RDFTS

iTrader: (1)

A pic with a water bottle in the holder? Want to see if it lights it up.

sharper4

I'm with these guys - totally curious if the thicker one fits and more curious to what you splice into for perm power. I'm very interested in this.

kmaximus

RDFTS,
I'll see what I can do tonight about getting a picture with a water bottle. I can tell you the light is not blinding or probably won't make a bottle glow. But, that's partly because the elwire doesn't come into contact with the bottle and the output of the el wire is subtle which is exactly what I wanted. That being said I have no issue at night locating the cup holder from the glow of this setup

frosty19, sharper4,

some of the lessons I learned dealing with this elwire is you get what you pay for. The company I linked to in the original post so far has the best quality product I've come across. The situation ran down as this, while I was trying to decide what size to replace the .9mm with the wire actually died....I contacted their customer support and worked with them on discovering why the .9 crapped out. Basically because of how thin that wire is the conducting wire was shorted out when I created a sharp angle turn from where the straight part and curved part of the cup holder meet. I asked them to send me a larger wire, but that request got lost in translation and I was sent the same size .9mm as before.

While I waited on that process I purchased a 10dollar 2.2mm wire off amazon to try out with a USB inverter.....well the inverter was DOA and 2.2mm wire showed signs of manufacturing flaws.....But, while I had the 2.2mm in hand I ran it as I did the .9mm and feel confident that's the best size to work with. It offered a brighter glow effect and it felt safe going around the corners. And, it also fit better in the channel.

I'll order the 2.2mm now that I'm reminded to do so and perform the final swap.


Related to power, I've attached a diagram and a few pictures of my semi-permanent power configuration. I needed a way to turn on the elwire and ambient lighting kit from a single switch and this is what I came up with. basically, both el and led kits are using 12v adapters I have plugged into a 3 way adapter that has a on/off switch that then runs to the 12v source in the console. I picked up a surface mount button opened up the 3way adapter and spliced into the existing switch. now I just toggle on/off via the button under the console lid as needed to kill power to both elwire and led as they were one.

In the picture with the botton, you can see where I have the clear tape on the chrome part of the cupholder holding the wire. when I get the 2.2mm I plan on cleaning that up by either gluing the wire or taping where it can't be seen. I'm up for suggestions on something that may make that a cleaner attachment

finally frosty19, your question about cutting the elwire. it's my understanding that you can, I just bought mine at the needed length of 2ft to surround the cupholders. I've seen videos on youtube of folks cutting and resplicing the wire. but I didn't feel the need for this setup.

terraformer

Not bad at all. And I like what you did with the power source - even an electrical nincompoop like me can probably do that!

kmaximus

Thanks terraformer

I wanted to make it something I could remove or at least be easy to work on.

from the thatcoolwire website here are some of the comparison pictures they offer for size of wire and light output:

frosty19

Thanks for the info and instructions kmaximus. Get the 2.2mm wire ordered and do the install. Thinking the dark blue is the way to go.

kmaximus

No problem, hope you like the outcome, yup the dark blue is what I have and it basically comes out...blue

I've been very pleased with the results...for a grand total of 72 bucks for ALL my interior light it suits my needs well

HighPsi

What length is the best fit for the cup holders ?

kmaximus

As promised, pictures of a water bottle in the cupholder with the lights on.

Since the bottle doesn't come into direct contact with the elwire and the elwire doesn't send out a focused light the bottle doesn't defuse and glow per se. But as you can see the light passes through nicely

kmaximus

2ft, you'll end up with a couple of inches left over. it's almost exactly.