Center Console Tray Lighting Hack

Sharing this hack to provide some illumination of the Tesla forward center console tray. With my older eyes, that forward tray is like a black hole at night without the overhead lights on. Now impressed that my old Subaru Forester had a ceiling mounted constant amber spot illumination of the console area.

Since there's already a fairly bright light in the bottom of the forward console, I drilled a pattern of holes in the back of the tray. That brought some light into the tray, but I then 3-D printed a frosted diffuser that did a better job. One future option would be to make a rectangular hole and 3-D print a diffuser with an embedded Tesla logo in a darker filament color.

If you decide to drill your own tray, highly recommend using Step Bits. They're the only sure-fire way to drill clean holes in thin plastic. Only issue is the "flocking" will need to cleaned up on the inside of the tray.

 

[oneformula@gma]

Brilliant! Well done.

 

[MDElectric]

Decided to go bigger and add a logo. IPhone pics makes it look brighter than it is, but definitely helps illuminate that forward bin.

To make this mod, you'll need to create a 125mmx22mm rectangular cutout in the back of the console tray. I did this by marking out the perimeter with a ruler and marker, then using a cutoff wheel on my Dremel. Plastic is very soft, so it may gum up the wheel. You can clean up with a utility knife or file. Then used a little silicone around the perimeter to attach from the back. Including the diffuser STL for those that want to try it. I used Clear and Red PETG with a color change at the logo height.

 

[boyerthelawyer]

that looks amazing

 

[borland]

Looks good.

Since Tesla's optional front bin tray slides forward for access, I had an idea of reflecting the front bin LED light off the inside bin's top surface. Thought about doing this using a light weight acrylic mirror attached to the top of the bin.

There are flat surfaces on the bin top surface where the mirror could be attached. Here's a photo of the bottom of the lid sliding mechanism. Notice on the left side, the flat surfaces where a mirror could be placed.

Then I saw this inexpensive acrylic mirror film with adhesive backing. Only 0.2mm thick, so it would need a backing material to hold it when attached to the top.

Found this, a small piece of clear acrylic ( 200x200x1mm ). Could mount them to the top with double sided adhesive tape. If it does not work out, not much of a loss, and easy to remove.

 

[Brou]

Decided to go bigger and add a logo. IPhone pics makes it look brighter than it is, but definitely helps illuminate that forward bin.

To make this mod, you'll need to create a 125mmx22mm rectangular cutout in the back of the console tray. I did this by marking out the perimeter with a ruler and marker, then using a cutoff wheel on my Dremel. Plastic is very soft, so it may gum up the wheel. You can clean up with a utility knife or file. Then used a little silicone around the perimeter to attach from the back. Including the diffuser STL for those that want to try it. I used Clear and Red PETG with a color change at the logo height.

This is definitely going to be copied by someone and sold on daZon.

Great work!

 

[MDElectric]

Also here it is in black, which I now prefer since it almost looks stock.

 

[dragoon9988]

This is awesome! Did you use a hand drill or one of those big drills that's anchored to the ground?

 

[MDElectric]

I originally drilled holes, but used Dremel with cuttting wheel to finalize the rectangle. From scratch, I would just use Dremel exclusively.

 

[Smeghead]

That is brilliant and brilliantly executed. I doubt I could even hand drill such a nice hole pattern let alone complete a decent looking facsimile. Any chance you could build more? License someone else to make them?

 

[THEbuz]

This is awesome! Did you use a hand drill or one of those big drills that's anchored to the ground?

Ha-ha! Do you mean a “drill press”??????

 

[THEbuz]

Looks good.

Since Tesla's optional front bin tray slides forward for access, I had an idea of reflecting the front bin LED light off the inside bin's top surface. Thought about doing this using a light weight acrylic mirror attached to the top of the bin.

There are flat surfaces on the bin top surface where the mirror could be attached. Here's a photo of the bottom of the lid sliding mechanism. Notice on the left side, the flat surfaces where a mirror could be placed.

View attachment 913766


Then I saw this inexpensive acrylic mirror film with adhesive backing. Only 0.2mm thick, so it would need a backing material to hold it when attached to the top.

View attachment 913769

Found this, a small piece of clear acrylic ( 200x200x1mm ). Could mount them to the top with double sided adhesive tape. If it does not work out, not much of a loss, and easy to remove.

View attachment 913771

Can you share links to this website????
Is this Alibaba???

 

[borland]

Can you share links to this website????
Is this Alibaba???

No, it is not Alibaba.com. It is AliExpress.com, which is the retail arm of Alibaba.com.

Here's are the links to the two product listings pictured in my post above.

4pcs Acrylic Mirror Stickers Thicken-2mm Self adhesive DIY Art Mirrors Wall Sticker

200x200mm plexiglass clear acrylic board, organic plastic sheet, 1mm

Keep in mind that the front bin's LED brightness is only slightly brighter than a sink hole abyss, so any reflected light will be similarly dim. As MDElectric stated in his post above "the IPhone pics makes it look brighter than it is".

 

[THEbuz]

No, it is not Alibaba.com. It is AliExpress.com, which is the retail arm of Alibaba.com.

Here's are the links to the two product listings pictured in my post above.

4pcs Acrylic Mirror Stickers Thicken-2mm Self adhesive DIY Art Mirrors Wall Sticker

200x200mm plexiglass clear acrylic board, organic plastic sheet, 1mm

Keep in mind that the front bin's LED brightness is only slightly brighter than a sink hole abyss, so any reflected light will be similarly dim. As MDElectric stated in his post above "the IPhone pics makes it look brighter than it is".

Thanks!

 

[MDElectric]

Keep in mind that the front bin's LED brightness is only slightly brighter than a sink hole abyss

Maybe my LED is different. These are pics in regular IPhone mode, so pretty close to real brightness. I know some cars (Model 3) have a front-facing LED, which would not work with this mod.

 

[borland]

I do haves a Model 3, but mine has been updated with the later 2.0 Center Console. No Glovebox USB data, so have USB data only in front bin. Anyway, same front bin LED light as with yours.

 

[borland]

I have a new tray design now that I really like and works great with the factory console's bin lighting.

There are a few aftermarket accessary sellers that sell clear plastic trays. These clear trays usually come with opaque silicone rubber liners which need to be discarded. The tray is a perfect fit after removing the mold flashing material on both sides of the tray that tends to grab the console felt lining when repositioning the tray (I used fine sand paper for that). Here's a photo of the clear tray I purchased on Aliexpress.com.

Here's a listing for the same tray I purchased, but from different seller.... Clear Plastic Tray on AliExpress.com
Same tray, but sold by Hansshow.... Hansshow Clear Plastic Tray The same Hansshow tray can also be purchased on Amazon.com.

For a replacement silicone liner, I purchased a 40 x 30mm sheet of non-slip clear silicone rubber in 1mm thickness, on AliExpress.com for about $3.00 USD delivered to USA. Here's a link to the AliExpress seller I used... non-slip clear silicone rubber I ordered Color 14 which comes un-tinted in clear.

I cut the oversized silicone sheet down to fit the tray bottom using a template from the attached pdf file and printed to paper with printer settings to print "Actual Size".

 

[dragoon9988]

Jesus the clear one looks so bad though

 

[borland]

I found a similar clear bin tray for the rear console compartment and lined it with the same non-slip clear silicone rubber liner material as mentioned in my prior post.

Clear Rear Console Bin Tray on AliExpress.com

The same seller also has the front bin tray in clear acrylic plastic, however his front trays have a problem with the way they slide forward and backward, making them too easily slide without any friction. So, I don't recommend his front bin tray for that reason.

I've attached my PDF template that can also be printed to paper with printer settings set to print "Actual Size".