Changing the boot light on the BX today, when part of the plastic moulding securing the bulb terminals broke off (presumably brittle from the heat). Took the opportunity to make an improvement - I tend to keep my tools in the back so I'm often working out the back of it for long periods (the tailgate keeps the rain off) and so I remove the bulb to prevent battery draining. The 10w bulb is unlikely to drain the battery in a day, but if I forget I've left it open it might do.
With a little enlarging of the hole I've fitted the light from the rear of the estate roof (I have a spare), which has 3 positions: on with the door switch, permanently off, and permanently on. The latter is less useful in the boot, but still handy when sleeping under the parcel shelf.
I've seen a fair few BX courtesy light lenses that have melted somewhat - and I think I know the reason why. IIRC the boot and glovebox should be 5W - not sure about the rear roof light in the estate but I suspect it also should be 5W. The courtesy lights on the door pillars should be 7W frosted which are rare so most people fit 10W instead which produce more heat of course. The 7W frosted turn up on TW*Tbay from time to time.
Sorry about that - I'm having issues with eBay at the mo - I think there's a gorilla with halitosis running their IT / page update section - and I'm feeling much more 'polite' than I was earlier
You're right about the wattage (and eBay!) but I've put 10w in my boot light as it's a bit dim with the parcel shelf in position. I figured for the short time it was on the extra heat wouldn't be an issue (and part of the reason why I would disconnect it with the boot open for long periods in the day). However that may have been the main reason for the old fitting to become brittle!
I would expect that damage to the lens will only happen if it's an over-wattage bulb left on for a long time on a hot day - or if the bulb hasn't been fitted properly and is touching the lens - your arrangement should be fine
Got the controller back from Eurotherm on Friday, wired it up and it works! Just in time for Spring...
I suspect the turnaround time was quicker than it would be if it had gone through the official channels, but he phoned me up to say thanks for the extras so everyone's happy.
Inside - quite a neat fit in a spare box I had.
The finished article!
There is the facility within the controller for creating programs, so I should be able to have a timed output where the solenoid will be open for (say) 5 minutes every hour.
If you can programme the mark : space or on : off times so that the on time increases as the temp decreases and also increases the longer it stays below zero...
Don't think you can do that TBH, but I'm not too fussed. That would be a nicety rather than a must have. I think you could do it if you had a Master and a Slave controller - whereby the Master would select what program to run on the Slave controller….
Current task on the BX is to swap the front passenger door. The one that's on has been repaired in the past, and the paint has faded a lot more than the rest of the car. (As this fuzzy picture shows).
I've taken the rubbing strip, mirror and lock off, fitted them to the new door so it's a simple job to knock out the hinge pins and swap them over. I have a cheapo In/Out digital temperature display to fit in the car, and while the mirror was off I tool the opportunity to thread the external sensor into the mirror housing. For the display itself I did toy with the idea of combining it with a clock and mounting it in the dash tray like the original. But then I decided that life's too short, and probably beyond my electronics skills anyway!
Fitted the new door - looks a lot better although this picture doesn't show it that well.
Wired up the sensor in the door mirror and mounted the display by the gear lever.
Previously I would have thought that's fairly extreme, working on the car below freezing. However it's nothing compared to getting your hair frozen to the snow!
Reminds me of the evening I fitted the Janspeed / cherry-bomb exhaust to the MG 1300 converted Metro - about the same temperature so the exhaust sealant gunk between the sections was really stiff and it all seemed 6" too long for the car - that was bad language for 4 hours straight
The door looks good - so does the temp gauge - good the see progress despite the weather - it's not going to happen here until the weather improves
Given that the garage is…er…full at the moment I'm having to work outside - so I'd much prefer to work in the cold than the rain! Lighting is no problem as I have adapted an infra red patio heater (found in a skip) with a 1500w halogen bulb, which gives 'ample' light. And a reasonable amount of warmth too!
This light discussion (ha ha!) brings me on to another mini project - a Maglite. I'm a bit of a fan of anything that lights up, and have quite a collection of torches. My ageing 6D Maglite is rather getting left behind by the current crop of LED torches, so I decided to 'do something about it'. I've managed to find a couple of higher wattage bulbs (11w and 24w @ 6V) which should work quite well at 7.5V from a set of rechargeables (I reckon alkalines would have too much internal resistance at those sorts of currents, as well as being expensive!) But, bulb life will be shortened, especially when turning on. This simple circuit should do the trick, with hopefully not too much loss due to voltage across the transistor when running. The spec sheet gives the drain to source resistance when on to be 0.04 Ohms @10V/16A; I'll be running at around 4.8A which gives about 0.2V drop across 0.04 Ohms. I would guess the resistance is less at a lower voltage and current?
Yes, I had wondered about something like this, but it's pricy and it kind of feels like 'cheating'. I prefer the idea of modifying with outdated technology! Plus I should get abut 1000 lumens from the 24w bulb, obviously at the expense of run time.
I'd like to keep the torch, as it was a present years ago. Although I agree a new one would be cheaper than the best LED upgrade...
