Re: Cheap LEDs for automotive dashboard application

Jim Thompson wrote:
On Thu, 23 Aug 2007 16:20:34 -0700, "Paul Hovnanian P.E."
<paul@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:


Randy MacKenna wrote:

I own a vehicle, whose designers had the wisdom (not!) to require that
half the dashboard be removed in order to change the instrument light
bulbs. Needless to say, I've gone many months with half my
speedometer lit, and the clock completely dark.

I have never seen a car where the panel needed to be disassembled to
replace the lamps. Sometimes its a bit of a chore getting your hand
behind the panel, but the lamps are typically held in bases that can be
removed with a quarter turn.


[snip]

My experience also. But you have to be a contortionist to get your
hand in there. I typically lay upside down in the seat with my head
under the dash :-(


They laughed at me when I walked into the the parts department
at the Ford dealership, disheveled, with blood dripping from
my knuckles, carrying the radio, to get a new backlight bulb
for it. I wrestled with that *** of a job for a good long
time before I got the radio out. Turns out that you can pop
the thing out in a few seconds with a special tool, *AND* you
can make the ^*%$*_ tool with a coat hangar. :-(

The parts guy was nice enough to give me the bulbs for free.

Ed

Many times I've found that "dead" lamps had actually been shaken out
of the dash. They usually are single wire with ground return via the
PCB copper clad in the dash panel.

...Jim Thompson
.

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