# Backlight control for NCE ProCab (and GardenWire)



## Greg Elmassian (Jan 3, 2008)

I have the NCE ProCab wireless throttles, but the backlight is on a timer and goes off in 3 seconds, and not all button presses turn the backlight on.

This is by design, per NCE, to save batteries. On the GardenWire, I believe the backlight is never enabled.

One of the MLS members contacted Mark Schultzer, who has come up with several mods on these throttles.

Mark's mod was to just turn the backlight on all the time or off all the time. I wanted to preserve my original mode, plus have an "override on" so I could force it on whenever.

I wanted the switch to be convenient and unobtrusive, so spent a while finding a very small switch and where to put it.


I have put most of the details on my site: *http://www.elmassian.com...trong>**

Here's the finished product, easy to reach without moving your hand:










Regards, Greg*


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## Gary Armitstead (Jan 2, 2008)

Greg, 

I don't have this throttle. But just out of curiosity, I went to your site to check it out. What a great idea. THX for sharing.


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## lownote (Jan 3, 2008)

That's a great improvement--excellent idea. I may have to try that. It would much more convenient running at night


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## pimanjc (Jan 2, 2008)

Greg,
From the picture of the back of the switch on your website, it appears that a SPST switch would also work in this application. Is this correct?
JimC.


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## Greg Elmassian (Jan 3, 2008)

Yep JC, "on" means grounding the base of the transistor. That causes it to conduct and power the backlight. 

I was lucky to find such a small switch with a short, small toggle off the shelf. Just bought 3 more, looks like RJ is sending his throttles to me to upgrade. 

I just updated my site with a circuit diagram of the circuit and an annotated picture of the circuit board. 

Note the circuit diagram shows Mark's original mod, my subsequent pictures show my mod. 

Regards, Greg


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## bdp3wsy (Mar 14, 2008)

Greg, I followed your web site and the way you did the mod on my second unit and it took all of 15 min. Thanks for the web site and easy to follow steps. I have done 7 of our clubs with 4 to go. Waiting on 6 more switchs. When we run at night this is the best unit available with the new light mod. I can't tell you how many batteries we have gone through before this mod when you lay down the unit after a night run and forget to turn it off. Now you can see that its still on. You should pass this info on to Tony's for them to consider as a mail in upgrade for their customers. Thanks again Jake


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## Greg Elmassian (Jan 3, 2008)

Glad it worked for you, easy mod and really is nice not to fight that stupid 3 second backlight timeout. 

I'm doing all of mine and RJ's (I owe him a favor). 

Funny that NCE has never put a programmable timeout option, but I believe they are worried about getting a bad rep on battery life. 

Regards, Greg


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