What's the best wire/fuse to tap to install a small LED that I can flip a switch to turn on when the car is off?

 

if its a normal led probably draws less than .1 of an amp and would run off of 1.5 volt supply it would almost be easier just to hook it up to a AA battery and have it be wireless and installable anywhere. But if you want to install it somewhere in the center consol the cigarette power wire would be the closest one to tap. but not that much farther is the fuse box which you could pretty much tap anything in there just make sure you're using the right resistors to bring the voltage down to what your device needs to run on

 

theres a small panel towards the left of your gauges. It comes right off so it'll be easy to put the led there. you can wire the power for it from the ignition. Just gotta find out which wires have a constant feed of power to them. I don't know the colors of the wire but i'll take a look at the way they installed my alarm to see where the power is hoooked up from.

 

It'll burn out on 12 volts. On a AA battery it will run for years on one battery and those are 1.5-1.8 volts exactly what the LED needs.

 

Get a 12V flashing LED. Wire a relay to your ignition so that when your key is turned off the LED will be activated. You should be able to use the true Ignition lead, since it probably rests at ground or the key sense circuit.

 

ya make sure its flashing or it does no good a solid led will look fake

 

Please don't take offense, but isn't this kind of dumb? Why would you want people to see a led so they will "THINK" you have an alarm. Just get an alarm, you can get a basic setup with shock and starter-kill installed for like 100 bucks. That like the equivalent of people putting hubcaps on their cars so it looks like they have rims.

 

Well, it's just a personal thing for me. I park in the garage, but very rarely I may park outside somewhere, so I just think a small LED would help with security. I don't want to spend much money on a true alarm for the very rare times I would use it.

 

I don't know if this will work, but its worth a shot:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...tem=5720211958

 

The thing is alarm systems are basically worthless if its a professional and if its someone who doesn't know what they are doing quite as much it might be a really cheap way of deturing them.

100 dollar alarm systems usually aren't much more than an led and a siren anyway and maybe 2 shock sensors...

The really good systems with the ignition kills and/or Fuel line cuts run almost a 1000 bucks (sometimes more) and if someone really knows what they are doing even those can be bypassed (I had it done to my car)

So why not save yourself the money put an LED in for what its worth might help might not but either way it only cost 5 bucks and a bit of install time.

 

I don't know where you're buying from but, mine has ignition kill, shock sensor, glass break sensors, 2 sirens(1 inside the car), battery backup, hood pin switch, and the trunk is tagged too. And I don't care if you are a professional car theif, it's going to take a good ******* long time to find it to bypass it, you'll have to tear the entire dash apart. I should know because I installed it myself, but the alarm with accesories was 300. I know of some alarms that can be very expensive, but good ones are still pretty cheap, and they usually include install in the price. I was a professional installer for two years.

 

Did you ever come up with a good solution ?, I want to do the same thing !

 

I put 2 of these in my car. Took me a while to find them, but I think there are 2 sites from HK that sell them (2 week delivery or more).

http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.5966

Solar powered; auto-turn on when it gets dark outside; auto-shut off if there is constant vibration like when you're driving. There are 6 led, 4 of them are on (moves back and fourth) and when it detects vibration the 4 blue + 2 red start blinking. lol..

 

autozone by me has them. thought about gettin one lol

 

I found one at my local Dollarama bike section ...LoL, it has 6 LEDs and 8 different pattern flashing options, going to hook it up to my rearview mirror to a fuse tap for constant power, serves also as an emergency/hazard beacon as well !