LED Gauge Mods - Update

ELaudio · 08-10-2004

This project has dragged on for many months now. Mostly because I've been busy with work, stuff outside of work and doing other mods to my car. But, as a teaser for now, I'm posting up some pics of my latest work.

I've connected everything below up to my cluster and it's DAMN bright. about 2X as bright as my original setup. I am now using a total of 103 LEDs to light up my cluster; 16 for the needles and the balance for each gauge.

I'm using three colours: Blue (Main colour), White (for the MPH on the speedo) and Red (for the #7 and #8 and the red band on my tach, and the "E" and "H" on my fuel and water temp gauges, respectively.

What I don't have pics of are how I've lit my needles. I'm using 4 3mm LEDs per needle. I basically drilled out holes around the clear plastic housing right underneath the where the needle sits, and used cyanoacrylate glue to hold the LEDs on. Had to shave them with a dremel tool to prevent interference with the stem of the needle, though.

SO... All I have left to do in "encase" the RED and WHITE areas, so light doesn't leak out everywhere. Right now I have everything plugged in and my tach looks crazy - fades from blue to Red (but it's ugly, IMO)....

Let me know what you think.

Front of the Speedometer Gauge Insert

Rear of the Speedometer Gauge Insert

Speedometer Gauge Insert, Lit-up.

Front of the Tachometer Gauge Insert

Rear of the Tachometer Gauge Insert

Tachometer Gauge Insert, Lit-up.

Front of the Fuel Gauge Insert (note: the fuel gauge and water temp gauge inserts are identical)

Rear of the Fuel Gauge Insert

Fuel Gauge Insert, Lit up.

I'm going to shave down each LED using my trusty dremel tool. I'll post some more pics of the final assembly (hoping to do that tomorrow night) and the finished product... At any rate, this should be complete by the week-end.

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gearbox · 08-10-2004

Keep this updated. Mad props to you for going into so much detail. I just put a fourth EL wire kit behind my gauges and I'm finally happy with the brightness. You're gonna enjoy it once everything is all done.

Oh I'll make this a sticky thread for ya.

ELaudio · 08-10-2004

Wow - I guess you stickied it!

I've thought about this, I've probably spent over 120 hours in total working with LEDs in my interior. Too much time - I just want to get this DONE.

ELaudio · 08-10-2004

UPDATE: Had a minor set-back tonight. I decided to sand down all the LEDs to improve light diffusion. Used a dremel tool, have done this in the past when I did my A/C and ventilation controls. Problem is that I got over-zealous with the Dremel and broke into the diode junction. Damn. So, I have to swap out about 4 or 5 LEDs. Kind of a bitch because a lot of them are held in with cyanoacrylate. So, I drilled them out and will have to work through the mess of wires to get it back... so, odds are this may take me several more days/evenings of building.

Project is looking good, though. I had all 103 LEDs hooked up for the last 2 days in my cluster and everything worked OK - no smoke, heat or fire! So pretty much all I have left to do is fix those over-sanded LEDs, sand them again and do the tedious task of final assembly. I have a few interesting tricks up my sleeve on how I'll do that. A bit hard to explain here - I'll post some pics to explain my assy. process.....

irishtemper · 08-10-2004

looks good, sanding the LEDs spreads them out a little better, the light that is.

ELaudio · 08-11-2004

I sanded all the LEDs. Definitely spreads the light out better but you do lose some intensity as a result. I guess you really can't cheat the laws of physics. This is quickly turning into my blog on the gauge build!!!

Tonight I fixed the LEDs I over-sanded last night. Had to drill some out, re-installed, used some cyanoacrylate here and there and all the inserts are working 100% again.

At one point I kinda got freaked - the wiring/soldering does get a bit tricky:

Unfortunately, the gauges are on hold until at least Saturday. I'm playing hockey tomorrow night and have a date on Friday. So, for now, I hooked up my needles so I can see my gauges at night....

Details to follow...

gh0st · 08-12-2004

wow. let us know how it all goes...er...the LEDs...not the date

TeLLy · 08-12-2004

Martin, you are god. Next to gearbox, who I proclaimed god first for helping me with where to mount my ballasts. But hot damn is this gonna look sweet.

I saw the original setup, and that already was beyond pimped - can't wait to see the new and improved product.

ImPulse · 08-12-2004

Nice man! Cant wait too see the finished product! You seem to know a lot about LEDs? Or at least understand them a little bit? Do you have a screen name?

ELaudio · 08-12-2004

I'm ELaudio... I learned how to solder at a young age (lol). Actually, I took a lot of electronics courses in high school. Went on to get a degree in Mechanical Engineering which furthered my knowledge of electronics.

I'd have to say that my approach is not for the faint of heart. But, the actual circuits involved are incredibly simple; (negative--->LED--->LED--->LED---->Resistor---->positive). All I do is keep repeating that, with different #'s of LEDs and resistor values, put them all in parallel and that's it. The HARD part is building the damn thing and soldering it all, making sure nothing is shorted out and fitting it all into the cluster itself...

gearbox · 08-13-2004

My brain shut off when you said "led" and "parallel" in the same sentence. I only deal with series

I'm waiting for the final pics. I can't believe you did all that work. It's gonna look so nice when you're done.

ELaudio · 08-21-2004

Well... I'M DONE! At least for now... Have a few issues right now: mis-wired the capacitor for headlight reminder buzzer so it's not working too hot. I'd also like to diffuse the light behind the odometer a bit better. Ahh well, still looks really sweet.

At night, it's freaking blinding. I drove around last night around 1:00am to test them out, had to crank down the brightness.

gearbox · 08-21-2004

OMG are you kidding me that's so amazing!!

gh0st · 08-21-2004

where's my "that's so freakin cool" smiley..

ELaudio · 08-21-2004

Unfortunately, the pics just don't do it justice. I'm going to try to take better pics, but try as I might, I couldn't get a reasonably decent shot (except for the one I posted). My digital camera has a pretty awesome macro (close-up) mode, but whenever I take pics in that mode all I see are the scratches on the clear plastic piece that protects the gauges. What's weird is that I don't see these scratches unless I REALLY look for them...

I think for now I'm going to put this project on the shelf. There are a few minor things I want to fix, but those can wait. Funny, I think I left a sliver of electrical tape over the symbol for "Fasten your seatbelt", because the dude is missing his torso (just a head and legs). heehee...

Final thoughts on the project: I went overboard and it took me a sh!t load of time. I think I started this project back in early april, been doing it off an on for the last four months. It's not that difficult to do if your skillful with a soldering iron and know a bit about electronics. It's just very, very time consuming. I think gearhead's way of using EL cable is a far easier method. The key problem is that an LED is essentially a point-source of light, and you're trying to diffuse it as best you can. The way I approached this problem was too use a LOT of LEDs, like over 100, to get even light coverage. What's funny is that the total current draw is probably LESS than it was when I was using the 7 incandescent bulbs to light up my gauges. That's the beauty of the LED - almost unlimited lifespan, very efficient power-wise, doesn't generate much heat. I can see why so many newer cars are going to LEDs for their gauge clusters...

Take care all - if you plan on doing any gauge mods feel free to PM me. I know pretty much everything there is to know about my cluster. Mind you clusters will vary. The one I have is unique to the Acura 1.7EL, but my "generation" (large tach and speedo) all have the same circuit board. When I was working on the project, I noticed that the clear light-guide and circuit board had spots for the PRND321 for auto trannys...