2nd gen cluster

Soldering station is a must!
You'll have to get some soldering wick to open up the holes again or a solder sucker. The pins must be pushed through the board before adding soldering to them. The level of difficulty can be a 7/10 if you have never done any soldering before.

 

So, I've definitely soldered before, but mostly larger wires and nothing like this.

This is what gets me:

He goes from this:



To this:



...with zero explanation. Trying to solder the wires essentially to the tiny little outside ring of any of the numbered spots is difficult, at best, and then there's no explanation on the actual pins themselves, not in any videos I've watched.

I'm about at my wits end. The stupid EZP2019 I bought is borderline useless. It worked like once, and now all it does is tell me I have either an unknown chip or a 24 EEPROM, neither of which is correct. I'm at a complete loss as to why it worked for the first 2-3 reads and then essentially went to crap. If I do get it to read, it read maybe 2 blocks of data. Worthless.



So, dinking around with it, I can get it to read as a 93 chip...funny enough, it works with the 1.8V adapter that came with it, but reads no data.

I just want to reprogram my damn cluster!!

 

Well my switched worked!

 

I think this was an important part. My truck had 4 wires to the stock switch.




Also worth noting my original switch did not roll and lock into top position. The new switch does but only dims headlights when not locked into top position.

 

Mine did as well, but was a no-go. I'll be able to verify with the second dimmer when it arrives...I'll have to check tomorrow as to whether or not my original switch tolled up and locked. I honestly don't remember ever checking.

 

I’ve been so lucky with this late model everything seems to just P&P and I’m ok with that cause you guys are geniuses and I would never be able to attempt such re-soldering

 

I don’t believe the black end switches did. The white end switches have that function

If @FredB32 next switch works I’ll order one more rheostat from a known tundra limited/platinum

 

You can put the wires through the numbered holes and the other end of the wire to the jumper leads. I had some 30 gauge wire that was very thin and workable for those tight spots.
Removing your chip would increase your chances of getting a proper read too. I was not able to read while my chip was still on the cluster.

 

So thinking about this yet again. I ran a wire from pin 38 on cluster to pin 5 on the dimmer switch (where the soft blue wire should be). We decided that LJ wasn’t necessarily needed as it was the middle man and I could not locate it. After doing this I still did not get dimming function. But his directions mentioned a jumper from pin 5 (SB) to pin 7 (tan). I didn’t put any kind of wiring between these two pins. Do you think that could have been my issue?!

 

Jumping pins 5 and 7 on the dimmer bypasses the taillight cancel switch in the dimmer.

I haven’t been reading this closely enough to understand what the tailight cancel part of the dimmer actually does, but if you think bypassing the switch closed will make the dimmer work it could be worth trying.

I need to read and understand why/ what the function of the taillight cancel switch is

 

I was literally about to click the quote button and ask what it does...then I read your entire post. Aside from...cancelling...the...taillights...I guess?...seems like a weird function and probably "does" something else.

 

Yea I def don’t understand what it does. ESP since you need the taillight cancel switch to get the dimmer function on the gauges to work (for most people). Yet if you roll it up and click it in place (I guess utilizing that function?) the gauges will not dim; you have to make sure that it’s not clicked into place to get the dimming function to work. Which that doesn’t make sense to me because why do you need to swap dimmer switches to switch that has a feature you’re not technically using?

obviously I’m not electrically inclined at all to understand this!!

 

I did check my original switch last night as well...it does NOT lock when rolled up all the way. So I have one that does, one that doesn't, and neither give me dimmer functionality with the headlights.

 

Just found this in the Toyota repair manual. "TAIL cancel switch: When the headlights are illuminated and the TAIL cancel switch is turned on, the
meter and accessory meter do not dim."

@FredB32 @Musicmasterd12 can one of you guys with a dimmer switch that locks and clicks at the top hook it up to a multimeter?

Set your multimeter to the continuity setting, it should beep when the leads are touched together. This is check for "flow" on continuity between the leads.

Put one lead on Pin #7 and one lead on Pin #5 of the dimmer. This is each end of the Tail Cancel Switch. Then check for continuity with the dimmer wheel rolled all the way up locked and then with it rolled down unlocked. You can do this on the bench with the switch out of the truck. No need to power it or anything.

As I said it should beep if you have flow through the switch. I am thinking the way it is wired, you will have flow (beep) when the wheel is not locked in the up position, and when it is locked in the up position no flow across these two pins. Hopefully

If one of you could verify this that would be great. You can also just measure the resistance across the two pins with the switch locked and unlocked. High resistance the switch is open, low resistance the switch is closed.

 

I unfortunately do not have a multimeter and have shipped back my switch since it did not work.

I still do not understand why you would need to swap to a rheostat with cancelling functionality when you are not even able to use that functionality in order to get the lights to dim

 

I'll try and get out there sometime this afternoon. Raining right now, and my new switch is due in Friday, so I might hold off until then, but if I get a chance I'll see what I can find out.

I *do* have a multimeter.

@Musicmasterd12 grab a cheap one from HF...they're like $6 and work great and I use mine a ton (vehicle and household electrical stuff).

 

I’ve never really used one so never understood how to! I’m not great with electrical stuff

Next trip there I’ll pick one up though bc never hurts to have more tools!

 

It seems to me the upgraded optitron is looking for the taillight cancel switch and the base grade ones are not. Maybe..

If I am reading the repair manual correctly, locking the switch in the up position opens the tail cancel gate and no longer allows the dimmer to function. However rolling the dimmer down from locked, closes the tail cancel gate and allows for dimming.

IF my assumption are correct you could "jump" the gate closed by running a wire from Cluster Pin #1 (5V) to Cluster Pin #38. Sending 5V into Pin #38 will the cluster think the Tail Light Cancel Switch is turned off, then your 3 wire dimmer switch MIGHT work.

Could be worth a 10 min check to see. Plug in the dimmer switch, then just jump a wire from the back of the cluster, Pin#1 over into Pin #38, you just need to send 5V back into the cluster on #38 to fool it

 

This will be interesting then, since the switch I have that does lock up with (I'm assuming) the tail cancel functionality...doesn't function to dim the Optitron with the headlights.

Great...guess I have to go pull it and find out!

 

Which ones are Pin 5 and 7? On the contacts (below) or the actual connections themselves?

 

I think it depends on how the switch is wired. Is it normally open or closed. Testing with a multimeter is the only way I know how to check.

From the wiring diagrams it is my assumption that sending 5V up the Pin#38 "allows" the cluster to Dim..... however it could work the opposite way where sending the 5V locks the cluster at full bright with no dim feature. Toyota really doesn't explain how the switch is wired very well. BUT I do know the Tail Cancel switch enables/disables Dimming and I would assume the cluster is looking for a signal from it to allow/not allow dimming.

 

I think I got it figured out - assuming it's the light blue and orange wires at the top of the plug.

When the switch it locked in the up position, I get no resistance (multimeter reads 1 - also not this cheapy doesn't have actual continuity), but it drops to 001 when I roll the switch down.

 

Yes it is the Orange and Light Blue wires. These are each side of the switch.

No resistance when the switch is locked in the up postion tells me the "gate" between those two pins is open.

However if you get resistance with the switch rolled down unlocked, that means the "gate" is closed which links Pin #1 5v at cluster to Pin #38 at the cluster.

 

It would now make sense as I was saying earlier that, the cluster needs 5V coming in on Pin #38 or else it thinks the Tail Cancel feature is enabled and will not allow the dimmer to work.

As stated, Jumping a wire directly from Pin #1 in the back of the cluster to Pin #38 in the cluster completely bypasses the switch and fools the cluster into thinking the Tail Cancel feature is turned off, which should then allow for dimmer inputs to be recognized.

 

Do you mean it would work for both the actual dial dimmer function as well as the light-on dimming function?

 

Just got done jumping pin 1 and pin 38 and my gauges still did not dim with headlights on. This was with my original dimmer though without the tai cancel feature (which should have worked)

only thing I can think of now is that something inside of the gauge cluster itself is messed up (which I think would be odd since everything else functions fine/correctly)

 

I'm wondering where my gap is then, as I have the locking rheostat along with the 4 wires, so I may need to look at the wiring harness and determine where that pink wire 1 is actually going, as if you're correct, I'm sending 5V into the ether somewhere and not to Pin #38 on the cluster...

 

Not only that, but it would mean something is wrong with BOTH of our clusters...not impossible, but highly unlikely.

 

Y’all are going to make me drag out my cluster and do some testing.

The only thing I can think is the cluster uses the dimmer input to change a CAN signal to alter the brightness. The analog input is converted to digital and feed to the lights. I’m not sure if this is the case but it could be.