2G Gauge cluster LED project

[HiPoSped]

Thanks for all the info. I'll be sure to post some pics of my finished product. I think I'm about to go out and pull the AC controls tonight and see if I can get them ready to convert. I've already taken apart a couple of the switches/buttons off my dash and it doesn't look like it'll be too difficult to convert them. Just time consuming. I plan on having everything in the dash lit with LEDs when Im all done. I've got the car just sitting here in my garage. But my 90 (with my motor in it) is stuck up in MI. So I guess this will be a nice project to do while it's not running and mostly gutted already. If anyone has any experience/info on the conversion of the AC/heat unit and other controls Id love to read up on it.

sorry about the stupid question, I found the thread about converting the HVAC and everything by SEARCHING, of all things...

http://www.dsmtuners.com/forums/showthread.php?t=5282

 

[95CarbonEclipse]

Would there be any advantage in painting the base of the cluster (the piece where the actual LED's are mounted) with a silver reflective paint or lay some sort of foil in there to help disperse the light more evenly?

 

[turbosax2]

Would there be any advantage in painting the base of the cluster (the piece where the actual LED's are mounted) with a silver reflective paint or lay some sort of foil in there to help disperse the light more evenly?

Are you talking about the white part of the cluster in the pictures in the first post of this thread?

 

[95CarbonEclipse]

Yup.

 

[turbosax2]

Yup.

Most of my led strips were placed so that the lights point nearly straight up so the light would be brighter. I don't think that having reflective material behind the beam of the lights would make any noticeable difference. I did manage to get a very good dispersion of the light though so I wouldn't bother with this. If you have trouble getting an even dispersion I guess it's worth a shot though.

If I were to try this, I would use this product:
http://bare-metal.com/bare-metal-foil.html

This can be found at your local hobby shop or a hobby dealer online. The ultra bright chrome is very reflective and has an adhesive backing so it's easy to work with.

 

[azdave]

Would there be any advantage in painting the base of the cluster (the piece where the actual LED's are mounted) with a silver reflective paint or lay some sort of foil in there to help disperse the light more evenly?

Just a bright white surface will disperse the light more evenly than a foil-type surface. Matte white is best but flat bright silver is good too. I did not use anything other than the factory yellowed white surface but I chocked the thing full of LEDs too.

 

[turbosax2]

azdave, I don't know if you saw one of my previous posts but if you have any advice for lighting up the fog light button, cruise control button, and hvac, please share it if you get time.

 

[95CarbonEclipse]

Just a bright white surface will disperse the light more evenly than a foil-type surface. Matte white is best but flat bright silver is good too. I did not use anything other than the factory yellowed white surface but I chocked the thing full of LEDs too.

That's the reason I'm asking. I'm thinking about attempting this mod, but probably not as in depth. Although, I guess that cramming it full of LED's wouldn't be all that hard compared to using less.

I guess while you've got it opened up, you might as well cram as many LED's in there as you can.

 

[InfiniteGSX]

What Dave says is soo right! I got a picture to show what he means. My Tail light mod... I used Foil (almost a mirror finish) and it sucked! I ended up painting the inside white and now it looks great.

Ok, I did have a picture. Looks like all my pictures were just deleted.

Pretty much, look at an LED... a mirror image will project the exact same, you dont see a glow, you see a little tiny peice of plastic that has a bright light comming from it. if you put the LED up against a white surface, the light distribution rocks! It makes the led like 50000 times it size.

The only situation that hotspots this much is a good situation, is a WiFi Hotspot

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Found it, When I painted the peice white (I dont have a picture), the entire housing lit up like a damn star!

 

[95CarbonEclipse]

Good Point!

 

[InfiniteGSX]

Reflection is great, Light distribution SUCKS!

 

[crimsondragon]

My pack of SMT's came with resistors. Do I really need them? If so, do I use 1 resistor for the 4 SMTs for each needle?
Edit:
After burning out already 1 SMT, I concluded yes, I do need them.

 

[turbosax2]

My pack of SMT's came with resistors. Do I really need them? If so, do I use 1 resistor for the 4 SMTs for each needle?
Edit:
After burning out already 1 SMT, I concluded yes, I do need them.

If your smt's are like mine, you can just 4 of them together and use no resistors.

 

[turbosax2]

I finally got around to starting the writeup. Please be patient as I add to it.

http://www.dsmtuners.com/forums/showthread.php?p=151318570#post151318570

 

[thricestrat]

reply to write-up:
by removing the needles to the gauges (tach and speedo) your going to get an un-accurate measure. This is because both use winded springs that are set upon assembly. Do you have a local shop that recalibrates your needles? Even a 1/16 of a turn clockwise or counterclockwise will through both read-outs off ridiculousely

just interested on how you go past that step because Ive tried that before and now I have 5 torn apart clusters that are only good for bulbs and cup holders

 

[turbosax2]

reply to write-up:
by removing the needles to the gauges (tach and speedo) your going to get an un-accurate measure. This is because both use winded springs that are set upon assembly. Do you have a local shop that recalibrates your needles? Even a 1/16 of a turn clockwise or counterclockwise will through both read-outs off ridiculousely

just interested on how you go past that step because Ive tried that before and now I have 5 torn apart clusters that are only good for bulbs and cup holders

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.



Hopefully I get time to finish that writeup sometime soon...

 

[thricestrat]

Good idea's, you can always run a gps on your phone if you have a blackberry or equal with interenet service by using google maps it will tell you your speed to the 10th of a mile

also whenever i pulled my fuel gauge/needle it always stayed still so i would just replace the needle when done and set it to EMPTY and after turnover it would jump up to correct position -or- what you could do is after pulling the cluster rest the needle against the bump stop by empty then pull the needle then replace, that will prally give you a more accurate read out.

good luck keep us posted

 

[turbosax2]

Ok, the cluster is finally completely done. My ideas for resetting all the needles (stated in post #145) worked great and all the gauges are acting fine. I'm going to be working on another cluster sometime soon and will finish the writeup as I make progress on it.

I also finished up wiring the switch bezel:
http://www.dsmtuners.com/forums/art...ght-fog-cruise-mirrors-switch-bezel-leds.html


I will post up some more pictures later on when I'm near the car again.

 

[T Money]

Thanks for the write ups. I just tore into my cluster last night. Hopefully it turns out as good as your stuff!

 

[turbosax2]

Thanks for the write ups. I just tore into my cluster last night. Hopefully it turns out as good as your stuff!

Good luck with your cluster!


Btw, your car looks amazing

 

[burbage2001]

That is a good idea and it looks really good. Thanks for the good information, I might just try it.

 

[snowborder714]

Here are some pictures of the cluster installed. I looks awesome during the day and even better at night!! If anyone wants any more pictures, just let me know and I'll get them for you.

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[ChinoREY]

does anyone know how many bulbs are in the turbo cluster... i am just planning to sand the gauges down and replacing the bulbs with some high intensity led bulbs made to replace the oem ones. has anyone done this before? if so can you post pics... i was thinking its gonna look pretty much the same but require less work. i need to know how many bulbs there actually is though. thanks =)

 

[turbosax2]

does anyone know how many bulbs are in the turbo cluster.

7...

 

[ChinoREY]

7...

Thanks man, much appreciated