making gauge needles light up when car starts...

[The Green GT]

I am thinking about tinting the clear cover on my gauges and I was wondering how I would go about getting the needles to light up when the car is started? Ill be able to get the gauges to light up cause I have some aftermarket face plates. But I need to get the needles to light up now.

 

[trav_19]

pull out your headlight knob... lol man you are tint crazy lol

 

[The Green GT]

I dont think the headlight knob thing is a good option. lol

 

[urban96]

wire a switched +12v source to the wire that powers on the gauge lights

 

[HISSIN50]

I'd simply source key-on power for the dimmer circuit.

 

[urban96]

I'd simply source key-on power for the dimmer circuit.

thats what i ment, you splained it better tho

 

[The Green GT]

I'd simply source key-on power for the dimmer circuit.

So if I spliced the blue wire with teh red stripe (I think thats the cluster illumination) to say my radio then it would work?

 

[urban96]

in theory, give it a test

 

[HISSIN50]

Sounds good to me.

Urban, apologies - I simply missed your post last night. Otherwise, I would not have even posted anything myself since you covered it (I HATE! it when people 'echo' what someone else already said, and I did it last night).

Wait, I remember what happened. Last night I typed a huge long post that I deleted. I thought Eric wanted the needles to light up for a few seconds when he actually started the car, but then have the needles go dark. I talked about using a capacitor, RC constants, blocking diodes (to prevent feedback from the dimmer to the starting circuit) and all sorts of other crap. Then I re-read his post and realized that I misunderstood.

 

[urban96]

no worries, i was pretty tired and not very clear in my post

 

[The Green GT]

lol

All that work for nothing eh?

 

[HISSIN50]

Actually Eric, it was kind of fun to think about that stuff - I havent thought about capacitor half life in some time.
I'm glad you didnt want to do that because I didnt have a lot of faith that my idea would work.

 

[The Green GT]

Well maybe you could help me with making my taillights brighter. Are there any electrical components I could use to do that? Or will I have to use LED bulbs?

 

[HISSIN50]

For brighter tails, I cannot think of a way to achieve more brightness with any wiring trickery, per se. It would take brighter bulbs (more watts) if the circuits can handle the additional amperage. I'm not sure about LED bulbs - maybe they are brighter?