PWM dimmer for instrument backlighting after upgrading to LEDs
12-18-2012, 04:55 PM
#91
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Why not make the dimmer turn what ever direction YOU want it to...and we just get use to it regardless of our model year?
or am i missing something?
or am i missing something?
12-18-2012, 05:00 PM
#92
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I've been around, you know.
475hp/460lb.ft
12-19-2012, 01:22 AM
#94
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on my car, i put the windows up the lights get brighter. Sunroof open they dim , but only in 3rd gear. If i leave the glove box open with the cruise control on , the car accelerates when i rotate the dimmer forward....but only on a Friday
12-20-2012, 05:47 PM
#98
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Hi Ed - FWIW, mine is the same as Arnoud's. To the left is brighter. 
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:
Attachment 688837
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: 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:
Attachment 688837
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.
12-20-2012, 08:05 PM
#99
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Left...left....left......
Any other Rennlister with a GTS out there who can confirm the same findings as me?
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:
Attachment 688837
On my GTS turning the wheel to the left makes it brighter
Now what are we doing?
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: 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:
Attachment 688837
On my GTS turning the wheel to the left makes it brighter
Now what are we doing?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.
01-21-2013, 02:41 PM
#100
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is this page still up..i cant access it for some reason?
"Converting Porsche 928 Interior Lighting to LEDs"
Is there a way to save this PDF file or am i missing something?
"Converting Porsche 928 Interior Lighting to LEDs"
Is there a way to save this PDF file or am i missing something?
01-21-2013, 03:10 PM
#101
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01-21-2013, 08:18 PM
#103
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I'll be contacting you guys once I've got stuff ready to go (it's getting close... ).
PCBs arive tomorrow AM.
But... I still need to get the enclosures put together and, of course, make sure the PCBs when populated actually work.
Tony... you can help me with something: do you know what kind of dimmer rheostat your '88 uses? And I'd really be interested in anyone with an '89 answering this same question:
Does it look like this (a 928.613.121.01, thumb wheel is about 5.0 mm thick)?
or this (a 928.613.031.00, thumb wheel is about 9.4 mm thick)?
I'd really like to know this because I've seen conflicting information on when the rheostat changed. Based on one source (dC Automotive's on-line parts), the former one was used until '88. 928 Int'l and Auto Atlanta says the new one was '90 on. 928 Specialists shows the former one being used through '89. This seems rather strange to me, because I would have thought that the change would have occurred with S4s in '87, but maybe not. Based on the available information, though, I'm guessing that the former one was used until '89 and the latter one was used '90 on (that's pretty consistent with the above-mentioned sources).
I'm just trying to sort this out, because I might ship slightly different connection (wiring hook-up) kits based on the dimmer rheostats in use. The former rheostat has standard male blade-style terminals that will connect to wires terminated with female blade-style terminals. The latter rheostats use a weird two-pole connector that I'll probably never be able to track down, so I'll have an alternative connection recommendation.
).PCBs arive tomorrow AM.
But... I still need to get the enclosures put together and, of course, make sure the PCBs when populated actually work. Tony... you can help me with something: do you know what kind of dimmer rheostat your '88 uses? And I'd really be interested in anyone with an '89 answering this same question:
Does it look like this (a 928.613.121.01, thumb wheel is about 5.0 mm thick)?
or this (a 928.613.031.00, thumb wheel is about 9.4 mm thick)?
I'd really like to know this because I've seen conflicting information on when the rheostat changed. Based on one source (dC Automotive's on-line parts), the former one was used until '88. 928 Int'l and Auto Atlanta says the new one was '90 on. 928 Specialists shows the former one being used through '89. This seems rather strange to me, because I would have thought that the change would have occurred with S4s in '87, but maybe not. Based on the available information, though, I'm guessing that the former one was used until '89 and the latter one was used '90 on (that's pretty consistent with the above-mentioned sources).
I'm just trying to sort this out, because I might ship slightly different connection (wiring hook-up) kits based on the dimmer rheostats in use. The former rheostat has standard male blade-style terminals that will connect to wires terminated with female blade-style terminals. The latter rheostats use a weird two-pole connector that I'll probably never be able to track down, so I'll have an alternative connection recommendation.
01-21-2013, 08:53 PM
#104
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If you can't access the document right now, just PM me and I'll e-mail it to you. Any copies that are out there (like the Jenniskens one) might not be up to date (I don't check them, so I don't know).
Not ... quite ... yet ...
Here's where things stand:
- PCBs: I've got 50 final PCBs (decided to scrap the first batch), known to work and more solderable than the first batch I tried (which worked, but had cosmetic issues and had some solderability issues on a few components for reasons I won't get into but that are fixed in the new PCBs).
- Software: Completely done. I don't think I ever said anything about this yet, but I got rather obsessed with configurability a few weeks ago and took the time to do something rather cool before finalizing the software. More about this below.
- Enclosures: Because of the difficulty in producing acceptable (to me, at least) quality enclosures with professional-grade cooling slots and openings for the monitor and status LEDs and the connector, I decided to go crazy and get set up to produce these myself in quantity. I'm just about done with a fixture to hold the lids and boxes so they can be cut 10 at a time. I'll show photos of this fixture later tonight (I think I'm that close to done). Once the fixture is done, I'll be able to grind out the enclosures very quickly.
- Pricing: I just realized I haven't figured this out yet. Stay tuned; I'll try to figure this out by the end of the week.
Basically, I now have everything on hand to produce 50 or so of these.
OK, regarding the final round of software changes: I have now made these dimmer modules trainable to work with a wide range of rheostats/potentiometers. Why? Because I've gotten some queries from people about the suitability of this dimmer module in other (non-928) cars, and I just don't have any idea (nor do these owners) of what resistance ranges might be out there.
So... new feature: out of the box, the module will be pre-configured for a 6 Ω rheostat (that's what all model years of the 928 have). But... with the module powered up (i.e., generally wired up in a car), there's a procedure you can follow (I'll have full details in the installation guide) that allows you "profile" any (well, 4 Ω to 10 kΩ) rheostat/potentiometer by triggering the training mode and then running the rheostat back and forth to its extremes three times. Furthermore, the end you start at also establishes the "dim" end. So... you can also select "which way" you want the dimmer to work. Pretty damn slick, IMHO.
Sorry it's taken me so long to get everything together, but realize that I'm using this project as an excuse to get ramped up on all sorts of skills and acquire all sorts of capabilities that I just didn't have a few months ago (just wait until you see the ShopBot Desktop in action!)
Last edited by Ed Scherer; 01-21-2013 at 10:11 PM.
01-21-2013, 09:47 PM
#105
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