Instrument Leds

[POPEYE]

Just got round to posting these pics what with the attachment probs we been having, This is mainly for the guys that helped me with advice and such,
The first one is of the heater, I think it's a big improvement on the original lighting, Perhaps a little bright for some but i can live with it, A real ba$tard
to do, took me two attempts, First was a non runner as there was just too much wireing in too little a space, Second attempt i linked all the negs and put the resistors on the outside cutting the wireing by half, I added leds to the two slider controls mech clear plastic light defusers, changed the existing
leds on the push buttons and added leds of matching colours to the inside of the push buttons to better light the symbols, Result as you see is much brighter and easier to use as you dont have to fumble around trying to see the buttons,
The instruments were a little easier to work as there is a lot more room,
However as i'm awkward and wanted to fit several colours that too became a sod, I've run blue,red,green,uv,orange white and colour changing leds through
subminature toggle switches so i got the choice of either colour or any
combination, Only posted a few as it'd be too many combinatons to show em
all but you gey the idea, (heater buttons stay the colours you see, just the
slider s can change with the instruments), I seem to have blue, red, and colour-change on most of the time, i like the effect of that one,
I also replaced the ign switch light on the columb with leds and fitted a led
persrex ring on the ign switch, I have no trouble finding the hole now!!!!
I you were just going for one colour or maybe even two it would be a doddle,
I must be mad, Anyway thanks to Morr, & Bushwacker And Dave Bax, Have you done yours yet??????

[dave.j.robbo]

They look great! I guess it was worth all the hassle...

Well done for perservering with it......

[POPEYE]

Thanks Dave, Yep there were times, Glad its done!,

[SURFVIRGIN]

brilliant, wish i had the time and inclanation. jealous mate.

[Morr]

An excellent job, nice one!

[Dave_bax]

Mate that is a quality job. Great pics too budy.

I really like the heater matrix switches, having the air circulation different colours, makes me want to ripit out again.

I have done mine all in one colour 'red' but i am unhappy with the main speedo area as the illumination is quite patchy from pink to bright red, so i need to get the dash off again and have another go.

I'm impressed Ian

[BUSHWHACKER]

Flippin' eck dude, thats awesome!

[POPEYE]

Thanks for the comments guys, It sort of makes it all worthwhile when others
appreceiate what you've been doing, Two of the colours i used are not to good Dave, UV & White, Did'nt put enough of either in as there was not enough room, If i had to do it over i'd do it the same as the heater ie link all the negatives and fit the resistors outside, it would make things a lot easier,
Still i've no intension of taking it all apart to rectify it and anyway uv would be good for a long night journey when you dont want it too bright, Ian

[Blizzard]

Hey Ian, your work is simply awesome! A friend of mine has been years searching this effect but he don't achieve to get blue on the gauges, he gets a green-blue mix, very ugly...

Do you have more pics of the install? We just want LED blue...

Thanks,

David

[POPEYE]

Hi David, Thanks for you comment, Not sure exactly what it is you want to know, ie how i did it or how i achieved a particular colour, I'm afraid most of
the pics i took during the "build" if you like are now too big in KB to post,
It's limited to 299KB and most of em are 300 to 400KB, I've put a few more on
as you see, Fitting the leds is easy enough if not very fiddley, Just a question of fixing or glueing em behind each gauge you want to light and at
the same time not interfearing with the gauges electronics or mechanisms,
I used 3mm ultra bright leds so i could cram more in as i was using several diff colours, These leds are only very bright when view'ed from head on so you got to angle em up behind the gauges light defuser (clear plastic bit),
As for the colours, You get what you put in ie blue or red or green etc,
It just a question of putting enough in to get the effect you want, Trial and
error!!, I've got the different colours on different switches so i can "mix em "
and the effect as far as i was concered were "chance", As i said blue and red
is a nice effect, The whole lot on together is also nice if not a little bright,
When i was doing this there was a lot of posting on the subject on the
technicle electricle section, Have a look there and if i can help you more post
on here or email me, ian.price90@ntlworld.com, Cheers Ian

[Blizzard]

Thanks for the pics, just wanted to see the gauges and LEDs from behind.

You can use www.imageshack.us to upload the pics so you don't use forum space...

How about the resistors? One resistor for color line or one for LED? I want to achieve this but only in one color, blue.

David

[POPEYE]

Yep one 470ohm resistor for each led, I used 1mm cable (maplins) of different colours (matching the led colour) to make it easier, If your limited for space
link all the led negative leads together so only one neg wire goes in the gauge
and solder the resistors to the wires outside the gauge, Use heatshrink on
all bare leads to be sure, If you just want blue put some in and try it on a battery before you fit it back in the car to see what effect you have, not
happy with it add a few more or another colour, Led, the long lead is the pos
(short is neg), Ive yet to try a photo host to post pics, will have a go!, Ian
BTW you might notice i had to rethink the cable entrys to the gauge pod, there were just too many wires so i brought em in from several points, places were they did'nt interfer with the plastic circuit board, i reccomend useing a common negative , that will half the wires comeing out,



Better late than never!!!!!! The heater!

[Blizzard]

Thanks Ian, I'm used to deal with LED's, I still remember the school hehehe

I'm more concerned with the LED placement, so your pics will be useful!

David

[POPEYE]

2 Switch upgrade

I've gradually been replacing the lighting in the dash switches as the original
was not good at all, It was a job to see some of em even in total darkness, I
know some others have (Morr, Dave Bax) have replaced their's but not sure which ones they've done, So far i've done the window up, act, hazzard,
heated rear screen, hard/norm sus,and idle up, All except the last two were pretty stright forward, Had a couple of goes at the last two and eventually
had to compleatly strip em removeing the rocker switch, They have a small
clear plastic defusser behind the rocker which is totaly useless and was discarded, Then had to fit an led with heatshrink on the legs bent to shape and glue it behind the rocker so it shines at the back of the small symbol on the switch, The idle on "on" is a straight led replacement, but for some reason it does not light when i switch idle on, The led os ok and i got a supply at the connector and the engine idle's up ok, The pics of these switches are not to good (tried to get too close up i think), First pic is
Heated rear & hazzard, Second is heated rear on and the rest you can see!
Next step the door switches,,,,,
OK Door switches!!!
Not as bad as i first thought (now i've done it) Removed the switches and door card, then removed the switches from the trim and took em indoors,
I started with the mirror switch, I was pretty sure there was no lighting in
there but of course i had to find out and on levering the back off all the bl00dy bits fell out,and theres no light in there!!!, Managed to put it back together and it works ok, So i just added two leds either side to give it a back
light.
The windows/lock switches were straight forward although i stripped down more than i needed to, All you need to do is remove the four screws and carefully lift off the top with the rockers on, This part contains the original leds, There are a lot of loose contacts and springs on the other (base) part
but its easy to see where they go and i noticed a lot of arcing burn on the
contacts, Clean this off and lightly sand the contacts, The windows seem to work a lot better now!
The original leds are soldered on to three small boards, You need to snip off the plastic tabs that hold em on and gently lever em off (i cracked one, but was able to run solder over the two tracks) Then its just desolder and resolder the new ones on keeping the configuration in the led encapsulation
the same way round as the old ones and roberts yer fathers brother!!
Silicone grease the moveing parts and put it back together,
I've used different colour leds as you can see purely because i only had 3x3mm blue so i used them on the passenger switches and a red one on the drivers switch, With a yellow one on the door lock switch, Also gonna put some 5mm blues in the caseing to give em a backlight same as the mirror one,
While the door cards off (gotta change the grey carpet for black) i gunned
waxolinto the door and greased the window runners and mech,
I've just got to work my way round the other doors now and thats about it!!!!
I'll edit some pics in when its all back together, Thanks for bidding and good
night



Just thought! The white things in the bottom pic are the plastic switch over s
and will still be attached to the rockers if you just remove the screws and dont dismantle the whole dam thing like i did.

[AndyLala]

Ian,

awesome effort, very tidy job. Would you do it again...? After seeing the pics, I can bet most people wouldn't bother... I have to have my instrment cluster out again, so I may study the pictures more closely...

It serves to illustrate just how mad we are...