Electrical Question

[Dragcity]

Time for me to tap into the vast wealth of knowlege of fellow members here.

I have installed my Phantom II gauges and find the LED bulbs do not dim as much as I would like them to. Man, are LED's bright.

I am no electrician, so I ned some help here. I suspect there has got to be some way for me to be able to lower the output of these LED lights that are inside the gauges. The only rub is, the gauges are sealed, meaning I cannot remove and replace the bulb. Therefore, I am looking for a way to possibly lower the supply of energy to the bulb, resulting in lower output of the bulb.

Is this Possible?

What do I need?

Where do I get it?

I KNOW there are a few of you that know exactly how to do this, and probably have exact parts in your workshop.
:help:

[Zack]

You need a resistor inline with the power wire.
Dont ask me what ohm value you need.

[Dragcity]

Breadfan must be off today..... I thought he would have an answer in 3 minutes flat.

Thanks Zack.

I called my Brother, he had a very lengthy explanation.......

He will be sending some "Veriable Resitors" for me to try out....

Watts - Ohms - Volts ????


Does anybody really care ?

Guess I won't button everything back up just yet.

[magindat]

You could add a variable resistor to both + wires for just the lights. You could then install said resistor and a knob right in the guage pod as a guage only dimmer.
Or...
You could use the variable to find your desired light level. Carefully remove it so you don't change it's setting. Measure the resistance with your multi meter, and buy a resistor close to the measured value.
If you go with option 2, I would get my light level on 1 quage (1 LED) and put an individual resistor for each guage. 1/2 watt should do.
A hard resistor will be rated with a wattage, a value, and a tolerance. The wattage of 1/2 watt should be enough. You will measure the value. Tolerance means how close to the rating. The wider the tolerance, the cheaper the resistor. 5% are easy to find and cheap. 2% obviously will resist closer to the rating. All should be readily available from Radio Smack.
Have fun!

[Drock96Marquis]

Resistor inline of the factory illumination feed.
The wire is O/BK


I wouldn't use two resistors (one for each gauge) unless for some odd reason you want them at different light outputs. Put the resistor up stream of split for the 2 gauges so the voltage is dropped evenly for both - size the resistor depending on how dim you want them.

Click here for the diagram of your console gauges:
http://www.supermotors.net/getfile/437987/thumbnail/5.jpg (http://www.supermotors.net/vehicles/registry/media/437987)

[magindat]

Resistor inline of the factory illumination feed.
The wire is O/BK


I wouldn't use two resistors (one for each gauge) unless for some odd reason you want them at different light outputs. Put the resistor up stream of split for the 2 gauges so the voltage is dropped evenly for both - size the resistor depending on how dim you want them.

Click here for the diagram of your console gauges:
http://www.supermotors.net/getfile/437987/thumbnail/5.jpg (http://www.supermotors.net/vehicles/registry/media/437987)

I like one per each for heat reasons. Less watts per resistor means less heat in the resistor. There would be no difference in light output even with 5% tolerance.

[Dragcity]

Thanks All...