go with light tape it is alot brighter.

[CamaroSkooter]

Originally Posted by CamaroSkooter

I seem to recall someone stating that near or above the fusebox is a plug that looks to be where ABL would have been plugged into had the engineers gotten it figured out in time.

Have you tried using that for the power source rather than doing any drilling?

Look very nice

Originally Posted by Aaron1121

That was me.

If you pull pull open the panel on the drivers side dash of the car to see the fusebox, the ABL lighting power connector is in that panel. It's right above the A/C vent hose, right behind where the ABL would go on the left side of the gauges. It's already connected to the dimmer switch. There might also be a plug on the other side of the dash, but I haven't looked for it.

Let us know what you come up with!

I remember you saying you took a multi-meter to the plug. Could you let us know the electrical properties of this plug, if you don't mind? I believe we just need to know the voltage and amperage of the plug with the dimmer set to full on, and that should keep us from having any catastrophies. I found the plug that you took a photo of as well, and noticed in my car is physically clipped into the dashboard so it's not flopping around. The plug looks similar to some of the plugs I've seen in my computer for fans and other random electronics, so I'm hoping we can find an exact match to that plug somewhere to create a truly plug-and-play setup.

Originally Posted by Teccboxx

Color chart for those interested!!! Blue-Green aka Aqua are the closest to what we currently have.

You wouldn't happen to have the electrical properties of the EL wire you're using for reference, similar to what was requested above, do you? I know depending on the size and sometimes the color of the wire it varies.

It's looking more and more like this would be a pretty simple mod. I'm looking forward to getting home later so I can pop the panel off the passenger's side and see if there's a plug there too.

[camarorick]

Originally Posted by CamaroSkooter

I remember you saying you took a multi-meter to the plug. Could you let us know the electrical properties of this plug, if you don't mind? I believe we just need to know the voltage and amperage of the plug with the dimmer set to full on, and that should keep us from having any catastrophies. I found the plug that you took a photo of as well, and noticed in my car is physically clipped into the dashboard so it's not flopping around. The plug looks similar to some of the plugs I've seen in my computer for fans and other random electronics, so I'm hoping we can find an exact match to that plug somewhere to create a truly plug-and-play setup.



You wouldn't happen to have the electrical properties of the EL wire you're using for reference, similar to what was requested above, do you? I know depending on the size and sometimes the color of the wire it varies.

It's looking more and more like this would be a pretty simple mod. I'm looking forward to getting home later so I can pop the panel off the passenger's side and see if there's a plug there too.

I checked for it, and it's not there !

[Jack]

Ok, quick question for the guys/gals who've worked w/ both fibre and EL. Does the fibre run hotter than EL? I ask because this seems like such an easy/obvious fix, when so many fought with this for so long @ GM, that I'm wondering if there are any hidden 'gotchas' that we don't know about yet...

If it was this easy (and affordable), why didn't they just use EL to start with? If there's anyone in the know (from GM - and who haven't been burnt out on all of the questions like this one), it would be great to know EXACTLY why it got dropped from production. There were rumours that it was heat related, but I stopped reading the "NO ABL?!?!" bitchin' ~6 months ago, so admittedly I'm a bit behind on this topic (a guy can only waste so much time on the panic-of-the-week topics).

Thanks (oh, and GREAT work TeccBoxx! I too will be eager to read your write-up.),

Jack

[Hylton]

Originally Posted by Jack

Ok, quick question for the guys/gals who've worked w/ both fibre and EL. Does the fibre run hotter than EL? I ask because this seems like such an easy/obvious fix, when so many fought with this for so long @ GM, that I'm wondering if there are any hidden 'gotchas' that we don't know about yet...

If it was this easy (and affordable), why didn't they just use EL to start with? If there's anyone in the know (from GM - and who haven't been burnt out on all of the questions like this one), it would be great to know EXACTLY why it got dropped from production. There were rumours that it was heat related, but I stopped reading the "NO ABL?!?!" bitchin' ~6 months ago, so admittedly I'm a bit behind on this topic (a guy can only waste so much time on the panic-of-the-week topics).

Thanks (oh, and GREAT work TeccBoxx! I too will be eager to read your write-up.),

Jack

Here's a quick definition -

EL runs current through the entire wire. This wire is covered with phosphate which reacts to the current by giving off light. The phosphate coating is covered ina transparent colored plastic, hence the color. The volatge running through the wire is low so it is cool to the touch.

Fibre optics runs light through it. Nothing else. The FO wire is made of a plastic material which allows light to pass through it and also out of it along the way. No heat is transferred through the wire unless the light source is candlescent and is actually touching the FO wire. What creates the light? A simple bulb.

[beowulf80]

Per one of the reps at a car show, it was not the heat of the lighting. It was what happened in high-heat environments such as Phoienix. Apparantly the dash warps slightly, as all dashes will in those environments. The problem was that the ABL quite literally lighted this area up, making it look terrible.

Its the word of a car show rep, so take it as you will. He seemed nice enough and had pretty good knowledge of the car as a whole. Situation seems plausible enough, and is a heck of alot more complicated than a simple light. That said, living in Illinois I totally want this. Yesterday.

[Hylton]

With respect to why GM used FO vs EL, I can onlyt speculate but the maintenance of FO is that you will only have to replace the bulb once in a while. EL wire dies when the phophate stops reacting to the current. You will actually see areas slowly die off. The entire wire will need to be replaced when that happens.

[TJ91]

That looks great, cant wait to see the final details, thanks alot for posting this

[seattlelumin.com]

Hi, folks!

I got referred to this thread by Dan, one of the forum members. I'm not sure what his username is here.

Anyway, he just picked up some EL wire from me. I run a small EL wire business in the Seattle area:

http://www.seattlelumin.com

I focus on the Seattle area, but I do do business world wide. I got a peek at his new Camaro, and it's going to look great when it's done. Once we have a more complete understanding of everything that needs to be done to put this lighting in, I'm going to put together a kit and detailed instructions and put it up on my site. It'll be good to have a something with all the guesswork figured out so you can get your car looking all pretty without too much frustration. I'd like to get this done within the next week, although with a certain little festival coming up in the Nevada desert in the next few weeks, I may be a bit stretched for time.

In the meantime, if you're interested in going forwards on your own, what Dan bought as about 8 feet of the standard 2.3mm wire in Aqua and a pipsqueak driver. We have no idea yet if this is the "proper" driver for the job but it looked like a good guess to me.

If you have any questions I can be reached at sales@seattlelumin.com and I'll do what I can to help.

thanks!

mike

[TJ91]

Anyway well be able to get the light gap between the doors and the dash to light up without having to take off the original ABL of the doors? Just asking

[Musclebee]

That looks cool, but GM probably did not put it on the dash because it might be a little distracting.

[derekwp]

Originally Posted by Teccboxx

Hot.

[fastfret7]

Teccboxx should work for GM!!!