[DML] Re: Dash Led's

["dmc12jp" <hidesuke@xxxx>]

--- In dmcnews@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, "John Hervey" <john@xxxx> wrote:
> Hedeki, Im intrested in the #161 bulb used for the battery light.
> Was it replaced with the LED's and did it work ok.I haven't tested it.

John, I cannot find #116 in the electrical diagram in my copy of workshop manual. 
Are you referring to the warning lamp in the instrument panel? If so, I did not change 
it. I made changes only to the A/C panel. 


Marc, thank you for expressing interest.That justifies for me to give some more 
details of my conversion.

This is how I fixed the LEDs on the back of the A/C panel. On the back of the panel 
there are sockets where the heads of the incandescent bulbs go into. I just placed the 
LEDs in them and taped the cables on the backside of the panel. LEDs are light so 
they just stay there. There is a tip when you place LEDs. There are light guides 
fabricated on the back of the A/C panel. Make sure to point the head of the LEDs 
toward those light guides. That way the light travels to the farthest end and you get a 
fairly uniform illumination. Another tip is to cut off the tops of LEDs to spread light. 
The round head of the LED works as a lens. With them LEDs can illuminate only a 
small area.

I have to apologize here to those who went to see my webpage. I put the wrong 
picture on the web. It was the picture of after the conversion. The one that was 
posted was a picture before the conversion. I have corrected the mistake already. 
Unfortunately, this picture is terribly overexposed and the colors are saturated. The 
actual look is much better than this. (I will buy a camera with a manual mode next 
time.) Note that the hazard and door lock lamps are very bright. The fan speed dial 
became greenish because of the choice of the green LED.

The bulbs I replaced are as follows: the A/C panel (with white, blue, green, and 
red LEDs), the hazard switch (with a red LED), and the door lock warning lamp (with a 
red LED). (In the last two pictures in my webpage, you can see something is glowing 
red near the bottom edge of the panel. That is the red LED for the door lock waring 
lamp. The head is cut off) I am going to replace the headlight switch lamp to a green 
LED next.

Pictures can be seen at:
http://homepage.mac.com/hokam/PhotoAlbum1.html

Best regards,
Hideki