Ambient lighting LEDs too bright

[Shaggy1969]

I’ve fitted white LEDs to both the door lock handle and pull handles but they are a bit too bright.

Any ideas how to dim them down a bit? Perhaps an additional resistor or something?

 

[benp1]

Scotch tape?

 

[Martin Gibson]

Wire them to the dimmer on your dash,ambient circuit rather than courtesy circuit,blue/grey wire i think and you will be able to dim them with the rest of your dash etc

 

[The Van Cave]

Wire them to the dimmer on your dash,ambient circuit rather than courtesy circuit,blue/grey wire i think and you will be able to dim them with the rest of your dash etc

I would still fit some resistors anyway. Without resistors the OP will be using the dimmer to get the LEDs at the right brightness, but will then have all the other ambient lighting too dim.

 

[Martin Gibson]

Yes i agree with @ChrisR

 

[Shaggy1969]

Thanks. They are wired into the dimmer circuit but when dimmed it makes the dials too dim for my liking. What size of resistor will I need?

 

[T6Jay]

I've just bought some of these for a similar reason;

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Hopefully they don't have the power loss associated with a resistor.

 

[Murdoch]

Interesting to see if that works as LEDs normally need to be dimmable ......and not all are

 

[T6Jay]

All LEDs are dimmable, by two methods:

1. Reduce the current, by a series resistor, or by a variable current supply (as my previous post)
2. PWM them

If the led already has a driver of some kind, the driver itself may not like being supplied by a dimmer, but that's a different subject

 

[T6Jay]

Thanks. They are wired into the dimmer circuit but when dimmed it makes the dials too dim for my liking. What size of resistor will I need?

It depends what current the LED needs, and what it's fv is.
Say it needs 100mA and the fv is 2V, at 12v the resistor needs to be 100ohm and 1W.
Then if you want dimmer, go bigger, like 200ohm.
Of course if the led ready has a resistor, this needs factoring in.
Resistors run hot if used at the rated power, so you may need to oversize it to keep it cooler.

 

[oldiebut goodie]

Sandpaper the led lens - cheap and easy.

 

[T6Jay]

The other cheap and easy option, if it's not already done, is to try connecting two LEDs in series.