I'm working on a custom LED DRL unit and need to hook up 12v supply to the unit from anywhere in the engine bay. Anyone know anywhere I can get this power from? the power source needs to be active only when the car is actually on.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks

 

The battery?

 

I guess I could do that and just add a fuse in between the DRL unit and the positive connection of the car battery.

any other options?

anyone with some electronics knowledge want to tell me if there is any danger in directly connecting a drl unit to the battery that is rated at 120mA working current and 1.6W of power.

 

except hooking it directly to the battery will mean it will always be on. not just when the car is turned on like you're looking for...

 

You could try the afs system power?

 

Ohhh, you're not wiring it to a switch or anything?

 

Another option is to tap into the engine bay fuse box. Use a voltmeter, and have a friend turn the ignition on.

 

10chara

 

yes i will be wiring it to a switch

 

Where are you installing the led's? I saw a guy local to me with an is250 that just stuck a strip right on the bottom of the headlight. Looks sick at night but during the day looks like complete SHlT

 

Personally, i would just wire it directly to your current driving lights. LED's eat up very very little power, so you're not risking anything... and no need for a non-oem switch to flip them on/off.

 

I've ordered a switch from an old toyota that i will be using. Also ordered a voltage regulator PCB circuit board that will keep my LED's voltage at a constant 12V instead of having the fluctuation between 14.4v and 12V.

Heres a few pics of work in progress:







Currently i'm using the clear acrylic cover with drilled & polished holes for the LED's but i'm considering either changing it with a frosted version or to get a headlight lens cover that looks like this and cut to size and cover the clear acrylic with it:

 

subscribed, keep u updated. I'd love to see a super OEM look when your done, hopefully it comes out that way

 

That's the idea to get a OEM look.

I'll probably open a new thread with progress updates. This thread was more about power source options

 

Can't wait to see the final results.