Great information! Thanks for the write up.

 

So the lights I plan to use are basically these in blue: New 3mm Warm White Red Green Blue Yellow UV Purple Orange Pink 12V Prewired LEDs | eBay

I plan on using 18 on each side that will be on one circuit. 6 under the dash on each side, 6 under a front seat, and 6 under a back seat. Once I play around with them I might realize that I don't need 6 in each location. All of the light will be hooked up in parallel.

 

I used 3 amp diodes because they have a much thicker lead than the 1 amp ones. The thin leads can break pretty easily if you connect and disconnect the wires a few times. A trick I learned which makes the connection to the wire much stronger when using thin leads is to cross over the diode when soldering. I didn't have any 1 amp diodes so to demonstrate the technique I used a 330 ohm resister. I use these whenever I have to install a 5 volt LED so it won't go to waste. Also note that I added red wire to the side of the diode I need to connect to the LEDs and black wire on the opposite side so I would know which way the diodes were oriented after they were covered with heat shrink.

Here you can see the difference in the thickness of the leads and what I mean by cross wiring.



Then you build up corresponding layers of heat shrink. You would be surprised on how strong the attachment is when completed.







Here you can see the final products and how the thinner leads end up with a thicker, and stronger, connection.

 

And now for the actual testing, everything worked as planned so now you can decide which way you would prefer. If you have any questions feel free to ask. Hope this helps.









And finally, here you can see there is no back feed to the domes when the footwell switch is turned on.

 

If you want 3 sets of LEDs per side, then you can just chain them together like so.

 

Impressive write up and demo, are you an engineer by chance?

 

Haha...no, but thanks for that. Just been working with wiring in my vehicles for more years than I would like to admit.

 

Awesome! These options are exactly what I was asking for! I really like all the extra Tips & Tricks you have added! If you had to chose to use the relays or the diodes which option would you chose for longevity?

As I'm looking at all three light sections in a row, I would like to check on this: Since all the LED's are in parallel I should be able to hook up the positive lead from the switch to the far right LED's in the schematic drawing? So on the jeep I would have a positive with diode from the dome light to the LED's under the rear seat then wire all the lights up to the footwells under the dash and having the positive lead with diode going to the LED's under the dash?

 

Nice schematics I may need to tap your knowledge on something I am working on myself.

I will PM you so I don't hijack the OP's thread.

 

No problem. I'll help if I can.