I saw this thread on v6performance.net a long time ago:

http://v6performance.net/forums/show...=&threadid=548

I was wondering how similar our interior lighting system is. I'm guessing there's a lot of differences, but I dont know how many and/or how extreme. I'd like to change all that green to blue in order to match a deck I want


Thanks in advance.

 

that looks hot. Man that looks like an all day job though.

 

Wow... that interior looks great. Lot of time put into that one.

 

took me 20 min

 

 

That is nice, is that easy to do? did u have to change resistors and such? Thanks

 

real easy to do, no wiring needed at all, all you gotta do is swap out the bulbs with LED 168/194s, there are 4 of them behind there

 

how much are those bulbs

and how do u swap out?

 

has anyone done the entire dash... and not just the gauge cluster?

 

I've seen that done to a few supras. Bad ass...Wish I had the balls/time to take my dash apart.

 

wow...that looks badass right there, that would match my blue indiglos and radio perfectly

 

I love teh look, but i dont have the time to do the rest of the dash, i do get a lot of comments from people when they see my gauges. I might have to rig in an extra blue LED to light up that weak spot at 80mph a little bit. Plus I cant really see the needles that well, then again you can tell what revs and speed you're goin.

 

if you want to do your dash lights you have to solder resistors on. I plan on doing it and Nate is going to help me out the guy with the site above, I plan on making a tutorial for the CL. I'll post it when I get time. If anyone else is interested let me know.

 

hey blackura, I've seen some kits on ebay that make the needles light up for accords. I dunno if it will work on our cars, just fyi. I think you just do a search for needle and accord and that usually brings something up.

 

thats good Blacura. As for the light needles, they dont work We need back lite needles for that

 

Hmm i think it would look bad ass with white gauges and just the trip meter in blue light. Where can I get some of those LED 168 / 194. Thanks!

 

A tutorial is exactly what Im looking for so I know how many LEDs to buy.... lol.

 

If you plan on doing what that guy did with his accord, you cant just buy any regular 168/194 size leds. They are a special size and have to be soldered on or something, they just dont plug in. I was looking up some threads a while ago about a guy who would custom color anyones dash for a 5th gen prelude. He was an expert and had all the right tools and bulbs and stuff. It looks hard as hell to do yourself if you dont have any idea what to do. But it would look soo pimp

 

Klepto your damn right you have to test the voltage of each light and then do the math for each resistor. Its going to take some time to figure it all out, but hopefully when I'm done you guys won't have to! But if you guys haven't played with electronics I'd suggest not starting with your CAR!!! This is a little complicated...

 

You also have to take into consideration that our clock and climate control display are not black numbers on a green background but are just plain green. I believe there is a film you have to scrap off the clock and recoat for the blue effect

 

It looks like our clocks are VFD type displays. You can get filters from here http://www.matrixorbital.com/accessories.htm (at the bottom of the page) It kinda like a solid plastic piece. My friend has this type of display for his computer and he has a couple of filters to change the color from our green to watever you are looking for. I hope somebody comes up with a tutorial and list of parts. I hope it happens soon.

http://www.exabytesystems.com/ is where I get my LEdS, very cheap and high quality. Right now the guy is on Vacation. LOL but he suppose to be really realiable, I ordered from him a couple times a long with others on some other boards for other projects. So have to wait till the 25 for him to come back. but to give you an idea on price it, for blue leds that are bright as hell, cost about maybe 5 bucks for 5. And he has super white, the ones like in the flash light, for something like 2 bucks each. (it been a couple of months since i order so i forgot the price.

 

I want to do something similar just in red, is it koo if i get a copy of that tutorial whenever you are done with it? Good Luck with it as well. And damn that is real nice looking!

 

Just when you thought a thread was dead...

Well to combat lots of boredom yesterday I did a small retrofit of my fog light switch. I hated how bright and glarish the green light was so I changed it out with a 3mm blue led. I have no idea the brightness level of this led (i scavenged it out of an old flahing cell antenna).

It was a pain, I'll tell ya right now. You have such a limited mounting area and getting aresistor in there, yikes. But I got it. The stock green is acheived with a little cover over the bulb. And the fog light symbol is illuminated with a clear bulb and a green filter just before the switch face.

In the next few days I am getting some more 3mm blue and white leds. I am going to redo the clear bulb in the fog switch and redo both in the cruise control switch. I'll get pics of my fog light switch tonight, and when I redo the cruise control switch I'll take pics as I go and post a how to.

If this turns out well and I have the time I might redo my climate control lights with white leds. Who knows.

 

the lights in the climate control are just plain clear bulbs. There is a coating of mint paint on the backside of the buttons. you might try scratching it off or just picking a different color. Hope this saves you some headaches. I have already had my climate control apart a few times.

 

ok..its been awhile but i did get some of my switches modified with leds, i'm still working out the bugs on them. though like lacura said, there is a funky paint on the back of the climate control buttons, its also on the dimmer switch indicator. I ried to scratch it off but i got a lil to zealous and scraped the black paint off too..so thats not going to work for at least that switch. I didn't try the climate control yet.

so here area few pics, my friends digi cam sucks ass so they are lil blurry and shit, i'll try and get better ones.

cruise control and kinda sunroof switch: i am getting a larger value resistor to tone down that blue, it lights up the whole car!
http://www.webpages.uidaho.edu/~stur...s/P1010010.JPG

curise control, up close and personal
http://www.webpages.uidaho.edu/~stur...s/P1010014.JPG

 

ok..its been awhile but i did get some of my switches modified with leds, i'm still working out the bugs on them. though like lacura said, there is a funky paint on the back of the climate control buttons, its also on the dimmer switch indicator. I ried to scratch it off but i got a lil to zealous and scraped the black paint off too..so thats not going to work for at least that switch. I didn't try the climate control yet.

so here area few pics, my friends digi cam sucks ass so they are lil blurry and shit, i'll try and get better ones. oh they are also big...my friends cam was all sorts of f'ed up last night.

cruise control and kinda sunroof switch: i am getting a larger value resistor to tone down that blue, it lights up the whole car!
http://www.webpages.uidaho.edu/~stur...s/P1010010.JPG

curise control, up close and personal
http://www.webpages.uidaho.edu/~stur...s/P1010014.JPG

foglight switch
http://www.webpages.uidaho.edu/~stur...s/P1010007.JPG

again sorry about the quality i will get better ones tonight.

 

Nice, i hope u post details sooon!!!

 

well no new pics tonight, and i need to get a larger resistor for the cruise control indicator, the damn thing lights up half my car! I'm getting my hands on a Helms shop and electircal manual friday so I can lay out my plan of attack for teh rest of it. And I have this idea/itching to mount a white led in the cupholder so that gets illuminated at night....and like i said this isn't much but damnit i'm a poor college kid and its all i can afford.

 

I know how you feel i was like that a year ago. hahahaha, right now don't have much time to do these projects anymore. I got tons backed up. I got my led cheap from this place http://www.exabytesystems.com/. If it helps. The only thing that scares me is the resistors. Don't want things to go pop. Oh i spoke to some vfd manufacteurs (the same type of display to on the climiate control and clock) they told me a cheap lighting gel can change the color of those displays. It can be blue, a dark gary, etc. I going to go look for these soon. I think that will make the project very OEM and super nice.

 

fusionnv:

thanks for the info for the clock and what not. i can get my hands on those super easy. My college town does not sell surface mount resistors anywhere (and we have one of the best engineering schools in the nation!) so I am using the standar cylydrical ones....its lame. I'll try and track down some gels and see what it does!

 

I might be able to get them for u since I am in New York City. LOL what kind you looking for?

 

Thanks for the offer for the help. I have a friend that is a lighting tech at the theater here on my campus. Mad hook up for that stuff.

 

I got adventureous last night and try to do my foglight switch. How the hell do u open it up, and which resistor u used. Thanks

 

well what resistor you use is based on what the spec on your led are...go get this program..
http://mywebpages.comcast.net/x24/prog_LEDcalc.htm

it will give you the resistor you need to keep from frying the led but you may need to step higher to keep it not so bright.

i'm working on a semi write up in the adventure, it will get posted to the internet after my final today so just hang on, oh don't forece the cover off! you'll snap the tabs that hold it, i did that to my fog switch!

 

here it is. my guide so to speak. you can find it at
http://www.webpages.uidaho.edu/~stur1871/acura_cl/

if you have any question pm me. hope htis helps. oh and there are a lot of pics onteh bottom so it may load slowly.

 

i would totally pay someone to redo my led's.

 

ok guys i am really sorry for my typing lately, honestly I know how to type and spell. I haven't hacked into the climate control yet to see what a job it will be to get that paint off of the buttons or if it will even be possible. And as for the gague cluster, you guessed it putting in some 194 LEDs. Got those ordered and am waiting for them, I'll get some more pics when I get those put togheter.

 

SWeet! I was wondering how to get the damn face of the switch off. THanks, I going to try to do one switch this week and so on. BTW i assume the power source is 12v. And you are using 1.2k resistors with the more common 3.5-3.7 volt leds? I know sometimes they are too crazy bright, did that to my keyboard, had to put in resistors to tone it down.

 

my leds were 3.5v and like 3000mcd so insanely bright. so i used a 1.2k on the sunroof switch, 1.2k for the cruise on/off indicator then a 330ohm for the cruise, fog, ash tray, and cig lighter ring (lights on illumination)

 

any ideas for the needles?