LED light to illuminate the ground as car door opens?

[picard]

Is there an LED light accesory light to brighten up car door when it opens? The light suppose to illuminate wide area to allow driver clear view of the ground before entering the car.

 

[Illum]

nevermind

 

[TorchBoy]

Is periphery lighting for cars what you're talking about?

 

[Ken_McE]

Is periphery lighting for cars what you're talking about?

No, he wants what I would call a "puddle light", don't know the proper name. He's not trying to light up the whole neighborhood, just the ground right by the entrance to the car. If he already has a light that comes on with the door opening it should be pretty straightforward to add some LEDs to the bottom of the door, put them on the existing circuit. Anything that fits on the bottom of the door would do.

 

[FRANKVZ]

My Avalanche has lights mounted in the bottom of the mirrors on the doors. They're quite effective in lighting up the area around the vehicle even when approaching with the door still closed as they come on when you use the key fob to unlock the doors. I wouldn't mind adding something similar to my other vehicles as well. Found this at Autozone: http://www.autozone.com/R,NONAPP379...uctDetail/shopping/accessoryProductDetail.htm It may be possible to attach to the bottom of the mirror, but running the wires into the doors may be difficult on most vehicles.

 

[picard]

My Avalanche has lights mounted in the bottom of the mirrors on the doors. They're quite effective in lighting up the area around the vehicle even when approaching with the door still closed as they come on when you use the key fob to unlock the doors. I wouldn't mind adding something similar to my other vehicles as well. Found this at Autozone: http://www.autozone.com/R,NONAPP379...uctDetail/shopping/accessoryProductDetail.htm It may be possible to attach to the bottom of the mirror, but running the wires into the doors may be difficult on most vehicles.

oh ok. thanks for the link. This is what I have been looking for .

 

[ACMarina]

Not a hard project at all. LED is the part that might not be as practical..

I did this on my first truck. Mounted foglights just behind the runningboards, ran the wires to the dome-light relay. When you unlock the doors with the fob, the lights come on with the dome light

 

[JakeGMCHD]

You could use this http://vehiclelight.com/01911501.html mounted under the vehicle. Wire it into the dome light relay. These throw pretty good light.

 

[mds82]

the new BMW 3 series has some small LED's in the bottom of the door handle that illuminate the car when the car is unlocked. You can try something like this, however it would be very small to get something into the door handle.

You could alway try to put something in the bottom of the side mirrors. i think i saw a tahoe or something like that with lights under there.

 

[ACMarina]

Nice first post, JakeGMCHD!! Welcome to CPF!!

 

[JakeGMCHD]

Thanks
This is a very interesting site and I'm learning lots.

I've actually got those lights mounted on the rear of my truck as auxiliary back-up lights. I wish they were just a little brighter.

 

[TorchBoy]

I've actually got those lights mounted on the rear of my truck as auxiliary back-up lights. I wish they were just a little brighter.

What sort of LEDs are they?

 

[JakeGMCHD]

Couldn't tell you. They came with no name on the lights or packaging.

 

[Ken_McE]

I've actually got those lights mounted on the rear of my truck as auxiliary back-up lights. I wish they were just a little brighter.

What does the setup on the back of the truck look like? How much light do you want? Do you care enough to fiddle with it?

 

[JakeGMCHD]

Currently stock back-up lights with these Led lights mounted up under the bumper. I do a fair amount of backing in the dark. I've ran Halogen driving lights before but they don't last with the rain and snow. I'm not afraid to tinker with them. But this time of the year the temperature prevents a lot of tinkering outside. What do you suggest?

 

[Ken_McE]

Currently stock back-up lights with these Led lights mounted up under the bumper... What do you suggest?

I was wondering if you might like one of the "Line of Fire" brakelights:

http://motors.search.ebay.com/line-..._trksidZm37QQcatrefZC12QQfromZR40QQsacatZ6028

I know when I back up I often just use one foot on the brake to control the car, this means the brakelights are on while I back up. There is a difficulty in that I have never seen one in person and don't know if they light up the ground.

I have a couple of these:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/LED-...ageNameZWD1VQQcmdZViewItem?_trksid=p1638.m118

And they are nice and rugged. I believe you could run them underwater. They are designed to give a broad wash of light. On a car you'd probably want to put a current regulator between them and the alternator. However they are not anywhere near as bright as halogen driving lights. The vehiclelight.com LED lights look pretty solid, but I can't tell what the emitters are from the pictures. If those are 5mm or 10mm LEDs the 50 LED strip would beat them handily. If those are one or three watt emitters, not so much. The 50 LED strip uses the "Superflux" style emitters.

Something I have considered is simply using thermal epoxy to glue down strings of one watt LED stars directly onto a bumper or body panel. Then your bumper (or whatever) becomes your heat sink. I suppose you could plan and think about it until spring, do the install after the snow melts.

 

[JakeGMCHD]

Thanks for the suggestions. A friend has the line of fire with back-up. It helps make the vehicle more visible. What I have now is brighter than that. The brake light works a little but still not as well. These other lights you posted look interesting. I was also thinking of upgrading the back-up bulbs in the oem housing. Don't know why Pickups have small back-up lights compared to cars.