RS'er

I'm wanting to swap over to blue light behind my gauges...I've already swapped a blue into my AC head unit and I think it looks fawking badass....will it look good as well behind the rest of my gauges? ANy pics?

roxieshotrod

i too would love to have the blue.. pictures anyone???

dans82bird

if you want led backlights i can do it for you..

roxieshotrod

that would be sweet :hail: about how much would they cost? ive got a '91 rs gauge pod..

dans82bird

The LED's generally cost about 1.50 - 2 dollars a piece (my 84 gauge cluster has 18 led's) and PCB board is around 2 bucks (i can do it for you ... just gotta get me the measurements and pics of the back.... or you can send it to me )

cheers

84MaroZ28

hey i have a 84 camaro how much would it cost for you to make me the blue led gaudges i am very interested

thanks

Ratstix

i have a blue light for my shifter letters, and fr my heat/air panel.
the shifter one looks great, but the one for the heat and air is very dim. i can't even read the sh*t. it just kinda glows blue. dosen't really light anything up.

dans82bird

hey 84 - I can do it for $45.00. sound good? LED's mounted on a PCB ready to go... works with the standard plugs too

84MaroZ28

so this will fit on my 84 camaro right? i think it is different then the 84 firebird?? im not sure....

paulo57509

Do they look like this? These plug into the sockets in place of the #194 bulbs.

After I made a bunch of these from scratch, I found out you can buy them already made.

92blue

iTrader: (1)

Hey, do you have any pics of how they look installed? Who sells them?

alloy

iTrader: (16)

92blue-You took the words right out of my mouth. Where can we buy these?

HrdRockA4305

Now theres a great Idea if I ever saw one! Why didn't I ever think of that! Where can you get those, or the PCBs? If I had the little PCBs I could get the mini resistors and LEDs in bulk at work, that'd be about 2-3 minutes each with a soldering iron to make if you've got steady hands.

paulo57509

I made the PCB's myself. I couldn't get a real solid opaque black etching mask so the traces aren't really good. Good enough to conduct current, though. I "designed" these to replace the #194 bulbs used on the early 3rd Gens.

Factoring in the price of the LED's, the blank board, etching chemicals, resistors and time...it just isn't worth the trouble. I've seen some commercially made ones that look more like bulbs on ebay in the past.

It looks "okay" installed, but even after painting the back side of the instrument bezel white, it's still a little dark.

I have some pics around here someplace. I'll post them when I find them.

CaysE

I know APC makes LED lights for a range of applications (bulb 194 included), though I'm not sure what colors they offer.

dans82bird

I've done those plug-in socket style (only with normal resistors instead of chip resistors) and have also done a whole PC Board with LED's laid out, so you attach it to the back of the cluster (short screws or epoxy.. I bet CA Glue would work too) and it wires into the standard connector..

paulo57509

Here's a pic. Pretty poor shot; it really doesn't capture what it actually looks like. It actually looks better in person, but I still don't think it's worth the trouble. Perhaps it would look better in combination with white faced gauges.

Ratstix

ok, this is probably a stupid question.

but since bulbs run off 12V
if you can find an LED thats runs off 3V couldn't you just wire 4 of them in a parrallel? that way it'd be brighter and you wouldn't have to worry about resistores

HrdRockA4305

What was the MCD rating of those LEDs? I was gonna try using the 10,000 MCD blue ones from Jameco electronics (who we buy stuff from at work on a daily basis) I figure those should be pretty bright. Heck if NTE electronics can make LED flashlights (which we have in stock, they kick ***!) somone has to have bright enough LEDs to properly illuminate a dash. Or we could just hold out for the MacEwen indiglo kit which'll be out in a while.

Dewey316

a 10,000 MCD LED, would probably be TOO bright, if i was doing it i would shoot for 2000 mcd or so, considering that there are so many of them. even that would be VERY bright and maybe too bright.

also, has anyone tried one of those 194 LED's in the heater unit? i have tried a blue 194, but that is not nearly enough to over come the way it lights, and the yellow tinting.

on another note... what blubs are in the 90-92 dash? are they 194s also?

paulo57509

I used the 10k MCD blue LED's from Jameco. It still isn't bright enough (IMO).

The '82-'89's used the 194 bulbs (if I'm not mistaken) and illuminate the gauges indirectly. Herein lies the problem. Most LED's have such a narrow diffusion angle that it's hard to get them to illuminate the gauge panel evenly.

I also installed one (blue LED) in my heater control panel......and no, it isn't bright enough. Even a 194NA (natural amber) bulb isn't really bright enough for me.

The later '90-'92's use a different bulb; the bulb is intergal with the socket (they can be disassembled, however).

I know I'll tire of the blue color soon and just put the 194NA's back in.

Odyssey

These are available for $100 !

roxieshotrod

where are those available? are they white faced in daytime? i havent been able to find any for '91-'92, thats what that is!!

Dewey316

for 100 bucks i will buy some breadboard, and LED's

but thanks anyway

and i am really supprised that a 10000 MCD LED isn't bright enough, you might consider buying a wide angle LED that has a veiwing angle of like 60* or plus, that might illumiate better than the standard 15* of a normal LED. i know for a fact that 10000 MCD will basicly illuminate a football stadium the only other thing is that your resistance on those LEDS is figured wrong, or you have too many leds , and can't supply enough power for them all to opperate at full power.

paulo57509

This is where I got the idea from. The tech article (I think there's one associated with this thread) is very good.

https://www.thirdgen.org/techbb2/sho...light=led+tech

BTW, if anyone is interested in making their own PC boards, I'll be more than happy to e-mail you the photomask CAD file; just drop me a line. You need an application (such as AutoCAD) that will read *.dwg files and print them out in 1:1 scale.

But like I said before, it's really more trouble than it's worth (for me anyway).