More Blue LED fun, this time in my car

This is what my dash board looks like by day...



And at night...

I have to admit, I saw the thread title, cringed and clicked as I'm really used to people doing awful things to their cars, but you pulled it off nicely. I'm impressed.

I've been butt deep in dashboards before and I shudder at the thought of replacing all the dash lights. ;D

EDIT: Now just do something with the radio display, and is that a stick of ram hanging off your key chain?

I would love to do this to my Stang but with a white face plate for the dash. Details! How did you do it?

There are write ups on the net for DIY LED dash bulb replacements but there is a company now that sells all auto size bulbs with LED bulbs but I will have to get the link from my buddy as I don't remember it.

UberBlue said:

I have to admit, I saw the thread title, cringed and clicked as I'm really used to people doing awful things to their cars, but you pulled it off nicely. I'm impressed.

I've been butt deep in dashboards before and I shudder at the thought of replacing all the dash lights. ;D

EDIT: Now just do something with the radio display, and is that a stick of ram hanging off your key chain?

Click to expand...

I have seen people take apart there face plate and lay a combination of colored celophane over the the radio display to get the dissired color they were looking for.

Nicely done! Great craftsmenship.

UberBlue said:

I have to admit, I saw the thread title, cringed and clicked as I'm really used to people doing awful things to their cars, but you pulled it off nicely. I'm impressed.

I've been butt deep in dashboards before and I shudder at the thought of replacing all the dash lights. ;D

EDIT: Now just do something with the radio display, and is that a stick of ram hanging off your key chain?

Click to expand...

hehe, i figured id get atleast one person to wonder about that (i would myself actually).

taking apart the dash was a pain at first, but i had to do it about 4 times cause i had some burn-out problems (not big enough resistors), so i have it down to the point that i can pull my gauges cluster in about 5 minutes.

yeah, the radio display would be nice, i might have to try colored celophane like MaxAMD mentioned, worth a shot atleast.

YEP, actually its half a stick of ram . A friend had a bunch of broken ram, so we cut them in half and made keychains.

Fast420A said:

There are write ups on the net for DIY LED dash bulb replacements but there is a company now that sells all auto size bulbs with LED bulbs but I will have to get the link from my buddy as I don't remember it.

Click to expand...

i did actually see a writeup for honda accords, and after i finished mine i found my the lights for my gauges on ebay in LED form, but i dont know about the rest.


as for how i did it... well you asked for it. This is the writeup i did for altimas.net:



Tools needed:

Phylips head screwdriver
Soldering iron (and some soldering skills)
very small screwdriver (phylips or flat, but its gotta be tiny)
Sidecutter
Sandpaper
(useful but not needed) Voltage meter

Stuff needed:

LEDs
LED calculator http://www.bit-tech.net/article/68/
Resistors

Stereo:
Removing the Stereo: Take out the two screws between the stereo and climate controll. Grab the shifter surround at the back (not sure how it comes out on an auto) and pull up. Should pull right out. Take out the two screws at the bottom of the stereo trim piece. Take out the ash tray. Then pull the bottom of the trim piece out carefully, it should come out without too much trouble. Take out the four screws on the stereo, pull it out, disconnect it.

The stereo: The front should come off pretty easily, just push the tabs down and work it off. You end up with the face with circuit board. The board is held in by about 7 VERY small screws. These where a real pain on mine, i couldnt find a screwdriver that fit them, and there really tight. I ended up taking a small straight screwdriver and grinding it down so it fit just right (this was the only way i could get enough torque on them). Once you have the board out you can start de-soldering the five original bulbs. Now unlike standard lightbulbs LEDs have a positive and a negative side, so it matters how you put them in. Follow the traces from the places you de-soldered the original to the plug on the board where it says "illum +" and "illum cont". On the LED the side with the longer leg is +. Before you install the LED you need to sand it so it difuses the light evenly, instead of in a spot like LEDs normally do. Sand the tip flat (and as far down as you can, just dont get to the metal part inside) and sand the edges. Now the problem is you also have to have a resistor inline with each LED. The way i did this was to solder one leg of the LED into the board like the original bulb was, and bend the other leg so it ran to the closest edge of the board on the surface. Solder the resistor to this leg, bend it arround the board, and solder to the terminal on the other side (just be careful it doesnt touch any contacts on the way arround). Also, it doesnt matter if the resistor is on the positive or negative side of the LED. Last change the "cd in" LED. This was an LED originally, so no resistor is needed, simply desolder the original LED and install your new one. Watch the polarity, if you look inside an LED you will see it has a big side and a small side. The big side is negative, the small side is positive

The Climate controll:

It took me quite a while to figure out how the climate controll comes out. You have to have the stereo out, and then drop it down and out through the stereo slot. It can be a tight fit, but it will go. Once its out take the three screws off the bottom, take off the cover over the controll arm, unclip the cable, and pull the controll cable out of the arm it attaches to. Pop the knob off of the temp controll arm. Next lift up slightly on the tabs under where the 2 small screws you removed were and the back part should slide out from the front part. Now if you are changing to green, or if you dont mind the lights that come on when you push the buttons staying green you can just untwist the three socketed bulbs from the back of the board. If you want to change the stock green LEDs to something else (like i did) then you will need to further disassemble the climate controll. To do this take out the screws that hold the circuit board in, and slide the board out. Be careful to watch where everything goes together, there are ALOT of little parts in there. I found it easiest to simply clip the stock LEDs off and solder on new ones, rather than desolder the stock ones. Again watch the polarity. Now back to the little sockets. Unwrap the leads on the stock bulb. notice how they are wraped. We will be doing basically the same with the LEDs. Sand and flatten the three LEDs you will be using. Slide the Legs through the holes in the socket, and bend one over and arround like the original was. Clip off the extra. Bend the other one over slightly, and cut it off with about 1/4 inch of lead remaining. Clip the resistor to the same length, solder it to the LED, and bend the other end of the resistor arround the socket and trim. When reinstalling the socketted LEDs dont worry about polarity, simply test it before putting it all back together and switch any LEDs that dont light.

The Dash:

Finally... the dash. Take out the 2 screws under the top of the dash. The plastic dash surround comes out with a bit of force, but be careful, dont want to break anything. It can be kinda difficult getting it over the steering wheel, but it will come out, and it bends quite a bit to allow this to happen. Unplug and remove the cruise control switch, dimmer switch, and defrost switches. We will come back to those. Take out the gauge cluster, and unplug the wires from the back, make sure you keep track of which go where. On the back of the gauge cluster are 4 socketed bulbs that need to be changed. Take them out, pull the bulb, and solder in your LED with resistor. (i have actually seen 194 LEDs on ebay for a reasonable price, and they come in shapes such as a concave lense that would be good for the dash, however if your cheap and like to do things yourself (like me) then just do it yourself). Now back to the switches. They arnt to hard to take apart and put back together (if you have made it this far you can most likely do it without too much instruction). The last bulb at this point is the light under the "auto" on the window controll. Take the controll unit out (i had to take my door panel off to get it out, but that may not be necessary). Take the 4 screws out, and pop the bottom cover off. Now you have to take the 4 window switches off in order to get it apart. Pry them off of their pivot points, and then pull up with your hand. They take some force, but mine all came off without incident. Be careful not to lose any of the parts from the "auto" switch (and look at how they come out), it comes apart a bit differently than the others. Once you have the circuit board out changing the bulb is the same drill as the previous 20 some bulbs have been. As with many of the bulbs you need to test to find the proper polarity.

Awsome idea and a great job!!! Very clean cut and professional looking...also a little great write up!!! I would have never even thought about about changing the LED's in my car's dash. Kudos to you!!!

-NCB

that looks cool what about replacing the green VFD ?

MaxAMD said:

I have seen people take apart there face plate and lay a combination of colored celophane over the the radio display to get the dissired color they were looking for.

Click to expand...

No need for colored celophane. I replaced the LED's in an old stereo of mine. Although it's easier to do if your radio has a removable face-plate, it's still do-able on most modern radios. It all depends on if it uses LED's set to shine through a piece of plexi (most that I've seen are done this way) or if it uses a built-in electroluminescent strip built into the LCD display.
If you have 1/2 way decent soldiering skills, it's fairly easy.
First you have to remove the face of the radio, then take out the PCB that the LCD is attached to, the main trick is figureing out where all the LED's are. Most of the time you just look at the back side of the PCB, and you'll be able to see a small hole where you'll see the bottom of the LED. You should be able to loosen up the solder and pull the old LED out fairly easy (making carefull note as to which way the contacts inside the LED are pointing). You then take one of your choice of color 3mm LEDs, and pull the leads out to the sides, clip off the extra length on the leads, place your new LED, and solder it in place. Last thing you need to do is re-assemble the face of your radio, and you'll be all set.

Good luck

nice. very clean

but i really like that ram

: ) :

Yeah, that looks awesome. Dowmace did something like that to his car, but yours looks a hell of a lot better. You should replace the bulb in the glovebox and put in some neons.

I also have a stick of RAM on my keychain. It came from a 386/33 Cyrix computer from 1989 I believe. Ever use yours as a weapon? I sharpened mine a tad so I can use it to scratch my way through the halls at my school.

Dude that blueness is awesome, good work. From the pic it looks like the color is a much truer (sp?) blue than with the blue stuff some guys use around here in their hondas and nissans. Good work.

TheGhengisKhan said:

No need for colored celophane. I replaced the LED's in an old stereo of mine. Although it's easier to do if your radio has a removable face-plate, it's still do-able on most modern radios. It all depends on if it uses LED's set to shine through a piece of plexi (most that I've seen are done this way) or if it uses a built-in electroluminescent strip built into the LCD display.
If you have 1/2 way decent soldiering skills, it's fairly easy.
First you have to remove the face of the radio, then take out the PCB that the LCD is attached to, the main trick is figureing out where all the LED's are. Most of the time you just look at the back side of the PCB, and you'll be able to see a small hole where you'll see the bottom of the LED. You should be able to loosen up the solder and pull the old LED out fairly easy (making carefull note as to which way the contacts inside the LED are pointing). You then take one of your choice of color 3mm LEDs, and pull the leads out to the sides, clip off the extra length on the leads, place your new LED, and solder it in place. Last thing you need to do is re-assemble the face of your radio, and you'll be all set.

Good luck

Click to expand...

im pretty sure mine actually lights up that color, but some day i may need to take a look at it again. That failing the celophane sounds semi-promising.

SniperXX - alot of people change to a blue-tinted standard light bulb (i know a friend of mine did this). It isnt near as blue. Personally i really like a very blue light, thats why i ditched CCFLs for all my case lighting and went to LEDs for that too.