2G Gauge cluster LED project

[crimsondragon]

Oh and also, what did you use to change the green turn signal lights? I was thinking of going with white tranlucent plastic so it'll match the white on the numbers and then have it light up blue. I don't know what plastic to use though.

 

[turbosax2]

How would i change the light where it says PRND?
Where would i get that bulb from?
Right now it is green and the rest of the lights are orange.

Sorry, I don't have any clusters that have the PRND so I can't help you out with that one.

Oh and also, what did you use to change the green turn signal lights? I was thinking of going with white tranlucent plastic so it'll match the white on the numbers and then have it light up blue. I don't know what plastic to use though.

I used clear styrene that I roughed up with sandpaper. The lights were too bright though so I wadded up some wax paper and put it between the lights and styrene. That dimmed it down to an acceptable level. I have 3 led's wired up for each turn signal.

 

[InfiniteGSX]

Where would you guys recomend for the purchase of LED's? I ususaly purchase LED's on Ebay. Always have good luck finding mass production of LED's there. I wanna do all my switches now. Since I have my gauges and HVAC Controlers. Also... Know of anything I could use for the Needles? I'm going to try and get the red off of them without taking them apart.

Yeah Turbo, I tried doing the Mirror switches but failed miserably.

 

[snowborder714]

Where would you guys recomend for the purchase of LED's? I ususaly purchase LED's on Ebay. Always have good luck finding mass production of LED's there. I wanna do all my switches now.

Check post #9 for where the LED's were purchased from.

 

[turbosax2]

Where would you guys recomend for the purchase of LED's? I ususaly purchase LED's on Ebay. Always have good luck finding mass production of LED's there. I wanna do all my switches now. Since I have my gauges and HVAC Controlers. Also... Know of anything I could use for the Needles? I'm going to try and get the red off of them without taking them apart.

http://www.oznium.com/led-flex-strips
ebay for the smt's

Once you take the needles off the gauges, carefully scrape the paint off with a knife and give them a quick rub with some fine sandpaper if needed. You don't have to take the needles apart or anything like that, but you do have to take them off the gauges. Use fabric paint to repaint the needles like I described in post 50. I used orange and white and it worked great - I can't say how other colors will turn out though. Good luck!!

Yeah Turbo, I tried doing the Mirror switches but failed miserably.

Here's some more pics of the process for you.

 

[InfiniteGSX]

Those flex led strips are much cheaper on Ebay! I bought a 48cm for like 6 bucks... About to buy a 72cm for my tail light mod for 12 bucks.

How in the hell do you get the needles back to the exact location tho? I dont want to make that mistake again. Which is why I love my G2 Faces, they go on without the needles being removed. I was just going to take the G2 Gauges off so they wont get damaged, and take some fine sand paper behind them...

I wonder how well I could do what dave did for the penny thing...

I'd probably repaint the needles using whiteout... cause I'd love to do UV LED's... the whiteout glows!

 

[turbosax2]

Those flex led strips are much cheaper on Ebay! I bought a 48cm for like 6 bucks... About to buy a 72cm for my tail light mod for 12 bucks.

Good to know!

 

[InfiniteGSX]

http://cgi.ebay.com/100-PCS-1206-SM...ryZ66948QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

250mcd, is that enough?

Good to know!

Yeah, the picture I took of the strip... looks to be a good size for the gauge cluster... there are smaller ones too... They are all over ebay! They look expensive on that website.

 

[turbosax2]

http://cgi.ebay.com/100-PCS-1206-SM...ryZ66948QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

250mcd, is that enough?



Yeah, the picture I took of the strip... looks to be a good size for the gauge cluster... there are smaller ones too... They are all over ebay! They look expensive on that website.

Plenty. You really only need 4 per needle, assuming you don't ruin any of them. You might want to consider getting white smt's since you will be coloring your needles.

 

[snowborder714]

250mcd, is that enough?

I'm not sure. I believe that deals with the brightness level of the SMT's. The ones that were purchased were no less than 2000mcd (see below for links).

These are the ones that were bought first (the ones Eric's currently using) - SMT's

And these are the ones I just bought for the next cluster - SMT's (not used yet)

 

[InfiniteGSX]

Ok, I haven't been using my stock dimmer... cause it doesnt work... when I try to use it... none of my lights work at all... to get my dash lights on, I had to take one of the wires of my dash lights and hook it up to a ground wire. So I'm guessing the ground blew up?

How can I fix this?

Also, if I can fix it, can I hook my EL Faces into the dimmer? they had a dimmer... but I changed the controller to one that doesn't change color. Because it ended up more of a blue color. The other controller had a dimmer and a switch for color. I had a diff old pair of faces, that didn't have a dimmer or switch for color, and when my faces were hooked into it, they looked nicer. So I used those.

So can I hook those into my stock dimmer if I can fix it? I'm going to order a 100 PC of these SMT LED's.

 

[snowborder714]

Ok, I haven't been using my stock dimmer... cause it doesnt work... when I try to use it... none of my lights work at all... to get my dash lights on, I had to take one of the wires of my dash lights and hook it up to a ground wire. So I'm guessing the ground blew up?

How can I fix this?

Also, if I can fix it, can I hook my EL Faces into the dimmer? they had a dimmer... but I changed the controller to one that doesn't change color. Because it ended up more of a blue color. The other controller had a dimmer and a switch for color. I had a diff old pair of faces, that didn't have a dimmer or switch for color, and when my faces were hooked into it, they looked nicer. So I used those.

Please do not highjack this thread for questions that you have not pertaining to the LED project. If you have questions, please start your own thread.

So can I hook those into my stock dimmer if I can fix it? I'm going to order a 100 PC of these SMT LED's.

As for this, I'll let Eric answer as I haven't seen the cluster when the dimming function has worked (but the answer is most likely yes).

 

[turbosax2]

Ok, I haven't been using my stock dimmer... cause it doesnt work... when I try to use it... none of my lights work at all... to get my dash lights on, I had to take one of the wires of my dash lights and hook it up to a ground wire. So I'm guessing the ground blew up?

How can I fix this?

Also, if I can fix it, can I hook my EL Faces into the dimmer? they had a dimmer... but I changed the controller to one that doesn't change color. Because it ended up more of a blue color. The other controller had a dimmer and a switch for color. I had a diff old pair of faces, that didn't have a dimmer or switch for color, and when my faces were hooked into it, they looked nicer. So I used those.

Sorry, I don't know the answers for those questions.

So can I hook those into my stock dimmer if I can fix it? I'm going to order a 100 PC of these SMT LED's.

Yes, all of these will work with the stock dimmer switch. As azdave mentioned before, the type of dimmer dsm's use is the proper one for dimming led's. I forget the name of the type of dimmer but it's somewhere in this thread.

 

[InfiniteGSX]

I know the LED's will work on the stock dimmer switch. I'm wondering about the EL. If it will work along side them. See I dont know cause my dimmer switch has never worked.

Snowboarder,

 

[turbosax2]

I know the LED's will work on the stock dimmer switch. I'm wondering about the EL. If it will work along side them. See I dont know cause my dimmer switch has never worked.

Snowboarder,

Again, I can't help you out with this. But Brian is right, you will have more success in getting help with your questions if you start a new thread.

 

[InfiniteGSX]

But Brian is right, you will have more success in getting help with your questions if you start a new thread.

See the difference between the way you say it and he says it? Tisk Tisk Tisk!

 

[turbosax2]

See the difference between the way you say it and he says it? Tisk Tisk Tisk!

I didn't see anything wrong with how he said it. He said please

 

[InfiniteGSX]

Common misconception with the word please and no offense.

When you ordered, you did recieve 50 of them right? Also, what did you do about the 12V voltage change? The package I'm looking at says 100pcs, but in the auction it says 10.

 

[turbosax2]

Common misconception with the word please and no offense.

When you ordered, you did recieve 50 of them right? Also, what did you do about the 12V voltage change? The package I'm looking at says 100pcs, but in the auction it says 10.

Well, I didn't see it as offensive, but enough wasting space with this discussion.

Yup, I received 50 smt's. Since these are rated for 3-3.8v, I wired 4 in series to accommodate for the 12v they will be seeing. I don't know why the auction says 10, but you should get 100 like the title says.

 

[crimsondragon]

Ok I got the guage out and now I'm in the process of removing the faces to sand down the orange. How do I remove the needles? I read to just slide a fork underneath and pull up but it's not working. I'm afraid I'll break something.

*edit*
Nevermind, I got it haha. I angled the fork wrong.

Uhg I'm having trouble soldering the terminals on the LEDs. It's hard to cut through the plastic guard and I'm not entirely understanding how they wired them. I soldered the terminals to the wire and only got two of the lights to work when i hooked it up the battery. The others didn't light up.

 

[turbosax2]

Uhg I'm having trouble soldering the terminals on the LEDs. It's hard to cut through the plastic guard and I'm not entirely understanding how they wired them. I soldered the terminals to the wire and only got two of the lights to work when i hooked it up the battery. The others didn't light up.

Ya, that happens. You just have to undo the solder and try again until it works. I found it best to use scissors to cut the strips real close to the terminals so part of the terminal got exposed.

 

[InfiniteGSX]

I'm wanting to know how you are getting the needles back on the cluster, perfectly?

 

[turbosax2]

I'm wanting to know how you are getting the needles back on the cluster, perfectly?

Before I took the needles off, I took pictures of where they were for reference. Right now, I just put the needles back on according to my pictures.

To "fine tune" them I plan on using DSMlink for the speedometer and tachometer. Another option is to use a gps device or an obdii device. I will fill the gas tank up and then place the gas needle at full. For the water temperature, oil pressure, and boost gauges, I plan on using an extra cluster I have to compare. Put the extra, untouched cluster in the car, check where the needles are at, then put the modified cluster in the car and set the needles to the same position. I'm not really too concerned with the water temp, oil pressure, and boost gauges anyway because we all know how accurate they are!

I'm hoping these methods will work out but I won't be able to tackle this until we get the car running again.

Another alternative to taking pictures of the gauges is to put a piece of tape on the front of the gauge and then mark on the tape where the needle lies. The speedometer and tachometer need to be "jumped" over their stops on the gauge to be properly marked.

 

[InfiniteGSX]

yeah, I pulled the needles off my black car, to do the needle mod, and I never got things back to normal, Everytime I tried getting the RPM's back, The closest I got was within 2000rpm difference! The Speedo is easy, it has a limiter inside the actual unit. So it is easy to get back to normal. I don't think I ever got the other two NT gauges to work proper... but I didn't care about those.

Should find a way to stop the gauges from moving once the needles are out. Mainly the tach.

 

[turbosax2]

yeah, I pulled the needles off my black car, to do the needle mod, and I never got things back to normal, Everytime I tried getting the RPM's back, The closest I got was within 2000rpm difference! The Speedo is easy, it has a limiter inside the actual unit. So it is easy to get back to normal. I don't think I ever got the other two NT gauges to work proper... but I didn't care about those.

Should find a way to stop the gauges from moving once the needles are out. Mainly the tach.

What do you mean by "find a way to stop the gauges from moving once the needles are out"?