Reply to "Dimming car lights from block control"

While what we discussed previously was an elegant solution, I opted for a simpler (and less expensive) solution.  I had purchased a roll of 5V warm white LED strip.  A length long enough to fill a 15" passenger car pulls about 100mA at a reasonable brightness.  With that load a 1F super cap discharges about .1V per second, so the dimming is barely noticeable even after several seconds.  A resistor limits the charging surge, and a diode OR bypasses the super cap so the LEDs illuminate as soon as power is applied.  A cheap 7805 series pass provides the 5V, and brightness is adjusted with a trimpot.