HI guys and gals, just wondering where there is a 12v wire behind the passenger fuse box to tap onto with a 3amp fuse for some LED strips from maplins. part number

http://www.maplin.co.uk/p/blue-12v-5cm-led-strip-n91cx

im gonna tap into the wire and use a 3amp or 5amp fuse, or will the stereo 12v power (red) wire be ok to do this? But in all honesty I would rather not tap into the radio power as wouldn't feel right worried it may over load it a little, but im sure it will be fine. so just want to double check cheers

Charlie, are you looking at a permenant light, or when the doors are opened?

Hi I was hope to wire them up so that they turn on when you open the door. plus I wanted the option to be able to turn them on and off via a rocker switch I have installed at night. I know i need to run from a power source the back or something with an inline fuse to the switch thus letting me turn them on/off as when needed but I would like to have them turn on/off when open the door. I know I could tap them into the dom light for this to work but don't know how to have the option to have them do both? would have to power wires to the switch work, one from the dom light and one from the 12v power on the radio? (brigde them together and put to switch?)

cheers

im thinking idea two will work ok, on the 12v+ side of switch run from radio, then the acc centre pin brigde two wires one to +led light and one from the dome-light, two cables on the acc pin, then ground the switch and ground the led light? Thus power will stich run to the led light when the doors open and when the doors are shut I can turn on/off via switch.

Just run a positive and negative from the dome light, and fit an inline rocker. You dont need an inline fuse due to the output of the LED's?

Will that mean that the led strip will turn on when door opens, then when door is shut i can turn on/off the led strip as normal?

You could run two seperate lines, one from the dome straight through to the LED's for when the doors open. Also you can add an inline switch on a second line from the switches on the dome so that you can control it otherwise.

I am no electrical engineer so heres a rough diagram.

So you have the wires on the right are connected to the courtesy light (door circuit)

The live on the left can come from the permalive feeding the map lights, so that you can wire the inline switch and put them onto the same wire.

When the doors are opened, its a permenant connection, so the lights go on whenever you open the door. If you then wanted to put them on during the night, you could then flick your switch and connect to the live circuit and wire it that way.

Alternatively, you could use a fuse tap on a 12v ignition source from the fuseboard, and connect that to the live.

These are the easiest ways I guess!

So idea two on my diagram will work best then? Cheers

For all intents and purposes :-)

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Cheers for your help. I will use idea two on my diagram and post pics when done.