Shedding some light on the drink cup holders

[Boone-Titan]

I like the little light just in front of the rearview mirror but, it just doesn't provide enough light to land that mug without having to look over. I decided to add some landing lights. LED lights are great simple to work with and last nearly forever.

[Slurppie]

Very clean install, now you just need to post a step by step for everyone

[Titano24's]

Nice and would have been super dooper sick if you can find some orange LED's. Where did you tap into the power for these at?



-Shane

[Boone-Titan]

Very easy to do and you don't need to be a sparky (elect engineer) to figure it out. The following websites gave all the info necessary.
http://www.theledlight.com/ledcircuits.html
http://unclean.org/howto/led_circuit.html

A trip to Radio Shack and about $17.00 and your ready to start.

First remove the shift knob then gentle pulling up and back remove the entire top front half of the center console. There is one elect connector to disconnect and the console can be removed to the workbench.

I used 5mm LEDs and purchased some snap in bezels for mounting the diodes which require a .25 Dia hole.

The first step is to flip the console over on the bench and draw a line thru the centers of both cup holders. On the back of the rear cup holder extend the centerline down the side of the cup holder .75 inches. On the forward cup holder extend the line down the front .75. Remove the rubber cup holder liner and drill the rear cup holder. For the forward cup holder you must drill thru the front of the cup holder and then into the back since the distance between the cup holders is to tight for line-of-sight drilling. Just keep the drill straight eyeball it and you'll have no problems.

After drilling, reinstall the rubber liner scribe the hole locations (remember only the rear hole on the forward cup holder). Remove the liner and cut the holes .375 Dia with an exacto knife or use a gasket cutter.

Make up all the solder joints between the LEDs and Resistors on the bench and I would suggest using the shrink wrap insulation instead of tape due to the components being relatively fragile. I took the power from the wires that feed the gear selector lights and made the splices inside the the wire loom on the back of the console. As you will read on the attached websites, polarity is important when hooking things up. The wires powering the gear selector lights are brown white stripe and red blue stripe. The brown is neutral and the red is positive. Install the LEDs in the cup holders solder the power lead zip tie and tape everything up tight and reinstall.

I like these so much I'm thinking of installing a few more down low and this time put them on a switch with rheostat similar to the interior light dimmer.

Titano24's - They have them in orange but wasn't sure if I'd like. Might get one and experiment with. Would not be that hard to swap out.

[Tony]

I have the bench seats, with the center console cup holders that fit the 1 liter soda bottles. I was thinking the LEDs would have a neat effect reflecting light in a clear plastic bottle filled with sparkling water, at night. OOH AH.
Actually a good idea.

[SarkaZm]

Cool little mod Boone, now I just gotta find the time!

[scsTiTan]

Boone thats a great idea! I was thinking of a way to light the inside of the giant center console and now I can do both.
Thanks,
Steve

[Gig'em]

Originally Posted by scsTiTan

Boone thats a great idea! I was thinking of a way to light the inside of the giant center console and now I can do both.
Thanks,
Steve

Adding lights to the console is a great idea too. I think I'll stop by Radio Shack tonight.

[WazzuCoug]

I really like that, the idea with the rheostat is sweet. Dimming lights in the cab would be a nice treat.

[bsherman211]

SCION offers this as a factory accessory. Pretty cool idea...

http://www.scion.com/drive/accessori...l?curNumber=10

[goathead]

that is a great idea. if i do this i would only change one thing. maybe even put a piece of cellophane (orange) between the plastic console and the rubber cup holder to dim the light a little too. just some modification to your excellent mod.

steve

[mjw357]

Originally Posted by Titano24's

Nice and would have been super dooper sick if you can find some orange LED's.

http://www.hosfeltelectronics.com

Just about any color/type you want, I think they have even more types in stock.

[MXtitan24]

wow this thread is over 4 years old..
bringing it back from the dead! =]

[TitanBlue]

Glad you did. That's a great application of accent lighting.

[titanle]

man this looks like a sweet mod, i think im gonna do it but with amber leds.