Captain Obvious

I neither scoffed, nor expressed the sentiment of "temerity" in your work. Nor did I suggest you were selling anything or shouting "ain't I great". In fact, I myself took a different approach to my headlight relay upgrade design. And if someone were to ask ME "What makes your approach so novel or better than the other hashed out options that have been out there for years? What makes you think that your mousetrap is better? ", I would have a sound technical answer for them that would not include accusing the asking party of scoffing, expressing temerity, or the rest. But whatever. As for previous solutions? https://www.google.com/search?q=headlight relay site:www.classiczcars.com https://www.classiczcars.com/forums/topic/50416-75-280z-headlight-relay-upgrade/ http://zhome.com/ZCMnL/HeadlightRelays/JudkinsRelay.htm https://forums.hybridz.org/topic/91938-headlight-relay-for-260-280/ http://www.zhome.com/DaveRelay/DaveBuild/DaveInstruction.htm https://www.classiczcars.com/forums/topic/60198-240z-led-headlight-wiring/ http://www.danielsternlighting.com/tech/relays/relays.html

Well that's progress! It shows it COULD work right. Sometimes? Maybe? That's good news, right? So that full glow is "System Check Indicated". What does that mean? Does that mean "There has been an issue detected. Push the button to run a system check and we'll give you more information" ?

What makes your approach so novel or better than the other hashed out options that have been out there for years? What makes you think that your mousetrap is better? I think it won't work. The relay you're trying to energize with the current coming back from the filaments? I think that relay is going to sit there and buzz when you switch to high beams.

Looks fantastic!!! Bet you're crawling the walls!

HAHA!! I've met her... She won't take your crap! Enjoy the performance improvement plan!

Good point. I would certainly take the opportunity to replace the electrolytic caps and hope for the best. My statement about component level troubleshooting was beyond doing just that and going deeper into it. OP could probably pick up ten units off ebay, etc for the same cost as having someone troubleshoot and fix the old one. Hopefully ONE of those ten units actually works!

I'm very disappointed in myself for not suggesting something along those lines earlier.

Woot!

Agreed. Looks great! Next batch, get the hole centered. Back into my cave now. Haha!

Great progress. I'm assuming your A/C doesn't work. I'd bet the system is pretty much empty. On edit... But of course, it's prudent to try it though! Might get lucky!

Your test result sounds suspiciously like the AFM's built in 180 Ohm (ish) resistor. Are you sure you're measuring the correct terminals for the temperature sensor?

More great pics. Yeah, those blue blobs are tantalum caps and are probably fine. As for the rest of it, it looks pretty straight forward (easy for me to say, right?). Pair of analog multiplexers/demux, a counter to spin them through their paces, and a bunch of logic gates (AND/OR/NAND, etc), and a crystal to drive the whole thing. I'm guessing it's just a big ol state machine that cycles through eight states when the "start" button is pressed. Some analog conditioning on the front end for each channel, input mux connected to those to funnel it down to one signal as the counter counts to eight, a bunch of logic for the decision making, and an mux on the output side to direct the result to one of eight output transistors to drive each of the bulbs. Block diagram is pretty simple. So even though it's probably not that complicated, as long as replacements are available on ebay, I wouldn't get into component level troubleshooting.

Awesome pics! So the blacks are definitely the common connections. One black to the switch and one black to each side of the display cube. Looking at the traces on the circuit boards, each black to the side of the display cube is the common connection to four of the bulbs. So a total of three blacks. 1) Bank of four emitters on one side of the cube 2) Bank of four emitters on the other side of the cube 3) Switch It's also clear that the cube is a dumb device with no decision making entities inside . It's simply a box of bulbs and a switch. All of the decision making is done in the "Warning Module - Amplifier" box. All that display cube does is turn on a bulb (or bulbs) with power supplied from the warning module. So getting back to the original issue that @Car54280ZX is having... The problem is NOT in the display cube itself, but most likely resides in the warning module over by the glove box.

Haha!! Exactly! I sometimes think I can do some stuff. And then I watch threads like this.

The only color that makes me question the LED thing is the niveau ruite-sproeierreservior. Blue LED's weren't common in 1981. The rest of the colors could easily be LED. Can you take pics of the backs of the connectors on your display module so I can see the wire colors? I'll find that FSM page again and see if I can make heads or tails out of it.

That's exactly what I was thinking. I feel so inadequate!

If there are just two connections and it's a simple spring loaded solenoid valve inside, it really shouldn't matter which pin is which. It should operate the same regardless. But if there's anything else in there (like even a protection diode), polarization would matter.

Oh, I thought you said it had just one bulb - "It looks like there is a little lightbulb in the right side of the display" So if there are multiple light sources, then that would remove the need for a shutter. Just turn on a source for each "layer". I took a quick look at the wiring diagram and the only thing that display connects to is the warning module you mentioned above. There is a dedicated harness that runs between the two (and only between the two). So, now the question(s) becomes... "Are there any smarts in that little display box, or is it simply a slave output bulb box for the amplifier module?" Haha!! Troubleshooting remotely from a distance on something I've never seen with my own two eyes. I don't have a clue! LOL. Wiring diagram indicates there's a black wire. If you assume that's "ground", can you Ohm out light bulbs or LED's to the other wires that don't go to the switch? You should be able to easily identify an incandescent or LED. (LOL easy for me to say from my distance, right?) And if they're LED's that would remove the necessity for a colored filter over incandescent bulbs. I bet that's what it is. But I've missed every guess so far though!

Cool! So it's a light pipe! I was completely wrong. Not EL at all! You shine the light on the edge of the glass and it will refract when it hits the obstacles (the dots). You see the dots because of that. So how does it switch between the different displays? Some kind of small slit shutter between the bulb and the layers? Shutter moves across the different layers somehow?

@dutchzcarguy Well just the fact that it's multi-color unfortunately makes the system more complicated. So I've never seen one of these with my own two eyes, but simply from that era in time, the technology is probably vacuum fluorescent or plasma. Although it could be nixie-tube (neon) as you mentioned before. But I'm not sure if you can do multi-color with cold cathode like that.. My guess is that it it's VF. So I punched that part number you mentioned into the web and found one on ebay: And you're right. Could be a problem with the little display module itself in the dash cluster, or it could be a problem with the control module. Or any of the associated connections that make the system work.

Not exactly sure what the above means, but I took a couple seconds of looking on-line to come up with some examples of what it's supposed to look like maybe? From >> http://xenonzcar.com/s130/warninglamps.html Are those what it's supposed to look like if it's working? Is it really multi-color like that?

That's why I tried to get you today. I'm worried about you. I know you're super busy, but give me a ring when you get a chance. How much time do they give you between classes?

Well that would be perfect. If I need a dial engraved, I'll pay you to do it. I don't have anything in my shop that's CNC. In fact, I think all my machines are older than I am.

Right. The jam nuts should be pretty much finger tight until the last small amount of turn. The one I had with that burr would get slowly and gradually tighter to the point where I was sure it was tight enough, but it didn't reach that torque in the same way as the others. The torque didn't rise rapidly like the others. That was on my busted cam motor. After that whole debacle, I was going over that head in pretty heavy detail just looking for other issues. So that wasn't what made my adjuster come loose that one time, but I was just thinking if you were going in again for anything, it's something to keep in mind.

I've seen some small CNC versions. There have been projects that have crossed my path that made me wish I had something like that!