Car Wiring - Adding lights

[BrianG]

The best place for a 12v line would be the fuse box. There's usually an empty slot that has power but no fuse. Or, piggy-back onto an existing fuse (they sell piggy-back fuse taps). Just make sure the power is on even when the car is off. Randomly probing wires in other places may not be a good idea: at best, they may not power the LEDs or may not have power when you want; at worst, it could be an airbag wire (no need to tell you that would be bad, but those usually are sheathed in yellow as an indicator).

Yes, the door switch is the "ground" connection. Actually, if you look at most of those door switches, they are quite simple with only one wire "input". When you open the door, that wire makes contact with the vehicle chassis (via the switch housing), which is ground.

[rawfuls]

Originally Posted by BrianG

The best place for a 12v line would be the fuse box. There's usually an empty slot that has power but no fuse. Or, piggy-back onto an existing fuse (they sell piggy-back fuse taps). Just make sure the power is on even when the car is off. Randomly probing wires in other places may not be a good idea: at best, they may not power the LEDs or may not have power when you want; at worst, it could be an airbag wire (no need to tell you that would be bad, but those usually are sheathed in yellow as an indicator).

Yes, the door switch is the "ground" connection. Actually, if you look at most of those door switches, they are quite simple with only one wire "input". When you open the door, that wire makes contact with the vehicle chassis (via the switch housing), which is ground.

Interesting.
Note the before links where it says the location is the driver's kick panel.
IIRC, the Driver's Kick Panel was where a secondary fuse box was housed.

In this case, if the fuse for the door lights are located here, could I just tap into this fuse for the +12V, wire that into the +12V LED strip, and then tap from the ground in the door switch? (Wire this to the -12V LED strip).

Though, I always thought that those door switches were simple toggle switches, when door opened, switch 'extended' which made contact, and when pushed back in, circuit is broken.
Also, last I checked these were always flush to the chassis, so tapping into it.... would require me ripping apart the trim, no?