[city2491]

Originally Posted by ascii

The original bulb must be rated at certain wattage & current rating. The holder must be designed for that load. How to determine the max length of strip possible?
So that we do not overload the wiring or battery. (May be it's a stupid question)
Also, I heard about some driver circuitry when I bought some LED lights (even 3w light with 3 LEDs). Not installing them, will it make some difference?

Most cars use standard T10 bulb for boot, parking, licence plate, and interior. It is rated at 5W. LEDs use far lesser wattage with far more light. And even though it accommodates a 5W bulb the circuit is usually rated at 10A. This is more than enough to use 3-4 meters of LED strips.

LED drivers are used for home applications. They convert 220V AC current to 12V DC current. Since a car battery runs on DC 12V, drivers are not required for single color applications.

For multicolour applications, you need an LED controller with either IR or Bluetooth input.

[a4anurag]

Originally Posted by ascii

How do you determine the load? The original bulb must be rated at certain wattage & current rating. The holder must be designed for that load. How to determine the max length of strip possible

I have used the LED strip from Wipro. Here are the specifications:

Manufacturer: Wipro
LED Name: Garnet
Product code: D43540
Wattage: 4.8W per meter
Colour Temperature: 4000K

As per the owner's manual, the luggage room bulb is rated at 8W.

I would have used less than a meter of the strip so it isn't exceeding the load rating.

[BloggerMathai]

Originally Posted by city2491

The boot is lit up perfectly and the LEDs are not in view. The warm white colour also looks decent.

That well illuminated boot will put any luxury sedan's boot to shame!

Almost like you have a lightbox in your boot.

[Sasanka_Sanga]

I have installed Wipro strip lights in my Thar and here is the outcome. The estimate was 700/-.

[Reinhard]

Originally Posted by ascii

My question to both of you : How do you determine the load? The original bulb must be rated at certain wattage & current rating. The holder must be designed for that load. How to determine the max length of strip possible?
So that we do not overload the wiring or battery. (May be it's a stupid question)

Originally Posted by a4anurag

As per the owner's manual, the luggage room bulb is rated at 8W.
I would have used less than a meter of the strip so it isn't exceeding the load rating.

Generally a low density strip would have around 10 LEDs per foot. At around 0.2 W per emitter, you are looking at 2W per foot.

Generally the halogens are rated around 10 to 16 W in the boot /tail lamps. You can get the correct specification in the owner manual like a4anurag mentioned for his case. If you use 5ft of strip, you are looking at roughly 10W of power draw. And so on. A good quality strip would specify density, wattage per foot & luminosity specifications. Typical Chinese cheap alternatives would be a bit of a gamble since the specifications mentioned hardly have any real value.

[rohan_iitr]

After getting inspired from this thread, I decided to add a boot light in my i10 (lower spec variant). I did not want to tamper with the wiring, hence decided to perform a lazy man's DIY.

I purchased a small battery operated LED light from amazon, which has a magnet on the back. Using this, the LED light can be securely attached to any metallic surface. The LED light can be easily removed for replacing the AA batteries.

Please see the attached image with the LED light in action. It is magnetically attached to the inside of the hatch (encircled in yellow).

The only downside is that the LED light needs to be manually operated by pressing the On/Off button.

Rohan

[Mortis]

I too was inspired by this thread and since I wanted to reach myself some basic soldering this was an ideal choice.
Did a bit of practice on some old scrap LED strips I had lying around and then went in for mod.
I have done this on my Chevrolet Beat. Unfortunately did not take any pictures. I removed the boot light and the bulb, drilled a hole through the plastic cover to pass the wire and soldered the two ends to the bulb holder pins. Ideal I could cut the wiring of the plug itself and join to that but I decided to avoid it. Connected the other end to half a metre of warm white led strip which I stuck to the underside of the parcel tray with an additional dot of superglue at the ends and middle.
The light is more than sufficient and the whole process was easy and as I said a good experience to learn soldering.

[Archie_27]

Originally Posted by city2491

The boot is lit up perfectly and the LEDs are not in view. The warm white colour also looks decent.

Wow! Just an amazing DIY! And to add to that it costs negligible. I am surely gonna try that on mine! Thanks for sharing such a great idea and a very well elaborated and nicely executed DIY!

[Reinhard]

Originally Posted by rohan_iitr

A
I purchased a small battery operated LED light from amazon, which has a magnet on the back. Using this, the LED light can be securely attached to any metallic surface. The LED light can be easily removed for replacing the AA batteries.
Please see the attached image with the LED light in action. It is magnetically attached to the inside of the hatch (encircled in yellow).

Simple and convenient . Pressing a button to turn it on shouldn't be a big deal. But how is the magnet holding? Wouldn't it fall off into the boot if the car goes over rough road / potholes at speed? Or its that strong?

[rohan_iitr]

Originally Posted by Reinhard

Simple and convenient . Pressing a button to turn it on shouldn't be a big deal. But how is the magnet holding? Wouldn't it fall off into the boot if the car goes over rough road / potholes at speed? Or its that strong?

The magnetic action is quite strong and won't fall off on rough roads.


This is the one I am using:

https://www.amazon.in/TinyBrite-Brig...006148&sr=8-45


Rohan

[lemedico]

Can someone help me on doing the same for my 2009 jazz, which has no OEM installed boot lamp? Could you guide me on how to source a connection from the cabin dome lamp. Thanks in advance!

[viXit]

Originally Posted by rajathv8

That is a diode not a capacitor.

Hi!

I'm doing the same thing and wanted to make sure of all the electrical values.

I thought it was a resistor/capacitor.

Thanks for the information about it being a diode.
A diode ensures one way flow of current right?

What utility will that have here?

And with the halogen bulb from factory, polarity doesn't even matter.

Please help me understand this

[viXit]

Originally Posted by rajathv8

That is a diode not a capacitor.

Originally Posted by viXit

What utility will that have here?

And with the halogen bulb from factory, polarity doesn't even matter.

Please help me understand this

Found what it is for,
the diode as I expected was to prevent back flow of current, but I was not able to understand in what conditions a reverse flow can occur.

This is a phenomenon called Flyback. It occurs when a load/voltage across a circuit is suddenly removed. It flows the other way round for a split second. Just like a bow and arrow. , or for car folks, whiplash.

And this flyback current can damage the electronics in the circuit such as the boot open/close sensor in the electronically activated boot latch.
So it is essential to keep the diode in loop.

I have replaced many t10 bulbs in other cars but never found a diode anywhere. The Japs really think everything through. No wonder they have the best track record for reliability.

Originally Posted by city2491

Soldering done. The pins were a bit difficult to get to as the pin of my soldering iron was bigger than the space near the pins. Hence it is a bit shoddy. But still better than splicing the factory wires and joining them.
.
.
.

Noticed that the soldering has been done before the Diode.

I thought flyback is easier to occur on LED because of lower resistance, and was going to recommend that you bring the Diode in to the loop, but then remembered what the D in LED Stands for
\\\\\



The boot is super bright. I'm waiting to get used to it. I'm worried it looks a little too gaudy. But since it's a warm LED strip, it doesn't look out of place. This car and it's interiors look really classy with the 2 cabin lamps putting out a nice warm glow throughout the cabin. Love it. No cold whites for this car ever.




Also lighting up the rest of my parking a wee bit



here's the solder.