I've put this off for far too long and no further excuses can be made, so I got down to doing the heater LED conversion
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oh dear, I dreaded this bit.
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But surprisingly it was quite simple IN THEORY
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but when soldering irons break down, LED legs drop off, and things refuse to stick in place it starts getting a bit stressful.
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At least next time I'll know what to do, in which order.
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The easiest part was the five
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"select" switches, demister, and recycle/off switch LEDs.
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These were already orange LEDs so it was just a matter of holding them up to the light, seeing which way round they were
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(the new ones I had didn't have a flat edge) then desoldering, and replacing, with new red ones.
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I tested the circuit in the car and it was all fine, so next was the two bulb replacements.
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Easy enough you'd think, and it all seemed so.
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I had a bunch of fat LEDs lying around from when I did my sills, so figured one of those would be good enough.
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Unfolded the wire legs of the old bulb and replace with the LED which had a miniature resistor built in.
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Tight fit but I managed.
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Connected it to the car and it all looked fine.
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Put the circuit in the heater unit and plugged it in, what the hell? So so so pale, the diffusion of light by that big clear chunky perspex piece was all wrong.
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Couldn't read the switch position on the left, and the recycle/off and demister buttons were invisible.
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Dammit!
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OK, back to the drawing board
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how about, seeing if I can buy red bulbs? Nobody round here stocks them, including Maplins.
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Bah!
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Next idea: paint the bulbs with red clear paint
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(Tamiya).
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Great, shoulda thought of this earlier.
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Except the bulbs seem to have some sort of coating which repels the paint! Now what!?
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Back to Maplins
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and another set of red LED strip lighting.
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£5.12 later and back home to start the wire welding.
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Except, in the time it took me to unplug the soldering iron, drive to Maplins and drive back, the soldering iron has decided not to work no more, no how no way.
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Jesus! Back to Maplins with the broken one and grinding my teeth, bought another one.
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Keep any receipts for Maplins purchases folks, cos I didn't and it was only 3 months old.
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I'm prepared now!
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Home again home again jiggedy jig! Up to the spare room and start soldering.
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The double-sided tape they have on the back doesn't seem to have much grip when applied to short circuit boards, so after more swearing it's down to to the car and search for thick double sided number-plate tape.
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Few strips of that and I'm sorted
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Test fitted the circuit to the car and its all good! Finally!
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Put the circuit back into the heater unit
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hmm.
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Due to the LED strips not being too flat its a bit of a squeeze to get the circuit back in to position in the unit.
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After some gentle force and being fast with a screwdriver I finally got the lot back in and ran down to the car before I could break it somehow.
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Tested
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fine
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fitted
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fine
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wired the cables back up including the heater slider wires which are a nightmare for me
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ok fine
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ignition on, lets see how it looks!
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![Image](http://i69.photobucket.com/albums/i78/deadlyrs125/Heater%20LEDs/daynolight.jpg)
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Oh.
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Bit boring
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the position selectors and demister/recycle look OK but not too exciting.
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How about with the lights on?
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![Image](http://i69.photobucket.com/albums/i78/deadlyrs125/Heater%20LEDs/daywithlight.jpg)
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Thats more like it! A bit of colour.
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Shame it's pink
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but still.
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Better!
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How about night time
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I just took these and was very VERY happy, after the past two days of ar$e ache
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(I started at 9pm last night and sat up till 2am, neighbours must love me going out and slamming car doors at that time)
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![Image](http://i69.photobucket.com/albums/i78/deadlyrs125/Heater%20LEDs/nightwithlight.jpg)
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Yay!!!!
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At last! only took me a year to get the nerve to fiddle with it but it certainly looks worth it!
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The final cockpit view
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- I need to get a lighter sorted out, window switch LEDs fitted, and under-seat lighting is a probable too.
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![Image](http://i69.photobucket.com/albums/i78/deadlyrs125/Heater%20LEDs/cockpitnight.jpg)
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Before anyone says it, I know it's dirty in there, and it needs hoovering
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PS: It looks a lot more uniform in real life
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- the colours in those pics are sort of light-dark-light-dark, but it's much better than that, and much redder too
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