looks very nice! does that turn on/off with the dome lights or is it
wired so you can leave them on while you drive?

basically it's illegal to drive with lights on the outside, so i would wire it up
with the dome lights.

im going to link back the VIP cars on below posts.

 

for those that want to make something on their own, here's a cool
site where you can punch in the numbers to get your resistor value.

http://metku.net/index.html?sect=vie...calc/index_eng

i think im going to make me a 5x puddle light kit for experiment.

 

here's a pict from the authentic J-VIP Car club.... lol

Ric0roni Japan style. actually, it looks pretty good imho... should
go well on my G35C.

 

they're connected to the dome lights, so they dim on when the doors are unlocked/opened and dim off when the door is locked or the car starts. if they were on all the time it'd look like rice

I made a video of it, since most people don't get it, link

 

^^ very nice! that's exactly what im thinking about doing.

it looks like your TSX also has lights on the bottom of the doors.
Is it on the lower part of the door panel or literally on the bottom
plane of the door? (my G35C's door lights are on the bottom plane).

 

they're on the inside of the lower part of the door, so they shine in more than down

 

That looks good

I wish I knew how to wire things like that.

 

ahh! thanks. yeh, your door lights don't clash with your puddle lights.

i'll have to see how it looks on my G35C...

i guess the next question is, where did you get your LED's? Are you
running the 20mA 3.3V's? what is your candela?

The ones i was looking at were the Radioshack 2600mcd's at $4.25 a pop.

 

I did a writeup of my TSX install http://tsx.acurazine.com/forums/showthread.php?t=31551

I bought a set of lights from someone in Hawaii, VIP lights are very popular there. My 5 LED ones cost $115 shipped, JLeviautowerks.com sells a 1 LED version for $40. Good thing about these were the are very easy to mount and are waterproof

 

Here's a G35C in Hawaii

 

nice writeup! dang, no wonder they're so bright. you're running like 4-5 LED's per unit.
very cool. i was thinking of just running one LED per unit at high mcd...so not bright
like yours...more like a subtle light.

thanks for the post on the G35C. looks good.

 

http://www.mini2.com/forum/exterior/...=puddle+lights


-Cody

 

xizor- on the single LED versions, are the LED's aimed outwards past the
plane of the sideskirts? i noticed that on the VIP picts that the actual
focal point of the LED is not directly under the sideskirts.

 

the jleviautowerks ones have these metal brackets which can be used to angle the light to point outside the side skirt.

but those VIP pictures might be an illusion as well because of the angle the pictures are taken at. I bet if you stood with your toes at the side skirt you would barely be able to see them

 

cool, that makes it a lot easier for me to design the housing for the
single firing LED...

 

kenchan make sure you post how you did everything please. I would like to do this to my MINI and I'm not exactly sure how I would go about all the wiring and what to use for the housing and etc. So let me and everyone else know what you did and what you used. Thanks

 

^^ antient Chinese secret...




oh wait, im not Chinese.

 

Good that means you can tell us! Or maybe somewhere far back in your ancestral line there might be some Chinese in a part of your family. Hopefully not cause I want to know.

 

Wow.

I didn't know they started building MINIs in Asia

You guys gonna start running with the Honda crowd??

 

it looks like my MCS is really too low to do the single firing LED....the focal
point becomes a tiny dot on the pavement... looks like a laser pointer than
puddle lights.

I did some preliminary tests on what it might look using the left over LED's
I had and it looks like i need to get either a 3+ firing assy or find wide-angle
dispersion LED.

 

yeh those puddle lights have been out for a while.. i have it on my fulley modded full WALD C230 sedan... i have the authentic brabus puddle lights.. and they are awesome.. i was thinkn of transfering it into the mini.. but didnt kno if it would look good on a mini

 

A lot of the MINIs over in japan have added these....

Here are some of the pics i can find (not the best)





puddle lights in the doors

 

WoW Those are nice! Makes me want to do it even more now. kenchan keep us up-to-date with this.

 

What about some LED lights from AutoLumination

Like these

High Powered 3 Watt LED Forward Emitter =
http://autolumination.com/led.html

Or maybe

Screw Accent Indicator Lights =
http://autolumination.com/indicator.htm

They also have some different ones that might work.

 

kenchan, I saw this DIY and thought it might work well w/ your LED idea http://www.scionlife.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=73748