Jxfwsf
Well-Known Member
So i got bored and decided it was time to fix that damn intermittent back lighting on my heater control.
Having a bunch of assorted electronics bits lying around i figured i'd see how easy it would be to chuck something together that will last longer than the standard globes and illuminate better.
Be careful and make sure you don't bridge anything with solder, Some soldering skill is required, worst case you'll blow a fuse and it won't work.
I advise you to test before fitting to the vehicle with a 9 volt battery to make sure they light up.
parts required: cost approx 50 cents each
Vero-type board ($4.50 and there's enough board to make enough for a few cars)
LED's amount and color of your choice (about $0.30-0.40 each)
470 ohm smd resistors (about $0.05 each) you could use 330 ohm for brighter(no lower) or 600 ohm for duller
heat shrink (optional, helps protect it incase it's pushed to far into the holder, the grove filed into it should stop it going to far in though)
Cut and file a piece of board so it looks like this, doesn't have to be exact measurements. 5-6 holes long X 2 tracks wide, the grove is so it will fit into the globe holder (4.6mm wide) and the cut track is where the resistor will go, make sure this is a complete cut and the 2 sides of the track are separated(if not the resistor won't do anything and you'll let the smoke out of the LED).
Fit the legs through the set of holes at the end opposite the grove and bend the led to face forward, solder in with the - (flat side) on the solid track without the cut.
Solder the resistor in place then build up the bottom half of the board so it will be a good fit in the globe holder.
Fit a small bit of heat shrink over the base of the led and to cover the resistor.
The flat filed into the board denotes -ve, when fitting to the globe holder put this side inline with the black wire on the plug, if you fit it and it doesn't light up pull it out and turn it 180 degrees in the holder.
Took very little time to piece this all together, they work great and cost bugger all.
Looks much better in the car than the pictures. phones really don't take great pics in the dark.
light does fade a bit towards R and P but it's still quite visible, you could put 2 leds on 1 board with 1 resistor and face them in V so they will illuminate more for the shifter as the globe mount points towards the rear of the car and leds are sort of directional with their output.
Having a bunch of assorted electronics bits lying around i figured i'd see how easy it would be to chuck something together that will last longer than the standard globes and illuminate better.
Be careful and make sure you don't bridge anything with solder, Some soldering skill is required, worst case you'll blow a fuse and it won't work.
I advise you to test before fitting to the vehicle with a 9 volt battery to make sure they light up.
parts required: cost approx 50 cents each
Vero-type board ($4.50 and there's enough board to make enough for a few cars)
LED's amount and color of your choice (about $0.30-0.40 each)
470 ohm smd resistors (about $0.05 each) you could use 330 ohm for brighter(no lower) or 600 ohm for duller
heat shrink (optional, helps protect it incase it's pushed to far into the holder, the grove filed into it should stop it going to far in though)
Cut and file a piece of board so it looks like this, doesn't have to be exact measurements. 5-6 holes long X 2 tracks wide, the grove is so it will fit into the globe holder (4.6mm wide) and the cut track is where the resistor will go, make sure this is a complete cut and the 2 sides of the track are separated(if not the resistor won't do anything and you'll let the smoke out of the LED).
Fit the legs through the set of holes at the end opposite the grove and bend the led to face forward, solder in with the - (flat side) on the solid track without the cut.
Solder the resistor in place then build up the bottom half of the board so it will be a good fit in the globe holder.
Fit a small bit of heat shrink over the base of the led and to cover the resistor.
The flat filed into the board denotes -ve, when fitting to the globe holder put this side inline with the black wire on the plug, if you fit it and it doesn't light up pull it out and turn it 180 degrees in the holder.
Took very little time to piece this all together, they work great and cost bugger all.
Looks much better in the car than the pictures. phones really don't take great pics in the dark.
light does fade a bit towards R and P but it's still quite visible, you could put 2 leds on 1 board with 1 resistor and face them in V so they will illuminate more for the shifter as the globe mount points towards the rear of the car and leds are sort of directional with their output.
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