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Comment by walterbell | Hacker News Reader

Well done! How did you figure out 3000K replacement part numbers for each SMD?

I happened to find someone on a German forum (cars a VW) that had taken his overheads apart to do the same thing who posted a p/n or rather an industry size. I had never dealt with replacing SMD LEDs before but it seems there is an industry standard sizing that most adhere to. Just ordered a few in that size from Amazon and they worked. From what I remember most in that size were rated for similar voltages so seemed pretty universal. I imagine as long as you can see the led and measure its dimensions finding a replacement should be easy.

Desoldering/soldering was a pain as they were tiny; like 2mmx2mm. One cool thing I learned though is that you can use a multimeter in its ‘continuity’ setting to provide enough current to light up these small LEDs which is very convenient when testing if you soldered them correctly.

https://www.zgsm-china.com/blog/something-you-should-know-ab...

https://www.reddit.com/r/Tiguan/comments/1hq2hae/changed_ove...

Desoldering / resoldering is not pain if you have proper tools to do it and know the correct technique. Trying to do it with an iron is making things very hard or even impossible (especially for smds with contacts below not at the sides). Using hot air rework station + preheater and low melt solder paste is the way to go - and it’s a piece of cake then. And you can do the whole board at once in a few minutes.

I modded most LEDs in my house because 2700-3000K is too warm for me, but 4000K is too cool. So I mix them ;)

Oh that’s good to know! Yeah, I definitely didn’t do myself any favors trying it with just a cheap unadjustable iron. I didn’t so much desolder the existing LEDs but instead just melted/scraped them off and cleaned the contacts. Was ugly for sure.

Do you by chance have any resources (videos or tutorials) to recommend that show how this is best done?

I'm about to order a bunch of PCBs to substitute overhead lights on my car and some of my friends for something around 3000K and high CRI.

Not only the color temperature is so cold, but usually the spectrum is terrible, and the quality of the light is awful.

I just have to finish choosing the led driver :P

> some of my friends

Lucky friends! Maybe repair shops could offer customized interior lighting as an aftermarket service.

Thing is, when you order a small PCB, the price difference between 1 and 20units is usually negligible, so I'd try to find the light sizes for all my friends cars :D

Truth is, aftermarket lights for cars (typical AliExpress or Amazon stuff) always focus on brightness, but never on quality. It's usual for taxi drivers to have aftermarket lights in the vehicle, so you can find your money or credit card more easily, but the light quality is always terrible. :P

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