After ordering 100 LEDS in different colors I finally decided on a layout for the gauges, radio, window buttons, and every other normal light inside my 01 CL-S...

MANY thanks to 'rbf351' who has already done the conversion and for putting up with my 10 questions per day...

The driver door is done - and I'll post some photos soon... I was going to do a tutorial with pics, but not sure many people will attemp this mod - it's tricky to be sure. After conversion - the lights look exactly like a Lexus cluster - bright, clear, crisp light - visible in the broad daylight.

If there's interest I'll do a tut.

On another note - how in the HELL do manufacturers disperse light in an instrument package with LEDs involved?? I am using a frosted acetate sheet to help disperse the direct light an LED puts out...

Anyone know of a better material to spread the light more evenly??

 

I have no idea what your actually doing, but it sounds interesting...post those pics

 

i wish i knew how honda does it

my brother has a 04 rsx with the leds already in his cluster, but he won't klet me open it

the rest of the lighting in the car is the stock crap green color

if you want i'll post pics of mine

 

here is the cluster, and yes i know the 80 looks funny, it's the camera angle

 

Wow, nice!! How hard was it to do the instrument cluster??

 

damn that looks good.

It looks pretty bright... almost too bright from the pics... Can you still use the dimmer?

 

Much much brighter. Very nice.

 

I like it. Is it all white LEDs behind different color panels, or is each color a different colored led? Could the speedometer speed numbers be blue without affecting the other colors?
Just trying to understand the set up.

I have read in older posts people complaining that the stock gauges were too bright, mine are pretty dim, even at max brightness.

 

Is that a hotspot at 80mph or is it just the camera flash?

BTW, I read somewhere that sanding down a rounded head LED helps disperse the light better.

I have that on my list of things to do.

 

I would like to try something like this with some blue lighting, to look like the TL or something. The CL isn't bright enough in the day for me, especially cruise control.

NSX - he did mention the 80 looks funny from the flash, but so does the 100, maybe it is a hotspot or just the flash?

 

This should have been STANDARD on the 03. Ours looks fine. Till you see a new TSX or TL. They look 1000x better and more clear than ours..

 

damn i wanna do that how hard is it to perfrom, it looks amazing

 

Looks great...Now where is the DIY instruction

 

It's not a flash spot... what Acura does is put a green film on the back of the numbers... gives it that pale green/white color. Take a Q-Tip and remove that green stuff with acetone... makes it so you actually SEE right through the number... number becomes completely clear.

What you see in the 80mph and 100mph is the actual head of the LED where it is close to the gauge. Distance is tight, so some of the spots are brighter than others. Angle plays a huge part here too...

Precisely the reason I'm trying to find a cool way to disperse the light...

YES - You CAN make different numbers different colors. Mine will have Cobalt Blue LEDS on the 60-80 indicator.

My memory seat switches are white LEDS, and the window switches are BLUE. Same fpr passenger side door.

Also bought some Amber/Red/Purple LEDS too - Amber will go in the PLUS and MINUS for shifting, red for park, etc...

You can do the layout anyway you want. Seems like there is interest - I will take pics along the way and keep posting them... I only do one section at a time... although the cluster will all be done at once.

I'm going to sand down one of my LED heads tonight and see if that helps... THANKS for that tip!

 

Looks nice. Wish I had the paitence to do that myself.

 

To disperse the light take a dremel and sand the top of the led.

 

I like the idea of the different colors for different numbers.

I don't think I want to remove my dash to do this though.

 

I wasn't so sure either - the dash is C A K E compared to the damn switches and tiny areas of the cruise switch, memory seat switch, etc...

LOADS of space in the dash... the hard parts are tiny.



Oh but man the effect is SO worth it... CL-S has GREAT gauges for this...

 

actually they aren't hot sopts since i filed all the head of my leds off to make them flat, it's just the angle i took the pic, in person it lokks perfectly, also any color is easy to do but you have to either shine red or white light through the needles or they won't light up

 

the cluster, navi and rear view mirror are they hardest parts to do

 

Thank god I have no Navi to do, and I'm ok with my rear view having one green LED in it, left the Green LED in my driver memory buttons #1 and #2 as well... looks fine with the bright white...

Just got my Dremel tool and am working this second on cutting down an LED tip - posting pics in a few...

 

how much did the whole project cost? and what kind of LEDs did you use? I've been meaning to do this for the longest time but i couldn't find any information to start with.

 

much props. I know this takes alot of time and hard work

 

cost about 40 bucks give or take a few

it also took me about 4 hours to complete it

 

 

thts looks really nice...thinking of doing it myself now...

 

How did you replace the stock instrument cluster bulbs with leds?

 

Yes - the dimmer works!

There is a steep learning curve to this - and I'm only half way up. I had my seat mem. switch wired yesterday with 3 LEDs, all white.

I wired them + - + - + - easy to figure, right? Plug it in - works perfectly, all three lights come on and are blazing white. I used no resistor in this process - I figured since the 3 LEDS were wired together they would split the power between them, no problem...

Tonight, after getting a PM from the member that has done this already, he tells me I gotta use a resistor or the LEDs will go out after a time...

So I take the switch back apart, wire in a resistor in the middle of the circuit, put it back together. Plug it in. No good. One of the LEDs came on a faint aqua blur color indicating too much power moving through it, one comes on perfectly, and one not at all. Took it back apart, wiring is correct so I'm a little confused. Will have to look more tomorrow and see what gives...

Does ANYONE know about resistance in a parallel circuit? I want to build this reliably - don't want to be cracking open my dash every week to replace LEDS.

In a side note - THANK YOU to everyone suggesting that I try sanding down the LED tip to disperse the light. Two quick flicks with the dremel tool and the LED BLAZES light in all directions - makes it much easier to work with.

Someone also asked about cost and time and LED specs:
I'm on the 3rd hour with this one switch. BUT - I am learning as I go and this switch is my test. Once I master how many LEDs per/resistor with the CL-S stock power wires, and how exactly they need to be wired it will go much faster.

I paid $62 inc shipping for:
60 3mm White LED
20 3mm Blue LED
20 3mm Amber LED
20 3mm Red LED
10 3mm UV Purple LED
100 Resistors/Shrink Wrap
Generally, these LEDs have a max voltage of 3.2V and 30mA, they run brightly and reliably at 3V and 22mA-27mA... longer life so I'm told?

I am taking LOADS of photos for this - will put them up as soon as I have the right system figured out... don't want to post wrong setups...

 

damn this shit sounds hard

 

Cool, glad it worked out for you. I've done LED projects on other things and that was the only way to get the light to disperse the light. The rounded head doesn't help. They do make flat headed LEDs now. I gotta remember where I saw them,

 

I would order all new LEDs if I could find a good location to get factory made flat head LEDs... in the cluster they will be absolutely critical. Everywhere else I can sand them down - but after you sand it down, the case isn't as clear - would be awesome to have some that are square headed with a polished clear square lens...

 

You're not shitting. But it's just these first few that are difficult. I'm keeping a step by step log of what I did, what I used etc...

After this it'll be cake if you can hot glue and solder some wires together...

 

jriga, great mod, looks very nice. Thanks for sharing your hard work. I'm not as brave to take about anything on my car, worry that I'll increase creaks and noises if I don't get it back together just right. But this is so cool, I'd love to at least do the instrument cluster. good work.

 

i started taking pics as i was doing it, but it was slowing me down

once u figure out how to wrap a led and resistor into the stock bulb holder u will start moving pretty fast


the gauge cluster you are gonna bitch about, u need to figure where each led needs to be placed then u have to use 6 leds to light up all the needles
2 for the tach
2 for the spedo
and 2 for the fuel/temp

they have to be angled perfectly or the needles will not light up at all

 

here is some more of mine

 

wow...i've always liked the brighter instrument lighting on the lexus GS300-400. And I've noticed the new Honda Accord Coupes have very bright guages as well. This is a very enticing mod.

 

Thank rbf351 - he's the pioneer! I'm trying to copy what he has already done successfully. Hence the reason I am overloading his PM box with questions. sorry about that man!

Honestly, the HARDEST part so far is figuring out how many LEDs can go on one circuit.. meaning if I have ONE factory bulb socket, how many LEDs can I wire to that with one resistor so they are all bright and clear and safe...

I've been asking around to find someone that is proficient in this stuff... if anyone knows someone that has some experience with this and doesn't mind asking - please do!:P

 

from what i noticed u can only use 1 led and 1 resistor depending on the resistance

also u really can't fit more than 1 led in the stock sockets without having clearance issues

 

some more pics, i'm bored at work

yes i am nuts


it''s hard to see, but each led has 1 resistor



these are the leds i used for the mirror

 

where do you pick up the LED's from? Radio shack ?