2G Gauge cluster LED project

[dkngochi2]

hey man
When you installed your blue leds did your needles shine through pretty well or no?
if not what did you do about them?

 

[dot45]

I'm still kinda new, but why on earth do so many guys like blue in-car lighting? Its the absolute worst for messing with your vision, even more so at night.

From wikipedia:
In biological night vision, molecules of rhodopsin in the rods of the eye undergo a change in shape as they absorb light. Rhodopsin is the chemical that allows night-vision, and is extremely sensitive to light. Exposed to a spectrum of light, the pigment immediately bleaches, and it takes about 30 minutes to regenerate fully, but most of the adaptation occurs within the first five or ten minutes in the dark. Rhodopsin in the human rods is less sensitive to the longer red wavelengths of light, so many people use red light to help preserve night vision as it only slowly depletes the eye's rhodopsin stores in the rods and instead is viewed by the cones.

I am not trying to start a flame war, just curious as to why blue is "cool".

 

[4Lurker4]

Considering you're not completely immersed in darkness to begin with, although it has effect, it's nothing you can't handle. Besides, doubt the "coolness" of anything is in debate here it's a personal preference, some want blue, some want red, white etc... No point in arguing a preference.

 

[Rich_Howell]

I'm still kinda new, but why on earth do so many guys like blue in-car lighting? Its the absolute worst for messing with your vision, even more so at night.

From wikipedia:
In biological night vision, molecules of rhodopsin in the rods of the eye undergo a change in shape as they absorb light. Rhodopsin is the chemical that allows night-vision, and is extremely sensitive to light. Exposed to a spectrum of light, the pigment immediately bleaches, and it takes about 30 minutes to regenerate fully, but most of the adaptation occurs within the first five or ten minutes in the dark. Rhodopsin in the human rods is less sensitive to the longer red wavelengths of light, so many people use red light to help preserve night vision as it only slowly depletes the eye's rhodopsin stores in the rods and instead is viewed by the cones.

I am not trying to start a flame war, just curious as to why blue is "cool".

Well, the simple answer is that humans don't have "night vision". Add to that the fact that if you're driving at night, you'll be doing so with headlights on...it becomes a non-issue. If you were constantly cruising around at night without headlights and wanted to see better than not...the red would help to an extent, but still wouldn't because they'd still be brighter than the non-lit road.

 

[avefenix]

im sold....let me know if you decide to do it for others....perhaps a patent is in order??? i know a company who would get you started with it.....but of course still interested in making my vehicle full interior led ....way to go

 

[Bud92gsx]

Back from the dead.

I accidently ordered 1200 white smd leds.

Does anyone have the 1g power and gorunds for the instrament cluster, and hvac I should be able to figure out..There is only 2 or 3 slots in the hvac for the bulbs.

I allready modded every gauge besides the tach and stock boost gauge to light up white and not orange.The problem with that gauge is there both on the same thing.And the needles dont want to come off like the others.


There are approximently 3 leds per 1 inch.

 

[Bud92gsx]

Does anyone have the power and grounds for the 1g instrament cluster?

 

[SLIDER121]

Hey Bud, give me a few minutes and I'll get a book.

 

[Bud92gsx]

I need it for the green board behind, attatched to the cluster.

 

[NotSoSlow]

Very nice work I love the brightness and the spread across the gauge faces it's looks amazing. Job well done
Dan

 

[Bud92gsx]

Update on my led cluster..

I have most of the lights wired up.The gauges will light white excpept the boost/knock gauge.
The ones for the auxillery lights like door open and stuff, I have about 10 of them done.

Spedo gauge is lit, tach is not wired yet.If I didnt need my stock boost gauge for knock,I would get a n/t 1g tach.

 

[gbabione]

There are a lot of 1206 SMTs on Ebay. Does the resistance matter? I would think using the lowest resistance would be best, otherwise the voltage would not be the same on each one.

 

[Bud92gsx]

I got a bunch of the replacement leds..There too wide, and don't fit..Then if you crush them it's a 50/50 shot at them working..

You can use 8000 leds compared to a few incandesect bulbs..They pull way less amperage than the stock bulbs..

I have a thread on replacement leds..Click my name, my threads..

 

[Kapok6]

Here are pics of mine I just did. Not perfect, and I know what I would do dif, but I am happy with it for my first attempt and it matches the rest of my gauges now.

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the 7000-8000 is actually brighter now that in these pics.

 

[Bud92gsx]

Here are pics of mine I just did. Not perfect, and I know what I would do dif, but I am happy with it for my first attempt and it matches the rest of my gauges now.

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the 7000-8000 is actually brighter now that in these pics.

How did you do it tho..By soldering in strips of leds like the rest of us?

 

[Kapok6]

I did not do any soldering. Yes, I used LED strips, but instead of soldering them to the circuit panel on the back of the cluster I just used two of the sockets for the stock bulbs to twist in and press the +/- wires against the circuit board so there was no soldering involved.

 

[Bud92gsx]

Ahh.You cheated,you cheater.

 

[Kapok6]

Ahh.You cheated,you cheater.

If by "cheating" you mean found another way of accomplishing the same goal without messing with solder and/or potentially making a mess and burning the circuit board, then heck yeah i'm a cheater ha ha ha.

I do a TON of soldering on my car. From HID installs, to custom LED installs for the exterior, to gauges and such, but that is all pretty easy/harmless stuff to do. You don't have to be extremely precise and talented to do that ish.

I had the soldering iron heated up and was about to attempt it on the gauge cluster then was like, wait, why am I about to solder this when I can get a nice, tight connection just using the stock socket? So I tested it, it worked, and the rest was history.

 

[Bud92gsx]

Its really a pain in the ass to find which one is power and ground on all the bulb socket part of the board..Then comes soldering in every damm bulb socket...

I like your work smarter not harder attitude..i just have some free time to actually solder all the connections to the board..

 

[Kapok6]

Yeah, the +/- terminals on the board are not labled. I actually had them reversed when I first connected them up. So all I did was untwist bulb socket, rotate it, retwist, and all was well with the cosmos. I would have not been very happy had I soldered them initially just to find out they were wrong.

 

[Bud92gsx]

It took about 1n hour or so to draw on power and grounds,before i could even solder..it was more a labor of love..that was a pain in the ass.

 

[spyderdrifter]

Here are pics of mine I just did. Not perfect, and I know what I would do dif, but I am happy with it for my first attempt and it matches the rest of my gauges now.

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the 7000-8000 is actually brighter now that in these pics.

Looks really good. Looks like my first Spyder. I did all the lights in blue on my last 2 DSMs. Went with red on the current one.

 

[Kapok6]

Looks really good. Looks like my first Spyder. I did all the lights in blue on my last 2 DSMs. Went with red on the current one.

The actual LED's are not blue. They are white. I used stage light sheets behind the gauge faces to get the blue color.

 

[spyderdrifter]

The actual LED's are not blue. They are white. I used stage light sheets behind the gauge faces to get the blue color.

Nice, very convicing I must say. When I did mine, the gauges were over lays that lite up in blue. I replaced all the actual gauge lights with red LEDs and then replaced all button lights with soldered LEDs.

 

[Wildside22]

I like it. I did mine about 10 years ago in red.