Tried something a bit different with a lighting mod over the weekend

Bit of work in progress with some spare vents as I only had amber LED strip to hand and 2 small sections wired up to use so put 1 in the top and 1 in bottom of centre vents. Got them wired up off the dimmer circuit so they'll dim or brighten with the rest of the dash.

Don't know an easy way to spread the light out better as you can see some of the LED's full on instead of a nice ambient glow. the amber strip was for another possible project but that didn't work out for the same reasons. In truth I'm not that happy with the results so far but haven't given up yet.

Not sure if relocating the strips further down the vents may help but I need to be careful they don't come unstuck and get eaten by the HVAC :o Can try that off the car as I've got spare vents, also got red strip on order to play about with.

Nice,

I bought a set of "Prism red led" in halfords, they come in a pack of four,

I fitted them to my old dash vents and stuck em on ebay to give me the edge on selling as there were so many listings selling the same vents,

i had upgrade mine to titanium spec with the chrome inserts

The prism leds were quite bright,

If you got some clear perspex and cut out a halo using a dremil tool,

Drill a hole to fit the led, this will spread even light through out the ring providing the soft equal glow,

I'll have a look at those LED's Lenny, thanks :)

What do you mean by a halo to spread the light evenly?

I'll have a look at those LED's Lenny, thanks :)

What do you mean by a halo to spread the light evenly?

if you get a sheet of clear perspex,

Mark out a ring shape that will fit inside the dash vent like a washer on a bolt,

Cut it out of the perspex say 7mm of a lip type ring to fit inside the vent. Around its interior.

Once cut out,

Drill a 5mm hole in it,

Slide 5mm led inside this hole,

Fit it inside the dash vent,

Now when the led is active, the light spreads like a prism through the clear perspex illuminating the full halo as if it was one big bulb

Ah I understand Lenny, that makes sense now. Expect you'd have to fit that pretty far down the vent to miss the open/closed flap?

The little pair of LED strips I had left have died now so experimenting is temporarily on hold, going to keep my eyes open for more ideas in the mean time.

Ah I understand Lenny, that makes sense now. Expect you'd have to fit that pretty far down the vent to miss the open/closed flap?

The little pair of LED strips I had left have died now so experimenting is temporarily on hold, going to keep my eyes open for more ideas in the mean time.

true,

I forgot about the flap it is a fair bit down aswell.

Now that vent illumination would be very flash if someone could find a way to swap colours from blue to red depending on the air temperature coming out of the A/C.

Sent from my S5

Now that vent illumination would be very flash if someone could find a way to swap colours from blue to red depending on the air temperature coming out of the A/C.

Sent from my S5

two leds one blue one red

two auto off relays,

And a study of the haynes manual to source the correct cables at the rear of the heater control unut,

It would be a very clever mod.

Anyone fancy giving it a spin?

Sent from my S5

It would be a very clever mod.

Anyone fancy giving it a spin?

Sent from my S5

nah im out

My cars got enough lights as it is

Aw!

Sent from my S5

Bit of an update now I've got some red LED's in the centre vents and upped the quantity from 6 to 12.

Been bit of trial and error but worked out how could squeeze a longer strip with more LED's into the vent and made up a loom to wire them all into the feed I took from the power socket illumination supply.

The left/right directional vanes do slightly catch on the strip preventing full movement but this isn't too restrictive and I've made sure this would be when the vents are pointed towards the passenger side ;)

Just in the process of fitting the LED strip to the far passenger side vent, I'm a fair expert now at dismantling them :)

Darn good effort.

Nice work. :)

It looks really well mate.

can i ask what radio unit you have there as I'm thinking of upgrading mine soon and that one looks nice.

Nice work. :)

It looks really well mate.

can i ask what radio unit you have there as I'm thinking of upgrading mine soon and that one looks nice.

Cheers :) did the final vent this afternoon so will try some photos after it's gone dark to show the full set.

The radio is one of the Chinese DVD/Sat Nav head units, like this

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/In-Car-GPS-sat-nav-DVD-Player-NAVI-for-FORD-FOCUS-Mondeo-C-MAX-S-MAX-KUGA-GALAXY-/281365164418?pt=UK_AudioTVElectronics_GPSSystems_GPSSystems&hash=item4182abb182

would spraying a more reflective paint into them help distribute the light a bit better, give it more glow?

would spraying a more reflective paint into them help distribute the light a bit better, give it more glow?

Maybe, it would be nice to get them more glowing instead of seeing the individual LEDs, I got some neon strip to try but didn't look right.

Could mock up one of my spare vents with some silver vinyl or some of that adhesive backed aluminium tape you can get, but it gets tight for room near the front of the vent as you've got the vanes and open/closed flap to make space for.

Its worth a shot, just thinking the black would absorb much of it, but if you can scatter it around by reflecting it more you might get away with less LED and more soft light, aluminium might be a bit to aggressive though, take a red / blue led and shine it at a bunch of colours, see what lights up the best that you wouldn't mind coating your vents with

Now that vent illumination would be very flash if someone could find a way to swap colours from blue to red depending on the air temperature coming out of the A/C.

Sent from my S5

got me thinking, why bother with running cables of the controls, just use something like

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/DC-12V-1-channel-Thermal-Relay-Control-Sensor-Module-Temperature-Switch-UK-/281270888554?pt=UK_BOI_Electrical_Components_Supplies_ET&hash=item417d0d286a

That'd me a nifty bit of kit to play with - may get hold of one to try out. Seen some cars where the lighting can vary the colour displayed but don't know how this is done or the technology used for the lighting.

I had wanted to try and light up the whole of the side repeaters with extra LED's, again seen this done on other cars but looking into it more they used LED's mounted above the lens and some reflectors to direct the light. No room to try this on the Focus mirrors.

Going to leave the vents as they are for now as I seem to have the trim in the car in bits all the time but keeping my eye open for improvements and got spare vents to faff about with :)

you could get dual colour LEDs, two circuits, blue set to always on or turn on with side lights and the temp relay kicks in to change to red when it heats up, not sure how that would work on a warm day with AC off though