Hey guys, did any thirdgen come with a clear dome light cover? Or did any other gm car have one that would fit?? Thanks, Colin

u know i would really like to have a clear dome light, im sick of the yellow *** light from my stock dome light

hopefully we get some answers

Ya so was I! I put white led's in place of the stock bulb, so it doesnt look yellow anymore. A clear lense would look cool though.

i have always wondered about this. i often thought of taking it somewhere that does plastic work and having like a thousand of them made. keep 2 sell the rest. but i don't have the funds....

I think the plastic would have to have a little bit of a diffuser to look good too if you know what I mean?

Do you have a picture of the bulb? Can you buy it somewhere?

If it's clear you're looking at an ugly yellow incandescent bulb. The lens isn't what makes the light yellow.

This is what I used:



I got it from superbrightleds.com

Interesting. You just taped around the edge and cut the connector off to pinch the wires on each terminal?

Yep that's what I did, it fits perfectly! When I was first sticking it up there to see how it would fit, a trace on the edge of the board shorted out and got fried. After soldering a little jumper on to fix it, I used electrical tape to protect the back of the board.

It's held tight and is much brighter than I expected. I'll eventually stick a capacitor up there too so it will fade out.

If you have any other lights in your car (map and footwell lights) then those will drain from the cap as well so they'll have to be LEDs if they aren't. Hopefully they all drain at the same rate- unlike mine.

Ya I have leds in the footwells also. I tried a 1000uf cap a while ago, but it's too small and fades too fast. The dome light with 36 leds has more resistance than the 2 4-led footwell lights so they won't fade the same, but thats ok. I'll have to measure the resistances and calculate how big a cap I need for a nice slow fade out. Just too lazy

Nice. I'm doing the same exact thing right now. I put two 10mm LEDs for my domelight and its just not bright enough so I scored some 20Kmcd 5mm LEDs. I think 36 would be overkill for me though, I'm thinking 25 at the most should be fine.

LEDs don't fade, last I knew.

BTW, I just ordered the same thing, along with two wide angle 194s for the footwells.

I think you may be thinking of something else. We're talking about making the LEDs slowly fade off when the door closes, which does work if you stick a large enough cap in there.

I thought LEDs are in an "on" state only between a specific voltage range. The capacitor would slowly drop the voltage going to the LEDs, meaning they would all shut off as soon as the voltage dropped below the "on" state threshold.

I would try to wire something up that turns off all 36 LEDs one at a time within a couple seconds. Nice.

Technically they are on between a specific voltage range, but the current/voltage varies the brightness. So it will in fact slowly fade as the voltage and current available decreased.

A nice timer would be great, maybe on a second board hidden up there. Maybe I'll work on a small circuit and see if we can do something like that. A tiny relay, transistor, cap, etc. may do the trick.

a new bulb, and a new replacement cover doesnt look all that yellow to me, but its not white or clear either.
that LED setup is sweet.

i was thinking this very thing today (and often in the past). i think it'd be easiest to find the whole dome light out of another vehicle and mount it. dont know... id love a clear one though.

I don't know what my problem is but my LEDs NEVER look that good. Right now I have a bright white dot on the cover where each LED is. It doesn't light the while thing up evenly.

Try tucking your leds up as high as you can away from the cover. It may not be as bright, but it would help spread the light more even on the cover.

I see a red X.

85_ZED28

that is really sharp... Here is an idea.. make something similar.. and if it's a camaro.. use a different color LED, and put a bowtie shape in there...

Thanks, hehe that'd be cool

I installed the 36 LED panel the same way, electrical tape and all, and it looks great! I'm thinking of soldering a connector in there so the wires aren't just hanging around. You've started a trend, 85_ZED28!

lol

Is there any place one could buy a 25 or 36 led with the "cap" fader for the dome light? Brain surgery and electrical curcuits are a couple of things I keep clear of - I'm good at burning out fuzes. thanks

85_ZED28, what are the specs of the led you used in your domelight? It looks much brighter, is the light distribution good for you?

Its just a pcb board with 36 leds on it. If I remember right, they are wide angle leds with an "inverted tip". I got it from superbrightleds.com:

http://www.superbrightleds.com/other_bulbs.htm

The light distribution was better than I thought it would be!

put a new bulb in and put the cover on = yellow icky light.
same "new" bulb and no cover = headlights bright.

at least thats how it was in my 86. this LED thing seems cool. where do you get those? radio shack or somthing (please not radio shack)

i actually have a clear dome light lens that i found at the junk yards once. its a little dirty but its clear not like the stock white ones.

you need to post some pictures of this, you've got me intrigued.

check my post just above yours

What car did you take it from? any pics?

Does it light up the interior better than the stock setup? Did you buy 36 seperate leds and put them on the pcb board, or did you buy it that way?

I already posted the link for you of where I got it, its in the middle of the page. No, its not as bright as the stock bulb setup, its still bright enough for me though.

I'm well aware of the link, and know of the website, I was just trying to figure out what to look for. I'm a little dissapointed to hear that it's not as bright as the stock setup though. 70% of the reason I was thinking about doing the swap was for the increased visibility. Does anyone know of a setup that would be better than stock????????

Learn to solder and build your own. Those new 10mm 130,000 mcd LEDs are supposed to be absolutely ridicuous. I ordered 50 so I'll post how it goes.

for a while when my headliner was out i had no shroud around the light, it was just the bulb. that was bright as hell. if you need visability i would just roll with no lense. or get this clear one we have been hearing about.

Ya if you want brighter than stock, you'll probably have to put something together yourself. A clear lense would do the job aswell

here you go guys i took some pics of it. like i said its kinda dirty and a little blurry but its clearer then the stock ones.

no **** you recall what vehicle you got it from? it wouldn't be bad it it was polished up also how are you guys wiring the led's? resistor every 3 led's? or 1 resistor per led? series-parallel wiring i'm guessing

firebirdjosh, just wondering how those 130,000 mcd LEDs turned out.....

BRIGHT! I'm blinded!!! I actually used the LEDs to make a nightlight in my apartment and inner-body lights on my streetbike.

Did you, or are you going to use them in your car? Are pictures a possibility?

Is this what you bought?
1156-PCB-W36 White LED Lamp
12VDC 1156 Base with 1-1/2 inch square circuit board
With 36 Super White LEDs
Designed for overhead lighting in boats, campers, box trucks, etc.
With Wide 100 Degree Beam Pattern
$ 19.95


How does it hook up? Just plug in?


EDIT: I like the stuff tehy've got. Since I was gonna buy a few new bulbs anyway, I guess I'll just go ahead and replace the intrument cluster lights with LEDs.. Would it look ok if I did half blue and half white to get that bluish effect? Or would it look odd? I like white, but I also want some color in there.. And I despise yellow (IE, any normal light bulb. I've got issues... )

yes thats the one, check post #9 for how I hooked it up, very easy, fits like a glove

Yeah, I put it in my domelight as well. I'll snap a few pics eventually, the car's not running so I'm not in it often.

RESURRECTION!!!!!

ok ,so where can I see these pics and what vehicle did this come from ?


Did anyone every figure out the fade ?

Hmmm I would like to replace every yellow incandescent bulb with LEDs to have less heat and to have a nice bright white light at night... What is the part number for direct replacement of the ones in our dome lights?

Thanks!
-Marc

stock incandescent bulb #561

LED Replacement bulb #211, #212 but make sure it is a rigid loop design