2001 tahoe swapping led to ac controls

[mbp1979]

I got it all lined out just had to put resistors on each led and finally just trace each circuit with a meter. Mine was the 99-02 with the auto control feature all the ones you see are the newer model like you have or the older like mine but without the auto feature just 1 through 5 thank you for trying to help a brother out.

 

[TXBowtieGuy]

That is a 2004 tahoe

How did you do it? I tried with the same leds I ysed on the dash but they didn't work. BTW I have an 04 tahoe.

 

[Archer04]

I had to use resistors for each light, test polarity. Also be very careful with the soldering iron, it is easy to melt or cause a break in the card from the heat. I also used a 9v battery for testing, the way I did it was to connect a light with resistor to the board and then verify it lit up as well as any that were already connected. Kept that up til I got the last one done. Another thing to do is instead of desoldering the old light from the backside of the card is to cut the old bulb off from the front side and then solder to the old post, this will prevent from having to touch the card to remove the old solder. Finally I never said it was perfect, I did burn my card as mentioned and then had to troubleshoot to find where I needed to make a jump between the lights to get them to work, again this is where that 9v and leads come in handy.

 

[mbp1979]

How did you do it? I tried with the same leds I ysed on the dash but they didn't work. BTW I have an 04 tahoe.

Post a pic of your controls

 

[mbp1979]

I had to use resistors for each light, test polarity. Also be very careful with the soldering iron, it is easy to melt or cause a break in the card from the heat. I also used a 9v battery for testing, the way I did it was to connect a light with resistor to the board and then verify it lit up as well as any that were already connected. Kept that up til I got the last one done. Another thing to do is instead of desoldering the old light from the backside of the card is to cut the old bulb off from the front side and then solder to the old post, this will prevent from having to touch the card to remove the old solder. Finally I never said it was perfect, I did burn my card as mentioned and then had to troubleshoot to find where I needed to make a jump between the lights to get them to work, again this is where that 9v and leads come in handy.

If you use fine tip on ur solder iron helps greatly when you remove and resolder the leds in the board if your using just a standard tip it's alot easier to screw up and put to much heat on it. Not that it doesn't or won't but definitely less room for error.

 

[Archer04]

Yes and if your new to the use of a soldering iron and don't properly tin the tip and then keep it clean as you work this will also create problems and the potential to burn the board. Also like I said I tested after each LED was soldered on, be careful with that as well if you touch the wrong part of the board you can cause an arc which will short out the board.

 

[Cattivo]

I came up with a different method. If you want to change every bulb to blue led without ANY soldering, check out my build thread... page 12 starting at comment #119...for the upper controls, 4x4, headlight and fog light switches skip to page 15 comment# 143

 

[Rocket Man]

I came up with a different method. If you want to change every bulb to blue led without ANY soldering, check out my build thread... page 12 starting at comment #119...for the upper controls, 4x4, headlight and fog light switches skip to page 15 comment# 143

View attachment 76178

View attachment 76179

That looks a bit too much, too bright. Let me guess- led strips?

 

[Cattivo]

That looks a bit too much, too bright. Let me guess- led strips?

They're 5mm blue led's, my phone takes really bad pics and makes them look brighter than they actually are. They would be the same brightness if I chose to solder them in. It's a perfect glow of blue throughout the cabin, not blinding at all

 

[Archer04]

I used the 5mm also in my build, but I did use 3mm in a few spots where I thought the bulb needed to be smaller. Also I used flat top blue LED in spots for better diffusion of light. Yours looks great, nice job @Cattivo