HamSpiced

sinc ei mastered the LED i will do the dash led mod in my Iroc as soon as i get the time and ambition.

HamSpiced

you can definatly go quad. get four leds, soder them together and use Ohms law to find the resistance then shove it in there.

Odyssey

Nope.... THIS is mastering the LEDs My dash...

Paul Riccioli Jr

iTrader: (1)

Odyssey are those the stock gauge faces or aftermarket overlays??

nikh23

sorry guys tomorrow definitely, i was all caught up in unpacking from school and getting my car prepared to fail inspection another time. as soon as i go to inspection i'll work on the gauges and get som enew pics of my car as well. i understand that the DIY verseion might be brighter but hey, for the amount of time and money i plan on spending on this project i definitely will not complain.

Odyssey

Paul, those are stock guages with blue backlighting. But they do have the silver overlays from MacEwen so they can look better during the day too.

Paul Riccioli Jr

iTrader: (1)

I saw earlier in this post someone referred to these. I haven't read the tech article in a while, but can someone explain to me what they are and how they are used in the DIY lights?
Thanks

1bad91Z

iTrader: (1)

Is there a tech article for LED instrument cluster?

nikh23

yea there is a tech article in the tech article section on the homepage of the boards. OK guys, white faced gauges and red LED's are in and it looks killer :hail: . Can't really tell what the lights look like cuz its still light out heh, but tonight definitely expect to see a bunch of pictures of my setup.

bigals87z28

DAM YOU NIK!!! ill talk to you on aim later... post pics asap brotha!! did you color the needles?

Paul Riccioli Jr

iTrader: (1)

Definately get us some pics. I can't wait. This will help me decide between red or blue.
Thanks.

Zrated83

iTrader: (17)

cant wait!

Mike

omnipotentgoku

iTrader: (1)

Im in the market for new gauges anyway..

nikh23

alright so here's the deal, my white faced gauges and red LED lights are in, but i was riding with my local first aid squad tonight and too many people were doing assanine thing so i never got a chacne to take pictures. The plastic lens and bezel covers and all that are still off so i'll take pictures of that, and then at night post pictures of what it looks like. Overall it looks ok, seems a little blotchy but not bad overall with the white faced gauges. I'll post pics tomorrow, sorry for the delay!

Paul Riccioli Jr

iTrader: (1)

Hey how many bulbs are there in the HVAC controls? I want to get the LED's for those too when I order mine. I'm having trouble finding them though. I would like to get some 10,000 MCD blue ones if I can. Does anyone know if 1 per socket will be enough with this intensity or should I still go with 2? Also what's the viewing angle on these? I can't find it anywhere. Would I be better off using a lower MCD with a higher viewing angle if I use 2 per socket?


Also still waiting to see those red ones just in case I want to change my mind.

Paul Riccioli Jr

iTrader: (1)

Well I can't find em anywhere. I found some that are rated at 5,000-6,500 but with only a viewing angle of 15*. Do you guys think this will work if I use 2-4 per socket?

Also any luck with getting us some pics Nik?

nikh23

i personally dont have a digi cam, and my friends can't seem to find their's, figures when you need it most right. If i don't get them this weekend i'll just take them off of a regular camera and have the pictures developed. And also due to the rain and my top being busted my car's been under the covers so water doesn't leak in which is also putting a damper on my projects

Paul Riccioli Jr

iTrader: (1)

Yeah the rain sucks big time. Where is Caldwell in relation to central Jersey (near Rutgers)?

Also I may have found a source for 10,000mcd blue LED's. I'll keep you guys posted.

paulo57509

Post please!

nikh23

well i got pictures of my white faced gauges and lights during the day. I'll get the pictures at night to see what they look like in the dark and i'll post them all at once

Paul Riccioli Jr

iTrader: (1)

Ok I just used the Buy Now option from one of this guy's auctions. He has the LED's that some of us need. Follow this link to one of his auctions and you can find his contact info.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...ory=26207&rd=1

nikh23

alright well here are some pics, first start off with my car, i added the red IROC decals since the previous owner never put them back on after he repainted the car. I also added clear side markers, and new front turn signals. The picture was taken at the body shop that I'm workin at this summer, and please excuse how dirty she is, its been raining for like a week straight



Here's the LED lights and white faced gauges during the day with the bezel not on yet



Here's the white faced gauges with the bezel on and lights off



and lastly here's the lights with the bezel on at night, this pic is really crappy, i'm not sure how to take the picture properly.
anybody got any ideas on how to take it so that it comes up clearer? It's also a lot brighter in person than in the pic, but not as bright as i would like it to be. However for the amount of work that was put in it's not bad at all. I also plan on painting the back of the bezel red so that it reflects the color a little better.

dsaint1347

I see some promise there, those red lights would match my car.

paulo57509

Here's what blue LED's look like. These are not the plug-n-play 194 replacements. These are home made with 10,000 mcd LED's. I did this a few months ago.

The 194 replacements from superbrightleds.com aren't as bright; I'm running these in the gauges in the pillar pod because my source for the 10,000 mcd LED's isn't carring them anymore.

(My first picture posting...don't know if this will work or not).

FastElectrics

here is the picture paulo57509 was trying to post..
nikh23 how bright are the red ones V.S. the original bulbs?
to bad they didn't come out as bright as you had hoped.. I wonder if the blue would be brighter..

Paul Riccioli Jr

iTrader: (1)

Paulo it's hard to tell how bright your lights are in the pic. Are they a little dim? Would you suggest I put 2 of the 10,000 mcd bulbs per socket?
Also does anyone know how many bulbs there are for the HVAC controls?

Momar

Hey man I have an 85, but converted to an 89 140 cluster. I was wondering as far as your hvac controls they are backlit correct? Do you happen to know what year they became backlit instead of having a light shine down on them like mine?

Ben

paulo57509

FastElectrics: Thanks for the assist. :hail:

Paul Riccioli Jr: It's not really that dim. The gauges are easily readable at night. There is one bulb that illuminates the heater controls.

I read someplace that blue is the absolute worst color for illuminating things indirectly (that's why "Cool Blue" headlights are so feeble at lighting the road). It might be a different story if your gauges are back-lit. If I had to do it over, I'd try two blue 10,000 mcd LED's. If red was available in that intensity, I'd go with red.

One thing to keep in mind when shopping LED's. When LED's are manufactured, they are sorted by brightness. One part number can have a range of intensities. If you look at the data sheet for the 10,000 mcd LED's that I used, they range in brightness from a minimum of 4,650 mcd to a maximum of 10,000 mcd. As the LED's come off the assembly line, they are tested and sorted into bins depending upon intensities. Some people may advertise 10,000 mcd, but it really depends on which "bin" the LED's were sorted into and which bins they're picking from.

I'm sure I'll tire of the blue color eventually. I'll probably just go back to regular bulbs; 194NA's.

paulo57509

The nice thing about going this route is that you can use any LED/resistor combnation you prefer. With a bit of lead forming, you can also mount two LED's.

The bad thing about it is trying to get totally opaque artwork; my traces are a bit pitted. There is also some initial cost in etching chemicals, photo reactive PC boards, and a UV light source.

The PC board is slightly thicker than the wedge base of a 194, but it fits into the bulb sockets.

I'm not a PC board designer, so please forgive the lack of radii on the traces, etc.

Here's a link to the photo in case it doesn't attach properly:

ftp://members.aol.com/paulo57509/194_led.jpg

FastElectrics

wow. I'd say that is very well done.. :hail:
it's got me thinking about that method now..

dsaint1347

Here you go. Nice work!

dsaint1347

Think you can mass produce these lights paulo57509? I'll buy a set.

nikh23

my red gauges are slightly brighter than my original stock white fauges but i just can't get a good picture of it. i guess the camera just sucks

gibbs_000

has anyone used the 4 led combo? there isnt any kind of issues with the size of them are there?

89 Black GTA can u post those pics again they dont seem to be working for me i just get an X in the pic

nikh23

hey gibbs the ones i got were the quad LED bulbs, they plug right in. They def aren't as bright as the DIY ones. You also can't really tell from my pics either but i'll try to get better ones.

Momar

I would be interested in if anyone has used the 4 led combo also. I know that they say that they are brighter on the site, but they also say that they aim more straight forward and dont have a very wide dispersion pattern. I have a 89 GTA cluster(backlit) and am just not sure where all the light is required from the bulb. It looks almost like it just needs to shine in the ends of the plastic, but maybe not.

Ben

Momar

Oops, I think I was posting about the same time as you. On my brothers RS he says the light is backlit and shines around the edges. It appears that your overlays only shine around the edges. Is this right? If so then it might be brighter if you had stock overlays or ones that at least allowed the light to shine through.

Ben

nikh23

yea it does seem to be illuminate the edges, but if you look at it in person it fills up the overlay decently. The overlay is also the glossy paper stuff so it reflects it a little better i assume. Like i said i'll also paint the back of the metal bezel red so that it'll hopefully reflect the light a little better.

paulo57509

When I started the project I did bounce around the idea of selling them. About half-way through, I found out that you can get them already made (like the superbright ones) and the air emptied from by bubble pretty quickly.

If anyone is interested in etching their own PC boards (a Google search will yield several good instructions), I'll gladly send them the AutoCAD file of the PC board. It's a 3"x5" array which should yield about 64 boards. Most raw boards come in smaller sizes, so you'll get a few less than 64 (believe me, after doing just the 13 or so for your Camaro, you're not going to want to do 50 more).

Since the dimensions of the board are some what critical, I don't know if a cut-and-paste into Word and then a conversion to .pdf will preserve the dimensional integerity of the original file.

DaGoat

That is correct on the shining in the ends. I do have the 4 leds and I don't really care for the lights. At night you can see them just fine, but at dusk it's like they're not even on. I do believe it has to do with the dispersion pattern, and it not being the correct contour to get into the ends of the plastic. I may just try to find something to cover the original bulbs in blue.

Anyone know where I can find blue condoms?

paulo57509

http://www.autometer.com/hp/

Go to Page 88 of the catalog.

Gambit69

I know this may be a little off the subject but maybe someone here can help. I have some red led's that I am wanting to put in my car for my center console so when I turn on my accessories these turn on as well to let me know the fuse is working. The positive lead has a red wire and the neg has a blue wire. These led's look like led's that are used in car alarms. Can anyone tell me how I would hook these up so they turn on with a switch. If anyone can help please let me know.

89blackGTA

If I remember correctly....I think you can just run the positive to your switch or powersource, hook the negative to the ground and then put the correct resistor on it.
It been a while since I had to actually work with LEDS and resistors and crap.

Brian

Gambit69

Hey 89blackGTA

I looked at the bulbs behind my heater controls and the bulbs are very small. The 194 bulbs that you used to make yours blue in color, they are different than the 194 bulbs for the front side marker lights aren't they. I have a set of blue 194 bulbs for my side marker lights that I am waiting for my clear side marker lenses, and the bulbs look the same just about a quarter of the size. Let me know if this is correct about the size of the bulbs. The pic of the bulb you posted doesn't really show the size of the bulb just the shape of it.

89blackGTA

I didnt change the bulbs for the turn signals. They looked the same to me though. I thought about it but if I had blue bulbs with the green plastic in the dash it wouldnt really come out the same blue.

Brian

Gambit69

The bulbs for the heater controls in mine are about the size of an LED. Is this the size of the bulbs in your heater controls to get the blue color. The bulbs for the side marker lights are about and inch long and are way to big for my heater controls. I hope this helps a bit about the size that I am talking about for the bulbs.

89blackGTA

Sorry, I guess I didnt understand your question.

I didnt change the HVAC controls. I am not sure what bulbs are in there. You might be able to get the number off of the bulbs and see if http://www.superbrightleds.com can make them. I thought about seeing if they would make them for us. There is a big market for them. But I didnt know the bulb number.

Brian

Gambit69

If you didn't change these bulbs that I am talking about, then how did you get the heater controls to look blue instead of orange and also the buttons for defreost and hatch release. I really like the looks of the blue coloring better than the orange factory color.

89blackGTA

I said somewhere in there that it is a photoshop job of what I want it to look like.

Brian

Project_1986_TA

How many LED's would i need to change out the dash and center consle? So far i have heard 9 in the dash and 2 for the floor lights but thats it. I plan on making all the lights inside my car blue. Thanks.