81CJH

Can I ask how you hooked up your rheostat? Which wires where etc. I'm still hanging on to a glimmer of hope that I've missed something really obvious.

I too have recently had cobalt gauges installed, and have been puzzling over the dimming problem. In short, it seems Ford has a rather weird way of dimming dash lights. At least I assume all the dash lights dim the same, I've only been focussing on the bulb socket behind the cigarette lighter. Having read the PDF manuals & confirming with a multimeter, the following applies: The lights are not dimmed by varying the positive voltage fed to them, but by raising the earth potential on the negative side using Pulse Width Modulation. This means that when the dash lights are at their dimmest, the "Earth" wire is actually reading +8.45V, with respect to earth. As a result, a normal bulb would be dim, since it has +12V on one side, and +8.45V on the other, hence the bulb only has 3.55V across it, which = dim. When the dash lights are brightest, the "Earth" wire reads +0.265V, creating almost 12V potential difference across the bulb, which = bright. Naturally the other two dimmer settings are in between these - you get the idea. This doesn't help us though, since we only get one wire to feed a positive voltage into the gauges, the other side of which is grounded, as you'd expect. So if you hook up the +12V wire from your cigarette lighter to the gauge illumination input, it doesn't dim at all. If you hook up the "Earth" wire, the gauges dim, but opposite to the dash lights. Bugger. So, I'm in the process of building a simple transistor circuit to get the dimming happening how it should. So far it looks like using 4 components (NPN Transistor + 3 resistors) and costs less than $5 to build, providing you have some wire & solder kicking around somewhere. I should point out that I haven't actually built or tested it yet, that's a job for tomorrow. But it works, in theory. I hope. As for the traction control button illumination, I'm pretty sure I checked it & it was the same as the cig. lighter bulb. However I plan on getting my +12V when-the-lights-are-on supply from there, since the cig lighter bulb does other weird stuff like come on with the interior lights when you unlock, and stays on for a minute or so (or until you lock) after shutting down the engine. Use the cig. lighter bulb wire for cool factor if you like night-lights. Watch this space....

...and how good was that hill climb! Almost drifted a few corners on the way back down the second time.

Thanks for a top day Shane, nice steer, that. Thanks to all who rolled up and laid some down (some more than others), I think a good day was had by all.

Just tell everyone that they were. I have more pictures from the Pit tour we went on, but there's a few and I don't know if team Beikoff would want them posted.

Alrighty then let's get the post race sledging under way. 'Twas a great day out for all involved, a special mention goes to Big Al & David for being FIRST at the meeting point. Much close racing was enjoyed, at least until we hit the traffic jam 2km from the gates, then it was slow & steady the rest of the day. 1000 words for every picture, so 'nuf sed. We Congregate on Sundays to pay our respects.... Team Vodafone in action: The team from Shane Beikoff Racing were kind enough to give us a pit tour courtesy of Al's contacts: Shazza shows 'em how it's done: Our group was led by The Stig himself: ...and then Expensive Daewoo won so we all went and got pissed. I love Jim Beam.... Thanks all for a great day.

RTFQ - gotchya. If I can't find you (Redbank Plaza's kinda big, isn't it?) I'll give you a call. See you Sunday!

Are we meeting at the track then? ...or is it every man/woman/child for themselves now?

Where are we up to guys & gals? Is there enough people/time to organise a bus or is it off?

Good-O. See you all there.

what time are we anticipating to be done by? I have a 7:30 engagement I need to get back for.

werd.

Can you feel the Loooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooove in this place! It's like one big happy family. ...of 14 yr old girls

lol

Come on down dude.

Good move... that clutch was not a nice smell.

Are tickets on sale for the bus yet?

Likewise...

13.494@ 163.74km/h Stock T, 4sp Auto, 10lb edit by FIST

I went as well... had a wee run down in the nice 10 degree night air... Well done Paul for prophesying my best time 30 mins before it happened.

Cool. Just got my ticket, I'm there. :biglaugh:

Shaz do you have an LR license or don't you need one for up to 12 seats?

I got a guy from work who's interested in coming along as well if we can get a bus. C'monnnnnnnnnnn bus!

Haaaaaiiiil to the bus driver, bus driver, bus driver, Haaaaaiiiil to the bus driver, bus driver man/woman/person !

No bus? Bugger. Can we at least car pool? I'm at Windsor so easy to pick up on the way through....