Dimming Angel Eyes doityourself
Quote:
Originally Posted by
328ioc
Personally I don't mind how bright the A/E's are. But I think I have seen other people wish they were dimmer. Any way you could do a DIY for the dimmer switch?
I would also just be interested to see how it was done.
Lool great too!
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Quote:
Originally Posted by
danewilson77
Wasn't a switch. I'm sure he can write something up.
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Here ya go, fellas: from that other forum, UncleDon's "Dimming and Tinting EAS Aurora Angel Eyes"
The basic gist is that to dim a light source, you decrease its voltage. The simplest way to do so, with an input of fixed voltage, is to increase the input's resistance. So, you could wire in a certain number of resistors to add a certain amount of resistance to get a certain amount of dimming, but if you want adjustability (because, y'know, what enthusiast makes up his mind just the once), you need a variable resistor, aka a rheostat:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...entiometer.jpg
http://tcholo.net/images/bmw/AEpot.jpg
http://www.bimmerfest.com/forums/att...7&d=1242946492
(Picture from UncleDon's thread, linked above)
The E46F thread has a couple of really good comparison pics of, in this case, EAS Aurora LEDs at full-power vs dimmed. It also lists the (very short) parts list needed for this mod:
- One 25-Ohm, 3-Watt potentiometer – I used Radio Shack model 271-265
- One control knob – I used Radio Shack model 274-402
- Something to put it in – I used Radio Shack model 270-1801, 3" x 2" x 1"
And then the picture above (pulled from the linked thread) shows how to put it all together:
- Cut the positive input cable of the AE harness & strip the two ends
- Drill four (4) holes in the enclosure: two for the wire in & wire out, one for the pot's shaft, & one for the pot's locating tab (the small tab seen just to the left of the pot's shaft in the picture above)
- Thread the wires through the in & out holes
- Solder the wires to the pot's terminals as pictured (check the terminals with a multimeter to be certain of which terminal is which)
- Secure the pot to the enclosure with the included nut & washer
- Secure the knob onto the pot's shaft
- Close up the enclosure
- Mount as you see fit (I used the double-sided foam tape that came with the AEs; the OP used Velcro)
Once you have it all together & your angel eyes installed, just turn them on & dim as you see fit; I started at full dim but noticed I could see the individual LEDs a bit more then I'd like, so now I'm at about half dimmed & think it looks great! (This is fully dimmed; I'll have to get a pic of where they are now.)
http://tcholo.net/images/bmw/AEleft02.jpg
(Full dimmed)
