Kingdomofmadnes

HI!!

I have decide to try to put blue led into my dash on my camaro z28-1992.
Ihave never done this before so i will need some help to fix this

what i have check on the dash,its seems to be 5 lights to be replaced to led.

i know that leds are higly sensetive for current and must be placed right into my dash,and here my problem beugin

i dont know what possetive and negative on the backside on my dash,but maybe someone does out there in cyber
the best are if someone can use my pic and draw the possetive and negative lines on my dash

i send a pic on the back of my dash and with red marks(the lights who should be removed)

Link to a big pic: http://www.camarosidan.com/Bilder/Banners/Bild-0043.jpg

thanx and i hope you understand what i mean,dumb swede here :-)

MFaulkner

Just an idea, but wouldn't it work to remove the the stock bulbs and put light coat of blue paint on them? I think bulbs in my dash are just painted orange?

As for the polarity, I can't say off hand. If you don't have one, even a cheap volt meter or multimeter is a wonderful tool to have. BTW, I think that if you put any of the LEDs in backwards, they simply won't turn on. Take them out and flip them over. 12v shouldn't be high enough reverse polarity to cause any damage to the LEDs.

87Formula4bbl

mfaulkner,
The bulbs arent painted, they have little plastic-like caps over the bulbs.
I THINK you can get these from somewhere (think I saw them on McEwen's website) in different colors.

89cmrodriver

definally get a meter. can be gotten from harbor freight for $2.99 on sale now though december 21st

Kingdomofmadnes

But if you put in coulor bulbs its seems to be some kind of white light?? or??

but maybe plastic-like caps can work
do you know the homepage adress to McEwen's place

87Formula4bbl

I was looking for them on McEwen's website, but cannot find them. I had thought they offered them in the past, but I may have mistaken them for the regular colored bulbs, or I may have just forgotten what they were. In any case, I found these LED's. A bit expensive but they are supposed to fit without modification. Cant remember the bulb number for our gauge cluster, but they are a replacement for 194, 191, 161 and 164 type bulbs.

Kingdomofmadnes

i found this webpages
http://store.yahoo.com/macewenmotors...ulb-xenon.html

87Formula4bbl

Oops, ya I had found his new page but I forgot to post it. Looks like you found it though.

Kingdomofmadnes

so next qustions for blue lights is


What should i choose?


(1) Pair of Xenon Blue Bulbs. 5W/12V??

(2) Blue LED Ultra Bright Bulb Replacement 12V??


i want really really blue gagues
anybody who knows about the diffrent

Kingdomofmadnes

this is the links of the item i choose between

http://store.yahoo.com/macewenmotorsports/bx-323.html

http://store.yahoo.com/macewenmotors...-194-blue.html

http://store.yahoo.com/macewenmotors...oledblre1.html

http://store.yahoo.com/macewenmotors...oledblre1.html

i hope i dont ask to mutch

grafx

you will get a more intense blue colored light from an LED than you would from colored glass. Only problem is the labor that goes into the installation of LED's.

And wouldn't a test light work just as well for determining pos & neg?? He could even make his own using one of the bulbs from his Dash console.

86IROCNJ

http://cgi6.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/e...sort=3&rows=50 I bought a set from this guy for my Autometer guages. They work pretty damn good. The price is not bad either for plug and play. Usually for a true led look, you would have to wire them into the panel. But now all you have to do is swap the bulbs. Try a search, there have been a few very nice led stock guage clusters done.

Thirtybird

A test light (or other normal bulbs) will come on no matter which direction you apply the current. LED's will not work, and may become damaged if you apply current in the wrong direction*




*- may be an under-exaggeration...

3.1EyeCandy

iTrader: (3)

flames come to mind....oh the scary world of case mods.

FastElectrics

Why not just get Plug & Play LED Lights.. check this site out.
http://www.superbrightleds.com/cgi-b...gi?product=CAR

grafx

Those plug and play bulbs as you call them look like they will work. But are they bright enough and will they illuminate the panel evenly?? Someone on here mentioned adding bulbs to get an even illumination behind the panel.

Kingdomofmadnes

i want to thanks every one in here for helping me
great site

91Z28

replacing the bulbs with led's ar painting the bulbs blue will look like crap behind the yellow plastic, i recently removed my blue leds and went back to clear........

MrDude_1

theres uhh, one problem.


yer yellow.


what i mean by that is, the numbers are yellow........ so one of two things happen...


the yellow and blue make everything glow a faint green

or

the pure wavelength of the LED is completely filtered out, and your dash really doesnt light up much at all.



this is my current (hehe) problem.... i hopefully will have a solution soon, but since i havent figured it all out yet, i dont have much to post.






as for finding the positive and negitive, look at the circuit.... you can follow it with your eye/finger and see the two pins that power the backlights.

put a meter to thoes pins and turn on the lights. that will tell you positive and negitive.

Kingdomofmadnes

anybody in here having pictures of glusters with thier blue lighting?? i mean the new from 90-92 camaros

do we gonna have problem to let them to be blue,becouse of the yellow plastic film on the back????

TomP

So if you guys use the LED's, how does that affect the panel dimmer? I like the idea of the LED's, not for the different color, but for the fact that they wouldn't burn out. But... I drive with my lights so dim you can barely see 'em- just wondering if I could get that same effect with LED's, or, if the threshold voltage is too high to get a dim panel. (Ex, super bright at 3 volts, below 3 volts = LED's go out entirely, leaving me without any dimming function.)

MrDude_1

thats exactly what happens... however you can build a lil dimmer control and have it work off the OE dimmer....

im at work, but if i remember, i'll post a link when i get home...

MrDude_1

http://www.mikesflightdeck.com/led_dimmer.htm

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&i...8&q=LED+dimmer


lol, not the one i was thinkin of, but some stuff to look at.. i have to get back to work, but feel free to keep searchin and post if you find somthin good.

Tremo

Careful if you are going to put colored bulbs in there (not LEDs). The stock 194 bulbs in our dash are like 3 Watts or so. The 168 bulb (same size and socket as a 194) is 5 Watts. The 168 is noticibly brighter. A lot of the colored bulbs you buy, unless they are specifically marked as colored 194s, are actually colored 168s. Most of the "ultra white" bulbs are 168s. The reason I bring this up is if you replace all the 194s in your dash with 168s, the additional current draw of the brighter bulbs will overheat the panel dimmer. Be careful.

This is a non-issue with LEDs.

StevenK

iTrader: (1)

so does anyone have a completed picture of 91-92 gauge cluster with blue lights working?

would it require us to somehow remove the yellow plastic that the light shines through?

I just want my gauges to be brighter, and if im gonna make the effort to change the bulbs to LED or brighter style bulbs, I would prefer a blue backlight over orange.

Any pics?

Leahs88irocz

just a lil note about them colored light covers.......
they have them at k-mart....autozone....walmart

MrDude_1

look up oddesy in one of the LED threads... on the 2nd page, 2nd or 3rd reply... you can see his.

he has the whiteface/silver gauge overlays, but he removed the factory face... they glow blue numbers with red needles.

Kingdomofmadnes

is this the one you mean???

this was the question about his pic

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

and Odyssey answear: 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.

And im a dumb swede who dosent understand all american words,but "stock gagues"=orginal,or am i really lost??

MrDude_1

yes.. stock usually means the orginal one as put on by the car maker...


his reply is a little misleading though... he has the stock(orginal) gauges, but rather then put the overlays over them, he removed the orginal background and replaced it with the overlay.

that way, the light could shine thru them without going thru the yellow first.

Kingdomofmadnes

the thing i wanted is black background with blue light,the silver overlays are...hm silver!!

so if i use my dash like it is orginal with blue leds,its gonna be some green light if i understand right

is there anyone out there who have a pic with silver overlays so i can see how its look like.

So if i understand all right, Oddesey have remove the orginal background (the thing with miles and km/h) and replace it with a silver with the numbers on

sorry if im explain weird,but its hard when i dont know all words,thanx

MrDude_1

the silver overlays are a white face gauge with silver numbers.
because silver is just a form of gray, it doesnt effect the backlighting. you will not have a black background though. that is why im trying to make some nice ones with a black background myself.


there was a picture online here of that, but i cant find it... its a greenish glow, but where white light would shine thru, its blue.. it does not look nice at all.


that is correct.


dont worry about it.

Kingdomofmadnes

Thanx dude,now i undestand everything about this question
So tell me,what do you work on for material to do your own backgrounds,any idea?
so i better stop waiting for my blue leds and put all back again i guess

Kingdomofmadnes

oups one more question,whats diffrent between white and silver then,only numbers or?

MrDude_1

well i have 2 CONCEPTS right now... i cannot prove that they work until i try them... and i cant try them until the images are done.
concept 1: pro look- goto a sign shop and have them print out the gauge on translucent plastic. this should work and look great. athough the sign company could be costly.

concept 2: cheap and cheezy- print out the gauges at home on a transparent sheet. the same kind they use in school overhead projectors. spray paint the back white and use a clear stiff backing if needed to stiffen it up. downside is it COULD fade with time, it might not.. i dont know.



this is the gauge makers website
http://members.aol.com/rmacewen1/page1.html

you can search online for "macewen camaro gauge" and im sure you'll find pics of his gauges installed.

Kingdomofmadnes

do anyone knows how to remove the needles from the gagues,so i can remove the background without destroy it?

MrDude_1

i do NOT reccomend taking the needles off... however people have removed them before.

the replacement ones should be flexible enough that you can slip them on according to the instructions on the macewen website...


thats my personal opinion though.. you can pull them off....

Kingdomofmadnes

okey,thanx for warning
´
me and my girlfreind have same thought like you about doing own backgrounds,but if we do our own i guess the old background has to be remowed,right?

Your idea,is that a background that you put over the oldbackground or do you remowed your to?

Beacouse i wonder is that we need the old background to scan it into computer so we can fix with that in photoshop,so we can work with it in real size

we wont a nice result so we could be real proud *hehe*
i have a background but with 140mph scale and mine in the car is only 110mph scale

My girlfreind works with photos and she said to me that if we do the gagues in photoshop they could print the black background in a photostore...hmmm...the guy who works with photo,not the guy who sells the camera ;-)

Hope you understand what i mean :-)

MrDude_1

these are the ones i have:
http://josh.swoca.net/board/mrdude/gauges/

save em all to your hard drive incase i take em off the server....

if you invert the colors, you have a regular gauge again... whoever made that inverted the orignal scan.

on the speedo (the big one) make sure the numbers at the bottom in blue matches the numbers on your gauges...... they should.... ive been told there were slight "revisions" on the gauges.. ive also been told that theres not any diff in the number placement, but im not sure if i trust the source of that info... so id print them out as is, and compare to yours before i go modifying them...


good luck

Kingdomofmadnes

thanx,half work done
now,only the rest

Kingdomofmadnes

the number on my speedo is the same like the one you send me it´s only the date whos diffrent

Kingdomofmadnes

Hey Dude,i have come up with a great great idea
hopefully its not gonna be that expensive etiher

first today we went to a commercial store or whats it called and get free exampel of blue transparent film (very dark)you might need red to on the red places at the backgrounds

and then you go to the store in the state who sells photo printer paper,and u buy the one who looks like the real photopaper
there you have good thickness on the paper and they lets the lights go thru to

then u do your backgrounds on the computer like you want them(number should be white or grey) ,and then save them to a disc and go to the photostore and they have real good things to print your background to your photopaper

then you take the blue transparent film put it on the backside of your photo paper(maybe its necessarily to have one more layer of black on the black stuff at your background,the white light can be to bright) ,now you have a good background with blue lights,and u use the orginal lamps (the white) and the best part,when you not use the light switcher to put your dash and lamps on,you can still se the numbers without background lights

here is some example (in this example i have use my own printer with normal printer paper,and the photos are very fogged,sorry about that,and if you wonder why the small background is broken,its beacouse the glue on the transparent film get real stucked to my background )

this is very blue


The km/h have i done in light grey and mph are white

This one have the blue transparant film on the backside without backlight,and you can still read the numbers

IROC-Z2814

ok I also found this tech article on the thirdgen.org website

https://www.thirdgen.org/newdesign/tech/leddash.shtml

Kingdomofmadnes

Yes i have seen that too,but its big diffrent between a dash before 90 then we who had a dash from 90-92
we can not swap bulbs or leds,because it will be fade green
so what we need to do is change our backgrounds and there the 2nd problem beugin.We can only get backgrounds who are white with silver or black numbers

But, i like the black background with blue ligts,so we have to build our own,and i can say that i have been doing progress about that part now. And thats with the orginal bulbs

Kingdomofmadnes

Here you get a quick look what my background gonna be when im finished
The headlight and the flashing indicator are transperant
the blue and redgonna be transparent blue and red film

Kingdomofmadnes

and the speed background
what u all think??

MrDude_1

looks GREAT! good work!

camarosource

iTrader: (1)

Hmmm. Are these not the same as the ones Mcewen are selling for $5ea ? yet for only $2.59?

Pro

Back from the dead, yee haw.
King, what did you print those guages on? Looks like transparency? Then I guess you just cut it out and lay it down on those holders?
I havnt even broken into my dash yet so I dont know how it is all configured.

UCF1Slider

I read this whole post and I am a little confused so if anyone can answer this, please let me know.

I also have a 92 Camaro and the background for the speedo and tach are black with yellow numbering.

I want to do red numbers and lettering. I want to keep the black background. Do you have to fabricate a whole new black background to get different colored numbers/letters because the yellow letters are painted on or what?

-Kyle-

Pro

Supposedly yes. I am trying to get in touch with a couple of the people that have done it but they must have old email addresses or just never finished the project and dont want to respond regarding it.

From what I have seen, the guages are of a thick transparency type material. What you would have to do is scan your guages into your computer and use a photo editing program to clean up the colors (or change them how you want). For instance, I would only change the yellow to white (or clear).

Then I guess you could take these scanned pictures on disk down to a sign shop and have them print them out for you on their material (you would probably have to cut the guages out, unless they did it for you).

Im just guessing that this is the process. Like I said I havnt even taken my dash apart yet to see how the cluster is fit together. I have been working on the one in my truck (which is entirely different).