One LED or Two?

[Empty V]

So I F'd up my passenger window control switch and after getting the new switch in I can see why. As you can see for the actual window control LED there are 2 of them, not 1. I tried to solder 1 and ended up shorting it out. I've tried the new switch and it works as it's supposed to. So my question is should I just carefully solder 1 led over and leave the other one as is, or try to remove both LEDS?

Thanks!

Billy

[lino]

Check with Heath nico member "Q451990". He is the best person I know who might be able to help you. Take a look at one of his threads:

zerothread?id=449899

[Pwnin O'Brien]

Ok, so give me some details on the factory LED setup. That LED unit (the two-in-one LED) lights up the two front window buttons? Are those two factory LED's wired in series or parallel? Is there a board trace that runs under the LED's that I can't see in the picture?

What kind of LED's are you using for the other buttons? How do those LED's light up the two buttons if they're in the center of the switch pack; I'm assuming there is some sort of clear plastic piece under the switches which pulls the light to the actual switches?

For the best light distribution to all of the switches, you may want to go with two separate LED's. This way all of the buttons are illuminated equally and no one switch is brighter than the others. Are you modifying all of the factory resistances to the LED's to achieve maximum brightness or are you just leaving the factory resistances (on the LED's where the resistance is greater than necessary)?

Sorry about all of the questions, I'm just trying to get a better mental image of the setup.

[Empty V]

Ok, so give me some details on the factory LED setup. That LED unit (the two-in-one LED) lights up the two front window buttons? Are those two factory LED's wired in series or parallel? Is there a board trace that runs under the LED's that I can't see in the picture?

What kind of LED's are you using for the other buttons? How do those LED's light up the two buttons if they're in the center of the switch pack; I'm assuming there is some sort of clear plastic piece under the switches which pulls the light to the actual switches?

For the best light distribution to all of the switches, you may want to go with two separate LED's. This way all of the buttons are illuminated equally and no one switch is brighter than the others. Are you modifying all of the factory resistances to the LED's to achieve maximum brightness or are you just leaving the factory resistances (on the LED's where the resistance is greater than necessary)?

Sorry about all of the questions, I'm just trying to get a better mental image of the setup.

The two-in-one only lights up the single passenger window switch, the top LED on the switchpack lights up the lock/unlock switch. I used 5mm 15* LED's with the stock resistors and they work great, almost too bright @ 5200mcd. I didn't measure resistance on anything just threw them on to see what would happen. I know at each LED I'm getting a little over 2V though.

Last night I noticed on my driver's side I lost one of the 5 LEDs so I'm going to pull it apart and see if the solder failed or if I need to add/change a resistor because they're running too hot. When you did it did you install larger or smaller resistors?

Thanks for the help as usual!

Billy

[Pwnin O'Brien]

The two-in-one only lights up the single passenger window switch, the top LED on the switchpack lights up the lock/unlock switch. I used 5mm 15* LED's with the stock resistors and they work great, almost too bright @ 5200mcd. I didn't measure resistance on anything just threw them on to see what would happen. I know at each LED I'm getting a little over 2V though.

Last night I noticed on my driver's side I lost one of the 5 LEDs so I'm going to pull it apart and see if the solder failed or if I need to add/change a resistor because they're running too hot. When you did it did you install larger or smaller resistors?

Thanks for the help as usual!

Billy

Ok, I'm stupid for not reading the post properly, for some reason I thought it was the driver switch pack and not the passenger switch pack.

So I would just replace the two-in-one LED with a single LED. I'm assuming that on your driver switch pack, each switch has its own separate LED. If that's the case, then for uniformity I would just use a single LED on the passenger switch pack window switch. You can just solder the new LED across from trace-to-trace. I do see one thing that might be a problem; the resistor in series with the factory LED's says 511 on it, which probably means it's somewhere around 500ohms. If that's the case, then you may need to increase that resistance so that you don't blow the new LED.

If your battery puts out less than 14V (say around 12-13V) then you should be fine and you should just be able to solder in the new LED without any problems. Do you have a link to the page where you got your new LED's from (or the LED's specs)? Also, what is the maximum voltage your battery puts out (the highest voltage whether car is off, in ACC, ON, or running)?

I also had an issue with my passenger switch pack, the factory resistance was far too low for the new LED's so I had to solder in a new resistor in series with the LED. This was a huge pain since I had to physically cut the board trace and then solder the new resistor in.

[slickroger]

I used a single LED in this spot because it only illuminates one button. If you find that your not getting proper light distribution along the button than remember to sand the top of the led for a wider light angle

[Empty V]

I used a single LED in this spot because it only illuminates one button. If you find that your not getting proper light distribution along the button than remember to sand the top of the led for a wider light angle

I remember when you and Brian were sanding the tops to diffuse the light. I did that for these and it worked great.

Here's a the LED's I'm using, they're actually rated for 5500mcd

http://www.superbrightleds.com...s.htm

Thanks again for the help!

Billy

[Pwnin O'Brien]

Ok, so as long as your battery supplies 13.5V or less (and assuming that '511' resistor in series with the LED is approximately 500 ohms; if it's greater than 500 ohms then you don't have to worry about the battery voltage) then you should be fine soldering in a single LED.