I am considering doing the led mod for, well, just about every interior light in my car..... but the only thing is that the buttons on my factory delco bose cd player already glow WHITE at night. it would look goofy if everything else was changed except for that.

What do you guys think? take it apart and try to change them too?

anyone have experience with the guts of a factory stereo that can lend me some advice?

I'm shudderring to think about messing something up, but I think i have the patience and precision to do this.

 

ttt

Maybe I could just unplug the lights??? I don't need them and it would help people keep their hands off my radio too!
but i DO need the display screen.

 

wow, I guess THIS subject is really taboo huh?

we should have a BOSE forum.

 

I think you should be able to just disconect the illumination wire. It turns the lights on when you turn the headlights on, but durring the day the display is still lit and it will stay that way. So I think it will work.

 

so then, when I turn the headlights on, the SCREEN will turn off also? or no wait.... that should stay on ALL of the time, since there is nothing there to change it.

Sounds like this will be my solution... i'll have to try it of course.

This is going to be great, I HATE having people touch my radio while i'm driving.... how can they change it when they can't see it!

 

I really don't know the answer to your question but a suggestion might be to go to a junk yard and get a standard factory cassette player for your car. Use THAT to experiment with. Once you have it figured out how to do it, then move to your CD player and do the mod

 

brent that sounds like a good idea if i decide to install light emitting diodes in the cd player as well, experimentation is definitely a good start for that.

but what do you think about just disconnecting the illumination wire that goes to the factory headlight and dimmer switch?

the cd player SCREEN should stay on at all times, headlights on or off... just the buttons will not light up anymore and i won't be able to dim the screen.( good, that way people won't change my music when i go out at night! my girlfriend drives me insane! I know the controls by touch, so it wouldn't bother me a bit.)

everything will look stock during the day, but at night, everything will be red except for the radio controls which will not light up anymore.... I could always plug it back in if I decide to put L.E.D.'s in the cd player.

 

I'm not positive on this but I'm not certain the illumination wire actually powers the bulbs. I *think* it is used as more of a "signal wire" to tell the radio the lights are on and to dim the radio. Meaning, I don't think disconnecting that wire will make the illumination lights go out... it will just make them stay bright even when turning the lights on.

Again, not sure so if you do try this, please let me know if that wire DOES power the illumination lights or if it just acts as a signal wire.

 

haven't done it yet... not until i get some LEDs..
but the way i see it, when you turn on your lights... the radio gets the signal and the buttons light up... but if the radio never got the signal (by disconnecting the wire) the headlights would turn on without the radio buttons lighting up.
i'll definitely let you know when i take a look-see... thanks for your input.

 

I have an alpine that was just recently installed, it's definatly a signal wire that operates some sort of a logic gate in the radio. When i turn my lights on, my player actually dims, the lights are brighter during the day because of the sun. if i dont' use that wire, the lights just don't dim. unless your player has the option to blackout, i think you will be going inside to do your mod. Some players don't have lights on until the the signal is sent with the headlights.

With me saying that, hooking up a variable resistor won't make your radio dim. I don't remember if stock ones dimmed with the dimmer or not. My apline seems to only go by on or off.