sometimes I wish I had never converted my HVAC over. although I went for it when 2 of my stock bulbs had burned out. yet another of my HVAC LEDs is starting to go bad. I'll have to pull it out and get it replaced...again. this is probably at least the 10th LED that has failed in that stupid thing. they fail so often that sometimes I'll replace 2 because a second will fail before I get the time to replace the first one that failed.

so, I've been using blue LEDs from oznium with the recommended resistor rating. doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results can be described as the definition of crazy. just wondering what combinations others are using that have had good luck with. I think I need a different type of LED or a different resistor value. I could experiment or do calculations, but rather than trial and error I'd just like to hear what combinations seem to work for others!

 

Talk 2 TSTAR..!

 

figured he'd chime in in short order

 

What value resistors are you using? If you are using the recommended 470 ohm resistor from Oznium that may be your problem. I did the math for the proper value years ago when I did mine. Came up with 560ohm for the proper value to use with White LEDs. From Oznium's site the White and Blue LED's have the same specs.

Now I have had LEDs go out but not like you have described.

Gary

 

do you know what current draw you ended up reading from the LED? I'm using blue. I usually make these calculations for myself but since they had published a resistor value I just went along with their recommendation. I wonder if they did their calculations based on 12V if they went with more. I usually design 12V circuits to handle 16V. I've seen my B+ get just over 15 before.

 

My calculations were based on the published specs for the components and using 13.8v for B+. I also rounded up to the next highest standard resistor value. The published values for White and Blue LEDs from Oznium are 20ma and Vtyp 3.5v. Using these values I came up with a resistor value of 515 ohm and decided to use the standard value of 560 ohm.

Gary

 

Hard to believe your LEDs are going out like that! They should last a long time. One thing to remember is to make sure they have good stand off, do not solder them close to the board as they are heat sensitive and if this is not done they will blow. I did mine a month ago red and blue and so far no LEDs have burned out and I expect none to do so in the future.

 

Mike, I use 510 ohm resistors for my blue LED mods. I've had only two of my LED's in the HVAC go out in over a year. One actually burned out the other was simply a solder connection. I try to buy in bulk and use a supplier I found on the auction site.
I seldom use Oznium LED products anymore as their customer service is lacking when dealing with things like this...

 

I have used ozniims neo wedge leds in hvacs and radio's with great results. Yes, they are more expensive but it also saves me time which is $$ to me! One problem I have had with them lately is the quality of the leds. I also seem to get a different product each time I order. For that reason I have stopped using them. I going to try autoluminations neo wedge's and see if their quality is any better.

 

Hey Tom!
That's who I buy from, almost exclusively now-a-days.
Chris at autoluminations customer service goes out of his way to help me when ever I have big orders, issues or questions.

 

I hope I don't see what you all are seeing. LEDS should last a very long time and the last thing I want to do is go back in and replace LEDS in my HVAC! I am needing to go back in and tone mine down as they are still brighter than the rest of my lights. I flattened the heads to get a better dispersment and tried TSTRS idea of using a black marker on the tips of the LEDS to tone them down. Since my lights are all red I have some red electrical tape and am going to try to put the tape on the inside of the switches; should work. OZNIUM has been a great resource and seller, I have had no bad LEDS (over 120 purchased) and I recieved them in quick order, for me they are my place to purchase LEDS!
For these to go out premature tells me most likely there is a install issue or a power surge issue, maybe when the engine is on you are getting higher voltage or a spike when turning engine on (just a thought). Poor solder or some sort of bleeding to gnd could also impact LED life. As you already probably know the HVAC has the LEDS wired in two fashions. The switch, temp, driver and pasenger LEDS are in parallel so any voltage problem will effect all those indicators. The switch "DOT" LEDS function when you push the button and these are in seperate indicators (probably common ground). Which LEDS are you having problems with? Is it the same one each time or different? If it is the ones in parallel I would check very stringently the solder connections and both boards for any contamination that could cause shorts (a splatter of solder or a clipped lead on the board or excess solder point on one of the LEDS solder pads or a resistor lead/wire from the LED too close to the board and causing intermittent problems).
Anyway good luck!
I am like all of you though, spent way too much time on this mod!

 

Maybe I'm lucky but I have not had any issues with LED's blowing (yet)...

I'm sure you saw my post earlier this year on the topic
http://forums.corvetteforum.com/c5-g...hancments.html

I did mostly White LED's..... but I did Blue and Red for the AC dials.
White and Blue LED's require 470 Ohm resistors.
Red LED's require 560 Ohm resistors.

As we all know.... LED's will blow if they see higher than recommended voltage. Maybe trying a higher resistor to drop the voltage might help. Maybe your getting voltage spikes for some reason too ? What voltage are you seeing on the LED's right now ?

Toque

 

I just have bad luck! my car eats LEDs for breakfast. I know my way around a soldering iron, its not an installation issue.

the LEDs that I find failing are all over the board. I've had some that have never failed, I've had some which have failed more than once, but ultimately there doesn't seem to be any particular pattern to the failures.

when they fail they start flickering, eventually it will go out.

my car has run with a higher than usual B+, as I said I've seen it up to 15V before.
considering B+=15, Vtyp=3.5, Atyp=20ma then I come up with 575ohms. if those numbers were accurate then the recommended 470 is way off. that's going to be annoying if I start doing it right and end up with uneven light levels. of course at this rate give it another year or two and they'll all be replaced anyway.

 

I've had pretty good success so far. I use 470 ohm for the cold side of the color spectrum and 560 for the warm side of the spectrum. White is 510 ohms. So far no issues with the 5mm The little 3mm ones are the only ones giving me trouble. Never failed but they seem to be in a different way since they don't need resistors added. The - sign is consistant facing the right on the bulb side of the board but on the back side of the board the arrow points to different sides like these are installed in series.
Mine work, but I constantly had to change the LED around because it wasn't lighting up. I have Orange on, Blue fresh air and recirculate, and green front and back. Looks kind of cool with the different colors. I know on ALL of the 5mm LED's, the top is + on the bulb side. Does anyone know if the + is on the right side of the 3mm or the left?

I would like to buy some boards and temp ***** if anyone has them so I can experiment!!!

 

I replaced all of those also, not a single issue with any of them however.
you can tell by the original LEDs, there's a flat side, that's the negative. I think they are all on the same side IIRC.

 

i just received my neo wedge order from autolumination and their leds are heads above oznium's. Rather than a lame little resistor soldered to the leg of the led like oznium's, these have a little board mounted resistor and is very sturdy. The oznium leds fell apart when I took them out of the base. Very poor quality. The autolumination leds are a little more expensive (2.99)VS (2.49) FOR ozniums but the quality is superior. I know the discreet leds are very cheap but it takes a little time to build them and tuck the resistors away so they dont interfere with the buttons etc.
Autolumination also has some 30% brighter neo's for 3.49 but they are glued into the bases. I had to carefully cut the bases away to use those. They do work where a little more brightness is needed such as behind the base, treble and equalizer controll *****. Just a little info for you who want to use the neo's.

 

oznium used to have the little board with the surface mount resistor. they changed it a while back. at the same time their blue changed, it got brigher and a shade lighter...now I have LEDs that don't all match.

 

Hey Michael!! How you been?? Fire season is bad this year seems like.
Autolumination for me too from now on.

 

I talked to them about the changes in their leds and asked for a call back to explain why the changes and if they are going to be offering better leds. No response back. I used the ones from autolumination 4 years ago and they are still working great!

 

good to hear. I've bought a bunch of stuff from them also. I stopped when I encountered several instances of negative feedback about them, mostly about orders being filled incorrectly. if they did have issues it sounds like they've stepped it up. I personally never had any problems with them and their support has been pretty good. their web site still looks like something out of the 90's, but they seem to have good products. has anyone used the 10W 3157's yet? I just discovered those today. been on the list for a long time to swap out my front signal lights, they are LEDs (from autolumination, about 4 years ago) but way back then they didn't have nearly the impressive array of products. I doubt the ones I have now are more than 1W total. if they really have a 10W LED bulb...that must be near the brightness of the stock bulbs!