disabling green in bicolor LED
I am very please with my remote SRX, but find the green light to be too bright, especially at night, I have been told that I can cut the blue wire and the green light will go out, but the red light will still flash with an alert is encountered
Has anybody done this and does this work?
thanks
Re: disabling green in bicolor LED
Quote:
Originally Posted by mal28
I am very please with my remote SRX, but find the green light to be too bright, especially at night, I have been told that I can cut the blue wire and the green light will go out, but the red light will still flash with an alert is encountered
Has anybody done this and does this work?
thanks
NOTE: MODIFICATIONS TO YOUR SRX MAY VOID ITS WARRANTY.
DISCLAIMER: THE FOLLOWING INFORMATION IS PROVIDED FOR INFORMATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY AN IS WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED.
Are there three wires which go to the bicolor LED? If so, then the LED is really a tricolor LED (capable of emitting red, green, or if both are turned on then yellow).
Tricolor LEDs with three leads have two internal LEDs like the bicolor LEDs. One lead is usually a common anode (-), and the other leads are the cathodes(+) for each internal LED. One can apply voltage to either cathode or to both to get three different colors -- usually red, green and then yellow when both cathodes are energized.
Lets hope the the bicolor LED used with your SRX is really a tricolor LED with three leads, and that supposedly the blue wire going to the LED is indeed the wire which supplies voltage to the internal green LED's cathode (+) lead. Look at the wiring and verify that there are three wires which go to the LED. If there are and if there actually is a blue wire, then first unplug the wires to the LED from the back of your SRX. Then cut the blue wire, tape the ends of the cut wire with electrical tape, and plug the wire harness back into the back of the SRX. The green portion of the LED should now be disabled. Power up your SRX and see if indeed the green LED is no longer glowing, and that the LED still glows red when the SRX is alerting. It should if indeed the blue wire was the correct wire to cut. Otherwise it is one of the other two wires which you need to cut instead.
Note: IT IS IMPORTANT TO FIRST UNPLUG THE LED'S WIRE HARNESS FROM THE BACK OF THE SRX BEFORE CUTTING THE BLUE WIRE SINCE STATIC ELECTRICITY FROM YOUR BODY COULD FEED INTO THE SRX AND DAMAGE THE SRX WHEN YOU ARE CUTTING THE BLUE WIRE.
Assuming that the green LED now is disabled, you have a choice -- either leave the blue wire cut and taped to completely disable the green LED, or you can install resistor inline where you cut the blue wire to dim the green LED. A 500ohm resistor should dim the green LED to slightly less than half its brightness. A 1000ohm or 1500ohm resistor will really dim the green LED which is what I think you are looking for when driving at night. Use a 1/4 watt resistor. Unplug the LED's wire harness again before installing the resistor. Simply install the resistor inline on the blue wire by soldering one end of the resistor to one side of the cut blue wire and then soldering the other end of the resistor to the other side of the cut blue wire. Then wrap the resistor and its soldered connections to the blue wire with electrical tape and then plug in the wire harness again. If you are not good at soldering, get someone who is to do this for you.
You now have either a disabled green power LED or a custom dimmed green power LED which still flashes with its original red brightness when alerting!
--Michael