Hello festive chaps...Ive fitted 3 Stack gauges to my pillar pod and they have built-in LED white lights but they are far too bright:thumbdown: I cant wire them into the dimmer system as then the speedo lights become so dim i cant see them so my question is can i put some kind of a resistor in-line to reduce the brightness of the gauges??? and what value will that resistor be???.

Don't know if it helps and may sound silly, but when I done my Speedo dials in blue leds I had bright spots, on the dials instead of spreading the light out,

So I soldered my bulbs in facing the other way, and it reflects off the back into the dials,

So it looks more even,

I put a lot more leds in and it's still quite bright, but more like vw golf etc.

 

Maybe if u can get to bulbs turn them round and try. My leds were silly voltage think somewhere round a couple of volts, and needed resistor to run 12v,

So can't help if they can be lowered to make them dimmer,

 

But saying that mine dim with the stock dimmer switch, maybe u could get a separate dimmer switch and hide it out the way to just dim the ones u want...

hi znut

 

Actually I have this same problem as I have those pillar guages fitted and they are bloody awful when driving at night

 

If you leave it with me over the xmas break I was going to look at the possibility of getting the guages to dim automatically when the side lights are on

 

I also wanted to look into using dual LED illumination to get the guages to change at night to red, for example

 

dicky

Edited December 24, 201212 yr by dicky96

cheers lads..i cant get into the gauges as they are a fixed LED and not changable.

Do you have a separate feed for the illumination, or is the light on the gauge when the ignition is on?

Thats what I need to look at groover

 

From when I had my gauges hanging loose while looking for that targa leak I spotted three wires going to the top guage

 

Now i didn't look into it so one could be for illumination and another to send a varying volatege to the guage (to get the needle to move) plus of course ground on the third

 

Or conceivable it could be 12V plus ground and some control signal on the third that the guage monitors to move the needle (electronics built into the guage)

 

From that I guess you can take the answer as 'I don't know'....... yet.... but suspect they have a separate illumination feed which makes life easier

Do you have a separate feed for the illumination, or is the light on the gauge when the ignition is on?

 

ive got a seperate feed Graham

Then you can put a resistor in line to dim it down, Dicky96 can probably work out the best resistance, but you could start at 470ohm and take it up from there, probably a 1k (1000 ohm) may be just about right as thats what is in the pods to dim the on/off leds.

Then you can put a resistor in line to dim it down, Dicky96 can probably work out the best resistance, but you could start at 470ohm and take it up from there, probably a 1k (1000 ohm) may be just about right as thats what is in the pods to dim the on/off leds.

 

:thumbup1: cheers

I was thinking what about one of these maybe from an old car stereo amplifier, hide it up somewhere behind a panel etc.

 

 

Or would it not work.

You could wire all tree to a variable resistor pot or as above

If u type potentiometer in eBay lots come up cheap and can get the knobs too.

 

Really cheap,

Be careful guys you are powering several LEDs to light three guages so wattage disipated by the resistor is important to consider otherwise it will overheat

if them gauges have dim input all you need to wire 12+ to this imput from your dash cluster so when you turn your lights on at night the gauges will dim

if them gauges have dim input all you need to wire 12+ to this imput from your dash cluster so when you turn your lights on at night the gauges will dim

 

it does,nt have that facility..i dont think anyway

 

:wink:

do you have a back pic of them gauges ? mine ones has power input sender input and dim input

I know what you are saying Rolandas, you can wire the light feed for the gauges to a light output from the dash, ie clock, cig lighter or dash feed and it will dim the light source via the dimmer. I tried this with my this with my gauges and worked, but no good for me as they are led segments instead of a needle and they wouldnt work due to lack of voltage, but dont see why it wouldnt work for normal analogue type gauges.

my gauges are digital

my gauges are digital

 

Then you might not be able to do it, as the digital readout needs the 12v voltage and im sure in most cases the illumination is part of the same circuit.

Then you might not be able to do it, as the digital readout needs the 12v voltage and im sure in most cases the illumination is part of the same circuit.

 

yeas i can :) i do have 12+ input for gauges ...signal input and ground and dim input .... so when you connect 12+ supply to this imput the gauges dim

can post some pic :)

gauges wiring

 

 

Gauges

 

Oh yes of course, those gauges. Yes you can wire into the dash circuit to dim the illumination.

The zed dimmer wont dim these LED gauges i have...ive put an inline switch on the ilumination feed for now to enable me to turn the lights off at night. Who the fk thought it was a good idea to have built-in LED,s as a light sorce i dont know:headvswal What ime going to do is delete the feed wire and drill small bulb holder holes at the back and go the normal route with normal bulbs which will enable me to dim the buggers from the dash.

The zed dimmer wont dim these LED gauges i have...ive put an inline switch on the ilumination feed for now to enable me to turn the lights off at night. Who the fk thought it was a good idea to have built-in LED,s as a light sorce i dont know:headvswal What ime going to do is delete the feed wire and drill small bulb holder holes at the back and go the normal route with normal bulbs which will enable me to dim the buggers from the dash.

 

The z dimmer wont dim them ... and any resistors wont dim them ... you need to suplay +12 volt to dim input and they`ll dim to half brightness ... you can only have full or half

The z dimmer wont dim them ... and any resistors wont dim them ... you need to suplay +12 volt to dim input and they`ll dim to half brightness ... you can only have full or half

 

dont have this on back only light feed wire