Have tried a 9 LED tower, better than stock incandescent. Have seen Joses custom setup - cool but don't have a friend to build one and the website referenced is down.

Have a 4 LED all front facing on order, but was also thinking about trying this:

Pretty expensive but if it lights up the fiber optics really good would be worth it. Cree LED flashlights are pretty awesome, gotta imagine it would be pretty bright and still should not heat up. 650 lumens!!! (vs. 13 lumens for the four LED all front facing) May be like shooting lasers out of the ignition switch!!

Thoughts??

 

Hello, Mark,
I did a lighting upgrade in my Opticell. I tried several different LEDs, most of them too weak to even be considered. But these, https://www.ledlight.com/ba9s-5-ultr...led-light.aspx have worked simply Awesomely well! And they're (ahem), Very Economical at 135 lumen. It lights up my climate control wonderfully, and the light switch and ignition are readable now without night vision goggles.

The Crees you found look like they would be very much brighter, but you'll have to watch heat buildup. LEDs aren't really cold, as you can learn by holding the light end of a 9-element flashlight, although they're Much cooler than incandescent.

I discovered the forward facing elements doesn't contribute as much light to the Opticell as one might think. Most of the usable light comes from reflection off the side of the LED. The Cree side LEDs look very tiny compared to the ledlight.com units, not to mention quite expensive by comparison.

You may find the Cree units very distracting if they're so bright. You do want to see those controls but you probably don't want them Screaming, I'M HERE!! I'M HERE!! while you're driving an especially dark road.

Anyway, those are my thoughts. Some others may have different experiences.
(';')

 

Thanks LnrB,

Thats pretty close to what I have in there now, which is lots better than stock but not nearly as bright as I think it could/should be. For $35 I will go ahead and order up and report back. 650 lumens does seem like a flamethrower!

Mark

 

this website is down? jaguarclock.com

Mike Eck did the mod for me as a courtesy, but he did tell me he would have to charge a hefty price due to the time involved and he did not have the time. He cut a circuit board, drilled tiny holes, soldered 7 LEDs and resistors, and then he had to make all that fit inside the opticell unit, so it obviously was not an easy job. Took him a while too, he modifies old Jaguar-Smiths clocks for the entire world.

however, he understood the problem being a Jaguar owner himself and built mine to light up the indicators without mercy.

you should see my Headlights switch at night, it simply is incredible, you can actually see the symbols lit up super-brightly. I don't think the cars ever came out of the factory with the Headlights switch this bright, the distance is too big, it is after all, the longest optic cable from the Opticell unit. The rest of the switches and indicators are even nicer and super-bright too. Have you ever sat in the car in the dark just to look at the dash lights and play with the dimmer? I have.

one thing is certain, just replacing the bulb with one LED won't do it, no matter how many lumens they claim, I tried a number of single leds and it was never enough, the light does not travel enough through the longest cables. It takes the magic number 7., as in "7 Thousand Lumens". Fortunately I haven't had any heat issues, I even drove the car at night for hours without the ski panel in place so I could quickly disconnect it if it started smoking, but no cigar.

contact Mike and just tell him "sorry I can't do it" is not an Option. Pay him whatever, you'll get your money's worth.

I'm going to pull my opticell and see if I can copy it part-by-part but I have two other mod projects going on at the same time, not enough hours, I have to finish one to get into another.

 

Apologies, I am almost certain I could not access that site a few weeks ago. Thank you.

I have a 5 LED Cree I found that I need to try first.

Question - on that set up it looks like it is built into the Opticell case itself and you can no longer use the bulb socket. Does he need the back of the case to build it on or did you get the components and install them into the case?

 

I sent him the Opticell unit as you see it in the picture, then he built the bulbs and circuit inside the opticell, the bulb socket is still there because Mike believes in being able to go back to the original configuration, i.e., the mod is reversible if you ever want to go back to a dark Opticell !! It also connects the same way, with the same wire connector. (see picture above).

but all he needs is the chromed reflector as shown in the picture.

if removing the entire Opticell unit, there is one phillips-pozidrive screw right under the Opticell, you need to remove the console panel completely to be able to acess it.

I used a 1/4" ratchet with a phillips bit inside a 1/4" socket, because a screwdriver is too long, hardly any space there.

 

Mark,

Curious how you made out with that upgraded bulb??

 

Unfortunately have not had an oppty to install yet. Started looking at a noise under acceleration and next thing you know the whole rear end is out of the car. Will probably be another week or so before I am back on the road and will report back on the Cree bulb.

 

Sorry its been so long for an update. Bad case of while we are at its.... car has been down about 3 weeks which turned into a whole series of things maintained/upgraded/repaired.

But this is about my quest for an improvement in Opticell land. I will say, Jose's custom LED build set up is probably better than what I have done but the latest bulb, a 5 Watt Cree or at least Cree knock off is the best I have tried. Got it here: CREE LED Miniature 5W BA9S 64113 White 6000K Two Bulb Light Festoon Map Replace | eBay Note that the auction says its for 2 bulbs but I only received one. Only needed one so I didn't complain.

So here are the other two LEDs I tried previously. Chased these from suggestions in other threads.



The first one I tried was the 15 LED one. 3 forward facing, 12 around the sides. I would say at least a 50% improvement over stock. I could at least see the temp controls and I may even convince myself I could see the headlight switch, not well, but could tell it was kinda lit.

The second one was the 5 LED bulb, all facing forward. Small version of the custom unit Jose has.

I would say slight if any improvement over the first one. Maybe 10% better than the 15 LED bulb.

I now have installed the Cree bulb. One single LED behind what looks like a magnifying lens. Very typical look of a Cree style bulb. Have a few flashlights and they are same look and bordering on obnoxiously bright so I had high hopes.

Well - here are the pics. Anybody that has tried to photo dash lights knows that the real life affects are much better than even a good cell phone camera with no flash can pic up.













I would call this a vast improvement over stock and probably at least 50%-75% better than either of the other 2 LED bulbs. I find it to be totally acceptable and will now quit futzing with it.

Hope that helps!

 

the images show a vast improvement over the stock filament 3 watt bulb.

is it the camera or is the green color the way it looks?

have you tried removing the color lenses in the removable black plastic section of the Opticell? I think you should try it, another improvement will be obvious, the light will be "silvery" instead of green.

 

Thanks Jose,

The light filters are still intact. I guess I could try removing but now that I have what I consider an acceptable amount of illumination I am thinking the green should stay. Matches everything else nicely.

And yes - that is indeed the color, didn't really change much with the camera other than they are brighter in person. The pics really don't do justice to the actual look.

 

would be even better if the color was red, but if you are happy with green, that's what counts.

I am now wondering if replacing the color lenses with magnifying lens would be enough to blind me!

I did something similar with the useless Map Light in my '65 Jaguar S type, except I used a mirror behind it, the idea came from my mother who grew up in the 1920's when lighting was so poor, she used to place a mirror behind the light and it increased the light output.

it actually works, it increased the lighting by better than 50% using the original bulb.

 

This is a great writeup and review. Thanks for your efforts on testing all these configurations. Seems like you found the best solution when considering availability, pricing, and results!

 

I did something like that with my pillar lights. More than half the light emitted by the Festoon bulbs is wasted in illuminating the inside of the B-Pillar.

I tried LED replacements and they were Much brighter, but also very blue, which made the soft fawn interior look Really Sick!

So I *Carefully* taped off the conductive ends of a couple incandescent Festoons, including a part of the front glass where I wanted light to exit and sprayed them with the best silver paint I could find.






This has resulted in an increase of light of At Least 50% in the cabin, light of the soft yellow color, but still much brighter than a bare bulb.

Be aware this not only increases light output, but also heat, resulting in quicker destruction of those Ancient plastic lenses.

Also, one must be Very Careful not to get any silver paint on the contacts or a blown fuse will result, and woe be unto the one who has to find where they hid it!
(';')

 

good idea but you sprayed the outside or the inside of the glass? I'm not sure I got this.

how about chrome paint? would it work better?

how about lining the inside of the B-pillar bulb holder with some aluminum tape? or just painting the entire inside of the bulb holder with chrome paint?

Ford sticks a piece of aluminum sticky tape to the rear of the bulb holder assembly in their roof lights. Cheep Cheep but Ford is cheap, after a few years the tape dries out from the heat and comes undone.

Alcoa kitchen aluminum foil wrap would do the same thing but you need to glue it, like the artisans do with gold foil??

the map light and the glovebox light in my '84 XJ-6 use similar festoons, and those are useless too. Using a higher wattage bulb only melts the plastic holder of the map light and the lens of the glovebox light.

I am looking for a one-way-projecting festoon LED to replace them.

 

Um, as the glass is Sealed around the elements and them evacuated, it would be Difficult to paint the inside of any incandescent bulb I think. I've seem mirrored bulbs, but they came that way from the factory.

The paint I used was Valspar Metallic; had the shiniest silver cap on the rack, more like chrome actually.


I thought about the other reflective options you mention, but rejected them because of limited working space in the pillar or danger of a short circuit. The safest thing I could think of doing was to *Carefully* paint the back of the Festoon.

Of course, it makes inserting it in the fixture a bit interesting, as ya can't just stick it in any old way. But I like the results.

I got a batch of directional LED festoons for the pillar and map lights as mentioned.




I didn't like the look of LED pillar lights at all, and S-II doesn't have glove box light, but the 3-elememt LED worked Very well for the map light - for about 3 times and then quit. I don't know if the electronics in in the unit failed, but it had to have a couple diodes in because they were non-polarity; worked either end to.

I ordered these from eBay.au., they were shipped from China, to Tehama County USA for the princely sum of $3.65US, in my hand, for 6 units! As quick as the one lasted though, they may all be rejects, but at least I know such things exist out there somewhere.
(';')

 

what? the Series 2 XJ does NOT have a glovebox light? or maybe someone removed the one in your car?

the same identical glovebox light assembly / housing has been used by Jaguar in all models since the 1960's The only difference is the lens color, my '65 S type has a navy blue lens, my '84 XJ has a white lens, but both are interchangeable. Also the XJ housing is chromed, the earlier cars were plain pot metal like the picture below.

 

I don't have a glove box light in my 1985 SIII... (did not think so and just looked again)

 

what? another glovebox light orphan?

have you looked for any markings that suggest something was installed there? Look at the XJ glovebox picture I posted, it should be identical, including the push-switch which turns it on when you open the glovebox door (the exterior lights need to be ON for the glovebox light to come on).

 

aha! It was the turn on exterior lights first that threw me for a loop. When I did that and opened the box the light came on. It is integrated into the switch, not on the side of it like yours. I thought that was just a spring to push the door open when it was unlatched but apparently there is a light integrated into the bottom of it. Looks like black plastic when its not lit but it does light up nicely.