LED LIGHT BAR SWITCH, DIMMABLE?

I got this all wired up nice, it functions correctly in on and off position. But my god, the green light is pretty bright while driving at night. I am tempted to pull the power off of the switch light.

Has anyone ever tied this into their dimmable dash lights? There's that dial that allows you to dim all the gauges. I did not want to get super complicated to add a light bar, but it is a bit distracting now that it's dark at 5. Thanks for any help, or pointing me to a thread I could not seem to find.

 

The easiest way, although not too satisfying, is to put tape over it. It will still shine through most tape. The other way is to use a resistor or a rheostat (variable resistor). The tricky part about dimming an LED is that they do not respond linearly to changes in voltage like an incandescent bulb. There is a minimum voltage that must be reached before the LED comes on, usually 3 to 5 volts depending on the color of the LED. Then it ramps pretty quickly with voltage. It will also change as it gets hotter. I think the displays that have day/night dimming with LEDs probably have a little PCB voltage regulator to insure the correct level of light,...but I'm not an electronics genius. Hopefully someone who is will chime in.

 

Nothing personal, but maybe it is a good reminder of how bright the light bar is for others on the road. Again, nothing personal...just saying.

 

If you don't mind me asking, how do you have it wired up. I have the same switch and I have it quickly wired just to use; but I don't have it wired to where it turns on/off half the switch when the bar is in or not in use. Thanks in Advance.

 

Just remove the bulb from the switch housing or switch it with a color/bulb that’s less bright. Should be on the side, real small, you need a flat tip to remove

 

Bulb condoms?
Sharpie?

Our dimmer circuit has baffled many people wanting to add non light sensored gauges for years. Its backwards wiring or something.

 

That's is an interesting perspective. Why would that be personal, we don't know one another. I plan to mount the light bar in the lower grill. I yellowed it so it's more fog lightish. Having it lower may not even bother anyone if I forget to kill it since it's like a foot off the ground. I just thought it would be cool, and it will be nice on the back roads at night.

 

Hey Man, I got a standard wiring harness. I had to figure it all out on the bench to use this switch vs the one that came with it. I used an add a fuse to the aux spot for the positive. And grounded the black to the body under the hood. Then the light bar, relayed red went to the battery. Black to body. So, the harness has two sets of leads... one to illuminate the switch and one to run the bar. I will post pics of what I did for you.

 

Ahh thanks! Yea I guess my basic question was which wire did you tap into for the second lead. I only have the one wired to run the switch, not to do the separate illuminations

 

Switch is here:

MICTUNING LED Push Switch with Connector Wire Kit for Toyota - Laser LED LIGHT BAR Symbol -Green

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0117B20YY/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1

The diagram should explain this well. The red 2 wire is the one connected to the AUX fuse via add a fuse from the auto parts store.

 

You just need to tie into the dash circuit if you want it dimmable. Most of the switches in the dash can be tapped for this purpose. Green wire= positive and Green/white stripe = negative.

Toyota uses a variable ground meaning positive is always 12V+ and negative is varied from 0-12V.

The switching out the bulb deal like suggested above is not going to work without tearing apart the switch and soldering new LEDs in. All these China switches have the same guts for the most part. They don’t use some plain incandescent.

RED2 to green wire on a dash switch in vicinity and black to green with white stripe.

I usually use the smaller gauge red positaps for this purpose.

 

I think I might just get used to it. If it really annoys me, I could easily hit it with some of that tint spray the wanna be street racers use.



I had a piece of electrical tape over my Jeep's check engine light after a bad header install for way too long.. I hated that!

 

See, this is why this site rocks! Thanks for all the responses so far.

So, where would I find that circuit to tap into? Is it right behind the little dimmer wheel? Or can I splice into one that another switch is using? I think there was an unused harness behind where the locker would have been if I had the OR edition.

It would be cool if it dimmed, just for the stock look and feel.

 

well, i was not successful here. i tapped into the green (+) and green with white stripe (-) that are connected to the traction control switch and my switches (OTRATTW V1D1FBBB) do not dim.

someone posted here who tapped into leads behind the dimmer switch said he was successful getting switches to dim.

 

Any adjacent switch right in that vicinity will have a green and green/white for its light circuit. You may have to just unravel the electric tape/protective jacket a little to see it and have enough room to tap into it. I wouldn’t mess with the dimmer personally.

Bodenzord did a fuse block building writeup that illustrates what I’m talking about. Let me find a link.

 

Scroll near to bottom and you’ll see what I’m reffering to. He uses t-taps.

http://www.bodenzord.com/archives/1129

 

There’s no difference in tapping the dimmer versus a switches light circuit. In all likelihood your wiring isn’t quite right. I looked up your diagram, it’s similar to how my OTRATTW model works (I have V1D1G). Did you run pin 8 to green wire and pins 6/7 to the green/white?

 

yep. used quick splices. i was surprised when it didn't work.

 

Interesting. I’m also surprised, I wired mine this exact way and mine dim but maybe now you mention it I don’t think the indicator LED does when switch is on.

 

That guy looks like he knows what he's doing. Real clean work!