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LMC LED Dome light kit

TommyD11730

TommyD11730

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So I'm having one of those weeks that it seems like my progress just takes me further away from putting my K5 on the road. I figured I would treat myself to a easy upgrade and buy a pair of the LED dome light kits. Both my lenses are pretty yellow in my truck.

So has anyone installed them, or are they cheap Chinese garbage?
 
Of course they are cheap chinese crap, but they work, LoL. I converted my interior to all LED and love it.

I got a cheap LED light for under the dash as well.

 
i just replaced the bulbs, not the whole thing, i never tried dimming them, next time Im down there ill have to check.
 
badmix said:
i just replaced the bulbs, not the whole thing, i never tried dimming them, next time Im down there ill have to check.
Click to expand...

Okay, im sure this info is out there but ive never seen it written as such:

Stock bulbs in your blazers interior are _______ and you need to replace them with model ________ LED. can you fill in the blanks? :bow:
 
TommyD11730 said:
Are the ones from LMC dimable?
Click to expand...

LED's really aren't dimmable like incandescents. PWM dimming is the proper way to do it, and it's not readily adaptable to the trucks lighting setup. Can be done, but you'd be adding another dimmer, etc.

IMO if you can get clear lenses alone, do that, and buy cheap chinese LED's on ebay for $1/piece.

I'd suspect the superbright ones are going to work better than most of the chinese stuff, the light color is different, but IMO the effectiveness really isn't any better than stock. Conversely, if you leave your dome lights on, your battery should still last for days if not weeks. :)

Don't forget the light under the dash above the trans tunnel.
 
LED's WILL dim by varying voltage (run an LED with a weak battery and you know it's possible to dim by varying voltage), it's just much harder to control than using PWM. Our truck dimmers are pretty imprecise, later setups are probably a better design, normally what you end up with is some dimming, but at some point the light just shuts off, instead of dimming further.

Here is an example of PWM dimming in mine before I completed the dash wiring: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1dXnG5IVKe8

FWIW, I eliminated dash light dimming (I find it worthless, set it and forget it IMO) by incorporating the dimmer but fixing it to a specific output, contained in the cluster housing itself.
 
A simple low-power LED like a cluster bulb is probably just an LED with a resistor. These can be dimmed with the stock rheostat type dimmer without a problem. This setup works fine as long as the manufacturer isn't overdriving the LEDs with 14V input. If they do use cheaper/smaller LEDs and more current, they will just burn out after a while.

For a high power LED, it's important to regulate the current to avoid overheating them. These have active electronics and in most cases do not dim correctly. They are designed to keep current constant and so they automatically compensate for the voltage changes the dimmer knob creates.

Even a lot of the dome light type LEDs are just resistor limited. This is fine, as long as the right safety margins are used. You want lots of low-powered devices in this case. Sometimes they string 3 in series, possibly even 4 and then add a current limiting resistor. Multiple chains like this are created until they have the total number of LEDs desired. Some complain that this leads to multiple LEDs out when you have a single failure, but it's a lot more efficient than giving every LED a resistor. In that case you dissipate about 3x as much power in the resistors (i.e. heat) as you do in the LEDs.

As for the upgrade, getting the clear lens is probably the biggest part of getting more light.
 
Huh, having messed with LED for flying model aircraft in the dark I can tell you they are most definetly dimable. Under the right circumstances and the way they are wired.

image.jpg
 
Yes, LEDs by themselves are certainly dimmable. But many of what we call LED "bulbs" are assemblies including an active controller. Only special types of those are dimmable by changing the assembly voltage input.
 
Bingo! I was wondering if they just used a simple resistor based on 12V input.
 
I got my new lens off the "Help" shelf at Oreilys for like $3 and just got an LED that fits the outlet.
 
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