91LuminaEuro Posted October 29, 2009 Report Posted October 29, 2009 OK, so i noticed the other night the lights for my heater and a/c are not working... The indicator light to show me which option is selected works, and the lights to show me what speed work. However the back light to light up the buttons is not working... Is this a fuse i should check first? Or presumeably just a bulb that needs changed? How hard is it to get at this bulb? I've never really dug into the dash other than the dash pad and removing my head unit to fix the wires. Its all these little things that i have no clue about. Quote
mfewtrail Posted October 29, 2009 Report Posted October 29, 2009 Since the indicators on the buttons light up, the backlight bulb(s) are blown. I'm not sure how bad it is to get to the bulb(s), but I would imagine it's not that difficult. Quote
91LuminaEuro Posted October 30, 2009 Author Report Posted October 30, 2009 That's kinda what I assumed but I've never dug into my dash so I'm just curious as to how much of a task this is. Quote
White93z34 Posted October 30, 2009 Report Posted October 30, 2009 It is a pain in the ass. the lamps are soldered in and have to be replaced in that fashion. the HVAC control is easy to remove. If you are into soldering stuff up I'll give you a spare set of HVAC controls for a lumina. I fi could find a reliable source for lamps i'd start fixing them myself. Quote
3pt1lumina Posted October 31, 2009 Report Posted October 31, 2009 x2 just buy a new HVAC unit they are cheap and easy to find these days in yards around here. Quote
Imp558 Posted November 7, 2009 Report Posted November 7, 2009 It is a pain in the ass. the lamps are soldered in and have to be replaced in that fashion. the HVAC control is easy to remove. If you are into soldering stuff up I'll give you a spare set of HVAC controls for a lumina. I fi could find a reliable source for lamps i'd start fixing them myself. X2! It's a total pain in the ass! I just did it over the summer. My local stereo repair shop sold me the bulbs, but I could have gotten them from one of the big electronics suppliers for way less if I looked. The solder joints are 2 sided through the board and the leads are teeny and fragile. The control head comes apart pretty easy, and it's easy to remove. I'd do it again since all 3 of the bulbs were blown they probably don't have a long lifespan and I wouldn't trust some from a wrecking yard, but that's me. The bulbs can probably be found at Hosfelt or Mouser. Quote
carkhz316 Posted November 7, 2009 Report Posted November 7, 2009 OR since you have to do the soldering work anyway, replace them with LED's like I've done (in another vehicle actually, but same problem.) Quote
Imp558 Posted November 7, 2009 Report Posted November 7, 2009 OR since you have to do the soldering work anyway, replace them with LED's like I've done (in another vehicle actually, but same problem.) HA! I thought about that but they wouldn't dim afterwards. Quote
RobertISaar Posted November 7, 2009 Report Posted November 7, 2009 why wouldn't they? the dimmer switch is a rheostat, drops voltage as you turn it down. granted you might not have a lot of difference between full on and barely on, but it should produce some change... FWIW: it's a pain to deal with the bulbs in the MC... Quote
Imp558 Posted November 7, 2009 Report Posted November 7, 2009 "They wouldn't dim like the rest of the illumination" would have been a better choice of words. It wouldn't be as nice, there's kind of a lot of real estate in mine to have it illuminated by 3 LED's at any voltage, I don't think they would have been visible through probably most of the lower half of the rheostat. My bulbs lasted like 10 years, I had the weigh the likeliness of having to do the job again vs going back in to replace LED's and current limiting resistors and doing the whole job over. I have a bunch of LED's here so I wasn't about to go buy 12V ones to experiment with either. Quote
carkhz316 Posted November 7, 2009 Report Posted November 7, 2009 I've been doing some homework and am considering building a pulse-width-modulated LED dimmer out of a 555 IC chip and some other stuff, which would give a full range of dimming like any high end/ luxury car with LED cluster/ illumination. I've just recently gotten into the smaller electronics game and am trying to apply it to automotive. Quote
Imp558 Posted November 7, 2009 Report Posted November 7, 2009 I've been doing some homework and am considering building a pulse-width-modulated LED dimmer out of a 555 IC chip and some other stuff, which would give a full range of dimming like any high end/ luxury car with LED cluster/ illumination. I've just recently gotten into the smaller electronics game and am trying to apply it to automotive. I think there's a PWM program somewhere for PIC12 Microcontrollers. I program them all the time, they aren't scary and they're cheap. If you're interested I can see if I can find that code for you and maybe whip a couple up for you to prototype with. Quote
carkhz316 Posted November 8, 2009 Report Posted November 8, 2009 That would be kickass if you could. I'd really like that as I'm quite the newb with small electronics. Quote
Imp558 Posted November 12, 2009 Report Posted November 12, 2009 I shot you a PM so we wouldn't railroad this thread so badly. Quote
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