LED project, need information

[FIND]

I have some bulbs out in my dash and radio, a spare cluster, and a whole pile of 5mm leds and resistors. It appears that if i get creative enough with placement, I should be able to fit them in there, but I don't know the polarity of any of the lights.

Does anyone have information RE polarity of the lights, or can anyone tell me which circuits are for illumination and ground on the plug?

[gmman]

[FIND]

I'm aware of how LEDs work. I was looking for the polarity of the lights on the board in the radio or the instrument cluster. The incandescent bulbs I am attempting to replace.

In a related question, can someone tell me how to get the DIC off? I have the front cover off, all the needles removed and the rear cover off. The board for the gauges moves around fairly freely, but even prying the tabs side to side, the board for the DIC doesn't seem to want to move. I can put up a pic if it helps.

edit: nevermind, I just realized it was stuck to the dash face.

[bc21]

Great minds think a like a was board today so I thought i would tackle my dash lights too. The DIC just sits in the case...it is probably stuck to the front panel. i had to jiggle mine a little then it gave way.

I thought about using LED also and seemed like a good idea but I had no way of knowing on the board which hole that the LED leads go through was negative and which was positive. I will tell you this if there was a wrong way to put it in i would of found a way to do it. so to save a lot of hassle I just put it the same regular bulbs from Radio shack # 272-1141.

I would probably say the best suggestion I would have would be to remove the old bulbs then install the board only back in to the car and once you turn the key half way you could probe the holes with a DMM to get an accurate reading of Neg and Positive.

Good luck

[leatherneck]

Since LED's will only flow one way (unless you juice them to death..). take the radio face off and plug it in so you have power (Using a 12v bench power supply and power adapter) and use a digital multimeter. If you get a negative voltage on the reading then swap the leads you are testing then take a look at which Lead is red and which is black.


I always test it before putting it back together so you dont get annoyed when you find out you missed one... or happen to have one not working.