Monday, December 27, 2021

RGB or RGBW LED Strip Quick Controller

I recently had a situation where someone had purchased some RGBW LED strips, but he had no controller and needed the light strips to work within a few hours.  So I took a small piece of circuit board and a 5 position DIP switch and made a quick controller.

On the bottom side the five pin connector for the LED strip just goes to the five pins of the switch.  On the opposite side of the switches the black wire for the strip goes to +12 volts via a switch, the other wires go to ground via the switches.  This can be seen in the next picture.  A 12 volt AC adapter powers the LED strip.


From the top view the switches line up with the colors of the other wires.  That is to say the white wire is "White" LED's. The red wire is Red color, the green wire is Green color, and the blue wire lines up with theBlue color.

UPDATE: I eventually made several mini switch boxes for the LED switches.  


This is what one looks like when installed.



Thursday, December 9, 2021

Chevy Aveo Headlight Wiring Burning Up Issue

 My daughter said that one of her headlight was rather dim.  When I opened the hood I immediatly smelled the burnt electrical smell.  I looked at the dim headlight and the ground connector was burned off.  I attempted to cobble the bad headlight connector.  Then when I tested it the other headlight went out.  It had the exact same issue.  

Burnt Aveo Headlight Connector

Burnt Aveo Headlight Connector

The fix is at auto zone,  For 13.99 you get two headlight socket replacement connectors with short wires attached.  The repair kit is Dorman 84790 and it includes two sockets.
Headlight Socket Repair Kit

This is the left passenger side headlight repaired.  You will need to also purchase 6 red crimp connectors.

This is the right, drivers side headlight.  The fill tube for the wipers can be removed to give more room to work.
Repaired Aveo Headlight connector