It took some doing but I got it working perfectly.

Disclaimer: The following is provided as a GUIDE ONLY, and neither myself, nor FITFREAK.NET endorse, recommend, encourage nor take any responsibility for the outcome of someone else doing the following. You follow these steps at your own risk!


I'll let the pics do the talking and I'll write some brief explanations of each image:


This is a shot of the Radio Shack brand magnetic switch partly disassembled (it's the normally open type).


Hot-glued the magnet to the inside rotating tray of the storage console.


Partly disassembled storage console to show where magnet was attached.


This is one of the led's already in its holder, secured in the hole I drilled through the console. I wanted to drill at an angle, but then the led holder wouldn't clear the tray when it swung closed.


Here's a shot from the other side, the led holder screwed and crazy-glued in place


I hot-glued the magnetic switch to the back of the console, aligned with the magnets position. Once the magnet swings 1.25" away from the switch the normally open switch closes and turns on the leds as the tray goes down.


Here I soldered two resistors (330ohm and 10ohm in series to make a 340ohm resistor). This should limit the voltage getting through to the led's, which in the Radio Shack package called for 3.6V and 20mA each. I put the resistors on the positive side of circuit as that is how I saw on an online diagram I found.


Leds are wired (in parallel). Notice the grooves, they are for a separating wall.


The separating wall is placed back in position.


This is how it looks installed. I didn't have someone to help out, so I could not get a shot of the wiring hack that I did under there. I basically cut the positive (red/white) lead to the ceiling light, stripped the ends and used a wire nut to joint the positive leads together. The other wire from my contraption doen't get hooked to the other lead wire (green/red), instead it needs to be grounded. I stripped the end of the wire and ran the copper lead through the screw hole on the metal support bracket (see Ben's post for a picture). When I screwed the ceiling light assembly back in place the wire was securely grounded in place. Now for a test. Drum roll please...


Okay, so it's day time and the light from the leds is barely visible


People wanted to see how the center storage console looked with the tray and the rear door opened, so here it is


Okay, here it is the console with one of the leds turned on (now that it's gotten darker outside).


A wider view. Notice I put a white plastic film on the inner walls so the white light from the led would reflect just a little better than with the gray, textured plastic of the console.


One last pic to show just how much the leds illuminate.

It took a lot of work, I got my fingers burnt by the soldering iron (it was 4am, my reflexes were turned off ), had to consult with my dad overseas regarding the resistance value for the resistors (thank God for Skype ), I accidentally marred the inner walls of the tray while drilling/widening the holes (the plastic film served a dual purpose ), but the end result gives the Fit a more upscale look I think

 

Wow.... very nice job indeed.

 

omg thats so bad ass man next map light yo haha

 

Thanks!, But actually I just "upgraded" my TomTom Go 700 to the Go 510. Basically same hardware, plus upgraded GPS receiver, new features, widescreen and iPod control No need for maps

 

man, awesome job!

 

thats clean i like it. did u get hte center console from ben? im thinking about ordering one b/c i feel liek the roof needs something in that area.

 

Yup, got it from Ben. The kit comes with three foam pieces that you're supposed to place between the mirror and the console to fill in that area since you have to remove a big rectangular piece of foam in order to put the metal bracket in. Now I have a better place to put my cd's and E-ZPass tag

 

Thanks everyone! I wanted that console because that area really felt a bit "vacant". But seeing the console by itself, I felt it would be hard to see what cd's or items were in that tray, specially at night, and because the ceiling light would be mostly blocked by the console itself. So I figured, why not put some lights in the console, just tap into that existing wire lead for the ceiling light But what I really liked about this project was having the magnetic switch automatically turn on the lights when the tray comes down. I had used such a switch in the past in a school project, that's where the idea came from

 

how does the console attach to the ceiling?

 

Check Ben's previous post on how to attach it to the ceiling:

https://www.fitfreak.net/forums/fit-interior-modifications/8194-jdm-roof-storage-console-installed.html

A metal bracket (included in the kit) needs to be installed first so it can support the whole console in place.

 

Excellent idea on this one. You can goto http://led.linear1.org/1led.wiz to find a nice resistor calculator. You can do compute resistor values for both a single LED and multiple LEDs.

If I can swing the money to get a roof console I'll have to use this idea. The magnetic switch is awesome.

 

The pictures should've helped illustrate what the modification looks like, but actually seeing the magnetic switch in action, that's what I think was missing So here it is (7MB video clip):

http://www.marokero.com/Fit/storage-...e/MVI_0001.AVI

 

Nice, another project for the todo list. Great DIY marokero

 

Hey I was trying to get figure out how to contact Ben...can someone get me his e-mail?
Thanks!

 

He has his own section in the vendors market place.

https://www.fitfreak.net/forums/a/