wire choice

[AUSSIECJ]

what gauge wire would be recommended to run interior led strips, they a 30cm long?
and if i were to power them directly from the battery, would it be recommended to place a fuse between the power source and the switch

[smithsy]

Just generic hook-up or speaker wire will be fine, those LED strips pull next to nothing. Yes it would be advisable to put something like a 1A inline fuse close to where you get power from (no matter whether it's at the battery or in the car)...

If you change out your roof lights to LEDs aswell, then you can tap into the power and switched (for doors open/close) ground at the plug for them behind the glovebox where the ETACs is....

[AUSSIECJ]

thanks smithy

[smithsy]

If you dont have spare speaker wire around then something like this would do the trick:

http://jaycar.com.au/productView.asp?ID ... BCATID=248

Along with:
http://jaycar.com.au/productView.asp?ID ... rm=KEYWORD

and

http://jaycar.com.au/productView.asp?ID ... rm=KEYWORD

[AUSSIECJ]

sweet apreciating the help

[extremepc]

If it was me I run the LEDs from a driver like these ones from Jaycar;

http://www.jaycar.com.au/productView.as ... rm=KEYWORD

http://www.jaycar.com.au/productView.as ... rm=KEYWORD


You'll be able to get full brightness but run with a duty cycle (switches between on/off really fast so you can't tell) so they actually draw less power and have a form of protection between the LEDs and the battery.

If you run the LED in series you wont end up with a string of LED that get slightly dimmer as they approach the last LED and most importantly you won't have to add a resister in (you'd normally have to work out the value and wattage depending on how many LED's if you run straight off the battery) to drop the voltage from the 12V the car supplies.

[smithsy]

That's called pulse width modulation.

Those drivers are designed for the high powered CREE LEDs and not 12V LED strips(which already have built in SMD resistor....