Dimming Bright 6 and Savage switches

[deadscoob]

Has anyone put in any extra resistors or other electical gizmos to dim bright 6 and/or savage switches for night time use. Ithink they're great during the day but too bright for night use?

If so, what is the best way to do this?

Thanks

[YIIHAA]

Resistor wouldn't work as it is LED based. The Bright6 website says that they are trialling an auto-dimming module. Why not contact them?
http://www.lightninglooms.co.uk/

[spatz]

yes you can install a an additional resistor (i assume LEDs) in the supply voltage of the switch illumination and bypass this additional resistor for daylight use.
You could even use a relay and connect it to the main light so the change of brightness would go with the main lights.
Keep in mind that all the individuals currents of each LED sum up and result in an overall Itotal=I1+I3+I4........ The value of the resistor could be then R/2 (half brightness)=12V/I total
R final = 24V/Itotal, e.g. your total Itotal is (e.g) 100mA = so the resistor value would be 240 ohms. For the wattage it calculates Itotal*Itotal*R= 2,4 Watts.
There are more sophisticated solutions to do this, you might find an adjustable LED driver board, which is a constant current power source with adjustabel current.

Hope that helps

[Steve_D]

I also was lead to believe it was not possible to dim LEDs.

Steve

[deadscoob]

Hmm, if lightning looms are developing a dimmer there must be a way.

Thanks for the guidance Spatz, very useful, will give it a go and keep a fire extinguisher handy

[spatz]

the led illuminated switches most likely have resistors already installed unless they have a smarter circuit which I doubt.
LED Brightness is controlled over Iforward current and the higher the brighter. So reducing forward current is dimming LED brightness.
The downside of a reistor based dimming is the large wattage you need and the big loss over the resistor.
Modern LED power supplies are constant current switch mode units, that are providing a constant current to the LED fixture. You might find
a suitable power supply from the tuning experts on ebay.

[rdodger]

Try this

[Graham-P]

I'm no good with electrics so this is a bit vague, but I went to Maplins and got a pack of diodes and by trial and error found the right ones and wired them across the LEDs. When to lights are on the switches are dim but when the switch is activated the LED is brighter so you can tell what switches are activated. Only thing is, these switches go together in bits and you can't do this before installation it has to be done after which is a right pain, plus you have to dismantle the switches before you can take them out of the dash (if all that makes sense!)