Colored gauge needles

[pc talon]

What size led did you guys use to replace the key hole one?

http://superbrightleds.com/specs/b2545_specs.htm

I can't remember the resistor I used on my LED conversion though.

 

[AdoreGSX]

ok this whole thing has me confused BEYOND BELIEF. Here is what I want to do. My car is a stock 97' GSX, nothing except for a turbotimer installed in the interior. I want my guages to light up blue in the lettering/guagehand's instead of the amber color, keyhole light needs to be blue, HVAC I want to be all blue(will that change how the AC meter looks, i saw how someone else had red), lighter light needs to be blue. Is there anything else i'm missing?

If you could please tell me how to do this cheap and easy, what size led's to use on each thing and where is a good place to buy them from? You can PM or email or just post in here so everyone can benefit. I dont know anything about guages/lighting/leds, if that tells you how confused I am when I read all of the above posts...thank you so much if you can help me

 

[SexyDSM95]

ok this whole thing has me confused BEYOND BELIEF. Here is what I want to do. My car is a stock 97' GSX, nothing except for a turbotimer installed in the interior. I want my guages to light up blue in the lettering/guagehand's instead of the amber color, keyhole light needs to be blue, HVAC I want to be all blue(will that change how the AC meter looks, i saw how someone else had red), lighter light needs to be blue. Is there anything else i'm missing?

If you could please tell me how to do this cheap and easy, what size led's to use on each thing and where is a good place to buy them from? You can PM or email or just post in here so everyone can benefit. I dont know anything about guages/lighting/leds, if that tells you how confused I am when I read all of the above posts...thank you so much if you can help me

if you use the search button or look on firebretha's sound domain there are step by step instructions on how to do these mods.

 

[SexyDSM95]

Theres no reason you couldn't drill a small hole or indentation and mount a small grounded down T1 led underneath the needle using superglue. When I say underneath I mean you would remove the needle and mount slightly off the needle's mounting hole. So if you were looking at your boost gauge for example you would mount an led a few mm to the right of the hole the needle itself mounts in. The led would still be close enough to the needle center area that it would be invisible and hide underneath the black round base of the needle. This is pretty hard if you're not that good at electronics and the wiring will be kinda a pain since you want to only use single strands of wire. The import intelligence wires are all itertwined and get tangled together including positive and negative. They dont short out i found because they have a thin layer of something on them that doesn't conduct electrcity. theres different ways to do this. You also MUST scrape off the stock orange on the back of the needles and paint them white to reflect the light.

Hrmmm maybe that is where I made my mistake. See I became confused (I followed firebreatha's instructions haha) and when he said 9 o' clock for the mounting poisition I thought it meant facing me (which I was working on the back), which in turn I mounted the LED's to the left of the hole where the needle goes (this is when the gauge is facing towards you. I also fit them sideways so they were more flush becuase there is a clearance issue when fitting the LED to the speedometer. I am thinking if I buy the 3MM LED's and maybe have it point up/down (depending on which way you look at it) instead of sideways it may be more directional? **Not sure if I am making sense?!?!?**

P.S. I used Candy Apple Red (trasnparent spray paint) to paint my needles and as you can clearly see from my last post the gas/water temp light up perfectly. Maybe since the needle is much longer for the tach/speed light can't transfer as far??? Anyways I used WHITE LED's maybe I should go back through and just purchase RED 3MM leds and do it over so I can shave off the red paint and put white out on the back?

 

[AdoreGSX]

ok so the http://superbrightleds.com/specs/b2545_specs.htm for my keyhole? Whats this about resisters?

Also sexy, for the HVAC, i like how you have it red, but i was wondering would it pose a problem with the AC (meter fades from red to blue) if i had it lit up blue? and what LED did you use from superbright, i know you said 74 led direct replacement but that is japanese to me right now...

what gauge faces are on your car...looks real good.

 

[pc talon]

Adore,
Since the LEDs are set up for 4 volt operation, you need a resistor so the 12 volts they get from the car won't fry them.
Give me some time, I have to dig through some boxes to find the resistors I used.

 

[SexyDSM95]

ok so the http://superbrightleds.com/specs/b2545_specs.htm for my keyhole? Whats this about resisters?

Also sexy, for the HVAC, i like how you have it red, but i was wondering would it pose a problem with the AC (meter fades from red to blue) if i had it lit up blue? and what LED did you use from superbright, i know you said 74 led direct replacement but that is japanese to me right now...

what gauge faces are on your car...looks real good.

I only replced the ONE bulb not the AC bulb. I like how it is orange then green...When you look at the website just go to order bulbs or car bulbs and look up 74. It has a base and is already shaved down for you. I attatched a pic below it's on the second page...should start sounding English now with pretty pictures? j/k (I am half Japanese)

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Thanks for the compliment on my gauges I bought them off eBay from the procarparts.com store. You can order them online I just wanted to save a couple bucks through eBay since I am 100% eBay wh0re...hehe

 

[dynatos]

ok ok - first off, rs leds don't suck (i own a radioshack store, so i gotta defend ) ..

anyway, i used the 2600mcd blue led for my keyring and my hvac which looks as bright as sexydsm's.. though i wouldn't recommend using white in the gauge cluster for one main reason - white's are never as bright, because as they get closer to that wavelength, you lose power. That's why you can get red leds at 10,000mcd.

as far as finding out which resistor, check out these sites:

Site1

Site2

the second site, although corny, shows which resistor to use in series. I've explained the math on how to get the right ohm resistor in the famous freakin' giant thread about led interior replacement.

also, keep in mind that the power for our lights is from the dimmer switch, which is never past 12 volts. So it's ok to use 12 volts for your calculations, not 13.8.. because it's regulated by the dimmer switch.

As far as replacing every led, i'm almost done with a tech article. The hvac is easy, but a/c, rear wiper, cruise, etc can be a PITA. use of the t1 led size helped ALOT.

My suggestion for the gauge cluster is that instead of mounting an LED up at the needle, just light the crap out of the assembly. Like i said before, when i put two leds at each entry point in the acrylic, it worked really well. Adding some more might solve the 'fading light' issue. Don't forget shaving the leds in some instance can be really helpful, like in the HVAC. I shaved the side that would face down to the air inside/outside thing - which helped direct light toward it.

And for the blue/red selection on the hvac, either drill a small hole in back or go underneath the actual face and use a white led toned down a bit. That way, the red will show up because it's red - and the white won't interfere much with the blue. (mainly because the face is blue)

And a tip for the keyhole: take the entire acrylic piece off and work with it. I glued the LED to the black bulb housing. Once i found out what was facing bottom, i took a small piece of foil and glued it to the top of the LED. Only like 2 or 3 mm wide, but enough to keep light going down and not up (you'll see what i mean when you get into it).. just a tip.

 

[SexyDSM95]

ok ok - first off, rs leds don't suck (i own a radioshack store, so i gotta defend ) ..

Hehe I never said they sucked IMHO I just think they are a tad overpriced for LED's. So yea I will admit fault and say I used white LEDs instead of a color. Looks like when I get spare time my ass is going to have to go back in with red LED's and redo it. Like in my post above should I reposition the LED so it's on the right of the needle hole? I feel the only problem with "lighting the crap out of the assembly" is that I wouldn't want the red to bleed through my gauge faces which is a theory not full fact. But I guess it wouldn't hurt to try. The bulbs are 194 for the cluster right?

 

[dynatos]

well, i can't say that i pay full retail for the leds though

the cluster doesn't use 194's, it's under 'Instrument Cluster and Gauge Backlights' at superbrightleds.com.

overall, have you been pleased with superbrightled's led brightness/color?

 

[SexyDSM95]

well, i can't say that i pay full retail for the leds though

the cluster doesn't use 194's, it's under 'Instrument Cluster and Gauge Backlights' at superbrightleds.com.

overall, have you been pleased with superbrightled's led brightness/color?

Hehe of course...
With superbrightled's the picture I showed you was only ONE led from that company. I have read that other thread that was like 792837489324739 pages long and they used 3-4 and had to take out their HVAC panel. I saved myself like 3 hours and just installed the one and happy with the brightness. Now that I remember the 1G's have the 194 and I think the 2G instrument cluster T1.5. Superbright also offers the twist cap or whatever I will just post a picture. I am a girl so I would be calling all the parts "thingies" and throw you guys completely off. So yea with these I will purchase 5 for the Tach/Odometer lights and hopefully it helps light up my needles.

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P.S. These are only like $2...I wonder what Radioshack would charge me hehe jk Hey dyanatos if you can IM me on AOL IM so I can ask you some other questions.

 

[dynatos]

yeah, the 2g's definately use the screw base sytle - though i don't know if a single led at each bulb is capable of lighting the needle - i hope though. and yeah, radioshack would definately charge more than nessesary, about 6 bucks. i pisses me off too

can anyone get a pic of the actual piece from import intelligence? i've heard the descriptions, but it would be great to see a pic. if it's just a film with surface leds, i could immaging you can fit red, green, and blue leds to make any color you wanted by the turn of a dial.

 

[SexyDSM95]

Oh yea and could you post pics of your cluster so I could see how bright the needles are? Thanks

 

[SexyDSM95]

yeah, the 2g's definately use the screw base sytle - though i don't know if a single led at each bulb is capable of lighting the needle - i hope though. and yeah, radioshack would definately charge more than nessesary, about 6 bucks. i pisses me off too

can anyone get a pic of the actual piece from import intelligence? i've heard the descriptions, but it would be great to see a pic. if it's just a film with surface leds, i could immaging you can fit red, green, and blue leds to make any color you wanted by the turn of a dial.

This was actually posted at another thread. I wanted to see if I could copy it but I have no idea what size LED's or even the sticky material it uses:

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Here is the description:
The little 'circle' things on the end of the tiny wires is where the LEDs are. The big needles get the one with 3 little leds on them, the little needles get the ones with 1 little led. Sorry for the crappy pic quality..camera phone's all I got.

 

[AdoreGSX]

no idea what i'm looking at above

 

[telly699]

I have those sitting on a table at my house right now.What a project changing all the lights is! Oh well, gives a project to eternally work on when I got nothing else. I musta put in about 50 hours so far.

In the pic above those little rings slip over the needle pin that is under the neddle and shine up through the small window in the bottom of the needle.

Just an FYI: if you try to wire this yourself you need to get at least 3 leds around the needle's pin. If you dont then as the needle moves the light will dim. You may need to look at the bottom of the needle to understand. I love dsm light engineering!

-Jerad

 

[cuttheduck]

This was actually posted at another thread. I wanted to see if I could copy it but I have no idea what size LED's or even the sticky material it uses:

You must be logged in to view this image or video.

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Here is the description:
The little 'circle' things on the end of the tiny wires is where the LEDs are. The big needles get the one with 3 little leds on them, the little needles get the ones with 1 little led. Sorry for the crappy pic quality..camera phone's all I got.

Those picts are it!!

Notice the project box with dimmer that radioshack sells.....
The sticky ring just peeled off just like one of those paper 3 ring binder hole sized stickers stores sell.

The led (little white thing) is mounted securely to it and is the only thing that shines, the whole ring does NOT light up at all, its just a flat sticker. The wires are coated in some nonconductive material however so your on yor own if you try to do it that way.

Lighting the hell out of the cluster works great if you have the same needle and gauge color. Otherwise the different color it will shine out through the sides of the odometer and other gauges. Might look kinda cool that way though. Theres quite a few ways to do this, just gotta rip it apart and go for it.