How to disable power lock red light

[toddel68]

Is there a (perhaps reversable)way to disable the red light in the power lock switch? I find it quite annoying that they use a red light to indicate a normal system status.

Thanks,

Thorsten

Edited January 20, 2006 by toddel68

[Tool Pants]

A piece of black electrical tape. :rolleyes:

[Loren]

Maybe remove the wire on pin 5 and tape it over?

[toddel68]

Maybe remove the wire on pin 5 and tape it over?

Loren, any idea where to locate that wire in the foot well area? Thus I wouldn't need to pull the switch out.

Thorsten

Edited January 20, 2006 by toddel68

[Loren]

Why not just take the panel off (with all the switches) and disconnect the wire?

[toddel68]

Why not just take the panel off (with all the switches) and disconnect the wire?

Thanks for the help Loren. It's not that I'm not willing to follow your hints - I just tend to break the wonderful Porsche plastic. But I'll try. Had a look at Bernie's spoilerswitch DIY and it looks like I can pry it out with some kind of plastic spatula. Correct?

BTW: the wiring diagramm is a little cut off at the upper end. I suppose it's a white wire?

[Loren]

Yeah, should be a solid white wire.

[FlashingBlade]

Thanks for the help Loren. It's not that I'm not willing to follow your hints - I just tend to break the wonderful Porsche plastic. But I'll try. Had a look at Bernie's spoilerswitch DIY and it looks like I can pry it out with some kind of plastic spatula. Correct?

I just used my fingers, and started at the top of the horseshoe. It's not on that tight.

There are 2 tabs at the top and 1 (2?) tabs on each of the sides. So first pull the top

until it's loose (as in 1/4") then pull each of the sides. Gently!

Edited January 21, 2006 by FlashingBlade

[toddel68]

Did it today. Everything was quite tight though. Must be because everything is wrapped in leather in my car.I really had to pull hard an the covers but didn't break anything. I removed and isolated the white wire from the connector itself instead of cutting it. This way it's easily reversable. You need to open the plastic flap of the connector AND to push down on the brass connector on it's flat side while pulling on the wire. If you examine the connector you will see the two methods used to hold it in place. Took about 10-15 minutes. Thanks Loren :renntech:

[nycebo]

What would be cool is if we could figure out a way to have the LED in the amber color rather than the red color. THe heated seats have the capacity to go from Red to Amber to off, so perhaps there is an amber LED that can fulfill this role?

[toddel68]

What would be cool is if we could figure out a way to have the LED in the amber color rather than the red color. THe heated seats have the capacity to go from Red to Amber to off, so perhaps there is an amber LED that can fulfill this role?

Your right, that would be even cooler. Any ideas somebody?

[Costa]

Yes you can achieve this with some extra minor electronic circuitry and a dual colour LED (many Dual Colour Leds come in Green/Red or Yellow/Red or even Green Yellow - some are now appearing with Blue + an extra colour etc if that takes your fancy).

A couple of transistors and 3 or 4 resistors would allow you to achieve this...

[toddel68]

Yes you can achieve this with some extra minor electronic circuitry and a dual colour LED (many Dual Colour Leds come in Green/Red or Yellow/Red or even Green Yellow - some are now appearing with Blue + an extra colour etc if that takes your fancy).

A couple of transistors and 3 or 4 resistors would allow you to achieve this...

Sounds like overkill to me. Replacing the red light with an amber ( or green) one would do the trick for me. Is that a job an electronic nerd like me could do? Any idea about the specs of the in-switch LED?

Thorsten

[Sandy]

Like you, I found the glare from the red LED to be annoying in my '99 996 coupe. My solution was to replace it with a green LED I purchased from Digikey. It takes some careful soldering with a low wattage iron, but green is a lot easier on the eyes. It also seems more appropriate for indicating the doors are locked. It sometimes is a little hard to see in direct sunlight, so I don't think I'd recommend it for a 996 Cab., or a Boxster. BTW, I also tried an amber LED, but still found it a bit annoying at night.

[toddel68]

Like you, I found the glare from the red LED to be annoying in my '99 996 coupe. My solution was to replace it with a green LED I purchased from Digikey. It takes some careful soldering with a low wattage iron, but green is a lot easier on the eyes. It also seems more appropriate for indicating the doors are locked. It sometimes is a little hard to see in direct sunlight, so I don't think I'd recommend it for a 996 Cab., or a Boxster. BTW, I also tried an amber LED, but still found it a bit annoying at night.

Great Sandy,

never heard of Digikey but they even seem to have an online shop here in Germany. Do you have the part no. of the LED you used? I could just order an identical one then.

Thorsten

[nycebo]

Green doesn't mesh up so well with the car though. Do you know if they also sold the Amber? I'd like to keep the interior look as uniform as possible.

[Sandy]

The Digi-Key part no. for the GREEN LED is: 67-1365-1-ND ($0.64 ea.).

The YELLOW LED p/n is: 67-1367-1-ND ($0.64 ea.).

The LEDs are only about 1/8" x 3/32," so the soldering area on each side is miniscule. I would advise ordering more than one LED, in case you accidentally melt the device while soldering it onto the switch's PC board! Take note that the cathode side of the LED is denoted by a diagonal cut at one corner of the LED. You can easily see it on the right-hand LED in the pic. Each LED is sealed in a tiny plastic enclosure to keep humidity out until it's time to solder the LED in place. I used a modeler's knife to cut it away.

[toddel68]

Thanks Sandy!