Dash LEDs too bright.

[frito-bandito]

Previously replaced my dash bulbs with LEDs. I love the color and how “crisp” it looks. But they are wayyyy to bright at night. The dimmer only dims them a little then they just shut off if I try to dim them more. Any ideas on how to make these a little dimmer? I’ve heard of bulb covers, or even marking them with a sharpie marker...which I’m not against....any ideas?

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[Dubs]

Previously replaced my dash bulbs with LEDs. I love the color and how “crisp” it looks. But they are wayyyy to bright at night. The dimmer only dims them a little then they just shut off if I try to dim them more. Any ideas on how to make these a little dimmer? I’ve heard of bulb covers, or even marking them with a sharpie marker...which I’m not against....any ideas?

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You have to get a dimmer for LED. You have to change the wavelength of an LED to dim it. Cutting voltage like for a regular bulb doesn't work. I think you can find one on amazon.

https://www.amazon.com/ALOVECO-Inte...9Y2xpY2tSZWRpcmVjdCZkb05vdExvZ0NsaWNrPXRydWU=

should work

 

[AK49BWL]

PWM Dimmer is what you need to look for, and you want one that dims on the POSITIVE side, not the negative side. Most of the ones you find on Amazon are of the Negative-dimming variety and will not work in our trucks.

This is the one I got for my truck, works absolutely fantastic.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01M63XHQ6/

 

[frito-bandito]

PWM Dimmer is what you need to look for, and you want one that dims on the POSITIVE side, not the negative side. Most of the ones you find on Amazon are of the Negative-dimming variety and will not work in our trucks.

This is the one I got for my truck, works absolutely fantastic.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01M63XHQ6/

Where did you mount yours?

 

[AK49BWL]

I actually haven't yet, I've only tested it out, but I'm going to put it where the factory dimmer is in the 94 dash. As for the 95+ interiors, I'm not sure where it would end up looking good.

 

[kenh]

This is exactly why I've held off on LED for my dash. It would be real nice if somebody made a PWM that took it's signal from the OEM dimmer. Just splice it into the correct wires ad away you go!

Ken

EDIT: Just looking on the "bay" and there is a sh*t ton of PWM modules on there. Some have a remote dimmer knob suggestion they might be able to be spliced into our dimmer knob????? I suck at electronics so maybe somebody smarter than me can chime in on this.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/30A-PWM-Mo...628964?hash=item446ce38fe4:g:Be4AAOSwnF1f0BMQ

I do know that most if not all rheostats have three terminals do maybe the rheostat on something like this could be removed and our dash rheostat spliced in?

https://www.ebay.com/itm/12-40V-10A...620942?hash=item4d9b38028e:g:Wu0AAOSwIoJdbigC

 

[frito-bandito]

Yeah idk, I’ll likely hide it somewhere, maybe in the fuse box area. I don’t usually adjust the brightness once I get it to where I want, so I wouldn’t need continuous access, but I don’t want to have to tear the dash apart to access it either lol.

 

[gearheadE30]

Most PWM modules on Amazon and Ebay are low side control. They do not work with the common ground our trucks use, and it's not worth rewiring all of the dash lights to change that.

That Leisure Electronics module is interesting; it may be worth a try.

Otherwise, it should be pretty straightforward with an Arduino chip and some programming to map the voltage from the stock dimmer to a PWM output. I haven't looked into it much, but that would let you use the stock control knob.

My short-term solution was to wire a 100 ohm resistor into the cluster light circuit to make the brightness match the rest of the dashboard. It still is not dimmable. I know resistive dimming is not ideal for LEDs, but it has been a good enough temporary fix that I haven't thought much about it since then.

 

[sewlow]

These truck's require LED bulbs with a 'C/K' designation.
When installed in the gauge pod, the C/K 194's are dimmable with the rheostat. No other mods required.

https://www.superbrightleds.com/mor...325/?year=1997&make=16&model=1868&scc_id=1416

 

[AK49BWL]

These truck's require LED bulbs with a 'C/K' designation.
When installed in the gauge pod, the C/K 194's are dimmable with the rheostat. No other mods required.

https://www.superbrightleds.com/mor...325/?year=1997&make=16&model=1868&scc_id=1416

Just to let you know, those bulbs suck lol. I bought a few in each color. They're brittle and too easy to break, and they're not as bright as the 5-way LED bulbs. Okay for the price point tho.

And the only bulbs for our trucks that need a C/K designation are the 3x57s for the taillights.