EDIT:

Okay, so I finished my install today, and got it working pretty much like I was planning. I already had two LED strips in the front floorboard, and one small strip inside and above the fold out cup holders wired to a constant on switch. I added two LED strips in the back, one on each side, and wired those in with the other LED's. What use to happen, was I flipped the switch, the LEDs came on. What now happens, is when I open the doors, or unlock the truck with the keyless remote, the LED's come on with the dome lights. When you roll the dimmer switch all the way up, they come on, and when you roll it all the way down, they go off. In addition, whenever I turn the headlights on, they also come on. I did this using a relay. I took off the radio bezel, and there's a small grey plug with a hot and ground. This plug connects to a small little light that goes over the cup holders in my 06. I tapped into this and ran it into pin 87a on a 12v 30 amp relay I bought from OReillys. I ran all of the ground wires for the relay, the lights, and my switch to one ground point. I took off the A pillar cover, and tapped into a yellow/blue wire, and ran that to pins 86, and 87 on the relay. I ran the pin 30, which is the output, to the 12v power pin on the switch, and connected the positive of the LEDs to the acc on the switch. I am basically using the switch as a master switch. Whenever it is "ON", it works like described above. But I have the ability to kill power the LEDs at any time, when needed.

I would have liked to wire pin 87 to a source that allows me to dim the lights with the gauge cluster, but I have decided the best way to do this, is to run a separate pot to dim the leds if I decide to do this later.

Thanks to everyone who helped me out and answered all my questions. I hope that maybe my experiment may help someone else as well.

 

LED's are current controlled. If you want to dim them you need to reduce the amount of current NOT the voltage. You can also make them brighter by giving them more current. IIRC each 10mA will extend or reduce the life of the LEDs by half.

Also to correct a previous statement of mine, R/Y is hot, BR is ground. I used those wires for my floor lights and they work exactly like the dome lights do. No relay's needed.

I added vent lights and ran those from the light switch directly using the OR/W and B/DB wires there. My vent lights turn on with the parking lights. haven't tested dimming yet, but again, no relays.

I do have odd issues with my map lights though which I THINK I may be able to solve with a resistor.

 

I used the relay so that I could use the same set of lights for different things, with different power sources. All of my lights are wired into the relay, so no matter what happens, they come on. If I wired in separate sets of lights, like you did in the air vent, I wouldn't use a relay for those. For example, I am planning on adding LED's under the door panels, in the door panel pockets, for the door handles, as well as some that go in the little cubby holes under the radio. The LED's under the door panels will only come on when the doors are opened, so they won't need to be hooked up to the relay. The door panel pockets and door handles, and cubby hole lights will be wired in to only come on with the headlights, so they won't need to be hooked up to the relay.

Like I said, I used the relay so I could power the same set of lights, from two different switched sources. It was the easiest and most effective way of doing what I needed.

LED's can also be dimmed by controlling voltage. The more voltage you give an LED, the brighter it will be. It will only pull a certain amount of current, so giving it more current (by modifying a resistor) would have an effect on the life of the LED. For example, if you hook up 2AA batteries to an LED, and then hook a 9V Battery to an LED, you can see the difference between the 2AA 3V batteries and the 9V.

I've seen several different posts, especially on the LED Dash conversion thread, where people have suggested using at least one resistor on each map light to resolve various issues.

Joshua

 

I have to disagree on the LED's they are current driven devices, yes you can adjust voltage but that isn't the correct way to do it and causes problems in doing so. Adjusting current is the proper way to control and LED's brightness.
http://www.mikesflightdeck.com/led_d...d_dimming.html

As for resistors in my map lights, I'm not sure which wattage to use, that's been about my only catch. I think I need a 6ohm resistor.

3.3V/6Ohms = 550mA = 1.815W (System off)
12V/6Ohms = 2A = 24W (System on)

So I think I could use a 6Ohm @ 30W resistor.

 

In the led dash conversion, several people replaced their dome and map lights with leds, and used one 100ohm one watt resistor in each map light, wired in series with the led. Fixed their problems. What issues are you having?

I based my information off an electrical tutorial using an arduino board, bread board, and leds, as well as an electrical forum. I'll have to check into it. You are probably right.

 

My map light problems are just that they won't work individually or together when the truck is off, they only dimly light up. when the truck is on they will work if I turn them both on. With the truck actually running they work fine.

Where did you find the info on the resistors? I've been looking everywhere and searching for "resistor" only turned up like 5 results.

I base my information from 1.5 years of an accelerated electromechanical engineering program, 2 semesters of digital and analog electronics, 2 semesters of electrical AC/DC theory and practical, and years of working with LED's.....just not these bloody PCI BUS systems....wtf Dodge

 

From another forum: I swapped out dome/map lights while I was at it. and found they stay on (barely) and I don't think manual on function works like it used to. While the truck is running, they come on when pushed, but they also burn very very dim when truck is locked and they fade. They do finally go out completely, but still not 100% as factory.

Another person replied to them: Just need a couple of resistors on the overhead lights and they will work fine. I just did the interior light conversion and had the same problem, can't remember what size, but a search can find em pretty easily. EDIT: it was 100 ohm, 1 watt I used.

Not sure what the rules are about posting links to other forums, but that was the consensus about replacing the overhead lights. basically what they did was wrap the ends of the resistor around the ends of the leds, and put them in the sockets. That way the voltage/current ran through both the LED, and the resistor. The added resistor isn't for the LED, but to provide the needed resistance so that the CAN-BUS system, or whatever (see: WTF Dodge?), so that they work properly.

You have a lot more knowledge than I have, so I'll go with your story!

 

Ya but it's all jumbled up in my head, like a puzzle in the box still lol. We've had a LOT thrown at us in a short time, it isn't hard to get some stuff confused.

I was thinking the exact same thing about how to "install" the resistors, by just putting them across the bulbs as mentioned in the post, but I would like to know how the person came up with the values for the resistors.

I'm going to give it a shot though, I'll see if I can get some 1W 100Ohm resistors on Tuesday.

 

I'm not sure how they come up with the values for the resistors. For whatever reason, it seems to have worked for several different people. I think they went off the values of the replacement LED's for the dome/map lights, and what the vehicle system looks for, and equalized them? I don't want to mislead you, this is only an assumption. But the thread is on another popular dodge forum. Perhaps I can PM you the thread so that I don't get in trouble.

 

LEDs don't have a resistance (so to speak)....they're diodes

They would have had to have used the resistance of the original bulbs, but I measured that at 2.2 Ohms per bulb.

I'm pretty sure you can post links, if it's ********* I think it gets censored, same with ********

EDIT
ya I guess they don't like the DT or RF guys.