maddsiick

This was the hardest and longest LED conversion ive had to do. especially since i was going by theory than an actual set of directions. after doing this i give deathmetal and dwb alot of credit for tackling these conversions for the first time and maping them out for us to follow. A big thanks to them as well for helping answer all my questions before even tackling this.

Total Time: 11AM-6PM (GOD DAMN TROUBLESHOOTING!!)

Here are the pics to remove the face and LED board from the radio:






So that was taking off the front plate. now comes the hard part. here is the layout for the board. I marked them off so that you can see where the positive and negative terminals are:



now i used the same method that deathmetal used for the map light and homelink lights, wired the exact same way, resistors on the negative end and this is what i came up with after countless hours of soldering and posititioning the bulbs and resistors.









After doing all of this i tested everything to make sure the bulbs worked and also wrapped all the resistors and exposed lines of the bulbs with electrical tape to keep it from coming in contact with anything else on the board. This was the end result. Getting the resistors to fit into the tiny gaps in the plastic behind the face of the radio was difficult, thats what took most of the time but in the end the result was so worth the work. just wish it wasnt that hard.








I used a combination of Blue and White LEDs. the white are a little bit less intense because i used a 1k ohm resistor with those. i really dont want these to die out. the blue LEds are using a 560 ohm resistor which ive been using all over the rest of the car like deathmetal instructed. the white is really subtle though and theres no glare so it actually worked out pretty nice for the radio.

There are blue bulbs near the VOL/PWR and TUNE/SOUND and for all the numbers on the bottom and the rest of the buttons are white.

LOL if you noticed i have NO leds in my nav screen, i took them all out to work on the bulbs tonight and put them in in the morning. ran out of time and sunlight to work.

DeathMetal

iTrader: (2)

Whew, now I can stop hitting refresh every minute, lol

Great job, man!

Couple of questions since ya beat me to the punch -

1) Wide angle or standard 3mm LEDs?
2) How bad are the hotspots IRL?
3) I am assuming that you tapped the cathode to the neg ends?


Just one other thing - PLEASE note the polarity of the nav controls...they are a bitch!!!

AWESOME WORK, MAN!!!!!

Yonkers914

iTrader: (1)

nice work bro you always impress me lol

SleekSilverTL

wow that looks awesome!

dwb993

iTrader: (13)

Great job, maddsiick!
I have some questions/comments, too.
1) Did you leave the onboard resistors in the loop? Did you remove them?
2) Followup to DM's question re: which LEDs you used.
3) My main concern is getting the resistors to fit behind the panel, which is why I chose to go a different route with mine (we spoke about that briefly). I'll post an update to this thread with my results.
4) Not to bash on you, but it looks like you have a few hot spots in the pics. Is that just your camera or do they show like that in real life?
5) You mentioned at some point you had 2 of these circuit boards and were using one as a practice board. Do you still have one available? PM me, as I would be interested in a board to practice technique with.
Again, good job. I believe this is a first in the 3G TL! Kudos to you!
3G Garage, maybe?

DeathMetal

iTrader: (2)

Dave, I'm thinking we're going to have to explore the PLCC-2 route for the radio...

maddsiick

Thanks guys. ok so to answer the questions:

1. i used the same wide angle 3mm bulbs you've been using for the other LED conversion.
2. suprisingly there arent any hotspots except for the display-mode button and the tune/sound light. because i used a blue bulb for one and a white for the other, the color is mixed a little in the disp button.
3. yes i tapped the cathode to the neg ends

1. I did leave the inline resistors on the back of the board, really didnt want to mess with taking them out.
2. the camera is the reason y the lights look like that, thats the best i could get the picture to come out. the colors are really solid in every button except for the mixture of colors in the DISP button and the TUNE/SOund light. if your going all blue which i really would recomment or all white, you wont have any hotspot issues. Also the blue is overpowering the white because of the resistors i used. i was afraid to use anyhting lover than 1k ohm resistors for the white bulbs because deathmetal said his bulbs were blowing and this is one job i dont wanna deal with again lol so i opted to use the 1k and deal with the slight dimness. however it really works out nice since there is less glare at night
3. those thin resistors we talked about is defintly a better way to go, replacing those would make it so much easier work with. the resistors that i used could have easily fit on the back of the board where the current resistors are but again, i felt more comfortable working with the front because i knew it worked this way without any issues on that test board i was using.
4. ill PM you on the 2nd board i was using.

guys i really think using the surface mount LEDs or the PLCC-2 LEDs would be alot easier to use on this project and maybe a bit neater as well. doing the resistors on the back with the thin resistors like DWB said would work alot better as well. i just didnt have the time since i start working again next monday and ill never have time like this to spend on my car lol.

Deathmetal...ill defintily let you know the polarity of the nav screen tommorow when i work on it. hopefully its not that bad figuring out. i hate this trial and error crap when i have to keep running back and forth to the car since i do my work in the basement.

i hope this makes the 3G garage it would be my first contribution.

maddsiick

thanks bro i just got your PM imma respond ASAP lol

thanks it really looks great at night.

DeathMetal

iTrader: (2)

You're seriously a younger version of myself, lol. I think I am going to do the PLCC-2 / resistor retro. I did this with no garage, so I have faith in you:

[IMG][/IMG]

maddsiick

^^ i take that as a compliment bro after seeing everything that you've done so far with this car. by the way that car looks AMAZING!! i cant wait to see how your turn signals come out that you were talking about in your other thread. im tired of the switchbacks now and im open to new ideas

Steven Bell

iTrader: (2)

Wow, wow, wow...hell of a job!

dwb993

iTrader: (13)

Way ahead of you on that, my brother. I'm glad madd tackled this one first, though. Makes me feel better knowing resistor levels, etc beforehand.
I'll be getting his spare board and will begin brushing up my skills. I still don't plan on taking this on until it gets a bit warmer, though.

maddsiick

^^ill send this out to you by friday

DeathMetal

iTrader: (2)

Thanks, man! Cool thing is we'll be able to see each others work - I'm in NJ and I'm sure to run in to you at a meet. The new LED turn signal project will be done in the spring when I have some other painting done, I'll let you know when I start posting up.

I am going to be doing this by March at the latest, so looks like you'll be able to learn from any horrors I encounter along the way

maddsiick

sounds good man...im working on the nav screen bulbs right now, marking down the polarity for you as i do it. ill have pics of later tonight after i see how they look in the dark

maddsiick

here is the polarity for the nav screen guys. you might have to double check the 4 bottom bulbs (nav bulbs) for polarity again because i did these while sitting in the car and im going from memory but im positive the 2nd and 3rd ones (from left to right) are correct.



ill have pics of how it looks tonight when it gets darker out.

maddsiick

my LED conversion is almost complete. i did everything except for the AT shifter bulb, i have to order that. you MT guys are lucky you can skip this bulb lol.

Acura604

Mad Skillz! damn.. I'd give up my right passenger rear taillight to be able to do something like that!

jptl04

iTrader: (1)

That's madsick! Awesome job bro. Much props on your Skills. Good work!

maddsiick

So i finished my nav this morning and unfortunatly as you can see in the pics one of my bulbs blew already. ill get around to fixing it later but for now it looks alot better than those ugly OE bulbs. heres how it looks at night.






it looks really nice at night, attractive as well. hopefully i can get around to fixing that blown bulb soon.

MODS: can we change the title to Navigation and Radio LED Conversion Complete!!!

dwb993

iTrader: (13)

Looks good madd!
Again, a couple of questions:
It looks like you used blue in the AUTO buttons and white down the sides. I wound up doing the opposite, as blue light + red filter (temp up button) = no display. When I swapped to a white bulb in that location, both arrows lit up nicely.
I see the RECIRC LED is still yellow---did you change out any of those bulbs? I left mine, although I may change my mind in the future.
What bulbs did you use? Are these the neo-wedge #3 bulbs I pointed out in another thread, or are they custom made?
Again, a great job---you are real close to finishing this project up.

maddsiick

I used the same custom bulbs I've been using for the whole project. I also used a white bulb for the auto button but it's reflecting blue for some reason. I don't know why. I'm guessing it reflecting the blue filter on the blue arrow below it. But it's the same white bulb as the rest of the navi screen. I really think later on when bulbs start to die out I might switch to a complete blue theme. Don't know yet. I like how the white and blue looks now but the colors seem to be mixing and overlaping and the blue is overpowering the whites. My red arrow shows really nice with the white bulb. I remember what you said in the other thread about the red not showing with a blue bulb so I opted to do white on the sides. The pic quality might not be good enough to show the color. I will be changing out those orange and green indicator lights when I take the screen out again to fix that blown bulb. I just forgot about doing that until you mentioned it lol.

DeathMetal

iTrader: (2)

Good job, man.

I can speak from experience, I am certain the pics do not do it justice.

lupes5

looks good from the pics, im sure in person it looks 10 times better....

I was thinking about doing a mix between white and blue like you did....

how does the white look? my concern with the white was that it might not make that big of a difference from stock...u think its a big improvement?

dwb993

iTrader: (13)

Any of the colors make a huge difference over OEM. LED>OEM

DeathMetal

iTrader: (2)

TREMENDOUS improvement. madsiick's camera doesn't seem to be capturing this quite well. Check the 3G Garage for the HOW-TOs, there are 10 posted right now with more to come.

Madsiick, dwb, and I have all been working on making this info available so any DIYs not yet done soon will be.

DCP

Nice job man, love da look. Just wondering though, how bad was it just to remove the nav screen?

maddsiick

^^ its really easy actually. takes me about 20 minutes the most if its freezing outside to get it out...my best time was 8 minutes to get the radio and navi screen out. if you remove everything in the right order, you have no problems gettin the nav and radio out.

Persia-TL

That is awesome dude...I have been looking around for a threat like this! im in the process of reading up as much as i can before i do the LED kit in the interior of my car...

I would love it if you could help out with the questions i ll come across in near future...

Im just waiting for the weather to warm up so i can start working on my TL...

I wanna change all the interior LED lights for the screen to blue, get blue LED by the foot area, front and back..and get LED around the speakers on teh front..

the dom LED and the side of DOORS are gonna be all white..

Great job man..cheers..

Persia-TL

Could you guide on where to get the LED you used?
a site, model number, or anything like that will help..
Im planning on doing this soon as i get the LED and resistors in my hands..

bzyrice

iTrader: (10)

Awesome man.. good to know you can swap the face of radios.. I am selling one with a messed up face right now..

m7r7m

Mad have you on DM tried to add an led located behind the 360 degree knob on the Navi? Make it sort of look like our volume and sound knobs on the radio portion. Cause I feel like thats a major part lacking on the lighting of our navi otherwise its an amazing system. Acura just overlooked it.

kaushiknair

hey i have a 2006 acura tl..i was wondering where i can get the bulbs for the buttons on the radio and steering wheel. and is it easy to do? thanks!

Shamrock Racing

So what are the sizes t3 or t4 leds ? I know you need like 40 leds but I have yet to have anyone confirm how many of each or what size. Best place to buy them?

subydude

Holy Thread Revival!!! haha


I'm glad I found this thread, this'll definitely help. Unfortunately the photo links don't work for me any more. planning on tackling this over the weekend. Great write up!

Mannyswanks

hey whats up i seen this guide and also seen that u were located in my city and wanted to see if you can link me to actually help me with this. ive got to the part with soldering .

JohnGreen

For anyone who has any knowledge on this, what is the voltage on the illumination circuit for the radio control bulbs? I think I’m going to swap them out for blue Plcc-2 LEDs and since I’m going that far I might as well replace the 100 ohm factory resistors on the board with an appropriate value. Just wondering If anyone knows the “max brightness” voltage so I don’t have to go measure it, cause I’m lazy like that

TIA