In the last two pictures of the previous post, you'll notice an out-of-focus black object to the right... this is a sharpie pen that I used to lift the translucent blue plastic layer away from the front of the cluster housing while I performed the desoldering with a wand-type low wattage iron. I was in no way interested in removing the gauge needles to make this access easier. I was very afraid that I'd destroy the cluster's proper operation if I messed with those gauge needles.
I got the beeper out by alternately heating it's two contacts from the front side and "rocking" it out. I soldered in the wires that I eventually routed under the dash near the fusebox. The simplest method to add an adjustable volume control at this point was to use a potentiometer. I started with a 5K, but found a 50K pot worked a little better. With this level of resistance, I didn't have to ground the third contact on the pot (although if you want a control that goes from full-on to dead-silent, grounding is advisable - unless you know some other way) and I didn't have to worry about polarity. (though I believe that the contact closest to the speedometer was the +.) I ran one of the leads to the first contact on the potentiometer, connected the second contact to one side of the beeper, and hooked up the other beeper contact to the return lead. A simple series circuit. I insulated or covered any exposed contacts and zip-tied the potentiometer/beeper combo under the dash.
Now that the 'cat is out of the bag,' maybe some of you tried and true tweakers out there can build off this. Once the signal is off the board, it can be manipulated in any number of different ways if you know your electronics. Switches, gates, relays circuits, etc. all become possibilities. Though a simple volume control is probably the most effective way to "take the edge off" of that piercing little demon.
Just remember: if you, at any time, completely quiet the beeper to a point where you don't notice it... then you have only yourself to blame when you lock the car with the keys in the ignition, or leave the headlights on, drain the battery, etc.
I got the beeper out by alternately heating it's two contacts from the front side and "rocking" it out. I soldered in the wires that I eventually routed under the dash near the fusebox. The simplest method to add an adjustable volume control at this point was to use a potentiometer. I started with a 5K, but found a 50K pot worked a little better. With this level of resistance, I didn't have to ground the third contact on the pot (although if you want a control that goes from full-on to dead-silent, grounding is advisable - unless you know some other way) and I didn't have to worry about polarity. (though I believe that the contact closest to the speedometer was the +.) I ran one of the leads to the first contact on the potentiometer, connected the second contact to one side of the beeper, and hooked up the other beeper contact to the return lead. A simple series circuit. I insulated or covered any exposed contacts and zip-tied the potentiometer/beeper combo under the dash.
Now that the 'cat is out of the bag,' maybe some of you tried and true tweakers out there can build off this. Once the signal is off the board, it can be manipulated in any number of different ways if you know your electronics. Switches, gates, relays circuits, etc. all become possibilities. Though a simple volume control is probably the most effective way to "take the edge off" of that piercing little demon.
Just remember: if you, at any time, completely quiet the beeper to a point where you don't notice it... then you have only yourself to blame when you lock the car with the keys in the ignition, or leave the headlights on, drain the battery, etc.
