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Door LED mod help??

Old Jan 30, 2005 | 12:36 PM
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Default Door LED mod help??

Well, last night I took out the window switch panels in my week old 99 FRC and put the LED's in them exactly like the article said and once I got done they worked but they were really dim. They were actually dimmer than the stock lights. What could i have done wrong? I used LED's from lsdiodes.com I bought 470ohm resistors and followed the directions to a T. Any help would be appreciated.
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Old Jan 30, 2005 | 01:21 PM
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Are you sure they are all lit? Sometimes they need to be turned 180*. Mine are bright and I used the 3mm ones.
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Old Jan 30, 2005 | 01:41 PM
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The best thing is to test them with the switch outside of the door panel. Look at the back of the switch where the LEDs are. You can tell if the LED is lit. Mine are blue and very bright but I did have to flip several around before they all worked.
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Old Jan 30, 2005 | 09:53 PM
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I seen the article, and thought it was a cool idea. But I think you ugys are spending way too much time in your car at night.

lol....
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Old Jan 30, 2005 | 10:48 PM
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I just did mine on Friday night and I ordered them from the same place also. They worked perfectly, I would have to agree that you have to turn them 180 deg.
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Old Jan 30, 2005 | 11:10 PM
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Where did you guys find the instructions to do this mod???
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Old Jan 30, 2005 | 11:10 PM
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Well, I double checked and they were in the correct way. The light is just super dim for some reason. I have turned them back to stock for now. I'm gonna get some extra parts and try again so that I have a modded set and a stock set. Thanks for the help though.
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Old Feb 1, 2005 | 03:14 AM
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Originally Posted by kingrobby25
Well, I double checked and they were in the correct way. The light is just super dim for some reason. I have turned them back to stock for now. I'm gonna get some extra parts and try again so that I have a modded set and a stock set. Thanks for the help though.
They should be bright. Three possibilities: (1) check your interior light brightness setting on your dash...(2) double check your resistors for 470 ohms...higher resistance will reduce LED brightness. (3) check to make sure you purchased the correct LEDs: 3mm Blue - 5500mcd

Let us know what it was.
Regards,
John
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Old Feb 1, 2005 | 11:05 AM
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Old Feb 1, 2005 | 12:35 PM
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as was said above, your LEDs might be a lower luminescence than others, to you need more current flowing through them. if that is the case, just use a smaller resistor. you just hook them up to a power supply (constant 12V - like from the battery) to play with resistor/LED combinations.

- john
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Old Feb 1, 2005 | 04:42 PM
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Originally Posted by freefall
as was said above, your LEDs might be a lower luminescence than others, to you need more current flowing through them. if that is the case, just use a smaller resistor. you just hook them up to a power supply (constant 12V - like from the battery) to play with resistor/LED combinations.

- john
Wait! Please be careful here. You can't just reduce the resistance until you get the brightness you want! LEDs are specified for a certain current flow. In this case the 3 mm LEDs are 20mA @ 3.3V typical and 30mA @3.8V maximums. You should not exceed 30mA. Please refer to the following tutorial and plug in the numbers for "Single LED" application. Keep in mind that when your engine is running, there's typically about 14 volts there and not just 12V.

http://metku.net/index.html?sect=vie...calc/index_eng



Last edited by Cscokd; Feb 1, 2005 at 04:50 PM.
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Old Feb 1, 2005 | 10:26 PM
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I got them from this site: http://www.spdkilz.com/techtipleddoor.html

The directions were great.

Steve
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Old Feb 1, 2005 | 11:11 PM
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thats looking really good guys!
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Old Feb 1, 2005 | 11:30 PM
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Originally Posted by Cscokd
Wait! Please be careful here. You can't just reduce the resistance until you get the brightness you want!
Correct - not exceeding the spec was something I thought was a given...
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