You will need a wire wound pot. I'd guess at about 2 amps for all dash lights.
Just as a reference point a headlight beam will draw 4-5 amps. You can
definately put your 10 Amp ammeter in series at the pot and measure the
current, without worry.
I found the same thing inside my dimmer pot, fried traces. I was able to do
some creative soldering, and now I can get several levels of intensity.
On Oct 2, 4:29pm, Peter Zaborski wrote:
> Subject: rheostat
> You may recall a post I made last week concerning really dim instrument
> lights. Well thanks to some pointers from some of you I have begun the
> process of getting real instrument lights back in my TR6. Here is what I
> have so far...
>
> Bypassing the rheostat altogether results in all dash lights functioning
> as I would like. The brightness is definitely good. So that remains an
> option for me. I would still retian the (now bypassed) rheostat so that
> the dash control would stay the same.
>
> However, I thought I would try to actually have a controllable level of
> instrument lighting (now that I know I can have it full strength for
> relatively no effort). So I took apart the rheostat and found that some
> of the tracers were missing due to presumably too much current at soem
> point in the past going through them and frying them off. Here is my
> plan...
>
> I have determined that a modern "potentiometer" (or "pot") will perform
> the same function as the rheostat formerly did. The pots are easily
> obtained from most electronic shops (and they cost almost nothing
> compared to the $60 US or so the rheostat costs). The challenge is to
> find a pot which has the same characterisitcs as the rheostat and will
> physically be adaptable to the housing of the rheostat and/or dash.
>
> In order to get this info, I need to know what to do. My plan involves
> getting a number of resistors and placing them one at a time between the
> terminals on the rheostat to determine which resistance produces the
> lowest level of lighting I want for my "dimmest" setting. That way if
> the resistor which gives this level is 500 ohms for example, I can look
> for a 500ohm pot at the electronic store. Of course the other value I
> need is how much current should this pot be able to take. Pots are rated
> in watts (voltage * current). Does anyone know what kind of current goes
> through the instrument light circuit on a TR6 (under normal conditions)?
> I assume that 14 volts is the correct voltage. I don't want to fry my
> multimeter trying to measure the current if the value is a lot higher
> that the meter is built for (10 amps max).
>
> Any help from the eletronic wizzes woudl be greatly apprecaited. Thanks.
>
> Peter Zaborski
> 76 TR6 (CF58310 UO)
> Calgary AB Canada
>
>-- End of excerpt from Peter Zaborski
--
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Jeff S. Hapke Motorola CIPG Arlington Heights, IL
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