thanks.
Me thinks I have gone a bridge too far.
Search the archives, for using EL strips. Way easier, and quite functional.
can you explain further.
after many discussions and comparing LED configurations and dimensions superbright said they didnāt have a bulb that would fit the dash, they also recommended not cutting the NEO style to make them fit. With that said does anyone have an alternate supplier that they have used for the bulbs. The main problem with the superbright bulbs is the upper tab is a few hundredths of an inch too small (short) which allows for the bulb not to lock in.
At a standstill - again.
I have no useful advice but share your frustration.
I decided to try some LEDs in the gauges of my Series III. Itās been a fiasco. The Series IIIs have six individual gauges and require three different bulb styles.
No problem getting brighter brighter bulbs. The problem is getting all six gauges to glow the same brightness. This (to me) is more annoying than the original problem of being too dim.
Iāve ordered some different bulbs and will do one more round of experimentation. If no joy Iām throwing in the towel and going back to original bulbs.
Proving that thereās no fool like an old fool I went thru a somewhat similar situation on my XJR. Finding OEM bulbs to be silly-expensive I went with some aftermarket substitutesā¦and suffered the same dilemma of mis-matched intensities and color. After much effort wasted I went to original bulbs.
I shouldāve learned a lesson.
Cheers
DD
This, in red, is what I used.
Somewhere in the Book I mention that the place to find these bulbs is at a Toyota dealer. Perhaps the thing to do is figure out what they fit on a Toyota, then find out what the LED shops are using to replace those.
I had another issue with LEDs: they dont warm up the instruments and so they fog up when itās cold. Iām now considering glueing in led strips as an addition to the bulb so I get some heating and just hope it wonāt get too bright (maybe impossible!) Then wiring in variable resistors or something of the sort to get all to the same brightness level, if OCD comes in
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ANOTHER problem I, who lives in a semi-arid zone, never thought of!
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Thereās inches of snow in Manitou Springs, and its colder than here! Of course you would suffer that, of course!
is difficult for me. When I visited your state I had a full week of rainstorms, lush greens everywhere and that was in Augustā¦ guess I got lucky there!
Idea two is to add another resistor inside the instrument and thatāll heat it up so less of a wiring mess.
If the instruments are out anyways the brightness of the two big ones can be adjusted to the smaller ones by trying different resistors to drop the voltage (which would give the dimmer rheostat some load to make it work).
Oh, cāmon, we can overengineer this! Add a thermostatic switch so it only brings on the dash heater when the temps are below 50F.
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Re-route the heater ducts with an additional flap to supply all electrics with dried warm air if inside thermostat indicates below 50F and while at it re-ingeneer the whole a/c system so it finally works the way I want it. Add an electric heating element for quick warm-up. Even better a remote controlled block heater for having heat in the mornings tesla style. Add a random breakdown switch so it feels properly Jaguar. But letās stop here - If I ever change my bulbs, the instruments will switch between incandescent and LED via temperature sensing and the colour can be changed to āecoā or āsportā, and ātrackā disables all but fuel. Ew.
Questionably funny joking aside itās probably the best to use both simultaneously. Until then Iād rather have dim instruments than unreadable. Thinking about it strip placement trial and error would be the best way to solve the brightness issue if that big a problem, and resistance if needed.
Green LED strips (the fancy one above looks great, but the standard ones will do absolutely, they even out) inside of the instruments and tiny warm white ones for the center console switches and key/light lighting; the rest can stay the way it is imho.