chaadster

Ha! Alan, thank you very much! Your circuit description sounds pretty simple, just the kind of thing I can work with!

I haven't gotten the lights yet, but should be able to get to work this week provided they arrive in a timely manner. I will certainly post back to report on progress, and I might even take the opportunity to make my first official write-up!

Alan, I owe you, brother.

danglerb

The event that triggers the led being on is troublesome. I wouldn't want to have to shut the car off every time I want a passenger to find the handle and get out. Something extremely dim and on all the time seems more practical.

A lot of clownish stuff goes on with lights on cars, but I see a lot of potential with a creative mind.

Alan

Danglerb - whaat...?

This IS on all the time when the ignition is on and stays on for about 10 seconds after it goes off... I think I said that already...

Alan

danglerb

Sometimes extremely dim doesn't work so well.

All my lights do that time delay turn off thing anyway on my American car, so I somehow got confused that you were looking to do something else.

Yeah, resistor capacitor thing should work.

chaadster

Okay, to follow up on this thread...

I got the lights and did a little test fitting today. What I decided to do is flush mount the LED in the bottom of the trim piece, behind the door handle.

I pulled the trim piece off and saw there was a little nub left over from the molding process, so I decided to drill the opening halfway between that nub and the lip of the trim piece. I chose this location because it was more-or-less in the middle and provided an easy reference point when drilling the piece for the other door.

I pulled the door panel insert (that small, separate piece of the door panel just above the armrest) and routed the wiring behind it and forward towards the front of the door.

My thought was to tie-in to the courtesy lights, just to see what it would look like, but I noticed the seat memory switch has headlight swiched power, so I wired into that harness. If you pull the connector from the memory switch, you'll see the plugs are numbered 1-7; #3 is ignition switched power, and #2 will run ground.

The result is that the door handles are illuminated when the headlight switch is on parking or headlights!

The glow was pretty bright, and because of the slope of the trim piece, a little light shines outside the handle area and onto the door panel, directly above the trim piece. I think redrilling the hole to angle the bulb more towards the back of the plate would work, but for now, I used a little bit of electrical tape to mask half the bulb...hey, it worked.

The car is scheduled to go into storage (away from home) tomorrow, but I'll try to snap some pics before she's off. I still want to use Alan's capacitor description to get some "afterglow," but it looks as though that will have to wait until spring.

Overall, I'm pretty pleased with the initial effort; it looks tidy, but could be made to illuminate a little better.

I'll report back in spring.

Weissach

I did this mod about two years ago. It's VERY easy... Sorry I didn't post pictures sooner, I thought more people had already done this simple mod

chaadster

Yes, Weissach, that's exactly what I'm talking about! Although, I wasn't clever enough to consider lighting the door pull, and I positioned the light in the door release more towards the center the pull.

Looks good, Weissach!

Bill Ball

Hey, this is nice. I'm enjoying pimping my ride with the door sill illumination, LED courtesy lights, and I think this is next. Thanks for the idea.

chaadster

It has been five months since I started this thread, but as I was posting a pic of the door handle to another thread, I realized that I never put up a pic of the LED install...and I hate threads with no follow-up!

Alan

Chaad - how did you wire it up - ignition, marker lights or the delay after ignition?

Alan

Bill Ball

Wiring to the seat memory switch described above seems like a good solution. How could you wire the pasenger side if there is no seat memory there?

Alan

Chaad, Bill,
Actually ocurred to me that wiring to the window controller (maybe even just the widow motor connection - right here both sides - but need to check all years) wouldbe perfect.

The function is on with ignition, stays on till a door is opened. On a ROW/Euro late model it even stays active whenever the door is open....


Alan

chaadster

Alan-- I simply hardwired it in, i.e. I didn't build your delay circuit yet. The car's LH died in the middle of the project, and since it was the end of the season, I just shelved it. I'm hoping to get it done soon, though, as I think that would be pretty trick.

Bill-- Even though I don't have passenger side seat memory, the harness is still in the door. I didn't get the chance to wire in that side yet (see my reply to Alan, above), but IIRC, the harness was "live." Now that you ask, I wonder where it goes if not to a seat controller module?

chaadster

Ooh, hot damn, Alan, I think you may be right!! Hopefully I can get some time tomorrow to pull the panels and check that out. Thanks!!

Alan

Chaad,
I looked - its not the direct motor connection ( these are grounded when inactive not +V) - but on an '88/'89 if you connect to the window switch connector (L or R) Red/Green (on car side) or Red (on switch side) or at central Electric Plug G23 this should work fine...

Perfect for this application.

On a 90+ with the new window controller its the same except the wire is Red both sides of the switch connector and there is no convenient central electric connection. This controller is under the drivers seat and at that end use Plug II pin 1 (red) OR Plug I Pin 3 or 4 (both Red).

Alan