Someone on eBay calling it an inverter doesn't make it an inverter. If they called it a french-canadian woodchuck, would you think it was brown and furry? I still maintain that it probably isn't inverting crap. But it sounds like a cool name so the company that made it decided to call it that. Do you know what an inverter does? That eBay link also describes using a fuse as wattage limiting device with a 10 amp fuse. That alone tells me the manufacturer or the retailer is a crackpot.

So you don't have directions? Instead of looking them up to do it right, you winged it? Again, you're lucky it hasn't burned up yet. I don't know what part of this concept you don't get. If you want to keep screwing around and hooking things up the way they shouldn't be, knock yourself out. I tried to explain that the way you're going about this is not a good idea and what the results could be. But do it your way. You might get lucky and hook it up right. Or you might need a new gauge cluster. I don't really care either way.

 

Then instead of b*tching how about you give me some advice on how you think i should hook it up. Obviously your a book of electrical knowledge.

 

I have electrons in place of white blood cells.

I think you should hook it up exactly as it is says to hook it up and DO NOT, i say again DO NOT deviate from that.

Red wire to a +12 source that comes on when your old dash lights would come on. This would be the parking lights or the +12 into the old dimmer. You can not use the output of the old dimmer. You can not use the old dimmer to control the new lights. You want a +12 source that is hot when the lights need to be on and nothing more.

Black wire to a ground. Self explanatory.

The new dimmer it came with is now the only thing you can use to control the dash light intensity. That dimmer is a potentiometer (variable resistor) which is connected to the circuity inside the black box. You can not connect it to something else. Find a nice place to mount it because your stuck with it. Or you could set it for a nice level and hide it somewhere. But it has to be connected and you can't substitute something else.

The black box is likely a VOLTAGE REGULATOR. It is not inverting or converting anything. It is regulating the voltage and current to the LED's that backlight the gauges. You can not just simply pump variable voltage into LED's like you can with a light bulb. So that black box is probably taking your 12 volts in, regulating it down to 5v and varying the current based on your new dimmer **** setting.

If the thing is installed correctly like this and it still doesn't work right, then it is broken or its just junk. This can be expected when you buy on eBay. Sucks but thats life.

 

FINALLY you post something that is worth my while. And i now see what you mean by that black box not being an inverter.

Just so you know my dad (who has been working with appliances for at least 15yrs) and i tried testing it again today by tapping into one of the fuses (it was a constant +12v...forgot which one) and found that the "voltage regulator" was still getting pretty hot and eventually caused the lights to flicker again. So i am going to return the gauges and get a new one and give it one last try.

Worse comes to worse i'll pull the lights off the gauges and do the painting mod...as done by trevor https://www.ranger-forums.com/forum2...ht=gauge+color