How to: Evenly light gauges w/LEDs
- Thread starter Rism
- Start date
flat_black
Member
Presumibly, though, LED's aren't the same in that respect. Bulbs have variance in coil temperature when the draw varies, but LED's are just diodes... So, they're generally just on/off, unless they're special LED's, I think. =)
flat_black
Member
If it works with the normal LED's, then cool. =) It'll probably work with these.
The dimmer still works with the LED string. I also did a few tests tonight involving lighting the needles with their own LED. I tried white cause thats the only color I had left and it looked damn nice. Im gonna order some blues and whites tomorrow and get workin with them.
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- 99 LX
Rism said:
please post pics when you do, I'd like to light up my needles in a clean way
flat_black
Member
Very nice! When you use a white LED for the needle, does it help differentiate the colors some? It would be nice to do that, if nothing else. =) It's kinda hard to read by glancing at the gauges as it is, so changing the needle would help quite a bit.
I'm curious about one other thing, though; While you're sitting at idle, could you press your window switch to see if the cluster dims? I know presently mine does a little bit, and it's kinda annoying, but the draw for LED's should be lower, so I'm not sure if it would effect it as much. =)
Excellent job, by the way! I'm not a person for asthetic mods, but I still want to do this one. Hehee.
I'm curious about one other thing, though; While you're sitting at idle, could you press your window switch to see if the cluster dims? I know presently mine does a little bit, and it's kinda annoying, but the draw for LED's should be lower, so I'm not sure if it would effect it as much. =)
Excellent job, by the way! I'm not a person for asthetic mods, but I still want to do this one. Hehee.
jrodhotrod
Contributor
- :
- 2003 Mazda Protege5 (Mine) 2002 Nissan Sentra GXE (Wife's)
Very Nice! More pictures from Rism please 
Going for the light saber look... if you ever get pulled i dont think you can use sorry i wasnt aware of how fast i was going.
Rism said:Yea, pretty much everything dims when I use the windows. I dont know why or how to fix it thought.
With the needles im going for a look something like this
When i put the white LEDs in it looked very similar to this.
MIA protege
Member
- :
- 06 Lexus IS250, 06 Kawi ZX10r
i have a 2000 with black face. and i tried just simply switching the bulbs out but theres a film in there somewhere. so im nto sure if the red LEDs will work with mine. my lights right now light up green. i would love to get them in red. anyway what u did rism, will work with me
(reposting this here from another thread) I have decided to go blue with mine also. I have tried messing with the gauge face plate as well to see if I can get a custom scheme with all the idiot lights to. I hate the superbright green of the CRUISE light, for one.
I am changing the bulbs in my gauge cluster too. I was able to get the speedometer and tach needles off fine. I undid the screws first, then pulled the servo off the back, instead of pulling the needles off the front. However, the small gauges appear to be a lot more fragile, and I broke the fuel gauge. I ordered a replacement cluster on car-part.com. I didn't have to take off the temp gauge to do my mod...
Since mine is a 99, mine are all green. I was able to sand off all of the green backing around the numbers to leave them white in preparation for the new blue led's I am putting in.
You could then potentially leave all the white bulbs in and paint the numbers, leaving the option to you to completely customize your color scheme. I did some tests on a two-tone scheme, and changed my mind; however, some normal Testor's paint from any store that sells plastic models will work just fine. Be sure to buy some thinner too in case you don't like what you see.
NOTE: Use 400 grit or higher for the sanding. You can use a fine-point set of pliers to pop out the needle posts. You can see it in the tool pic below.
These are all 600x450
Pics with the gauges already sanded:
Broken Gauge- you can see its the pin that broke, not the needle itself. I am now using that needle for experimentation to see if I can get a different needle color, too.
Speedometer - Back Front Against the light: Back
Tachometer - Back front
My Custom Fine Point Sanding "Tool
Fuel and Temp - Back Front
My Two-Tone test - keep in mind this was after the first pass with the brush, so the blue looks a little inconsistent.
I am changing the bulbs in my gauge cluster too. I was able to get the speedometer and tach needles off fine. I undid the screws first, then pulled the servo off the back, instead of pulling the needles off the front. However, the small gauges appear to be a lot more fragile, and I broke the fuel gauge. I ordered a replacement cluster on car-part.com. I didn't have to take off the temp gauge to do my mod...
Since mine is a 99, mine are all green. I was able to sand off all of the green backing around the numbers to leave them white in preparation for the new blue led's I am putting in.
You could then potentially leave all the white bulbs in and paint the numbers, leaving the option to you to completely customize your color scheme. I did some tests on a two-tone scheme, and changed my mind; however, some normal Testor's paint from any store that sells plastic models will work just fine. Be sure to buy some thinner too in case you don't like what you see.
NOTE: Use 400 grit or higher for the sanding. You can use a fine-point set of pliers to pop out the needle posts. You can see it in the tool pic below.
These are all 600x450
Pics with the gauges already sanded:
Broken Gauge- you can see its the pin that broke, not the needle itself. I am now using that needle for experimentation to see if I can get a different needle color, too.
Speedometer - Back Front Against the light: Back
Tachometer - Back front
My Custom Fine Point Sanding "Tool
Fuel and Temp - Back Front
My Two-Tone test - keep in mind this was after the first pass with the brush, so the blue looks a little inconsistent.
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Very nice job Rism, I'm impressed. That's a little project I'm going to have to do eventually, I hate how my gauges aren't lit incredibly well. Don't the needles have an orange tint to them on those gauges already? Does a white LED break through that orange or did you have to get different needles?
Blynd_Spy:
Since the gauges have an orange overlay on them, did you have to sand that off when you used the blue LEDs?
Blynd_Spy:
Since the gauges have an orange overlay on them, did you have to sand that off when you used the blue LEDs?
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The orange is undercoating on the bottom of the needles. I am messing with the broken one to see what happens. You can sand that right off, too, and use the color of your choice. If you are going to do white, I would suggest doing another layer of black over the white so it doesn't light up your entire gauge face. Of course, it is a neon orange they use too, so dark colors won't show well. If you wanted white, you could probably just sand off the orange and paint the black layer to block the light. Just be sure to have some thinner or paint remover kind of stuff to clean up messes or to redo stuff.
Btw, I found the thinner will also remove the painting on the back of the gauge faceplate , but it is very difficult to remove only the color patches over the idiot sections, and not remove the black as well. It seems easier to sand the color patches off, and do your own design of some sort, if you are going to go that far. I also disovered that there are several places for lights that aren't lit. I have an ABS, a washer fluid, and O/D OFF icons that don't apply to my car. Plus there are a couple with no icons, but room for lights (you have to get the holders too, but you can get all this at superbrightleds.com). I am looking at all this as we speak. Putting my order together.
The possibilities are quite endless, really.
Btw, I found the thinner will also remove the painting on the back of the gauge faceplate , but it is very difficult to remove only the color patches over the idiot sections, and not remove the black as well. It seems easier to sand the color patches off, and do your own design of some sort, if you are going to go that far. I also disovered that there are several places for lights that aren't lit. I have an ABS, a washer fluid, and O/D OFF icons that don't apply to my car. Plus there are a couple with no icons, but room for lights (you have to get the holders too, but you can get all this at superbrightleds.com). I am looking at all this as we speak. Putting my order together.
The possibilities are quite endless, really.
