Date:         Tue, 12 Aug 2003 09:50:27 -0500
Reply-To:     Larry Alofs <lalofs@RCN.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Larry Alofs <lalofs@RCN.COM>
Subject:      LED heater control illumination
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; format=flowed

Hi,
   I'm back in mail mode and trying to keep up; had to turn it off for a
couple of months when things got too hectic.
   Found this when scanning the archives:

At 03:21 PM 7/6/2003, Douglas L Urner wrote: Imagine my surprise when I
discovered that the heater controls are supposed to be lit! > >Do you
replace the whole bulb and holder assembly or just the bulb?

Read it about two days after making the same discovery myself.  To avoid
traveling to the dealer and spending an unreasonable amount, I decided
to try replacing it with an LED.  In the end, I probably spent more,
considering time and money.  But anyway:
   I used a white LED from Radio Shack: #276-320.  5 mm, 1100 mcd at 20
mA.  Since it is directional, I bent it about 45 degrees so that it
points more toward the front of the panel.  I cut one lead short and
soldered on a 560 ohm , 1/4 watt resistor.  I used a couple of drops of
epoxy near the opening of the socket to hold the assembly in place, cut
the leads short and folded the ends back so the double thickness would
fit in the connectors of the power wires.  There isn't much extra room;
the wires need to be in the clip on the back of the panel so that they
don't get tangled in the levers.
   Went out after dark last night to see how it looked and I'm quite
pleased.  It's a little dimmer than the speedo etc. when the control is
turned all the way up.  With the brightness all the way down it's still
faintly visible; LEDs need less current than bulbs.

BTW  Before putting the ends back on the control levers this time, I
filed down somewhat the bumps on the metal levers and put a little
grease inside each of the plastic pieces.  They were so hard to remove
before that I pulled one of the soft ends off the plastic part.

Larry A.