A more useful center console (DIY power & light)

[— Agent☣Orange —]

Under the category of "should have been there in the first place" here's what you can do to your Miata's center console in one afternoon with little to no money depending on junk bin.

This article is just a brief show-and-tell of how I did my NB console but without precise hole sizes, electrical splice m and so on because you'll have to decide that depending on your what junk you have lying around. I haven't worked on an NA center console much so this may or may not apply exactly to you but it might.

The first thing is to add power. This is useful for charging cell phones and iPuds inside your center console. In my case, my stereo can directly connect to an iPud but I don't want it sitting out in the open hence, I want to connect to it inside the storage cubby.

Obviously you need to yank your console and work on the bench and also because you'll have to run power and ground wires to its location while it's out. A good place to tap for power is the nearby cigarette lighter wiring plug.

Splice a pair of wires (power and ground) from the lighter and run them toward the back of the center console area with a little extra length and add female spade clips. The rest of the work you'll do with the console on the workbench.


The only place I found on the console to mount a cigarette lighter was at the very back of the cubby. I used an old Miata lighter socket but Walmart and Autozone sell aftermarket ones, some with lighted rings if you want. There is a very close tolerance between the lighter socket and the frame of the car but it can be done. The higher up you mount it, the better.


I like the stock Miata socket because it contains a built-in fusible link that'll blow if you screw something up and also because the spade connectors are easy to identify: big-positive, small-negative. If you do it right, the plastic ring locks the socket to the plastic. The rubber cap is just something else I had but not necessary.




I used a 1" hole bit which turned out to be a millionth of an inch too big, leaving my socket a bit wobbly. So, drill small and route or file it larger until your socket fits in snugly. I used JB Weld to make mine solid as hell so I'm good now.



Nevermind what I'm holding, it's just a little plug for right-hand-drive Miatas.


Now that the socket is in, you'll have to bend the electrical tabs flat in order that it doesn't hit the frame of the car. To repeat, if you drill the hole higher up, you'll have even more clearance which might be necessary if you use a longer, aftermarket socket from Autzone. The Miata's is pretty short.


If all you want is power, you're done! Just put it back in the car and connect it to the power/ground wires you ran and attached the female clips to.

Now you can use a double USB charger to keep multiple iJunk charging at the same time!

[— Agent☣Orange —]

Now that you have power run to the center console, you can have a cubby light without having to run another long length of wire from the dash. It's already in your console, cool! But what kind of light to install? Again, there are too many options to list. You can put a single bulb in the cubby or a trailer light.

I chose to use a spare LED strip of white light because it is very bright, super easy to install, does not protrude into the cubby and can be trimmed down to length. I mounted it to the side closest to me so the lights won't blind me when I open the lid.




I drilled a small hole for the wiring.


...heatgunned (my new verb) the LED strip and area to make it really stick:


...fed the wire through, peeled and stuck the strip:


Turning the console upside down, here is the wire coming from the hole. I drilled another hole into the little "rib" and knotted the wiring so it won't be accidentally pulled out:

[— Agent☣Orange —]

Now for the switch. You have a choice to mount an on/off switch inside the cubby or on the side of the console or dash that's easy to get to OR a momentary switch that automatically turns your light on when you open the lid.

If you want the automatic approach, you'll need to use a switch that is "normally open" when you press it down. That means the circuit will be open when depressed (broken circuit) but closed circuit when the button is extended (lid open). I just used one from an LED accessory I got from Autozone. You know, the free little switch from the pack that says "Push to test."

You can test it with a continuity tester. Push it in, light goes off. Let it out, light comes on.


I decided the best place to put it was out of the way, farthest to the back of the cubby




Then I soldered on a about a foot of wire to work with. It only has to reach the cigarette lighter socket right below.


A little shrink tubing to isolate the contacts




Okay, got the little dude in

[— Agent☣Orange —]

Then from the lighter socket, I continued set of positive/negative wires about a foot long with male spade connectors on the ends. These will connect to the two wires with female spade connectors I already ran in the car and are sitting there waiting. This should be pretty easy if you don't look at my photo and just imagine how it works.

Basically, all the switch does is interrupt the +12v wire to the light from the lighter socket. The ground wire from the light continues uninterrupted to the negative side of the lighter socket.


Now a quick test with my bench power supply (a converted trickle charger with alligator clips) and it's working better than I thought.


and some glory shots




I opened and closed the lid a few times to make sure the light went on and off by looking through the lever opening in the back

[— Agent☣Orange —]

Now for a couple more upgrades for my liking: running my stereo's iPud cable to the console and a little sound damping.

I didn't want to drill another 1" hole or larger hole in the cubby just to fit the iPod's plug through so I just modded a little groove for the cable to slip through the lever opening. This makes for a much cleaner install.



*it's a Canon G11 since you're



and finally a little test (Yeah I know. I did it before mounting the switch)

*it's a Canon G11 since you're zooming to see. ;)

[— Agent☣Orange —]

I had some extra garage floor padding scraps from another project so I decided to dampen the cubby rattles as I did my glove box. It weighs nothing an works to muffle sound.

I cut a nice piece for the inside and just wedged it in. Now my iPud won't rattle or get damaged.


Then I realized all the space around the cubby when viewed from below so I cut more pieces, spray glued them and mounted them in place.






*After test fitting the console back in the car, I realized the padding I put on the bottom of the cubby prevented the console to sit completely flush so I had to remove those pieces. The sides and front are still covered and don't interfere with anything though.

###

[phrenetiK]

this is awesome. nice work.

[— Agent☣Orange —]

Thank you!

One thing that's been bugging me is that many photos are sideways when looking at this article with my iPad but they look normal when using my computer. I don't know which is right so I hope everyone is seeing normal, right side up photos as I do take the time to make sure they're correct on Photobucket before linking them in any of my writeups.

[morr]

So sick! Thanks for sharing. I love all your DIY projects very inspiring!

[— Agent☣Orange —]

Thank you roadsterbro!

Excellent question on the Gearheads forum:

Nice work Yata! I was planning on doing that to mine but in the front end of the cubby-never thought of the back end- Ill have to re-look at that when I get my car back. Where did you hook up the wiring to? My original cigarette lighter only worked when ignition was on so wasn't sure if should be live all the time or not.

Thanks! That's actually an excellent question. I wrote that the dash cigarette lighter is a good place to tap for power and ground because most people know how to get to it. It is also a switched source so it only works with the key switched on.

I didn't want to get into a long discussion how to route the wire from the battery but now I think I was remiss in not telling people that in my article. In fact, it's actually easier to run a wire directly from the battery than it is to splice into the dash's cigarette lighter wiring.

Plus, it's an "always on" connection which is good for continuous charging of a device or to use one of those plug-in, "memory keepers" so that you don't erase your ECU's memory or your radio's programmed stations when you take the car's battery out.

If you go as far as running a wire from the battery to your new cubby socket and you want to change your Miata's switched power socket to "always on," just run a little more wire to it, disconnect the stock switched lead and attach your direct lead instead.

Also, you don't need to run a ground wire the whole distance of a power wire, only to the nearest chassis ground point with a screw or bolt you can use. One could be just inches away.

In my car, I actually did run a wire directly from the battery to this new socket I just installed. It also has an inline fuse near the battery so I can change it easily if I need to.

[s0verybored]

The lighter and lights in the center console have been a mod I've been contemplating doing for the longest time. Thanks for the write up!

[WASABI]

Great work Yellow! I really like the USB charging for my ipod. I will look into this, to make sure it works on an NA console as well.

-Jim

[minto]

Thats great! Thank you for sharing mate.

I love this kinda stuff

[—atank—]

Very Nice Mod Alex!!!!!!!!

[Tristan75]

What can I say Yellow!! Awesome work ;-)