Prius Cup Light
Thought it would be fun to light up one of the cup holders and just as I was about to start (was just going to poke one 3mm LED through the side of the holder) somebody pointed me to the Prius Hoods site where these LED "pucks" were sold. The few that are left are not advertised... but are still for sale. The pucks seem to be cut from a frosted plastic cutting board (textured on the top). A hole is drilled in the side, and an LED and resistor are glued into place. The wire that comes out is terminated with a fused 12V lighter plug that is meant to be plugged into the outlet under the console lid. Well, I wasn't going to have any wires coming up and out of the holder and down into the console, consuming my valuable power outlet! I lopped off the 12V connector, and hard-wired the puck into place, in parallel with the console outlet. I first lengthened all the wires, and added a fuse holder for safety (this fuse now also protects the outlet in the console as well), and then I added a Y in the power lines for the puck. I drilled a small hole through the side of the cup holder so the wire comes out the bottom of the holder, instead of climbing out the top. Getting to the wire harness on the back of the 12V outlet was the biggest bugger of the whole project (well, that and doing it all in the dark with a 5-year-old helper...
Everything open with the wiring in place. In the lower right
corner is where I'm tied into the power. Upper right is the factory harness
for the 12V console outlet. Black thing in the middle is the fuse holder.
White disk in the bottom of the cup holder is the cup light.
All done in the dark.
But this is the coolest part. :) The only real trouble is that
there is now NO traction at the bottom of the cup holder, and everything sits
up higher. Not too practical, but it is definitely more fun. The puck is way
more purple than these pictures show. My wife's favorite color is purple,
and her birthday is just around the corner...
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