Since the advent of LED lighting, it has been actively used in all cars.
At the same time, in addition to replacing conventional lamps with diode ones, many craftsmen have found a variety of uses for LED strips. Moreover, even in those places where illumination and lighting have never been.
Lights in the car
You can mount additional lighting in a car in several of its parts and nodes:
Here you can get by with very short segments that you have left after repairing the lighting in your house or apartment.
Also, a fairly common use is door lighting. It lights up when they are opened and illuminates the exit from the car.
This illumination is also called "angel eyes". Just run the tape around the perimeter of the headlights, and not necessarily around the entire circumference.
Besides the design, it will also improve the low beam. Some expensive foreign cars already come with such tuning from the very beginning.
But our cars will have to be completed on their own. Just keep in mind that the headlights, unlike the interior or body, can be illuminated with white or yellow LED strips.
There should be no multicolored RGB rainbow here.
The tape is mounted on the bottom or sills. The result is the effect of a car floating in the air above the road.
Just do not glue the LEDs at the jack installation site. Otherwise, it will be a one-time illumination, until the first lifting of the machine during repair work. 
All these backlights can be made by hand and connected in two ways:
- directly from the cigarette lighter or 12V wires
- through a separate power supply
The most important thing is to choose the right power source and the LED strip itself. 
Cigarette lighter connection
The mains voltage in the car is 12V. At least this is how it should be in theory.
However, in reality, given value can easily exceed 14V or more.
The LED strip, which was originally designed for 12 volts, does not like overvoltage very much.
Because of this, LED crystals fail and burn out. 
Therefore, it is not recommended to connect such a tape directly to a car cigarette lighter, battery or existing wires already installed.
Please note that different types of charging for mobile phones from a cigarette lighter will also not work. They usually have an output voltage of about 5V, but you need a stable 12V. 
Some are trying to contrive and artificially lower the voltage. To do this, the backlight consumption is calculated in advance and a powerful resistance is connected in front of the tape.
The calculation can be performed using the formula: 
Thus, a resistor is selected and soldered into the circuit. As a result, the supply voltage on the tape drops by two or more volts. After the calculations, the whole thing must actually be rechecked by measurements with a multimeter or a tester.
This method has several disadvantages. In addition to the fact that this is a long procedure, the resistance will also heat up significantly.
Voltage regulator
That's why the best way is the use of a stabilizer. If you know a little about electronics, you can assemble the circuit yourself.
And already through it, connect all LED lighting sources. In this case, do not confuse the driver with the power supply. 
The main task of the driver is to stabilize the current. The voltage across it can both rise and fall.
And the block is, first of all, a source of stable voltage.
To connect the LED strip in the car, you need exactly the power supply.
Therefore, it is impossible to use microcircuits that are used for LED lamps. You can connect this unit not only from the cigarette lighter, but in general anywhere in the car where the 12V wires reach.
Previously, such a stabilizer was assembled on a KREN 7812 microcircuit. 
The connection is pretty straightforward. On the left is the positive input. Middle contact - total mass. Right - exit to the tape. 
However, due to constant overheating, pulsed sources are now used. They no longer need huge cooling radiators, and they have more power.
Impulse power block
It is recommended to connect the power supply to one or the other stabilizer through fuses.
If you are not a radio amateur and are not familiar with soldering circuits, and there is no desire to bother with this business, you can buy a ready-made stabilizer.
Despite the fact that they are very cheap on the AliExpress website. Literally one or two dollars. They are a miniature box based on the "LM2596" microcircuit. 
You can find them in a variety of quantities.
Such a stabilizer practically does not require any adjustment, you just solder the wires to the input and output and put them on the tape.
It is designed for a current of up to 1.5A, which means that through it you can connect LED strips with a power of up to 20W. 
If RGB tape comes with a control box, then the switching power supply must be connected in front of the box.
By the way, with the help of such a block, it is better to supply not even 12V, but only 10V.
Believe me, this is practically invisible to the eyes, but the service life of the LEDs will increase significantly! You can adjust the voltage with a screwdriver by tightening a special screw. 
If you are frightened by all these difficulties with switching power supplies and power supplies, then you can do it in a simple way and power all the lights in the car from a battery. 
Ribbon selection
First of all, when buying, pay attention to the voltage. You need exactly 12V models.
After all, there are also 24V-36V and even 220V. 
It is better to choose a single color option so as not to bother with connecting an RGB controller.
And from the monochrome types, the easiest way is to choose colors for the body.
Almost all tapes are initially self-adhesive. So there should be no problems with its placement and fixing.
From lineup there are two main options worth looking at:
The backlight power will depend on the number of LEDs in one meter of tape. 
And it can be very diverse:
- SMD3528 - 60,120,240 diodes per meter
- SMD5050 - 30,60,120 diodes per meter
The more diodes, the brighter the backlight and, accordingly, its power. Moreover, you can change these parameters yourself.
It is enough to cut off the product according to the corresponding marks, thereby reducing the number of LEDs and the final consumption and brightness. 
The next parameter to choose is moisture resistance. Inside the car, you can use the tape without any insulation. This is IP20 protection class.
Buy backlights with IP65 protection for headlights. 
Well, under the body - IP68.
It is already completely sealed and is able to work normally for an indefinite period of time under the influence of water and dirt.
For doors it is also better to use the IP68 option.
Where and how to mount and connect
The first step is to measure the required footage of the tape. 
And cut it off strictly according to special marks. 
You may even need to drill a couple of holes. 
Connect wires to each segment. In a car, this is best done using soldering rather than connectors. 
If the tape is in silicone, then the contact pads will have to be cleaned and some of the sealant removed. 
All the tricks and rules for soldering LED strip can be found in the article below. 
When the tape is ready for installation, carefully degrease the surface on which it will be glued. Moisten a clean cloth in solvent and clean future highlight spots with it. 
Tuck the soldered wires into the hole. 
Peel off the protective layer of the tape and press firmly on the backing. 
As practice shows, scotch tape alone is not enough. First, the surface is not perfectly flat.
Secondly, our temperature drops affect. From minus to plus values, sometimes within a few hours.
As a result, even a high-quality tape eventually comes off. Therefore, it is recommended to walk around the edges with ordinary hot melt glue. 
When organizing body lighting, glue is unlikely to help. On the bottom, under the thresholds for fastening, it is better to use a profile with plastic clips. 
The places where the protection was removed from the contact pads and the wires were soldered, it also does not hurt to fill it with a thick layer of glue. 
Likewise, the LED strip is mounted in any part of the car. If you want to increase the brightness and the power supply allows you to do this, then you can stick two tapes side by side at the same time. 
Select the wires in advance so that they can be pulled to one common point from several backlights at the same time. It will supply 12V power. 
By the way, before you close up the skin, it is advisable to check the entire circuit for operability from a small 12V power source. For example, you can take the A23 battery. 
LED interior lighting is more popular today than ever. In the salon of any modern car many different light sources. At a minimum, the cabin has a central ceiling light and a navigator light located at the front of the ceiling, in front of the windshield. In addition, in the car interior there may be lamps in the lamps located in the cosmetic mirrors, in the illumination of the glove box (glove compartment), in the lighting of the trunk, thresholds, leg zones, etc.
For all of these lighting fixtures, 95% of cars use two types of lamps:
- baseless lamps with W5W marking (or, according to other classifiers, T10)
- spotlights with C5W / C10W marking (or, according to other classifiers, festoon - festoon)
But even in the two most common types of lamps, it is not surprising to get confused, since our catalog of LED auto lamps contains more than 20 models of each type. Let's try to figure out which models of LED lamps are suitable for the interior of your particular car.
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Base type
It is not difficult to choose LED lamps for car interior lighting. On the main page of our store, select the make and model of your car, then open the subsection "interior lighting". If you did not find your car in the catalog, or the subsection "interior lighting" for the car model you are interested in is not filled in, then it will not be difficult to choose LED lamps for interior lighting yourself.
The most reliable way to find out the type of lamps used in your car's lamps is to open the shades and remove the standard lamps. If you see that the lamp is entirely glass with a flat base about a centimeter wide with metal antennae, then you have a W5W baseless lamp:
This small incandescent lamp has a power of 5 watts and a luminous flux of approximately 50 lumens (data on the characteristics of incandescent lamps are taken from the catalog car lamps by Osram). To replace this obsolete incandescent lamp in all respects, you can choose a modern, brighter and more efficient LED lamp in the section.
If you see a lamp with two metal cones at the ends, then in front of you is a soffit (aka double-capped) lamp.
With this lamp, it is important to measure the distance between the extreme points of the base. If the length of the lamp does not exceed 37 mm, then this is a lamp marked C5W, the power of such an incandescent lamp is 5 watts, and its luminous flux is approximately 45 lm. If the length of the lamp is more than 37 mm, then this is a C10W lamp, its power is 10 watts, and the luminous flux is about 100 lm. On our website, the length of C5W lamps is indicated by the last number in the name of the LED lamp. That is, for example, the F-4s50f31 lamp is 31 mm long and the F-6s50f42 lamp is 42 mm long. You can select lamps of this type in the section.
If the lamp is a glass body with a cylindrical metal base, then it is a T4W lamp:
The power of such a lamp is 4 watts, the luminous flux is about 35 lm, you can find a replacement for it in the section.
Space inside the luminaire
After the required type of lamps is determined, it is necessary to inspect the interior lamp itself. When choosing LED spotlights C5W pay attention to the length of the lamp as well as the space inside the interior light. If there is not much space around the standard lamp, such as in this case:
then it makes sense to choose a narrow lamp.
If there is enough space and a wider LED lamp will fit into the interior or trunk lamp, then wider and much brighter lamps can be installed.
LED lamp bigger size provide uniform light over the entire area of the luminaire, good illumination of the entire area of the diffuser, that is, they solve the familiar "point of light" problem.
The luminaire in which it is installed baseless LED lamp W5W, can be of different shapes and sizes. The first thing to look at is the location of the lamp inside the luminaire. If the lamp inside the plafond is parallel to the plane of the diffuser, i.e. in other words, sideways, as in these photos:
Then it is better to stop at LED side-glow lamps, for example:
In this case, the entire luminous flux of the lamp will be directed in the right direction, and not illuminate the walls of the interior lamp in vain, as in this photo ...
In addition, it is important here to evaluate the space inside the luminaire and, if possible, choose a larger LED lamp for better illumination of the entire diffuser. A good example of choosing bright LED lamps for interior lighting:
In the case when the lamp in the luminaire is located perpendicular to the surface of the diffuser, and the space inside it is very limited, as, for example, in this interior luminaire:
And if there is enough space in the interior lamp, then there is an opportunity to choose: put small LED lamps more or less standard size, as shown above, or put larger, slightly unusual LED lamps like these:
having high brightness and giving an excellent effect of bright, diffused light.
Lamp brightness and color
In addition to the external shape and size of the LED lamp, it is necessary to take into account its purpose, that is, where exactly the LED lamp will be installed and what it should illuminate.
The "navigational" light fixtures are intended for reading in the salon, for example, a road map. This means that there should be enough light in them for reading, but at the same time, the light should not be excessive, so as not to blind the eyes. For reading, it is better to choose white or natural white glow color. The optimal indicator of the luminous flux in this case is 100-150 lm.
The central interior light provides general illumination within the vehicle. It is logical to put a white LED lamp with a maximum luminous flux in it so that there are no dark corners in the cabin. But if you are not a fan of classic solutions, then you can put colored LED lamps, for example or and make yourself a blue, red, green or even pink light in your salon, which looks very unusual.
The light in the cosmetic mirrors located in the sun visors should not be too bright, because during the use of the mirror the lamp will shine directly into the eyes. A comfortable luminous flux in this case is 25-70 lm. In this case, the lamps should illuminate the face well, which means that the light should be pure white.
Lighting for the leg area, glove box and trunk should be such that not a single detail is lost in the depths of the car. Here you can not skimp on light and put the brightest LED lamps in these, usually small lamps:
The bright light from these LED lights will be especially helpful when looking for a dropped phone or lipstick in the glove compartment.
LED illumination of doors or thresholds performs two important functions. Firstly, it illuminates the space in front of you when you leave the car, and secondly, it marks an open door in the dark, making it more visible to other road users. LED lamps of any color and brightness, according to your taste, can be installed in the lamps located in the doors.
Ready-made sets of lamps
As you can see, when choosing LED lamps for the salon yourself, you need to take into account many nuances. If you don't feel like bothering with luminous flux figures, markings and lamp configurations, then opt for one of more than 100 ready-made sets of LED lamps we have, made specifically for your specific car model.
The lamps in this set exactly repeat the interior space of the interior lamps and the trunk of this car, the light diffusers of the lamps are flooded with light as evenly as possible, and besides, they have dimmers and a lifetime warranty! You can choose a set for lighting the interior of your car in the section.
There are different ways to personalize your car. Someone independently pulls the salon, someone seeks to attract attention homemade spoilers... But most often, the illumination of the cabin with your own hands makes an unforgettable impression on those around you.
The lights can statically burn or blink to the beat of the music playing in the cabin. You can experiment in different ways, the main thing is to use the necessary durable materials. Then it will not be necessary to often redo the circuit or its individual nodes.
When polite interior lighting is manufactured and installed, you can choose the ways to activate it. Contacts coming from the door opening sensor are used as automatic on / off. You can also use the remote remote control to turn it on when the driver wants it.
Light strips are placed along the perimeter of the opened door, under the feet of passengers, in the places of standard lighting devices, along the dashboard, inside the trunk, as well as in other areas of the passenger compartment that you like.
Applicable materials
High-quality interior lighting of a car is distinguished by competent and appropriate use of light materials. The most popular light sources are LED and neon lights. Let's look at the characteristics of both light sources.
LEDs:
- are often used due to their ease of installation;
- most blanks come with the possibility of fixing with a built-in sticky strip;
- each LED takes up very little space and can harmoniously fit into the internal area of standard lighting;
- mounting tape with LEDs is made of durable material;
- LEDs have a long service life;
- quick response at startup allows them to be used as light music.
You need to know that before installing any type of additional backlight, you must disconnect the battery from the mains.
Neon lights:
- neon lamps have bright unusual light;
- at correct operation the service life may be longer than that of LEDs;
- adapted for use in static conditions, without fast on / off cycles;
- sensitive to mechanical stress;
- installation takes longer than LEDs.
Neon lighting decoration
Do-it-yourself beautiful lighting in the car interior will be using combined elements. For example, decorate the lower part of the interior with neon lamps, and decorate the side and upper with LEDs. However, there is no need to overuse such a design element. It is necessary to arrange everything so that harmony is created.
You need to know that the excess and a large number of variegated lights look tasteless.
We will select materials for the installation of both types of additional lighting. You can start at the bottom of the cabin, where the neon lights are installed. To install you will need:
- a set of several neon lights;
- mounting bracket made of aluminum;
- plastic clamps;
- self-tapping screws for fixing.
A standard commercially available set of neon lights for a car often includes a plug for connecting the voltage to the cigarette lighter socket. For this operation, it is not required, so you can select a set without it or cut off this plug as unnecessary, and we strip the ends of the wire for connection in the circuit.
We measure the length of the aluminum corner for mounting it under the torpedo, saw it off to the desired length and fasten it at the bottom. Usually mounted first under the glove compartment. We fix the lamp on the clamps, directing the future radiation in the right direction. We repeat the operation in the driver's area and in the rear passenger seats.
At the back, the corner must be placed in such a way as to protect the lamp from impacts and accidental crushing. For this, the corner is fixed with a free edge up.
The ends of the wires are increased, insulated at the junction, hidden under the upholstery and brought under the torpedo for connection to the circuit. Most simple option connection to a door opening sensor or general illumination is considered. It is worth adding a separate switch for additional lighting to such a scheme.
Making additional illumination from LEDs
Interior lighting using LEDs begins with the preparation of the materials. The most commonly used are two types of RGB or SMD tape. The second option will be slightly more expensive, but easier to work with. Additionally, you can pick up single LEDs for the dedicated zones, but more painstaking car owners are already working with them.
To replace standard lamps, LED counterparts with the same base / plinth designs are suitable. In other places, he conducts the tape. Before installation, you need to measure the required length of the strip and cut off the desired piece of tape at fixed points. There are usually hard spots in the tape to break the chain. It is by them that the length must be divided. If you cut not according to the given marks, then there will be no contacts to which the wires are soldered for further wiring.
The tape is usually distributed over the torpedo, over the entire perimeter of the roof and lowered along the pillars of doorways. Fixation is carried out using double-sided tape attached to the LED line from the back and covered with a protective strip. We tear it off and fix the LED strip.
You need to know that when working with LEDs, you must strictly observe the polarity, otherwise they can be damaged.
We solder the wires to the open ends of the LED strip and close the connection with shrink wrap. Warming up the soldered place closed with a film using an industrial or household hair dryer, we close the contacts from oxidation. Next, we display the ends of the wires in the same way as with a neon connection.
When using RGB tape, it is possible to assemble the circuit using an RGB controller.
Conclusion
Installing polite lighting in the car does not take long. With all the tools and materials available, you can spend several hours installing. As a result, the car will become more attractive and personalized.
One of the most common types of vehicle modifications is additional lighting. With its help, you can create a unique, completely individual image that will undoubtedly attract the attention of others.
Of course, you can choose from many ready-made options, or resort to the help of professionals. However, if you have certain skills, the independent creation of additional lighting in the car will cost much less, and besides, it will allow you to do everything exactly the way you want. Therefore, we will talk about creating a backlight in the car interior with our own hands.
Interior lighting types
Do-it-yourself lighting in a car should start with the choice of lamps. Each of these options has advantages and disadvantages, but LEDs are used more and more today. And this is due to the following advantages:
- Safer in comparison with neon lamps - they can not cause a fire if damaged, stronger, do not contain mercury;
- They consume less electricity;
- More convenient to install and further use;
- The light can be directed in the desired direction.
- In addition, diode strips become cheaper every year, which also contributes to their popularization.
Car interior lighting planning
Before you start to implement the lighting in the car interior with your own hands,it is worth at least roughly to estimate the installation scheme for additional lighting. This is one of the main advantages of creating a backlight for a car with your own hands - the ability to do everything based on individual wishes. Think about where you would like to create additional lighting, how you plan to power it for it, etc.
Most often, the backlight is located in the following places:
- Under the glove compartment of the front passenger;
- Under the driver's torpedo;
- In the luggage compartment;
- Near the rear seats of the salon.
The LED backlight can even be powered from the cigarette lighter, and of course you can connect it directly to the battery.
It is important enough to remember that in such things, the main thing is to be careful not to overdo it with the intensity of the light. Creating a beautiful and "polite" interior lighting with your own hands requires a good sense of taste and moderation.
In addition, you need to think about ways to turn on the interior lighting of the car. The most popular are the following three options:
- Switching on from the button;
- Turning on when opening doors or trunk;
- Backlight activation when the ignition is turned on.
What do you need to install the interior lighting with your own hands?
After you have chosen the layout of the LED strips, chosen their color, you must ensure that you have all the tools and materials that you will need to create your own backlight in the car, namely:
- Pliers;
- Soldering iron for 220V;
- Rosin and tin;
- Stationery knife;
- LEDs;
- Adhesive for fixing the tape;
- Means for degreasing surfaces;
- Indicator;
- Multimeter;
- Cable;
- Switch;
- Screwdriwer set;
- Terminal blocks for fixing wires;
- Tubes, heat shrink, electrical tape for cable insulation.
DIY interior lighting installation
First, you need to measure the required amount of LED strip and cut it according to special marks. Next, you need to solder the diodes to the wires of the required length, the resulting contacts must be insulated and the terminals must be placed on them. For additional protection of the wires, it makes sense to place them in flexible tubes.
The next step in creating a polite interior lighting with your own hands is to install LED strips in the right places. To do this, first you need to degrease the surfaces to which you will glue the diodes after applying the degreasing liquid, you need to wait from three to five minutes. Most LED strips have an adhesive backing, however it is best to use additional glue.
During the installation of LED strips, it is extremely important to monitor exactly where the light will be directed. The lighting should not hit the driver in the eye; moreover, the result will depend on the direction of the light. Therefore, before gluing it, it makes sense to experiment with the location of the diode strips.
The wires must be routed under the vehicle floor. You can connect to standard wiring in different places, such a place can be a fuse box. In addition, the power supply for the LEDs can be routed using existing lamps, etc. In addition to connecting to the car battery to provide power, it is necessary to connect the backlight to "ground", that is, solder one of the wires to the car body (but only to pure metal without dirt, rust, paint).
In any case, when installing the interior lighting of a car with your own hands, you must first of all take into account the peculiarities of the internal wiring of your car.
It is not so difficult to make the illumination of the feet in the passenger compartment of the car, moreover, it will also look quite attractive. As an example, let's take a story that I personally witnessed.
One evening an old car drove up to the stop, but almost no one paid attention to it. But that was until the moment when the driver opened the doors, after which bright lights flashed in the cabin, which aroused interest among many.
Plus, the interior of the car looked more attractive. That is, thanks to the light lights, the nondescript old upholstery of the car got a gorgeous look, which, of course, could not fail to attract the views of others.
LED lighting can transform any car, including the oldest, which is the main advantage of this innovation.
How the backlight works
The LED backlight can be customized according to your preference. For example, you can make it turn on simultaneously with the standard lighting when you open the doors, or you can control it using an electronic unit.
You can also combine the two options. That is, we make the illumination of the lower part of the cabin neon and connect it to the door opening sensor, and we make the rest of the illumination LED, but we connect it through the block - the switch.
Varieties of backlighting
Interior lighting can be:
1) .LED... The main advantage of this option is ease of installation. In this case, the emitters do not need a fixation device. Individual LEDs are miniature, and therefore can be installed even in the sockets for standard lamps. The LED strip is shockproof and sealed.
2) .Neon... The light in neon lights is bright and rich. The backlight is difficult to install, while the lamps in the installation are quite capricious. They are afraid of mechanical damage.
DIY car interior lighting
Under the feet of the driver and passenger, the lighting can be made neon, and the ceiling can be illuminated with LED lamps.
Installing neon lights ... First of all, it is necessary to install special emitters, for which you will need:
- Nylon clamps;
- Aluminum corner;
- Neon emitters;
- Self-tapping screws;
Saw off the corner according to the size of the emitter and light it up with self-tapping screws under the torpedo. The light should fall down directly under your feet. After that we fix the emitter with clamps to the corner.
We do the same with the passenger seats. On rear seats fasten it with the edge up, which will protect the emitter from mechanical damage.
We carefully lay all the wires under the floor and pull them to the torpedo from the driver's side. If necessary, the wires at the connection points can be extended and insulated.
When connecting, the wires should be connected to the door opening sensor and the interior lighting switch so that when the door is opened and the lighting is turned on, our additional lighting comes on.
Installation LED backlight .Installation of LED footlights is carried out according to the standard scheme, which is practically the same for all cars.
But for work we need;
- Heat-shrink tubing;
- Wires (section 4x0.5 mm);
- LED strip and single diodes (you can take a ready-made strip of the factory-assembled type SMD 5050, but it is more expensive, so you can buy an RGB strip sold by the meter);
You can install the backlight on the dashboard, in places for salon lamps, with standard lighting elements. All of this can be replaced with LEDs. Single LEDs have the same base as standard lamps, and therefore, if necessary, they can be easily replaced.
Next, we determine the location of the backlight. Traditionally, it is installed in the leg area and along the perimeter of the roof along the pillars. First, you need to measure the required length of the tape, after which we cut it to the required size. In this case, the mode is only in places with contacts for soldering.
The wire must be measured in such a way that it is enough to reach the ignition switch, but it is also recommended to provide for some margin.
We cut off, clean the ends and solder to the tape, after which the heat-shrinkable tube is stretched and with the help of a household hairdryer or lighter we warm up until the porn is pulled together. We should do the same with other pieces of tape.
Connection options:
- connect a container via an RGB block;
- connection in the same way as neon lamps.
