I have been working on a switch panel for my fog lights on my safari bar, and some lights i will be adding for the future, and finally finished it Tuesday. Also yesterday I got some LED bulbs in the mail from Jp07 and swapped out my bulbs in my HVAC. its looking pretty sweet, i cant wait to get the cluster done, although its going to be a lot harder then the HVAC, I`ll get pics up when im done!









the LEDs on the switch panel are bright as all hell, so hopefully they die down a bit, i might make a new face plate on the panel though, there are several defects with this one, like some dings, and un-level screws on top, although seeing them in the truck, they aren`t as bad as the pic makes them out to be, but for now, its good enough for me!

 

Good luck with the LED's dimming, I don't think they work that way. You could use something like the nite shade to dim them down though, I know hobby shops sell small bottles of tint like that. How are those lights at night though? I know my LED switches can be killer at night being so bright.

 

Paint the switch panel black and it will look cleaner IMO. Looks good!

 

LED's don't die down. In fact, they will remain that bright for about 11,000 hours on average. You can't just lower the voltage like a dimmer either. You need to limit current to dim them, which requires electronics.

 

Why cant you just put a resister in the power source?

 

Because that isn't how LED's work. You dim light bulbs by reducing voltage, which is exactly what resistors do. LED's have a set voltage they require to function. Reducing that voltage will just shut it off. Increasing it will blow it up. You dim them by limiting the amps with the voltage staying the same.

I'm in the middle of writing procedures for the FD. When I'm done, I'll to find some schematics to do this and post them.

 

there is a resistor on the LEDs, its required since they are only 4 volts. i could try niteshade on them, i got some left over from when i did my tails. as far as painting the plate goes, i am thinking about it, i want to paint my whole interior, i want it black/silver accent.

i won't be having them on all the time though, they are mainly off road/out in butt 'f' nowhere use. ive driven with them on already, its not too bad. but they light the cab up

 

i put a dab of transparent black paint on an led switch before...the blue color was BAM in my face. it help a hole lot. heads up.

 

i think im going to try that, that vlue is super bright

 

Looks aiight, but way to bright.

 

looks good. I wish I didn't get a double den head unit. that looks flush and clean.

 

Jp7, not Jp07

=)

drop the voltage on your LEDs to less than the nominal voltage and you will make them dimmer without ruining them. I did this on my Evo when I put my liscense plate LED setup in and it worked perfect. I didn't want cops to be able to see it as it was MEGA bright. Now that the car is off the road I am wiring it to my ECU pinout so that when my foot goes down WOT it cuts power to the plate lights, and you can't see my plate (unless i hit a switch to disable that)

If those blue LED's are the same as the 360 degree ones you sent me they are WAY too bright for your eyeballs to be looking at naked like that. That is why whenever I do any LED work I always make sure you can only see the light, not the bulb itself.

 

looks good, might so some night shade, and it will tone it down a little

 

i think it looks good but it would be nice if you could dim them alittle

 

my bad jp.
they are way bright, i'm going to try that niteshade sometime soon, i just haven't gotten around to it yet, i still have half a can laying around form my tails.

for the HVAC panel, if i throw some red paint in bedind the heat indicator, will it shine through, or is it basically stuck at purple like right now?

 

The red is on the outside, so you have no chance really of getting it to look anything besides purple.... I mean, it never really bothered me on mine.

 

doesn't bother me either, was just curious, is the cluster going to do the same? (i still haven't gotten around to doing it yet :()

 

yes, its the exact same style.

 

those blue LEDs ont he switch panel must be as annoying as the bright white undimmable light on my **** on my Sony headunit.

Looks sweet though,I dig the HVAC bulb mod.