Thread: Defender - Dash lights & gauges

Vlad,

call SGESCO Instruments at Archerfield. I've found them to have good prices on VDO guages.

RAR110

Thanks :!:

Now - where did I put my wallet ?

Oh, here 'tis...

What the ? It's empty [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/laugh.gif[/img] [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/laugh.gif[/img] [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/laugh.gif[/img]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE</div><div class='quotemain'>The poms seem to be solving this problem with LEDs to replace the globes. The results I've seen on other forums (fora?) look pretty good, but I don't know where to get the right LEDs in Australia. Maybe getting them sent out from the UK wouldn't be that expensive?? [/b][/quote]

LED's only take about 1.5/2 volts and minute milliamps to fire them up,
so a 12V transformer would be required. You would have to add up the
total current required for X number of LED's to source the transformer.
Or in theory you could just wire up 8 LED's in series and connect direct to 12V.
Not sure how you go with pos/neg as they are after all, diodes.

Davo

Hi Davo
You are correct in regards the voltage of LEDs,but a little off track with the 12 transformer.Resistors are used,and all are different,they have coloured bands to rate them,see your local Dicksmith shop,you need to bring the voltage down from 13.8volts.
They go on the positive leg(the longer of the 2).
No Im not a electronics geek,my missus used to be in the circuit board industry!!
Landyandy

Originally posted by VladTepes
A couple of questions - the battery gauge (charge indicator ?) has condensation in it - should I care ?

LR mod was to drill a vent hole at the top of the guage housing. Just be careful that you don't go drill down too far to affect the internals of the guage.
Of course, if you fit LEDs, this will also solve the problem as they run a lot cooler than normal globes (maybe no heat at all).

VDO is now SiemensVDO. Their web page is here.



Paul [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin.gif[/img]

I seem to have the opposite problem with mine. At night all I can see is reflections from the insterments throughout the cabin, on all the flat glass. Is it possible to put a dimmer (easily) on the lighting?
Thanks,
Ken

Originally posted by LandyAndy
Hi Davo
You are correct in regards the voltage of LEDs,but a little off track with the 12 transformer.Resistors are used,and all are different,they have coloured bands to rate them,see your local Dicksmith shop,you need to bring the voltage down from 13.8volts.
They go on the positive leg(the longer of the 2).
No Im not a electronics geek,my missus used to be in the circuit board industry!!
Landyandy

Close.....

LED's are interesting devices.... they can handle any voltage within reason, but the thing they cant handle is current.
They are designed with a mA rating on them (milliamp) most are around 30mA so what you need to do is what landyAndy said. Put a resistor inline. This can be calculated on the "OHMs Law" formula.
But Landyandy was right. Dicksmith have or had charts that told you what rating resistor you need.....

http://www.dse.com.au/cgi-bin/dse.fileread...logs/SUP1000051

and for the LED formula.

http://www.dse.com.au/cgi-bin/dse.fileread...logs/SUP1000058

Hope that helps......