JK - LED light to Hard Top Hatch glass
 

Finally got my LED light on the hard top hatch on the weekend.

Came up with the idea when I had cause to kill some time having a little snooze in the back one night (was officially putting the baby to sleep in a dark place).

Here's some photos of the finished product, there's nothing to it.

Picked up an LED strip light off ebay for under $10, including postage from HK(!)

Stuck it to the "bottom" edge of the hatch glass with some black foam double-sided tape, $1 from Bunnings:

http://i45.tinypic.com/xmjtz7.jpg

The main body of the strip light is about 6mm square, the tape is 10 or 12mm wide, so I stuck the tape to the back and folded it around one of the sides of the strip light and pushed it into the corner of the hatch frame so it's secured on two faces if that makes any sense.

http://i48.tinypic.com/dvr4no.jpg

The cable is secured to the side of the hatch glass with adhesive cable tie patches:

http://i49.tinypic.com/14ch8it.jpg

Got a tilt switch from Jaycar and stuck it inside the wiper motor cover so that the LED's only come on when the hatch is raised.

http://i48.tinypic.com/35d57bd.jpg

Cable follows the existing wiring through the hardtop, and I put a plug in so that the hard top can still be removed.

http://i50.tinypic.com/14b87fa.jpg

From there the cable is run inside the existing loom, under the carpet and up the roll bar (under the cover) to the rear interior light, where it's hooked up with wire tap connectors. There's three wires to the interior light, the black one is negative and the middle wire is the supply to the globe which is what you want to parallel.

The end result is very good and well worth the $15 or so it cost me. Here's some photos of the hatch closed and open, the first one doesn't show much but it's taken with exactly the same camera settings as the second to give you some idea of what it's like.

http://i49.tinypic.com/2yun6hh.jpg

http://i50.tinypic.com/i2ldn9.jpg

Two of the photos aren't showing up on my computer, can someone confirm if the tilt switch photo is working properly?

yep all working for me. looks great!

Awesome job mate! Looks good!

Well done,

How much light does it actually throw out. If you drop something small there could you find it at night?

Glad the photos are working.

As far as bang for bucks goes this is definitely up the list of worthwhile stuff to do.

I was originally going to stick another strip to the inside of the hardtop above the glass opening but I don't think it's really necessary.

Forgot to say before you want a 96cm LED strip and it only pulls about 400mA when it's on. Next job is to replace the interior light globes with LED's. I managed to flatten the battery while I was doing this job, but I did have the interior lights, the radio and a big two-foot camping fluoro going for almost two hours.

Just purchased it, $8.28 delivered....

U could also power it from the demister, where you turn on the demister and on they go

I don't know how practical that would be in use. Those cable tie pads are stuck to the demister "bus". I forgot that the demister generates heat before I did it so hopefully the heat doesn't affect the adhesive. Whoops. In any case I don't expect the wide part it's on will get very hot anyway - it's the small size of the demister tracks that gives them the high resistance that generates the heat.

It's not hard to get the cable through the hard top. Just push a nut on a string in the top hole. Hiding the wire in the loom tube and under the carpet is even easier again.

Cool mod, quality write up.

The photos don't really do it justice. It is very effective, you certainly won't lose things in the boot now. The shadow under the rear bumper probably gives the best indication possible without seeing it for yourself (which you can do any time).

You could also place the led's taped to the lower part of the windo, so when you open the door, the projection is parrallel to the glas, sending most of the illumination into the car, rather than pointing down and out away from the car as you have fitted it.... trial and error. I'll study it when I get it and give results

I like that sport for the light, its always hard to find things in the jeep at night. i have been thinking about putting some more light inside just couldn't work out where

I have similar lights under mine as i found 4wding at night a little hard not having light around the wheels.
http://i77.photobucket.com/albums/j7...n/DSC_0054.jpg

Nice. What did you use and how did you mount them?

Yeah good idea. I'd originally planned to put another one inside the hard top but I probably don't need it. See what you think though, they're cheap enough to put two strips in. I wanted mine to be useful outside the car as well, which it certainly is.

They are flexible waterproof led strips they come with little plastic clips with double sided tape. They all so have a waterproof joiner, I'm still working on a better way to attach them. I take them off if I'm going in mud and put them on for rocks.

Is amazing how bright the little led strips are.

Did my install this evening. Similar install to yours, oldmacdonald, only difference is I bought some heat shrink, ran the cable down that, without shrinking it, and siliconed it to the inside from the led's to the motor box. I also ran it direct to the battery to be able to just open the back, without having to have the interior light on and the led's turn on... I loved the idea of the mercury switch, so of course, I bought the same one!!!
The better half is much happier now that she can see the shopping in the back!!
Thanks for the idea

Nice, where are the photos!

I've decided I'm going to shift the supply for mine eventually too, for similar reasons.

The plan is to build another distribution panel on top of the wheel arch (like the Kilby Cargo panels) to plug the dual batteries into and run some other accessories. Once that is in I'll plug the hatch light into that as well. Just need to find some time to do all these things I have planned in my mind.

Hey guys I am going to give this a go once I get my jeep (looks like Saturday AM I get it)...

I am very new to auto electrics... but not completely stupid either... Spent 12 years building and fixing computers and networks before I do what I do now...

While I understand how to install the switch etc... how did you wire it up to the internal cab lights, so when they come on the led's come on? If anyone has a "how to" on this I would love to read it :)

Such a simple idea yet needed by so many. I'll be looking into this myself.
Very cheap LED strip lighting, once again forgot about fleebay.

Thanks for the post.

I just used wire tap connectors to splice into the rear courtesy light wiring. You connect the new light in parallel, the black one is the negative and the middle one is the supply to the globe. The third wire is the switch trigger that (presumably) sends the switch signal back to the computer. Don't touch that one.

Looks really good. Well done

Thanx for the great Idea
 

Hey
Awesome Job and great idea - I can't wait to do similar
Thanx
cheers Hunty

Watch out with cheapy stuff you dont want your machine catching fire.
I see no fuses in there ? I tested out lots of LED strips
and for the power they should not get hot but they do, they are using a
primitive system using LEDs in series with resistors.
If engineered correctly is fine. tho lame on power "light" output

The double sided tape will come off -either from bad quality tape [yes even the 3m stuff] and/or moisture will take it off later !

I have a bucket of old LED strips from different vendors and tho initially a cool idea and they look good too . I decided against selling them and
now use the nanolite -plug plug

my 2c

Well, six months on the light is working as good as ever.

The LEDs have not over heated.

None have burnt out.

The tape has not come off.

The light is more than adequate for the purpose, and all for $15.

There's no fuse necessary as it's parallel to the existing courtesy light which has its own factory fuse. Further, I have replaced the incandescent factory dome light globe with an LED board off ebay (shock horror) that shit all over the factory globes and also use way less power as well so I haven't blown the fuse.

Those rock lights look really good.