My Dome Light

My truck came from the fields of Ohio and with it a ambiance that reflects life on the farm. I’m not sure what happened in that life, but my truck lost its dome light. Normally this is not a big deal. The use of a dome light is minimal, but when you need it… boy is it nice to have. I could have gone down the the vehicle bone yard to pick up a used one, or even scoured the net for a suitable replacement. However, I elected for a more DIY approach to the problem.

The goals I wanted with my new light were simple.
1. The light must run the full width of the interior of my truck.
2. A switch to turn it off.
3. A way to mount it without permanently fixating it.

Once the idea was thought out and sketched out I visited the web site, http://led.linear1.org/led.wiz to get the LED wiring diagram I needed. Because I had been working with PVC, in another project I elected that to be my medium. This allowed for the light to run the full width of my truck. Then I visited my parts bin for a switch and hard drive magnets. Once all the parts arrived in a nice little pile I got to work. This is the end result…

The strong hard drive magnets worked great for a non permanent way of keeping the light in place. The only problem I had was in securing the hard drive magnets to the PVC pipe. The first try was to use hot glue in several various configurations. However, in each test a PVC pipe filled with LED lights would bless my head at some point in my drive to work. In each case the hard drive magnets were left on the roof of my truck. Frustrated, I let is sit behind the seat for a week while the problem adequately fermented in my brain for a while. Once the fermentation process was complete, I visited the hard ware store for the strongest epoxy I could find. This seemed to do the trick I have been driving around with it for a couple of months now and not once has it graced my head with it’s presents.