Dark radio

dwaynefu · April 3, 2006

Is there somewhere anyone knows in the greater Houston area that I can get an illumination problem fixed on my 01 Tahoe? Some buttons on my factory radio won't illuminate at night.

ken1mod · April 3, 2006

Gentlemen,

I just replaced all bulbs in my delco radio with Radio shack bulbs..Excellent results but buy some solder wick and you better know how to solder.

Ken

asilverblazer · April 3, 2006

Just some buttons? If so its an out bulb if you can solders you can do it yourself. I've done mine plenty of times along with others on here. If you don't want to do that look on eBay for a replacement, it might be cheaper and easier than getting yours fixed.

ken1mod · April 3, 2006

Gentlemen,

It really was easy, much easier than I thought, but you do need to know how to solder.

you need a small soldering iron 50 watts or so and some desoldering wick. Radio shack has the bulbs for 1.50 each, you need ten. Replace the bulbs in the a/c control head too, they are even easier.

When you are done, you can read by the radio lights. Cool. If you can solder or are trainable, super easy. Entire replacement radio may also have used up bulbs.

Ken

chuck16 · April 3, 2006

Mine Half Died so I replaced with LEDs

Wiring Diagram

Check out my Gallery for more pics of this...

mcreyaufmiller · April 3, 2006

I posted the directions and the contact info in the tech section. If you use the Radio Shack lights, they do not last and are not the same brightness. Just My opnion.

Mike

hoorders · April 5, 2006

Mine Half Died so I replaced with LEDs

Wiring Diagram

Check out my Gallery for more pics of this...

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Those look prety cool..............where did you get the bulbs?.........I have a few out and if im going to replace them I would rather go with LED's.......

chuck16 · April 5, 2006

I just went down to the local electronics store and picked up some LEDs....

Here is a parts list

Radio

10 LEDs

3-5mm 4-7000 MCD with a forward voltage of 3.5v

10 Resistors

230-1000 OHm Depending on how bright or dim you want it.

I find 270 to be just fine.

HVAC

It's been awhile but I believe 7 LEDs

With the same specs as the Radio.

3-5mm 4-7000 MCD with a forward voltage of 3.5v

Resistors

230-1000 OHm Depending on how bright or dim you want it.

I find 270 to be just fine.

Cheers

Evan

asilverblazer · April 5, 2006

Looks good, what gallery are the pics in? I found it a little tight in there, where did you make room for the resistor? Could you give some more details on this?

chuck16 · April 5, 2006

Gm Truck gallery located here:

My Gallery

The only way I could get the resistors to fit was to put one side of the resistor down into the socket then 90 it so the resistor was parallel to the board and then 180 the other side of the resistor and run it up to the LED.

Make sense?

See here how I have Red Electrical tape on the resistor that's so it doesn't short out. If I was really good I would have used heatshrink...

Let me know if you have more questions..

asilverblazer · April 5, 2006

That helps a lot, in the one pic it looked a little dim to my taste, would I need a higher number resistor or lower (270 vs. ? for brighter)? I can solder but never any resistors or LED's It looks like Polarity matters +/- how well are LED's and resistors marked for this? On the bulbs I just put them ever which way...

P.S. I will probably do red if anything, not tht it matters. I'm glad to see those pics, I've been debating with myself about doing this.

chuck16 · April 6, 2006

That helps a lot, in the one pic it looked a little dim to my taste, would I need a higher number resistor or lower (270 vs. ? for brighter)? I can solder but never any resistors or LED's It looks like Polarity matters +/- how well are LED's and resistors marked for this? On the bulbs I just put them ever which way...

P.S. I will probably do red if anything, not tht it matters. I'm glad to see those pics, I've been debating with myself about doing this.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

It's actually just the picture it's really easy to see at night but, if you want it a tad brighter go with a smaller resistor. Polarity does matter I hope that my little diagram with polarity helps.

Resistors don't matter when it comes to polarity but, with LEDs it does. The way I figured out which side of the LED was + and which was - was just to try it. Just take one LED and a resistor and try it on the battery. Once you got that figured out it's really easy. Just make sure you use a resistor every time as it's easy to smoke an LED without a resistor.

Hope to see some pics after you do it.

Evan

half-breed · August 25, 2011

I posted the directions and the contact info in the tech section. If you use the Radio Shack lights, they do not last and are not the same brightness. Just My opnion.

Mike

Forgive my ignorance, but where is the tech section, how do I get to it?

Thanks.