Help with A/C controls LED swap

[ScottyBoy]

That would actually work, so long as you know which pin is the illumination circuit, and which pin in ground.

 

[Mondo]

Could you get me that information somehow cause thats what im about to do. This is the back of my ac controls in the pic the bottom is actually the top when it gets mounted the label is just upside down

 

[ScottyBoy]

And I have had those tracers lift up on me before. It happens from getting the board too hot with the soldering iron. If you have a lower wattage iron that you have to hold on the board for more than just 5-6 seconds at a time, then that's getting the board too hot. It's far safer to get a higher wattage iron and melt the solder faster, because then you have far less heat transfer to the circuit board.

 

[Mondo]

I use a butane soldering iron

 

[Mondo]

I just checked the harness in the truck with it off just lights on.
And i got 4v out of A16 Grey with black line wire
12v out of A12 solid orange wire
12v out of B7 solide grey wire

 

[Rocket Man]

Dude I feel for you with that board. I also have an '02 with auto climate control. I bought an extra panel to try this on and although I'm pretty good with this kind of stuff, I gave up after getting about 6 out of 8 lights to work and having the foil pull up like that. Every time I did another light, one that worked previously would stop working. There seems to be something else going on with those boards affecting the lighting circuit; too complicated for me without a schematic. Good luck.

 

[Mondo]

Dude that board is a *****. Same thing happen to me I had 2 working and tried for the 3rd and then I went back to one. Before ruining the board and possibly loosing ac controls in florida = no fun. So I said **** it im getting a led strip and mounting right across the whole thing. And just tapping into its harness for the illumination power supply out of the 32 pins only 2 had 12v with the truck off but dash lights on so its gotta be one of those.

 

[Rocket Man]

Yep, then just turn the lights on and off to see which pin it is. But....if I remember right, it's not one of the 12v ones...the lights dim by changing the voltage and I think it never goes to a full 12v even at the brightest. So keep an open mind when looking for that pin, you might not be looking for 12v!

 

[Mondo]

Well in that case there was only one other that had power and it was only 4v. I will have to test it by plugging in a multimeter into those 3 pins one at a time and dimming and see which one has a drop in voltage

 

[ScottyBoy]

If my memory serves me right, the illumination wire is either gray or gray/black, and it was all the way on the very last pin on the end in the corner of the plug. If you have one of the gray wires on the very end, check that one again. And Mark is correct about the voltage, it will go up or down when you adjust the dimmer switch wheel on the headlight switch.