Glove Box Lights. ANOTHER VERSION!

[whittington]

Another Glove Box Light Mod,

I have been looking into this since I saw Neal’s mod which I liked very much but in my case I did it in a slightly different way. Thanks for the tutorial on getting the glove box out Neal.
http://www.mazda3forums.co.uk/index.php?topic=1541.0

I don’t like to look directly into bright led lights particularly in the dark, so my led strip is glued to a white angled piece of plastic.
 (Exactly like I did in my boot light mod) http://www.mazda3forums.co.uk/index.php?topic=3343.0

Sprayed it black on the side facing you and mounted in the roof of the glove box close to the front with two 6ba nuts & bolts. This directs the light down into glove box and not back into your eyes. 

I like Matthew Yates felt, with so much light now available from 24 led’s.  I didn’t want any stray light showing, so I went for his pin on/off switch approach and wired it in the Negative lead for the reasons Matthew mentions. I did look to see if I could get a magnetic reed switch, but didn’t find anything suitable. Thanks to Matthew for his excellent article on the pin switch idea. Shown on page 2 of this link:
http://www.mazda3forums.co.uk/index.php?topic=1541.0

The two connections for the new circuit are soldered to the leads supplying the original bulb & holder and are stuck in place with sticky tape to keep them out of harms way. The now redundant lamp holder has not been removed as it holds the plastic light cover in place,

Cost of Led 1 strip, 24 leds long from EBay supplier £3.40 Inc PP
Pin switch from Maplins.  £1.29, Part No AY07

See my pictures of how it was done:
 If you carefully you can just see the black plastic strip with the leds behind
refeletcing the light down & to the back of glove box and not into your eyes.

[daunorubicin]

Cool, I just swapped the existing bulb out for a LED. looks nice though. Very tasteful.

What is that blue thing in there anyway? Looks like some sort of insane torch? 

[whittington]

Cool, I just swapped the existing bulb out for a LED. looks nice though. Very tasteful.

What is that blue thing in there anyway? Looks like some sort of insane torch? 

Actualy it's a Lidl special wind up tourch ! It has a small battery in it and a seperate carger but the thing also winds up very quickly with the crank handle!  Just the job when it's in the car for ages and the battery is flat just when you want  it!! Cost £9.99 it Has 4 leds whcih can be switched on 1 or 2 or 3 or all 4 on very bright.

[daunorubicin]

Cool, I just swapped the existing bulb out for a LED. looks nice though. Very tasteful.

What is that blue thing in there anyway? Looks like some sort of insane torch? 

Actualy it's a Lidl special wind up tourch ! It has a small battery in it and a seperate carger but the thig also winds up very quickly,  just the job when it's in the car for ages and the battery is flat just when you want  it!! Cost £9.99

Aah, makes sense. I thought it had what looked like a handle on the side.
I need to replace (my very old) car torch. Ran off the car battery via a long cable and the lighter socket. And had a huge magnet for attaching to the bonnet when you had it up.

Unfortunately last time I used it the plastic shattered 

[acmp]

...
I need to replace (my very old) car torch. Ran off the car battery via a long cable and the lighter socket. And had a huge magnet for attaching to the bonnet when you had it up.

<hijack>
Wilkos do a good wind up torch for about £6 that also doubles as a mobile phone charger!
</hijack>

[Daveg]

Nice one - good mod when combined with the switch