I want to replace all the guage lights (bulbs behind the odometer, fuel guage, temp guage, window controls...) with all SUPER BRIGHT LEDS!!! I tried to take off the dash where the guages are, but i can't seem to remove the whole time...i wires are still connected but i don't know how to take them off....can anyone help. Behind the guages are, i believe, nine 14 volt bulbs, and fifteen 12 volt bulbs. Most LEDS are 3.6-4.0 volts and 20-30 ma. Using V=IR, a resister of 500-600 ohms should be used. can anyone tell me if this is a possible thing to do?

 

I dont know man? I am interested to know if it turns out though.
Dave

 

Tim has instructions on how to replace the guages so i bet you could use those to help you out.

 

most LED's use 2 volts. so a 1KOhm is about right. A 700 will work too. It doesnt need to be exact

 

Can you do my car when you done Please I live in OC too Pretty Please. I'll buy you lunch

Mr.T

 

up...!

i'm very interested in this

check this out! i'm not sure which car this is.. but it looks like the idea has been taken already =)

 

Yeah, if anyone knows for sure how to do this, please post instructions for the rest of us. I have a TLS, but I doubt it's much different that a TL, any gen.
How much would people be willing to spend to do this? $100?

 

The only thing that would require a little creativity is how to interface the lED with the light bulb holder....


The other thing that is complicated is that you dash lights have a dimmer, which reduces the voltage from 12 volts to a lower amount. Led will not work well if you try to under powerthem, and they do not get brighter and dimmer like light bulbs...

 

The LED will work with the dimmers, only to a certain extent. LED usually run on 3.6-4 volt sources, it will only operate in that range, near the low range it won't be as bright as the high range. The best thing to do is to keep the dimmer switch on max. and adjust the the 12 volt source to a 3.6 volt with a resistor. The hard part is the housing like snipermjh said. The service guy at Acura gave me a print out of the gauges. The gagues are made up of 9 little bulbs, and 15 smaller bulbs with indicate the various funtions (like, brake, oil, VSA, seatbelt....etc). WE only have 9 LED to light up the 4 meters, temp, rpm, odometer, and gas. It's very hard to do that if you've seen the back of the instrument panel. somehow we have to stick a LED every 1-3 cm away from each other to get a even distrubition of light, since LEDS only have a range of 10-50 degrees. If we all work together, we can make it happen!

 

Actually current is what determines LED brightness. The voltage drop across an LED is pretty much constant throughout the operating current range.

Normally LEDs want to be powered in the 10-20mA range at maximum brightness. You need to check the data sheet for your particular LED. If the LED drop is 2V, say, and you have a 12V power source, and want to draw 20mA of current, you need to place a (12-2)/0.020 = 500 Ohm resistor in series with the LED.

When you dim the lights, the source voltage will drop, and your current will drop linearly. For example, when you dim your source voltage down to 8V, the current drawn is (8-2)/500 = 12mA. Note that the voltage drop across the LED is still the same, 2V.

As long as the dimmer doesn't go below the voltage drop across the LED (plus voltage drop across the resistor) they'll still illuminate,

 

wow Daverman! you really know your stuff!

anyway, we found the link to the place that sells them. looks like honda/acura's won't be able to benefit from them..

hopefully, somebody who owns a compatible vehicle can purchase these and disect them.. and see how they are built. they sell just the needles, not the entire guage. here is the link:

http://www.bee.net/a2low240/gauges/intelliglow.html

 

I email that place and they say "Are the needles currently lit at night? If so yes the kit will work with your car.

-Matt
www.ImportIntelligence.com". I wondering is our needle lit at night? If so we have a chance to get this stuff.

 

The needle on my TLS is lit.

 

I have known about that site for a while now and emailed him a few weeks ago about this.

MINE:Why don't you make them for Honda and Acura? I have a 99 TL.

HIM:Because if we were to make replacement needles for every car it would cost a fortune so we play the idea off the stock needle. The needles in the Honda/Acura cars are made totally differently than the ones in Nissans, Mitsubishi's and Toyota's.

-Matt
www.ImportIntelligence.com


Might answer some question about the needles, not the LEDs though.
Dave

 

Why don't you join us.....
Indiglo Gauge

 

B/c the indiglo gauges are ugly as sin. The red and blue lines look terrible...

 

did you guys see the car in the picture has 228371 miles on it?

Am I wrong?

 

wow thats alot of miles.....my tl-s has only 2700, got it since mid-April.