when you did your LED conversion on your pods, did you solder the LED directly into the circut board or did you put the necessary resistor or wahtever on there too? What type of LED should one get?

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I have Lived and Learned to LOVE... MY Z
Thats like saying that Elvis and I have alot in common because we both took a dump in Tennessee in 1977. ~ Ballistic

Lum: Yes I did solder the illumination LEDs right to the pads where the bulb (base) contacts touch. In some cases I needed to use several White LEDs to get the illumination to spread evenly.

Over the last few years - seems like they've made good technology progress with not only brighter LEDs but ones that illuminate over a wider spread. Some folks have just taken very bright LEDs and filed the top domes flat causing the light to disperse that way.

If I were to do this job again today -- I'd either re-base the bulbs with LEDs (just to make the retrofit easier) or only solder a single LEDs onto the boards using brighter units designed to disperse the light better.

At the time -- found the 5mm white LEDs on eBay (came from Japan). But they were a little harder to get back then (the really bright ones). Here's an example of what's out there today (a few years back 8-10k mcd were the brightest) - these seem almost dangerous (from a direct eye issue):

[cgi.ebay.com]


I used just 1 resistor for all the illumination LEDs - found the common power feed point on the pods circuit boards, cut the trace and bridged it with a 1/4w 1000 ohm resistor. White LEDs don't require all the much current for good illumiation - 2mA each or so. On the climiate pod (if I'm remembering correctly?) - had to install the resistor on the cable that runs from the daughterboard to the main climate board - was the only place to insert it w/out too much of a hassle. Daughterboard is where the rear pod wiring harness connectors are soldered...



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit was 2007:07:08:16:25:58.