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Retro, another thought would be to use a really fine Dremel bit (or a dental bit) and cut through the button to allow light to pass. Then you could fill the surface with something translucent like epoxy or something similar. Of course, that would require a really steady hand (and in my case a few spare buttons to replace the ruined ones).
Retro, another thought would be to use a really fine Dremel bit (or a dental bit) and cut through the button to allow light to pass. Then you could fill the surface with something translucent like epoxy or something similar. Of course, that would require a really steady hand (and in my case a few spare buttons to replace the ruined ones).
My hands are not steady either, but my stereo microscope does help!
I was brainstorming several ways to do it, but I had another look at the position of the buttons and even if they were lit up, they are still in a position that would be difficult to see. That's why I was looking for some angled buttons. I also wanted buttons you pull rather than push so if you bump them with your knee, they wouldn't activate the trunk/fuel door. Those VW buttons looked about perfect to me. You can buy the OEM parts, but they don't look like they are backlit and don't have the nice chrome tips. I was only able to find them coming from China.
We'll see how well it all works out once I get them.
That master control from the GS350 has really had me dreaming about moving lots of infrequently accessed buttons to one panel. But it's mostly just dreaming. The amount of rewiring, etc... involved would be ridiculous.
I received the Trunk and Fuel buttons that I ordered from China today. I disassembled it to determine the pinout. The LED backlighting for the buttons is red (like the pic above). They are 3528 SMD LEDs. I only have blue in this size, so they will stay red until I order some white LEDs.
The switches have a nice, satisfying click and look like they would add a really nice touch to the interior. They pull out to activate. I wanted this since they will stick out just a little and I didn't want to activate them if I bumped my knee into it.
The assembly is almost the same size as the whole OEM assembly. This might make it a bit difficult to create a bracket for it. I started on the design, but I'll probably wait until this weekend to check the fit in the car to decide on specifics of mounting. I am hoping to angle them in such a way that they can be easily seen.
The connector is obviously very different and the OEM harness doesn't have any power for LEDs, so I will probably need to splice in and get LED power from the mirror controls.
VW Switches SC430 Harness
1 GND 4 & 2 (White/Black)
2 LED
3 Fuel Door 3 (Blue/Orange)
4 Trunk 5 White
On the SC430 switches, the grounds are separated for some reason. But they are tied together further down the harness.
The LED is fed with 12V and red from the factory.
Modded them to blue
What's left to do is to make a bracket to fit the new switches in the original switch location. I had designed one back in January, but the fit is so tight, there was not much room to work with. Need to redesign it.
12-30-15, 09:11 AM
