hazlgreen

I got my Key fob light to work again.

Thanks to all of you who post on this board. You guys are amazing resources.

The method I used to juice of the key light can be found on this link.

http://www.arnnworx.com/PorscheWebPa..._light_fix.htm

The only thing that weirded me out is that Bruce's reference to use the short end of the LED seemed backward. But I got things to work, so who knows?

and the link to the homepage for even more info (I'm sure these links have been posted before, but can it hurt to put them up again?)

http://www.arnnworx.com

KuHL 951

Funny I did the same thing today and the short leg also went to the ground. I didn't have the spring so I made mine from a ball point pen. I took the first LED back because I thought it was bad. Guess one of us should tell Bruce about the typo huh?

Chris_924s

I have done several of these conversions- if you have access I strongly recommend soldering the two batteries (Negative to Neg of course!) together and using the clipped off LED lead for support/jumper.

KuHL 951

Good idea, I used electrical tape on the sides and trimmed the tape, I'll see how long it lasts. It really does help locate the key hole when I started the car this morning in the dark.

Danno

"I have done several of these conversions- if you have access I strongly recommend soldering the two batteries (Negative to Neg of course!) together and using the clipped off LED lead for support/jumper."

Does that really work with the batteries in parallel? I think you need them in series to get enough voltage to light an LED.

On that topic, what's the brightest LED anyone's found?

Chris_924s

Danno, Either would work, but stacked button batteries are series.. just like 2 AA cells in a flashlight.

I'll typically solder a jumper ground to ground (- to -) to keep the button batteries from shifting inside the key button housing. I use a very small needle nosed vice grip with electrical tape on the jaws to hold the batteries during soldering, and so as not to prematurely discharge the batteries.
There are some VERY bright LED's (www.digi-key.com) but they will shorten battery life by about half. (IIRC visible for over a quarter of a mile and have a 3.3V draw, I'll post the P/N's when I get back to work on Monday)

KLR

I actually bought a replacement for the original battery from pelican for about a buck when ordering a bunch of other stuff last year. My light still worked, but was very dim. After cleaning all the contacts in the key, replacing the battery, and replacing the sad little foam guy that holds things together in there with a piece of plastic, it's good as new. Not as slick as the LED solution, but easy as pie.

Zero10

If you solder the batteries in paralell, you would only have 1.5V, which would waaaay under-drive the LED.
I think you must connect them in series to generate sufficient voltage to get a lot of light out of the LED, at 1.5V it will be very dim.

Chris_924s, have you considered www.lsdiodes.com for your LED's?.. I bought a bunch of LED's from them, and am very impressed, and they seem to have the best prices around.
Actually, on some of their pages for the LED's, they reference digi-key for price comparisons.

Blue S2

Did you see the solution for keylights that i had posted a while back? Rennbay is hosting the instructions now. (thanks guys!) It has worked for me great for a long time now and its pretty bright! Im sure if you need brighter you can just "upgrade" a little.

http://www.rennbay.com/ledtutorial.html

Chris_924s

Tony- you had the original thread that inspired me to "upgrade" my key!

hazlgreen

Tony -

Thanks! That is the solution I used from Bruce's site listed above. He mentioned you on his website. It is a fantastic fix. So much brighter (well, and functional; I could only get a few seconds of dim light from one of my two keys before the fix).

inactiveuser92616

hmm... I was dissapointed with how quickly my batteries burned out from this, I think one may have just shorted out, as one battery tests at 1.5V and the other at none. I think I will try this solder trick, or may solder together two 3V lithium batts in parrallel.

F18Rep

I dont think I changed any of Tony's instructions but I will need to look them over to fix the key to
MY NEW 951....buwahahahaha

[ok, its only new to me]

Blue S2

Oh im sorry! I didn't notice my guide was on the ArnnWorx website! I didnt bother hitting that first link! I was under some other random impression reading this. Apologies!

Anyways, You know...i wonder what it would take to upgrade our keylights to the BIGTIME Leds. Does anyone have one of those SureFire military spec flashlights? I have one, it has ONE led, and its the brightest flashlight i have ever seen. It goes through batteries in like 20 minutes, but for 20 minutes you have daylight. I wonder if we can find a flat enought power source to fit in the key to power that one led.

theedge

If you want bright LEDs you can get some that pump out 25 watts of light... Crazy expensive and power hungery but cool