This is my attempt at soldering the circuit board for the mod. There are four magnetic relays on the board, two for the driver's door and two for the passenger side. The markings are just for my help in soldering connections. The longer wires actually are all tied to connectors for removal of the board if maintenance is needed (or if it doesn't work!).

UPDATE: Added a project box. I had to trim up the circuit board a bit, but I was able to get everything in the box and I've run the wires through a rubber grommet to prevent fraying.

 

Very nice, Frank! That will make it easier for sure.

It's going to be a nice write-up when you get it done.

 

Hi John,
I hope so. I don't take photos when I work, so this stage will be: "Read the schematic, solder, viola, done, haha." I sure hope this thing works, because I know nothing about soldering and it was quite literally a trial by fire, well, maybe melted solder.

 

I'll be honest, the big concerns for myself are the strength of the LEDs in the lock pin holes and the strength of this system. I don't want to install it and find myself every so often having to work on it. I might go to a JY and just test ideas out on a door before messing with my own!

 

The LED's won't be a big problem, I don't think.

I'll give you a tip on using those perf boards: they are coated with a thin layer of lacquer to keep the copper unoxidized until you use them.

Now, you CAN just melt/burn it off when you're soldering. However, that requires you to keep the heat on a bit longer than is healthy for the adhesive that holds the copper pads to the board.

So: the general idea is to take "scotch-brite" pads or other mild abrasive (brass wire brush, very fine sandpaper, etc.) to remove the lacquer prior to working the board. You'll find the pads solder much quicker that way.

Overall, your soldering looks like it "wetted" the pads and wires well, and I don't see any obvious problems. Pays to watch carefully for accidental "bridging" on close runs. Commercial PCB's have solder masking coatings that help prevent bridging (essential for "wave soldering"), but perfboards usually are not so coated.

 

I made darn sure there was no "unauthorized" bridging on the boards. I used a razor blade and this tool resembling an angled flat head screwdriver to cut a few and adjust the solder to prevent bridging. I'm learning how to do this, but I found I'm pretty terrible at it for the time being!

 

As long as the connections are good, I wouldn't expect any reliability issues. Mine hasn't need a thing in the way of "maintenance" in the ~2 years it's been in operation.

 

Good connection for me thus far is: things are connected and are not loose. I hope this works!

 

is there a how-to for this mod floating around somewhere?

are there different color combination leds, or just green/red?

 

Cant wait for the write up.

 

There is no mod floating around for this. My intention is to make a write up for this. John Griggs created this mod, and Bob Wenzinger upgraded it with dual bi-polar (red-green) LEDs. I've been working with rwenzing on gathering the information and attempting this myself to make it work. If I am successful (and I'll have to be since I'll lose my locking rods on my truck!) I intend a writeup. It won't be full of pictures of me soldering all the little pieces, but it will have schematics, parts lists and the other essentials for making this work. I hope to have it all done by mid-May.

 

Frank is going to write a "comprehensive" how-to. I've posted some on it, and so has Bob. I did it initially, but then Bob really improved it. Now Frank has offered to make a nice how-to for it.

Here's some topics on it:

https://www.ranger-forums.com/forum2...ead.php?t=4386
https://www.ranger-forums.com/forum2...ad.php?t=11781

I think I originally posted on it at the late, lamented Gen-Edge.

 

I have some of the information for a writeup, such as a rough parts list (really the essentials) and a schematic. If you want it, I can send it.

 

If you'd like me to play "editor" and look it over constructively, I'd be happy too. You should include Bob as well.

 

You read my mind. But stay out of it from 7PM to 11PM. That's Frank's time!

 

Update bump

 

If anyone wants info on the relays, here you are: http://www.allelectronics.com/cgi-bi...PC_MOUNT_.html

 

Looks very cool, hurry up on the how to lol. I wanna do this.

 

At first i was like wait, what ? Whats the point, what are we doing ? Who did what with where how ?

Oh thats very cool.

 

Realize that to install this involves removing the door panels, the boots by the doors, the instrument cluster, the center bezel, the passenger airbag and the glove box. Gimme a few more weeks folks! Just kidding, but just thinking about the wiring access, it involves a lot of panel removal. That being said, I'm planning several other mods to coincide. Might as well if I have all the panels off the truck's dash and doors!

 

Good point on multiple mods at once. I am going to talk to Bob tommorrow about this a little and see whats involved. Doesnt appear to be too difficult, I have some LED mirrors that I could install at the same time which would be cool.

 

I have the schematic Bob sent and I can send you links for the parts. Some of them are from All Electronics, some are from Radio Shack. This was my first attemt at soldering, to which I discovered that I did it all wrong, so I might find myself building another of these! Fortunately, parts aren't that expensive, the relays and the board costing the most.

 

Here's the schematic and start of a write-up with parts. Please realize that I don't know if my really half-arsed soldered circuit board works. I intend to hook things up to test in a few weeks.

Anyways, here are some of the basics: http://www.cardomain.com/ride/2231002/6

 

I really wanna do this mod, has there been any updates?

 

I'm on a vacation. There will hopefully be updates in a couple of weeks.