Yes... this is a must
 

I can hardly wait to do this once I'm back in the states and have my car again. It is going to be very near the top of my list. Glad to hear that it is still working well for you... a sure sign of your quality of work!

Hey buddy! I hope things are going well for you! :)

It's a small mod, but definitely one of my more useful ideas. It's one of those things that you do and just forget about until you need it. The great thing about this is that you don't even have to know you need it because it knows for you :D

I may have to do this for our new Highlander. It has a cavernous center console that has no lighting. This concept would be perfect for that. Now I just have to motivate myself and put it on the endless list of projects:rolleyes:

Has anyone else made one of these yet? I made another one last night in about 20 minutes just to prove to myself that it does indeed work. :D

I changed my design a little; I'm using three LEDs in series now instead of just one for better light distribution.
http://i875.photobucket.com/albums/a...2CC8629CAD.jpg

http://i875.photobucket.com/albums/a...7D1D8F1A07.jpg

This picture shows all components and their correct orientation.
(Edit: Picture and links to parts added to first post)

http://i875.photobucket.com/albums/a.../pictorial.jpg

If I had a cubby, this would be tops on my list. Very nice mod:cheers:

Not only easy and fun to DYI, it's functional ;) little things sometimes lol

I'd like to use blue LEDs. Any suggestions and how does it impact R1 and R2?

The emitter circuit is independent from the LED/IR detector circuit, so R1 will not be affected.

The slight change in voltage drop across a blue LED compared to a white LED would not be significant enough to need to change values of R2.
R2 directly affects the balance between the allowable distance between the IR emitter/detector and LED brightness (higher value = allowable IR emitter/detector distance increases, but LEDs are dimmer; lower value = allowable IR emitter/detector distance is decreased, but the LEDs are brighter).
You may need to play with the value of R2 a little bit to find a good balance for your semiconductors, but the values I posted should be just fine.

Blue 5mm LEDs

My emitter is tinted and my detector is clear. I assume that doesn't matter as long as the emitter is on the bottom and the detector is on top with the lights?

No, the tint doesn't matter.

It's 2 separate circuits, so doesn't matter which is on top or bottom as long as the LEDs are shunted by the detector (don't get the emitter and detector mixed up).

http://i875.photobucket.com/albums/a...alcircuit1.jpg

http://i875.photobucket.com/albums/a...ictorial-1.jpg

What I would like to see would be an extra, colored LED (blue in your case) towards the back, giving a nice glow all the time. I have this in my MINI. Brightness would be in keeping with the rest of the dash.

Started the harness tonight, will finish tying the grounds together tomorrow. First time I've ever soldered. Need to figure out how to test it nexy, guess I should I have thought about that sooner, lol.

http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a11...magejpg1-4.jpg
Emitter and 470 Ohm (200+270) resistor

http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a11...magejpg2-2.jpg
Detector and 1k ohm resistor

http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a11.../imagejpg4.jpg
Bottom

http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a11...magejpg3-1.jpg
Top

Very cool ;)

You'll definitely need to test it before installation to make sure that your R2 value is good. Do you have a spare battery around or maybe a 14.4 V rechargeable battery for a power tool?
Spare cigarette lighter adapter that you can splice the wires into?

I suppose you could always test it in the car before reinstalling it completely.
To set the emitter and detector, I used hot glue. You can then warm the glue after it has set with a heat gun or similar to move and aim them better if necessary.

Edit: if you used the IR emitter and detector that I linked, as well as the resistor values, then you should be fine.

It's been a while...any luck, Coaster? :)

I have some spare storage shelves and was thinking of retrofitting them with the lights and posting them in the classified section...any interest?

Yes sir, there is interest.
Where do you plug the power? On the switched telephone wire?

You can draw power from any 12VDC source ;)
I used the cig lighter's illumination ring power so that the circuit is only powered when the headlight switch is on (at night or dusk/dawn), but the circuit draws so little power that it wouldn't hurt anything to have it on any switched power source (phone accessory 12V).

I've ordered components for 10 storage shelves, so hopefully they will be here by the weekend. I'm going to try to do a core exchange, but if that doesn't fly, I'll just sell them outright. :)

Choice of LED color or will they all be the same? Estimated cost - with and without core exchange. Is it one cubby or two ?

Thanks