dim control of the clock on the dash - Honda Prelude Forum

concLude · 04-08-2003, 03:11 PM

what happens if we power the clock spliced off a wire that is controlled with the dimmer? will that cause problems with dropping resistance or something?

Absolut · 04-08-2003, 05:19 PM

What are you trying to do?

If you power the clock from the dimmer circuit, it wont work.
If you power the illumination circuit for the clock off the dimmer circuit, it should dim with the switch, but doesnt it do that anyway?

concLude · 04-08-2003, 05:27 PM

no its does not. It is still dim when my headlights are on, and i turn up the dimmer. The dimmer switch has no effect on my clock, i doubt i'm the only one.

genlude · 04-08-2003, 06:41 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by concLude
no its does not. It is still dim when my headlights are on, and i turn up the dimmer. The dimmer switch has no effect on my clock, i doubt i'm the only one.

Did you do the electro guage conversion?

92 SI Ludester · 04-08-2003, 06:48 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by concLude
no its does not. It is still dim when my headlights are on, and i turn up the dimmer. The dimmer switch has no effect on my clock, i doubt i'm the only one.

same here....when i turn on my headlights my clock gets dull and the dimmer doesnt make it any brighter

yield · 04-08-2003, 06:50 PM

dimmer does nothing for the clock, only helps gauges, fuel, temp...

MR.CLIFFORD · 04-08-2003, 06:51 PM

do you guys have this problem with a clean dash? I know I can see my clock at all times when my lights are on. And mine are the same as everyone is explaining. The dimmer doesn't affect it.

and we just talked about this awhile ago

Dimmer circuit

concLude · 04-08-2003, 06:54 PM

its not like it turns off, i just cant make it bright during the day if my headlights are on. no i didn't do the electro swap yet, i'm still trying to figure out what to do with the milage difference, but what difference would that make?

so can i just chop the power to the clock and wire it to the power supply of the fuel gauges? or temp gauges, or anything else that the dimmer has control over?

concLude · 04-08-2003, 06:56 PM

nice mr clifford, i just looked at that link, but there isn't a definative answer on there.

MR.CLIFFORD · 04-08-2003, 06:58 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by concLude
nice mr clifford, i just looked at that link, but there isn't a definative answer on there.

Yeah. I was just posting it up so we could read in on what has already been said.

If you can figure out the dimmer control unit you should be able to rewire it yourself.

Someone is just gonna have to grow some balls and try it. Maybe someone can get all the parts from a junkyard and give it a shot.

concLude · 04-08-2003, 07:17 PM

i was just thinkn about wireing it directly up to the dimmer switch or to something that was controlled by the dimmer, unless someone thinks that will short something because of a drop in resistance, but i doubt that to be the case because it will still hat the origional ground.....

Forbidden · 04-08-2003, 07:59 PM

Well MR. CLIFFORD showed you the thread I started on this too. I'm trying to do this too and also for the JDM climate control, I'm gonna check a few things with the voltmeter when I'll remove the dash to finish my JDM climate control install soon. I hope I'll be able to do that during Easter weekend but my car might be getting the door and fender repaired/repainted during that time.

I think I'll bring my Helm and Electrical guide at work tomorrow and scan a few pages and post them so we can all see and analyze them.

concLude · 04-08-2003, 08:21 PM

i still dont understand why i cant just power the clock with something that has dimmer control, wait maybe my clock will run slower..hha but seriously if you can scan those and post em that would be great.

MR.CLIFFORD · 04-08-2003, 08:27 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by concLude
i still dont understand why i cant just power the clock with something that has dimmer control, wait maybe my clock will run slower..hha but seriously if you can scan those and post em that would be great.

There should probably be different wires to control power and the dimmer.

Forbidden · 04-09-2003, 05:09 AM

I think I figured out the wiring a bit yesterday, but I still don't know how to re-wire it. I should be able to scan the diagrams today and post them.

concLude · 04-09-2003, 07:44 AM

cool, i'll be waiting. Its pretty dumb honda didn't do this from the factory, but eh, we just gotta prefect it. Will doing a electrolumincent gauge swap fix this or no?

Forbidden · 04-09-2003, 09:08 AM

Yeah it's not like it would've been hard for them to make a clock that dims with the dimmer switch. I too would like to if the clock dims when you have an electro gauge but I doubt it...

MR.CLIFFORD · 04-09-2003, 09:13 AM

I was thinking about it when I woke up this morning. If you are going to rewire the clock I would check the wire that controls the dim function on it first. It should send a set amount of voltage to the clock when it isn't dim and then when you turn the lights on it should reduce the voltage quite a bit.

If that reduced voltage is more than what you could get out of the dimmer control unit you are just wasting your time.

ANOTHER thought I had......

There is an ignition controlled spot in the fuse panel that you could easily run to the clock dim wire and it should stay lit all the time. I would just check the wire that dims the clock first when not dim to see that it isn't pushing more voltage than the fuse panel puts out.

Forbidden · 04-09-2003, 04:39 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by MR.CLIFFORD
I was thinking about it when I woke up this morning. If you are going to rewire the clock I would check the wire that controls the dim function on it first. It should send a set amount of voltage to the clock when it isn't dim and then when you turn the lights on it should reduce the voltage quite a bit.

I think it's actually the opposite, I think there's a wire that just has no current when the clock is fully lit and when you turn on the light it closes a switch (close as in current can pass) and this dims the clock

Quote:

If that reduced voltage is more than what you could get out of the dimmer control unit you are just wasting your time.

ANOTHER thought I had......

There is an ignition controlled spot in the fuse panel that you could easily run to the clock dim wire and it should stay lit all the time. I would just check the wire that dims the clock first when not dim to see that it isn't pushing more voltage than the fuse panel puts out.

If you want the clock to be lit all the time you could probably just cut the wire but I still want it to dim during the night cause I think it's too bright when at full on during the night.

The problem I see is that the dim switch is actually a pot (or if you prefer a variable resistor) AND an on-off switch (when it clicks), the thing is the gauge assembly seem to have 2 wires for this while the clock only has 1.

Well here are the diagrams I scanned.

http://vgmidi.com/~jrc/diagram3.jpg
http://vgmidi.com/~jrc/diagram7.jpg
http://vgmidi.com/~jrc/diagram8.jpg
http://vgmidi.com/~jrc/diagram9.jpg

oh and BTW those files are quite big (150-350K each)

MR.CLIFFORD · 04-09-2003, 04:45 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Forbidden
Well here are the diagrams I scanned.

http://vgmidi.com/~jrc/diagram3.jpg
http://vgmidi.com/~jrc/diagram7.jpg
http://vgmidi.com/~jrc/diagram8.jpg
http://vgmidi.com/~jrc/diagram9.jpg

oh and BTW those files are quite big (150-350K each)

whoa. That hurts my eyes

OK... I'm gonna sort through these. Thanks for posting these up

EDIT:

What do the yellow and white/yellow wires run to?