I dont' get what he means by "solder them in to the base"...

I thought the little base is made out of plastic?

 

Everyone:

Does anyone have a PCB schematic of the Radio/HVAC ?

I was thinking today that it would be a LOT easier to intercept the single main 12V supply which leads to the + side of each bulb on the board. Cut that supply, and wire in "1" resistor at that spot. That way we could just solder in all the LED's and not have to worry about a resistor on each LED. Sure would cut the install time in half, and make it easier to put things back together...

Maybe someone has already thought of this and its not possible ?

Thanks !
Toque

 

I solder the LED/resistors directly unto the pads that the OEM bases make contact with. Use the pinouts on the forst page to ohm the circuit out to find the hot pads and the ground pads.

I've found that the P&Ps are dimmer then the discreet LEDs but they are simpler to use...Ozniums P&Ps will fit everything but the Dimmer/HUD switch. But again I recommend nOT using the bases and soldering directly unto the pads in the switches.

Tim

 

I've thought of it, try it!

Tim

 

But without a schematic to find the exact location to intercept the 12V path it would be a guessing game. We need to find a spot where the 12v ONLY goes to the lights (and nothing else). I would not want to do it at the wrong location and not supply enough voltage to say the Amp, or something else.

So I'm guessing no one has a schematic of the board huh ?

Toque

 

The contact points (+ and -) are 2 silver contact strips you will see once you remove the little light on various components. Solder directly to those contact points as in the picture below. Just be SURE which is + and - or the LED will not work.

 

Tim

Thank you so much. I did end up finishing this thread last night. Sorry for asking so many questions.

I'll find the spot again where it says how to determine which is "+" and which is "-"??? and make sure that I solder it correctly.

Donnie

 

There are two circuits that power the lights in the radio. These circuits then branch out in two directions each on the circuit board. I have done 3 radios by only installing 4 resistors.

All of the lights in a branch circuit are in parallel. One branch has 3 lights the other 4. The resistors needed are .5w and I do not remember the ohm values needed right now. The circuit traces are touchy on the radio, i.e. cheap.

What I would do is build a voltage regulator circuit to intercept the power to the lights. With this in place I would solder the LED's to the circuit board. The regulator would have to mount outside the radio but it would be a small circuit. For the radios that I have done, I did not use this method due to cost for the owners. If I was still using the stock radio, I would do this method. I will have to look at my old radio to see which pins are used to power the lights.

Let me know if you need help with this.

Gary

 

Gary:

Thanks for the information. It sounds a little more complex than I was hoping for. I was hoping it was a single trace on the board that led to all the lights.

Thanks !
Toque

 

Well... I got it done. Its all lit in WHITE light now.

Thanks for your help Tim !

I'm loving the lighting improvement !

I found the Radio easier than the HVAC....





Toque

 

Looks good.

Gary

 

Toque,

That looks great man, as your car always does.

Take care,


Donnie

 

Thanks guys !
It was a ton of work, but worth it !

Toque

 

looks great, Toque!

hey, Tim - have you checked any further into the purple SMDs?

 

Thanks Zebra !

I put together some pics of various points of the install.

Here are some details on what I did. I did not take a ton of pics but here are some I did take.

Me trying not to scratch anything taking the dash apart...



I think this was one of the door switches (pass). You can see the soldering that had to be done directly onto the board.



This is the HVAC. You can see the 11x Warm White LED's. If you look closely you can see the 2x I have for the fan speed. One points up a little and the other points down. Really filled in that light behind that button. I also have RED, and BLUE LED's for the hot/cold dials.



This is the Radio. The resistors have to be oriented a specific way or the buttons will not work once its put back together.



I wrapped the Blue sheet with Aluminum tape to help reflect the LED's light. Its not in the picture, but I also aluminum tape wrapped the wave guide that goes in the top right, and the one on the left.



This part of the Radio I lined the plate with Aluminum foil to also help with light reflectance.



This is the LED board on the passenger side of the rear view mirror. Each side of the mirror has a small board with 6x 5mm LED's on it. No need for resistors here. Just put in new LED's.



I wrapped the traction control wave guide with Aluminum foil tape.



This is the traction control board with the new LED's mounted.



Here is the other side of the traction control unit where the LED's solder to the board.



This is the Trunk/Fog light board. I put 2x LED's in a single spot to help get more light in there. 1 LED was not enough.



Here is a close up of the 16 SMT LED board I installed under the hood. Its designed for 12v so no resistor required. I just installed some female spade clips to the red/black wires and connected it to the + and - in the housing.

 

Thanks so much man for all those close up pics!

 

I've got a dumb question..

How do I know which side is positive and negative on the PC boards?

I've decided that I want to go ahead and solder all of mine in instead of using the twist locks and just don't know how I'm supposed to tell which lead to solder on which side of the board?

Say on the window switches, DIC, HUD, fog light and traction control panel?

Thank you,

Donnie

 

Sorry, I don't understand what this means..??

"Bench Testing Pinouts;

Hot Ground Notes
Driver’s Door 22 21
Fog/Trunk 7 8
HUD 6 7
DIC 10 9
TC/AH 1(10) 2 (9)
Passenger Door* 2 1 "

 

Basically what this means is that the wire connector that connects to each component has pins (pin out #'s)

See the back of this component.. I don't remember but I think it was the HUD or DIC.... See how the pins are labeled 1-10 ?



For example.... the DIC uses pin 10 as 12v+, and Pin 9 as the -. When you first remove the DIC use a 9v battery and put the + lead on pin 10, and the - lead on pin 9. This should light up all your lights on the DIC. Remove all the bulbs in the DIC. Ohm check from Pin 10 to find all the + sides of each bulb locations. Start soldering the + sides of your LED's to the + sides of the blub location on the board. Then solder the - side.

Tims information below..... RED is +12v, and Black is the -.

Bench Testing Pinouts;

Hot Ground Notes
Driver’s Door 22 21
Fog/Trunk 7 8
HUD 6 7
DIC 10 9
TC/AH 1(10) 2 (9)
Passenger Door* 2 1
HVAC C5, C12, C16 C1 Or hook up to the back of any bulb
Radio Hook up to the back of any bulb

Go very SLOW... and be VERY methodical when your doing this. You don't want to cross connections and short something out... I ohm checked everything each time I installed an LED.... then I verified it lit up with the 9v battery.

Hope this helps.
Toque

 

Anyone have any pics with resistors soldered to the led's..?