fonseca

Reviving this.

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'>rear defrost and fog switch is like this. the cruise switch actually has the + and - switched( i think)</div>

I just did mine, and they were the same. It was very easy to wrap the 3mm led legs around the stock bulb holders. I took the easy way out and soldered resistors on the power wire behind the switch.





That's hot! I also did my dimmer switch. No idea why it didn't have a bulb to begin with, there are spots on the board for one.



I left the little green bulbs alone for now. I will probably buy some 3mm red LEDs and do them eventually. I used 470 ohm resistors.

DTN

Looks good. I did the "bulb replacement" the first time i did this, but I decided to go with soldering every time after because it was difficult for me to get the polarity right AND position the bulb without the leads touching. I've done 7 of these now on various vehicals, mostly tiburons.

You may run into problems with the LED going out with a 470 ohm resistor. I mean, it's bright as heck, but they <u>wont</u> last 100,000 hours I use 510 or 560 ohm resistors I only use 470 when running 2 LEDs in series. This ensures longevity.

good work with the dimmer switch... i've been meaning to do that myself.

fonseca

You're right about the resistor size, but I figure that even if I were to spend 2 hours a day driving with the lights on, after 10 years of driving I would still have only had the LEDs powered for 7,300 hours. So I'm still more than covered if I end up cutting their life by 90%. I'm sure there's a chart out there that shows the decrease in life vs overvoltage, but I haven't found one after a quick search.

01tibby

i get one 470 ohm resistor for every led for free, so its more of a convenience thing.

DTN

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You can't do a chart because heat is a factor. LEDs want to be at about 70F optimally. If you stick them in the heater cluster, they'll be even hotter in the black dashboard. Also overcurrent decreases life because of the flow of electrons moving too greatly through the LED which adds more heat and decreases life greatly.

I just like the idea of "fire and forget". do it right the first time. You can put a wire-wound or "block resistor" inside the heater cluster to add 50-100 ohms. you can get a 10W wire-wound resistor at radio shack. that's what i usually do with 470s.

fonseca

While you are correct, I have LEDs that have been running like this that are always on when the car is on for over a year, and are installed in a case that gets from 110-130 degrees. No problems yet. I don't think it's an issue. And again, even if I only get 10% of the pssible life out of them, that's more than I need.

A 470 gives a lot more light than a 560.

DTN

that's true. They are much brighter. Do not run them on full if you do not need to.

As an electronics tech, I would not recommend it because it does not calculate to correct values.

From an engineering aspect I forsee a possible resistor overheating from running too much wattage fire hazard. most likely you have .25W resistors. you are now running .29W through them.

From my practical experience, some will just burn out in time with 470 ohm resistors unless you put 2 LEDs in series with the 470.


if you order LEDs with free resistors, they are giving you resistors for a regulated 12V system usually. you can request a different ohm rating. We are dealing with a fluctuating max voltage of 14.6.

fonseca

Yep, I'm using .25w resistors, and you are once again right that they do get hot, although the LEDs themselves are barely warm. I have found that after a few minutes of running, my voltage drops to 13.5 or so, because the battery has been topped off. So it's not a constant 14.4 when the car is running. But it's still overvoltage.

I am about to remove all the overpriced wedge bulbs I bought from superbrightleds.com and install nothing but 3mm blue LEDs, with a few reds, and a white to light up the Shark logo. I will definitely wire them up using the correct resistors as determined by this lovely calculator. I finally did the glow needle DIY, and now the needles are too dim. Dernit, one mod necessitates another.

DTN

I had some special paint made for that, cobalt blue with a bunch of pearl added for better reflectivity. I also added small notches with a razor blade to the bottom of the needle along the edges/corners to increase reflectivity and decrease light passing to the gauges.

You may also try to add whiteout to the bottom of the LEDs. When you shave an LED it adds imperfections and the light tends to be transmitted in all directions from the lens as well as backwards. When you put some whiteout on it, it will reflect forwards again.

I'm not currently running any of these implementations, but i did up gagues for a buddy of mine who wanted to be a test subject for this back at my last base. They were the best gauges i had ever done.

DTN

RD1 vehicals should use method 2 for heater cluster.