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Led conversion


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As we’re locked down, I’m taking the opportunity to change my  dashboard lights to led. I’m intending to keep my dynamo. Any words of warning or handy tips? For the record my rheostat acts  more like an on/off switch and when on they are about as bright as a Toc H lamp - in other words, worse than useless. It is safer not to look at them in the dark to be honest.
 

Andy
 

Edited by Ocheye
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No problem Andy, you can just change the lot. The Rheostat won't do anything at all and will remain an on/off switch. Just make sure the LEDs you get are the right polarity for your car. 

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49 minutes ago, RobH said:

No problem Andy, you can just change the lot. The Rheostat won't do anything at all and will remain an on/off switch. Just make sure the LEDs you get are the right polarity for your car. 

No probs. Ordered from Duncan at Classic Car LEDs and I had to specify polarity. Are the instruments easily removed?

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Andy, I fitted my LEDS without taking the instruments out a bit of a fiddle but possible. The water temp and oil pressure are illuminated by a shared single bulb in between the two and the other two, fuel and  amps are the same. For these I found it best to use bulbs with leds around the circumference rather than the ones with them only on the top. the attached photo shows the led between the fuel and amps.

No such problems for the speedo and rev counter. I also used Duncan at Classic Car LEDs.

Dave

20191130_135041 (1).jpg

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Ditto. I did the same and replaced all the bulbs on my TR4 including the headlamps. I think I've  got a dodgy earth with the indicator bulb in the dash which makes it flicker all the time. Anyone else experienced this? You'll certainly noticed the difference with the dash at night. You can actually read the dials now!

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If you changed the flasher repeater bulb to LED, & that is the one that flickers, then you are not alone. This has been commented on before. In the dark mine is noticeably slightly on all the time. With hindsight, I would have left the old bulbs in the IGN warning , & flasher repeater.

Like you all my bulbs are LED.

Bob.

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11 hours ago, Darranh said:

Ditto. I did the same and replaced all the bulbs on my TR4 including the headlamps. I think I've  got a dodgy earth with the indicator bulb in the dash which makes it flicker all the time. Anyone else experienced this? You'll certainly noticed the difference with the dash at night. You can actually read the dials now!

Hi Darran,

 

Gently flickering indicator repeater light when not indicating.

if you used an electronic flasher similar to  https://www.vehiclewiringproducts.co.uk/c-219-relays-flasher-units/p-626-12-volt-4-pin-electronic-flasher-relay

Then the fault is not a bad earth etc but a possible spike supply to the LED from the flasher.  I broke into my flasher and added a capacitor somewhere (very helpful) this sorted it.

If I have time I'll open mine up again and see what I did.

 

Roger

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Not directly related to TRs, but during this lock-down I have installed elevated floors in our lofts, raised about 8" above the joists so as not to compromise the considerable insulation, but allowing me access to ceiling lights, plumbing and extractor fans (both of which were known to be defective when we moved here). 

Whilst doing so, I installed tubular 16 watt LED lights horizontally at intervals along the rafters, which means that access is so much easier as the lights are brilliant, but produce little heat.  They are made by Sylvania and I got them from Wickes (code 185071) at £18 each. 

Ian Cornish

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  • 2 weeks later...

you could go completely nuts and install LED strips inside the cases - gives a more even light distribution (at least on these Spitfire gauges - I’m still working on the TR version....)

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Yes, they do work well......  RGB strips with a controller can also enable you to switch between different colours depending on your preference.

...... Andy 

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Hi Ocheye,

I wrote a complete article for TRAction about fitting LED strips into TR instruments some years ago. (I have the original in PDF, should you want a copy). I had tried all kinds of other back mounted LED bulbs to no effect, so placed the strips in front of the dials (still stuck to the case as shown in ricky30DK's post), but I found that these made the dials too bright, so I designed and made a Pulse Width Modulated dimmer, to control the brightness. These have been running in my TR4A since then (approximately 10 years). Nowadays, you can purchase a suitable PWM dimmer for a few pounds, and you may find that a useful addition. If the dials are too bright at night, it can be a big distraction. My dimmer uses a simple push button to control the brightness. it cycles through 256 levels of brightness, so you can just hold it in with your finger until it suits. The readily available ones tend to use a rotary control, which could with some modification replace the rheostat. I find the tiny push switch easier to use.

Kind regards.

Tony

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Those led strips certainly transform the instrument lighting. For the time being I will stick with my new led bulbs but it is certainly something to think of for the future. Thanks

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  • 1 month later...

I was inspired by Tony’s article to buy some small PWMs from China. They took a while to get to me, but I’ve spent the afternoon messing around with one and managed to fit it into an old 6RA case (I don’t have anywhere left on the dash to put a dash gauge dimmer). I figured this could be fixed somewhere behind the dash and at least look like it belongs....

it works a treat on my Spitfire gauge - haven’t tried it yet with multiple gauges though - it gives a good range of brightness. I bought the 5A version, which set me back a whopping £2.80 plus a pound for postage.

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Edited by ricky30dk
added another photo
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and here’s one I fitted inside a gauge - the 5-way connector allows to connect the other gauges to the dimmer.

I think that’s enough messing around with LEDs for now :P

image.jpg

image.jpg

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  • 5 months later...

Finally got round to fitting my magnolia gauges in my own car - after taking it out into the night, I am sure that the dimmer is a good investment - you can see it hanging to the right of the centre console (will be tucked up into the spaghetti once happy with the brightness level).rp9small.thumb.jpg.0f2d616a1e188c4d58d0df76151ccd7a.jpgr4small.thumb.jpg.a6ff40e6b880897ad9ce7063e4d2189c.jpg

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