What is max car battery voltage?

[RomanTaylor]

I am going to do LED dome light myself, but I am not sure what voltage to use for my calculations? I've seen DIY on 350Z forums, and the guy used 14.5V battery output for resistor calculation. That seems like way too much, but I assume he has a good reason to do this. Should I go with 12? 13? 14? volts.

I have 5mm LEDs, 20-25˚ viewing degree. Should I go with smaller LEDs and wider view angle? Which LED's style give best light output for this application?

[bman365]

14.5 is charging running voltage. ~12.6 is normal good battery voltage w/o car running.

[RomanTaylor]

So that means I should use 14.5 as my voltage to calulate the resistor?
Also what is the best way to connect it? Make a dummy bulb or something?

[Race4Life]

I mean, if you want to make your own and all, by all means, I'm not trying to discourage you. But I tried to do the exact same thing for mine and it ended up turning out not that great. I did the dummy bulb idea and it was a pain in the ass to fit everything just right and all.
I ended up going to ledmod.com and got theirs. That light is phenomenal. I have a blue dome, and get compliments on it all the time. Its not terribly expensive either. Good luck with the mod man, and if you decide to order a plug and play, check them out.

http://store.ledmod.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=39_40&products_id=46

[Salincer]

I mean, if you want to make your own and all, by all means, I'm not trying to discourage you. But I tried to do the exact same thing for mine and it ended up turning out not that great. I did the dummy bulb idea and it was a pain in the ass to fit everything just right and all.
I ended up going to ledmod.com and got theirs. That light is phenomenal. I have a blue dome, and get compliments on it all the time. Its not terribly expensive either. Good luck with the mod man, and if you decide to order a plug and play, check them out.

http://store.ledmod.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=39_40&products_id=46

Yea, i did the same with my
1. LED license plate (4x white 20k wide angle leds on each side)
2. DRL leds (1x white 20k wide angle led on each side)
3. dome light (8x white 20k wide angle leds)

the only one that was sucessful was the DRL lights. The others turned out to flicker bad. It might be caused i used 12v as source.

[ibmike150]

it all depends where u get the votage from... cigg lighter is 12.6ish said b4, 14.7ish is voltage to the battery while charging, and usually high 12's low 13's is the normal interior power with headlights, stereo at norm, and standard utilities running. but if you go with like 12.8v you should be safe, +/- 1 or 2 volts wount hurt anything at 12v

[RomanTaylor]

Well I've seen LED mod one, but 25 dollars for interior bulb seems a lot to me.
I guess I'll go with 13? Are you sure it's not going to burn out LED when it jumps up to 14.5?

[ibmike150]

i dont think it ever does, by the time it gets to the dome light it will have regulated itself... and no it shouldnt... but for safe measures, remove the dome and hook a multimeter on it and watch it as you open the door, car off, turn on the car with the dome light on and rev it up with min power useage anywhere else, like lights off and such so u get the worst case readings

[2way]

14.4-14.6V is usually utilized for such calculations.