Ultimate Interior LED dome light mod - Clark Griswold style

Background - Not important but it leads up to my mod.
My first vehicle was an 86 Toyota Pickup regular cab. The dome light was in front of the rear view mirror. Second vehicle was a 91 Toyota Pickup Xtra cab with The dome light in between the front seats. 3rd vehicle was a 97 Tacoma Xtra Cab with The dome light in the same place, behind the pop up moonroof. All 3 trucks' interior lights are a freaking joke. I can light a small 1/4" birthday candle and it would be brighter.

Soon after I bought the Tacoma (brand new) I scored a regular cab's rear view mirror with built in dome light. Now the Tacoma has 2 dome lights but the interior lights still suck. I've never given a second thought, until May of this year.

I've researched bright LEDs and have determinded that SMD LEDs are the brightest for the size and power consumption. I didn't want festoon design because the whole domelight assembly is fairly big. Having a light in the middle is a waste of the domelight's real estate. After searching ebay I came across LED light panels. After further research I found that those dome light panels came with 2 different LEDs, 1210 and 5050. The 1210 is smaller but can pack more LEDs into the same size panels as the 5050. The 5050 is much larger and brighter but packs less LEDs into the same size panels as the 1210.

I measured the domelight cover and found that 24 SMD 5050 LED light panel fits perfectly. I bought one to try out just to see. OMFG This thing really lit up my interior. I was stoked. I took the front domelight panel off and measure the demensions and found that 36 SMD 1210 LED would fit perfectly. I ordered it from the same seller as the 24 LED. Now my friends and families who saw my truck's interior lights for the first time would ask if I installed a headlight in the truck.

Now for the Prius LED dome light mod

The plan is to fill the whole panel with forward facing LEDs so that all visible lights are shined into the vehicle and not half of the light like the bulbs suggested in this post http://priuschat.com/forums/gen-iii...s/68171-interior-led-lighting.html#post961415 at the cost of less than $100.
I removed all the interior light panels and assemblies and measured the dimensions. I've decided to use 1210 LEDs for all the lights because they pack more LEDs into the panel than 5050's. The extra LEDs will make up the brightness of the 5050's. For example 36 1210 LED panel is the same size as 15 5050 LED panel. The 1210 has 15lm brightness for each LED while the 5050 has 25lm brightness. You do the math.

After measuring all the light panels I've came up with the following LEDs for each panels. All the LED panels are 6000K color temperture

Vanity mirror lights - 12 LEDs panels X 2 for each light. 48 LEDs total
Front door lights - 12 LEDs panels X 2 for each light. 48 LEDs total
Front main dome light - 24 LEDs panels X 2 for each light. 96 LEDs total
rear doomlight - 36 LEDs panels X 3 108 LEDs total
Trunk light - 12 LEDs panels X 2 24 LEDs total

Grand total of 324 LEDs!!!

This is what I bought

10 pack 12-1220 SMD LED for $34.9 shipped 10pcs 12-1210 SMD LED Car Interior Dome Bulb,White - eBay (item 200488787397 end time Jul-27-10 16:33:17 PDT)
4 24-1210 SMD LED for $24.96 shipped High Power 24 SMD 1210 LED Car Interior Dome Bulb White - eBay (item 250520468960 end time Aug-22-10 13:53:11 PDT)
3 36-1210 SMD LED for $23.97 shipped NEW High Power 36 SMD LED Car Interior Dome Bulb,White - eBay (item 330453976372 end time Aug-21-10 12:34:31 PDT)
Total $83.83

After I received all the lights and physically put the LED lights into the dome light panels I could easily add more LEDs
Front main dome light - 24 LEDs panels X 2 + 12 LED panel for each light. 120 LEDs total
rear doomlight - 24 LEDs panels X 5. 120 LEDs total

I was going to buy more LEDs but then it would break the $100 price tag.

If you want to change all the interior lights to LED try http://priuschat.com/forums/gen-iii...s/68171-interior-led-lighting.html#post961415
If you want to blind the people in your Prius, try my mod.

I'll try to take some pictures if I can.

 

Re: Ultimate Interior LED dome light mod - Clark Griswold stytle

I took some pictures of the lights I used. In some pictures, the lights look blue but they're really not. The lights are super white.

 

Re: Ultimate Interior LED dome light mod - Clark Griswold stytle

Yeah the LED do look bluish when you have the headlights on. Same with my Tacoma. But, when I'm inside the Prius or the Tacoma, the visibility phenomenal.
All the lights have 2 LED panels. The rear dome light has 3. All are wired parallel. The rear can fit 5 24-1210 SMD LED panels that I used for the front map lights. The front maplights have enough room to 1 more 12-1210 SMD LED panel each. The A006 picutre shows the extra room. Since they're light emitting diodes they can only be installed one way or else they wont light up. If they don't work, just switch the polarities.

The Prius's OEM interior lights were alot brighter than my OEM Tacoma lights but it's still not bright enough. Besides, the OEM incandescent lights are too yellowish-orangeish. It makes a piece of white paper look orangeish. If you don't want the interior too bright, there are LED panels with less LEDs. For my mod, the intention is to fill the dome light panel with as much LEDs as possible so they shine as bright as possible.
Before I got windows tinted, the OEM lights were enough for me to see the inside at pitch black night when I unlock the door. After I got my windows tinted, it's not. I have Cabon XP 45 (40% VLT) for the front windows and 18 (16%VLT) for the back windows. After the LED lights are installed, I can see the backseat pretty well after I unlocked the car. For me this is a great security.
If I find that the map lights are too bright, I can always use the driver side vanity mirror light. It's has only 24 LEDs compared to the 96 for the maplights. If I turn on only the driver side map light it's only 48. Plus if I use the driver side vanity mirror light, I can adjust the visor to cover the LEDs which greatly affects how bright the LED shines. It's also a security advantage if I get pulled over at night. cops LOVE to be-able to see inside of the vehicle at night when they pull somebody over. It's a great security concern for them. Not that I need to worry about that because I haven't had a ticket since 97.
The airbag warning placard never bothered me so I never thought to pull it. My parent's 06 Sienna still has the smog index sticker on the window. I tried to peel it off but I couldn't b/c it's baked on. Next time I'll try using a razor blade.

 

Re: Ultimate Interior LED dome light mod - Clark Griswold stytle

the tint shop only has the CXP45 and CXP18. I didn't want the 45. I wanted 55. the shop wanted to charge 30 more to order the 55.

 

Re: Ultimate Interior LED dome light mod - Clark Griswold stytle

I got all the light panels from ebay. It should be the same. I know the hatch light is the same. The ones I got have dimensions listed. You just need to pull all the clear light panels off and measure what you can pack. After that hunt the ebay lists for LED lights with the dimensions you need. You can double up or triple up the LED lights to fill the clear plastic light panels.

 

I haven't taken the underdash apart yet. so I don't know. I'm planning on adding some LEDs under the front seats and tap them to the underdash lights so the rear passengers will also have floor lights. The thing with those lights is that they dim when you shift out of Park. They don't stay bright. They are very dim when dimmed. The Prius is orange LED. I heard that the IS uses the same lights but in white LEDs.

 

No issues with FM radio. Where did you hear the current limiting circuit it causing FM radio issues from?

 

So just having the LEDs installed and not even powered up will cause interference? I highly doubt that. I didn't read through the whole thread b/c it's over 400 posts. If installing interior LEDs can cause radio interference, it would be easily diagnosed, open door, static, close door, no static. The only way I'd believe what Jeremy said is that he has testing equipment that shows LED emitting noise. Does he have backgrounds in electronics? Or just a gut feeling?