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#1
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Anyone ever try the LCD bulbs?
Fellow Diesellors,
My 1987 300D Turbo cluster lights are so dim, I can barely see the gauges at night. I've tried cleaning and replacing the bulbs. The old 260E's lights were really bright. Anyone out there ever try replacing the bulbs with a couple of LCDs. I know that they don't get very hot so melting of the plastic would not be an issue.... The Tenor Man |
#2
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You mean LEDs? It's possible, but a little more complex. You'd need a simple circuit to do current limiting. If you want to be able to dim them, that's a bit more complex. Take a look at this:
http://www.dansdata.com/caselight.htm It's a basic primer on rigging up LEDs. The 5mm variety are more than ample for the purpose of lighting a dashboard. He also has a writeup on using Luxeon Stars, but that would kill your night vision.
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1978 Ford F-150 351M 2002 Kia Spectra 1.8l 5-sp 1985 Volkswagen Scirocco 8V 1.8l 5sp 1985 MB 300D Turbo California "Die Natur verabscheut Vakuum" |
#3
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I went this route before. 4 LED's per bulb and they didnt last. one side "burned out" completly and the other lost two of them and the remaining two only flickered. They were in for about two months before I went back to regular bulbs.
Find a newer 124 to get the cluster housing from and swap that out. Mine was melted so I just bought one from another member, but post an ad in the parts section, I had many people email me with them for sale.
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1980 500SE/AMG Euro 1981 500SEL Euro 1982 380SEL 1983 300TD 1983 500SEC/AMG Euro 1984 500SEC 1984 300TD Euro 1986 190E 2.3-16 1986 190E 2.3 1987 300D 1997 C36 AMG 2003 C320T 4matic past: 1969 280SE 4.5 | 1978 240D | 1978 300D | 1981 300SD | 1981 300SD | 1982 300CD | 1983 300CD | 1983 300SD | 1983 380SEC | 1984 300D | 1984 300D | 1984 300TD | 1984 500SEL | 1984 300SD | 1985 300D | 1986 300E | 1986 560SEL | 1986 560SEL/Carat | 1987 560SEC | 1991 300D 2.5 | 2006 R350 |
#4
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I'm betting you didn't use a current-limiting resistor. If you did, you could get something like 100,000 hours of use out of an LED.
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1978 Ford F-150 351M 2002 Kia Spectra 1.8l 5-sp 1985 Volkswagen Scirocco 8V 1.8l 5sp 1985 MB 300D Turbo California "Die Natur verabscheut Vakuum" |
#5
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these were direct plug in bulb shaped LED's. i.e. remove bulb, plug in bulb of LED's. I even asked first before I bought them if they would work with what I was going to use them for and of course the answer was yes.
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1980 500SE/AMG Euro 1981 500SEL Euro 1982 380SEL 1983 300TD 1983 500SEC/AMG Euro 1984 500SEC 1984 300TD Euro 1986 190E 2.3-16 1986 190E 2.3 1987 300D 1997 C36 AMG 2003 C320T 4matic past: 1969 280SE 4.5 | 1978 240D | 1978 300D | 1981 300SD | 1981 300SD | 1982 300CD | 1983 300CD | 1983 300SD | 1983 380SEC | 1984 300D | 1984 300D | 1984 300TD | 1984 500SEL | 1984 300SD | 1985 300D | 1986 300E | 1986 560SEL | 1986 560SEL/Carat | 1987 560SEC | 1991 300D 2.5 | 2006 R350 |
#6
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Something other than the fact that they were LED's was wrong... the connection at the base, ground... something.. because most of the new cars are using them... and the traffic lights at intersections have them also....they are very long life and now are available in very bright and multi colors...
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#7
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If you have a bulb failure warning light, then using LED bulbs will bring it on unless you fit resistors into the relavant wiring.
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#8
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Quote:
Follow the guidelines and the math outlined in the link I put in the second post and you can't go wrong. This has got me thinking. I'd love to replace all my dashboard lighting with LEDs. Even the climate control stuff.
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1978 Ford F-150 351M 2002 Kia Spectra 1.8l 5-sp 1985 Volkswagen Scirocco 8V 1.8l 5sp 1985 MB 300D Turbo California "Die Natur verabscheut Vakuum" |
#9
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" You have to put a resistor in series with the LED to limit current flow so the don't run away on you"--Kynetex
UNLESS they have them built in... for example : www.globalsources.com/manufacturers/Diode-LED.html www.superbrightleds.com/led_info.htm www.aeroelectric.com/articles/leds3.pdf |
#10
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Quote:
LED sidelights I have the bulb warning message, I simply need to wire a suitable resistor in parallel to each bulb. Its fairly easy to calculate, normally the bulbs are 6W - the LEDs are much less, 1.2W IIRC. The voltage across each bulb is 12V. So the normal bulbs would draw 0.5 amps. The LED bulbs draw about 0.1 amps. A decent wirewound resistor that can withstand about 5W of power is all thats required. Unfortunately I'm about to eat a plate of sausages so I'll leave the parallel resistance calculations to someone else! |
#11
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Quote:
If you put a resistor in parallel with the load you're only going to be creating heat and doing nothing else.
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1978 Ford F-150 351M 2002 Kia Spectra 1.8l 5-sp 1985 Volkswagen Scirocco 8V 1.8l 5sp 1985 MB 300D Turbo California "Die Natur verabscheut Vakuum" |
#12
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LED's are good for the instrument cluster
Quote:
The t1 bulbs are also a drop in for other dash lighting.
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Mercury is a boxer 1984 300d 1999 Prelude Medici road bike Klein touring bike Klein mtn bike |
#13
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That's an awesome site. Thanks for posting it.
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1978 Ford F-150 351M 2002 Kia Spectra 1.8l 5-sp 1985 Volkswagen Scirocco 8V 1.8l 5sp 1985 MB 300D Turbo California "Die Natur verabscheut Vakuum" |
#14
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Quote:
Much better to stick a 5W resistor in parallel of the correct resistance for the LED bulb - the bulb gets the 12V it needs, and enough current, and the resistor draws enough current for the car's computer not to get confused. A bit of heat is wasted yes, but its only going to be similar to what is emitted from a normal H6N bulb? |
#15
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Quote:
As far as the series resistor goes, you have to pick the correct value. Too little resistance and you can kill the LED. Too much it it's dim.
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1978 Ford F-150 351M 2002 Kia Spectra 1.8l 5-sp 1985 Volkswagen Scirocco 8V 1.8l 5sp 1985 MB 300D Turbo California "Die Natur verabscheut Vakuum" |
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