pics of the instrument custer mod with white LEDs
04-14-2002, 08:19 PM
#1
Banned
Thread Starter
pics of the instrument custer mod with white LEDs
04-14-2002, 09:22 PM
#2
Moderator Alumnus
What kind of pain was it to remove the guages down to that level? I know it is a very tedious job, but can someone with enough technical abilites to solder and know a small amount about electronics do this themselves? Thanks!!!
Very impressive! Good job! 
04-15-2002, 09:08 AM
#5
Banned
Thread Starter
Arn 2000 TL and Nate,
Soldering these tiny LEDs and resistors was very painful and tedious job. I have the best soldering iron (this soldering iron cost you about $1,000) which I have in the lab at work. These soldering iron have very fine tip and heat senstive. Too much heat from the soldering you can ruin the LED. The hardest part is to make all the gauges illuminate evenly and get those needles to glow red. Getting rid these dark and bright spot buy adding, deleting, and bending LEDs. I hate removing the gauge faceplate because you can get your finger print and dust on it. The hardest part is to get the needles to glow red. Well i find out it does not matter how bright your white led is the needle will not get a bright red. I found a way to get around these obstacle. I found a very narrow angle red LED from Agilent ( 6 degrees, 8000 mcd). These LEDs are specially made for optical mouse application. Unfornately you can't buy them in small quantities they are sold in a pack of 500 pcs. But I was able to get 12 pcs of free sample from Agilent. If you are interest here is the part #: HLMP-EG08-Y2000. This LED gives out light like a laser!! Mounting these red LEDs so that they will only illuminated the needles and not the gauge facepates is proven to be very dificult. In the pic you notice each gauge has two red LEDs. Aligning them is tough. Too make a long story short I was able to get the meedles bright red. Three times reder than the original!
Note: You probably notice some dark spots in these pics that is because the camera is too sensitive to light. In-person you will not notice them all ! I am very very happied with the final result!
It was sure lots of works. All my friends standing outside my car alway notice my dash at night.
Soldering these tiny LEDs and resistors was very painful and tedious job. I have the best soldering iron (this soldering iron cost you about $1,000) which I have in the lab at work. These soldering iron have very fine tip and heat senstive. Too much heat from the soldering you can ruin the LED. The hardest part is to make all the gauges illuminate evenly and get those needles to glow red. Getting rid these dark and bright spot buy adding, deleting, and bending LEDs. I hate removing the gauge faceplate because you can get your finger print and dust on it. The hardest part is to get the needles to glow red. Well i find out it does not matter how bright your white led is the needle will not get a bright red. I found a way to get around these obstacle. I found a very narrow angle red LED from Agilent ( 6 degrees, 8000 mcd). These LEDs are specially made for optical mouse application. Unfornately you can't buy them in small quantities they are sold in a pack of 500 pcs. But I was able to get 12 pcs of free sample from Agilent. If you are interest here is the part #: HLMP-EG08-Y2000. This LED gives out light like a laser!! Mounting these red LEDs so that they will only illuminated the needles and not the gauge facepates is proven to be very dificult. In the pic you notice each gauge has two red LEDs. Aligning them is tough. Too make a long story short I was able to get the meedles bright red. Three times reder than the original!
Note: You probably notice some dark spots in these pics that is because the camera is too sensitive to light. In-person you will not notice them all ! I am very very happied with the final result!
It was sure lots of works. All my friends standing outside my car alway notice my dash at night.
04-15-2002, 02:21 PM
#7
Safety Car
Join Date: Sep 2000
Location: Milky Way, Earth
Posts: 3,806
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
I'm sure you don't need a $1000 soldering iron to do this stuff. I have soldered SMT LEDs with a $5 soldering iron from RadioShack. 603 SMT LEDs are about 1/4 the size of a grain of rice. You breath on them and they just disappear!
Trending Topics
04-15-2002, 04:10 PM
#8
Banned
Thread Starter
Nate,
of cause you don't need expensive soldering iron to do the job but if you have one it would made your job a lot easier.
Nate, how do you did you remove the stock CD/radio? Do you need to remove the dash panel also? I still have my dash panel removed and I don't want to put it back yet if in case it has to be removed if you want to remove the CD/radio. Is it easier than removing the dash panel? Thanks!
of cause you don't need expensive soldering iron to do the job but if you have one it would made your job a lot easier.
Nate, how do you did you remove the stock CD/radio? Do you need to remove the dash panel also? I still have my dash panel removed and I don't want to put it back yet if in case it has to be removed if you want to remove the CD/radio. Is it easier than removing the dash panel? Thanks!
04-16-2002, 08:24 AM
#11
Advanced
Join Date: Dec 2000
Posts: 68
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
i took out the dash to my 97 chevy blazer, tryin to change the gauges and the lighting, it got late so i left the gauges out for a day, figured it wouldn't hurt. I drove to work fine. On my way home from work the car died, never made it home. So i had a friend bring me the gauges and put the dash back in, figured the computer was tellin the car it didn't have the gauges in and to shut down. Once i put the gauges back in the car runs fine, but the guages aren't calibrated right at all, speedometer, tachometer, temp, gas guage, nothing, how do i fix this?
Thread
Thread Starter
Forum
Replies
Last Post
rockyboy
2G RDX (2013-2018)
170
12-06-2022 02:29 PM
TLDude876
Car Talk
134
12-28-2016 03:18 PM
oyayjoe
Member Cars for Sale
1
09-12-2015 04:40 PM
