Speedtoys

Mine only works just short of "full bright"..so I have no muscle memory of what way does what.

MN

I take two (2).

MN

Tony

On the LED topic, but not the dimmer...

Is there a itemized list per say of what is needed for the 87 auto gauge cluster. Its obviously different than the 89 models.

Right now the Antilock light is the only one that illuminates in my dash on start up. Time to fix it all up.

thnx

Ed Scherer

Unfortunately, I don't have any details on the clusters in pre '89 cars; if anybody who wants to send me one or has comprehensive information already assembled, I'd be glad to update Converting Porsche 928 Interior Lighting to LEDs to include that information. I've been pretty picky to date about the LEDs I recommend, so I'd really prefer to see stuff in person before recommending it.

Anyway, I'm pretty sure the topic has been discussed to some extent in other threads, but I'm too busy at the moment to go hunting them down.






BTW (this is for everyone, not just you, Tony), I'm still waiting for answers to my questions I asked in post #74 in this thread.

And, while I'm at it, I'd like to know if anyone cares about in these dimmer modules. As things stand, the parts are close to compliant, but I've got one component (the big toroid inductor) that I got a bulk deal on that's not an RoHS part. I have no idea if, for example, electronics stuff goes through RoHS compliance scanners (I know such scanning technology exists) when it's shipped into Europe.

I'm off of this project for a few days (I'm pretty bogged down with some stuff until this coming weekend).

ammonman

On my '90 the dimmer increases brightness when the wheel is moved to the right.

Mike

jshuberg

I have an 84, and the pictures in post#71 look correct.

When installed, the terminals are on the left side, and the the visible resistance coil is on the right. When viewing the right side (coil side) clockwise increases, and counter clockwise decreases illumination.

Hope this helps.

jshuberg

The following are what I used in an 84:

The 3 main gauge illumination LEDs were superbright WLED-xHP5:
https://www.superbrightleds.com/more...edge-base/206/

The sockets they sell for these LEDs don't work, you have to use the original sockets that the incandescent bulbs were in. However the leads on the LEDs wrap around the bottom of the wedge, so that the left side is one contact, and the left side is the other. The socket works the other way, where the front of the wedge is one contact, and the back the other. All you have to do is either cut or move each lead so that it doesn't wrap around to the other side. I don't have a pic, but if you look at the LED and the socket, you'll see immediately what you need to do, and it's trivially easy. Both blue and white work and look great!

For most of the warning and other indicators behind the gauges, I used superbright B8.4D LEDs of the appropriate color:
https://www.superbrightleds.com/more...panel-led/222/

The exceptions were for the main warning and turn signal indicators. For those I used superbright B8.4D-HP LEDs in the appropriate color:
https://www.superbrightleds.com/more...panel-led/223/

The reason was that the warning light is larger than the other indicators so needed to be a little bit brighter to be a visual match, and that the turn indicator needed to be just a little brighter to look right during the daytime.

Finally, there are the 4 little lamps inside the gauges for low gas, high temp, low oil, and low battery. They are each soldered directly to little boards inside the gauges. For low gas (yellow) I used Radio Shack# 276-0350 and for the rest (red) I used Radio Shack# 276-0309. You need to add a limiting resistor to these LEDs - for the yellow a 560 ohm 1/4W, and for the reds a 750 ohm 1/4W. The easiest way to add the resistor is to cut the trace and solder it directly to the board. There's enough room that they'll fit just fine.

I can supply some pics if you need, my pod has been removed for new leather, and my instrument cluster is currently boxed up on my workbench.

Hope this is helpful.

Speedtoys

Pics would be fantastic..pod might be on my winter list...

Ed Scherer

Are you saying that it's mounted with the wheel oriented vertically? Like in the second photo in post #71? I assumed it was horizontal like on the "thick" wheel version in my car.

So that means you roll your thumb upward on the wheel to increase illumination level, right? If so, then I think I understand how it's oriented and how it works, and it makes sense electrically, too.

Speedtoys

Ed: Can I get mine as environmentally unfriendly as possible?

Id hate to break the trend ive been on with this car.


Thx.

Ed Scherer

I can fill the enclosure with dioxin, if you'd like, and could even leave a plug that you could remove to get a drinking straw in there.

Hell, I could even throw some plutonium in there, and then you'd have yet another "radiator" in your car, if you know what I mean.

Speedtoys

Mr Fusion at the ready.

Cant wait to install a working dimmer, and LEDs.

jshuberg

That's correct, it's mounted vertically. When you reach under the pod and run your hand forward turning the **** you increase illumination.

Arnoud

I'm still waiting for answers to my questions I asked in post #74 in this thread.

Ed: your PCB's already look great as per your earlier post #72 , and I hope that by now you have received the ones with both sides silkscreened.
Firstly as I promised to you per PM, I just came back home and tried it out on my 1994 GTS and lost the bet with myself = I remembered wrong! To increase the illumination level on my car (and from all the maintenance records paper work that I do have from my car, the rheostat appears to be original as it has never been changed), I need to move my thumb to the left:



Any other Rennlister with a GTS out there who can confirm the same findings as me?

Secondly, about your RoHS question: as far as I know that is not checked @ customs in Europe for these kind of project type of shipments.

Ed Scherer

Does that mean as outermost surface of wheel (e.g., along with your finger) is moved toward the right, i.e., wheel is moving counterclockwise when viewed from above, illumination level increases? That's how mine is working now, but the opposite of what Arnoud just wrote:

As far as I know ammonman's '90 and Arnoud's '94 use the same rheostat, so this it's hard to reconcile the apparent difference in operation, if I'm understanding what you guys are telling me. Perhaps one or the other is mounted "cage side up" and the other is mounted "cage side down", but I didn't think they were reversible this way.

I guess I'll need to study the way mine is mounted again and see if I can figure this out. I need to get into mine again anyway so I can get some more photos for the installation instructions.

Thanks, ammonman and Armoud for the information you provided.




Any day now...


OK, I won't obsess about it, but the first batch will probably be about 99% RoHS.