Extra interior lights with various functions: How?

So I've been researching and haven't found any sort of write up or "how to" on a couple LED mods that I've been thinking up.

1.) What I want to do is connect a set of LED's to the DTRL power supply, so when I change my lights from OFF -> Daytime running lights -> Nighttime running lights -> ON (dont know if thats the correct terminology...), that the LED's come on in any light setting except when its on off. So that way i can have a cool ambiance light while driving, but nothing distracting. What i need to know; is where the power supply wires for this to work would connect (basic black and red power supply wires) to splice into? how much extra amp's this power supply can handle? and if there is more than 1 location to connect to?

2.) Connect a set of LED's to the dome light power supply, that way when i open my doors, or i unlock/lock my truck, or turn on the dome light, a large amount of LED's come on. Again i need to know; where the dome light power supply wires are? or if i splice right into the positive and negative side of the dome light itself and try to run wire across the roof and down the pillar or my truck? how much extra amps this power supply can handle? and if there are multiple connection locations, where they are located?

For both of these ideas, a write up on location and how to get there is always helpful, or pictures of what the wires look like, something visually to help would be amazing. Also, if you don't understand what my ideas are, please ask for clarification.

 

I did this by tapping in to the dimmer on my climate control. Realized it was a waste of time whe I found http://www.flyzeye-designs.com. The dude is on TW and the products are all for our Tacomas. My way came out just fine but flyzeye simplifies with more functionality, in my opinion.

 

I understand those are cool ideas and easy, but exactly what I'm looking for.

You mean the dimmer that's located to the left the of the steering wheel? Did that work in the lights?

 

Can't remember where I grabbed power but anywhere that is energized when the lights are on will do. The wire I used for ground is controled by the dimmer switch left of the wheel and dims my led with the rest of the dashlights. It's been a while since I did this. I didn't do a write up and don't remember precisely but seems like the wire I used is green with a stripe and behind your climate control cluster. This location was convenient for me due to the placement of my lights. Someone else may know a better way.

 

So the first thing you want to do its to have a circuit to power LEDs, lights, etc. whenever you have your DTRLs, parking lights or headlights on? I believe the 2014's have a switch on the stalk for the DTRLs so you can turn them on or off on demand. The parking lights are on a separate circuit. If you want to have either of these turn on the same circuit, you could connect each of these to their own diode then connect these to the coil of a relay. This will isolate the circuits from each other and allow them both to turn the same relay on. I could draw this out so you can get a better idea of what I'm talking about. Of course, we will need to identify where power is switched to these two circuits so they can be tapped.

I've thought about tapping into the dome light circuit to light up some LED strips on the bottom of the doors and also turn on my grill lights. The best way to control more/higher amp devices is with a relay.

When you unlock the doors, the dome like fades on, and when you lock the doors it fades off. Normally if you connect a relay to this it will chatter rather loudly for a couple seconds because the voltage to the light is pulsed while it is fading. One way to get around this is to connect a capacitor in parallel with the coil of the relay. This will smooth out the pulses and the relay will just click on or off with the dome light. I was playing around with different relays and caps a while back but got busy with other things. I did find that a 330uF cap worked well with a small PC board mount relay. I didn't try a standard automotive relay though.

Another thing you need to know is the wire that controls the power to the dome light is a switched negative, not a positive wire as you might expect. Toyota seems to do a lot of the switched negative stuff. The fog light switch/relay circuit is another example of this. You'll probably want to tap into a constant positive wire behind the coin tray for one side of the relay. The wire for the dome light is a small blue wire on one of the plugs on the left side ( I know this isn't much help) There are a couple threads the show where this wire is though.

Like you, I plan to add some unique lighting features to the inside of my truck to match the ones I have on the outside. I'll try to find some time to play with this some more, soon I hope.

Dang...I still need to tear my center console out to identify wires to do an automatic door lock mod. So many mods, so little time.

 

That looks sweet, and close to what I was thinking

One LED strip inside the cubby whole to see everything in there, then 2 under each seat, one facing forward and one backward, to illuminate the ground

Then a few more when the door opens

 

Of course shadow would know! why wouldnt you haha

So I hate relays and always have hated relays... never tried to understand them haha so from what I understand, I need to find a power source for the lights I want on during driving; this seems to be behind the climate control cluster (hopefully I can find pictures or a thread with pictures that show which wires to tap into). Once I have a power source, and a grounding location I need: (1) a relay to help control the power (2) connected in parallel with a capacitor to help the flicker and make the on/off smoother (3) the lights where ever I want them

My question is, do i need the relay?

 

You only need the capacitor connected to the relay if you are going to tap into the dome light circuit. This would only be used to keep the relay from chattering as the light faded on or off.

As far as needing a relay, yes you most likely need one. A relay is essentially just a switch that you are controlling with another power source. It uses a small amount of control current to switch a much larger load.

Here is an example: The dash illumination circuit that lights up the climate control cluster is probably only good for a few hundred milliamps. If you were to try to connect too much of a load to it, you might blow a fuse. To prevent this from happening, you can tap into the dash illumination circuit and use it to power the only coil of the relay. You would then find a different source of power which would be switched with the contacts of the relay. Does this make any sense?

 

Yeah you're rerouting the power from another circuit to power the circuit you want to tap into, and it's like a safety net for the circuit you're tapped to... right?

So why not just use the dash illumination circuit to power the lights?