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Light With Broken LED

The Broken LED

Normal LED

 
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Looks good. I love that blue glow. You got a killer deal on those. For diffusing light, you could also sand the tips. Good luck man. It will be worth it driving at night!

 
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gear, how did u get the LEDs to stay to the circuit board, i've been trying super glue but its not too promising.

 
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Well for the needle LEDs, I just drilled holes and kind of pushed the LEDs in. No glue or anything. I had to use super glue for the EL wire. Just hold it for a few minutes until the glue starts to dry. If you are wondering about the backlight LEDs, you can glue them to the plastic light shield from the back side. That would be pimp since you have so many. Put one LED underneath each number!

 
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LOL, i got 50 LEDs because I also want to do center console, mirror, gears, and auto window button I'm just going to go 2 per hole and 1 per needle. These puppies are STRONG it already looks promising. I found a solution for my LED problem. I will post a DYI to the DYI hehe. I've been taking pictures from step 1.

 
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You have to use two LEDs for each of the big needles so they light up properly when in motion. Otherwise it will go dim when it's halfway up the gauge. I would try and use 3 LEDs per hole for the cluster just in case 2 isn't bright enough. You don't want to take everything back out like I have a million times.

For the console, you only need 7 LEDs (one each for the buttons, and two each for the circle **** holes), and 3 more for the shifter. 5 more if you want to try the moonroof and mirror area. You'll still have alot of extras.

Good luck. I give you props for tearing everything apart and doing this.

 
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hehe I have a 12V power supply beside me, so i'm testing everything as i go along

Thanks for the insperation. I wouldn't have done it without you Hehe.. you seriously gave me the ***** to do this.. and driving without a speedo is not too bad, but not knowing how much fuel i got left is the problem hehe

 
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You think you might finish tonight? That's cool you're taking pics to show everyone. Maybe you can send me the extra LEDs j/k

 
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Ya, if my GF doesn't bother me too much

if you want me to get you LEDs at $1 a piece CAN then I can do that N.P

 
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what else can I say but bling bling
I found the trick to the LEDs first I had them pointed up at the numbers... Wrong move.. brighter where the LED is and uneven lighting.. so i pointed the LEDs to the slide so that they reflect off the plastic.. PERFECTION !!!

 
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Oh and the temp guage has some e-tape so I know where to put it back.. thats why its not lighting up

 
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Oh man that looks amazing!! Can't wait to see the final product. I can't believe how bright it came out!

 
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I took that with the lights on too...

 
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Yes it is a little brighter around the 120/140 km/h but its not that noticable in real life. Ive tried to aim the LEDs in ever way possible there is no way to help that...

Otherwise an amazing outcome.. Needles are next and then just reinstalling everything back in the car !!!

 
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Dude, that looks so good. Thanks for the LED offer, but I'm just gonna keep the EL wire in there. It still looks okay, just dimmer, and I'm tired of taking that thing apart so many times. Something's gonna break.

So is it getting late in Canada? Don't know the time difference, but around here it's almost 8pm. Post pics with the needles on!

I bet your gf would like it. Girls tend to like glowing blue for some reason.

 
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its 9pm now.. i've been working on this for almost 2 days now... well a day really... she is pissed at me because i'm spending soo much time on it.

 
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So what are the specs on the LEDs you used? Mine were 2600mcd brightness, 5mm size. I only ask because yours look alot brighter. How many did you use per hole?

When you finish, take your gf for a ride somewhere nice and spend the night with her. Hehe

 
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I did no paint the needles, I just sanded down the bottem and top very fine, also I did not add LEDs under the needles, they are bright, not as bright as the letters, they are more blue then them.. I'm guessing because of the sanding..

Looks good I'm surprised how well it came out.

 
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3000 mcd thats all i know, the store didnt even give me an amp rating for them..

 
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It's cool that your cluster LEDs are bright enough to light the needles. The paint is a must to make the outer parts of the needles brighter. Notice how now they're brighter towards the center? It's up to you but painting would give better light distribution. Great job! I can't believe how fast you did everything.

 
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As for the color difference, I think that the white numbers are changing the color of the LEDs. The needles show the true color of the LED, but the gauges are filtering it. That's what happened with my EL wire to make it dark teal instead of blue.

 
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they are almost the same colour in real life, I have to take the whole thing apart again, I faked up the calabration on all the needles my 0 is at 60, my temp starts at half, and my fuel is just off by maybe 2 points. I will paint the needles and add 3 more LEDs to the speedo area. The tach area is perfect, no complaints. I will also think about adding in LEDs under the needles but i some what like that they are a little diffrent.

Any tips on fixing the calibration ?

Where did you connect your power and ground because i just connected it to an empty light socket but they are always on now, I couldn't find the illumination pins in the cluster plugs.

 
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How did your calibration get messed up? Didn't you just take out the needles where they rested and put them back the same way? Fuel and temp doesn't matter, cause you can just push them back past the stop points until they are just above the C and E. The speedo and tach should just be put in at the resting positions like when you pulled them out.

I sure hope you didn't drive the car without the needles installed. Anyway, Norrinradd had a problem with the calibration, so you may want to PM him and ask.

For the power cable, I believe it's in the DIY for reverse indiglo gauges.

 
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I was looking around, and I will do it like the reverse indiglo.

I'm also going to try to remove the odometer, clear it, and make it blue.

I dont know how it got messed up.. but i'm going to try to place the needles in again because I forgot to put the little filter for the gear ( P, N,R,D3,2)

 
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I just disabled the lighting for the odometer as well as the P, R, N indicator. Just wasn't matching right.

I have everything apart again and I'm adding another EL cable to even out the light some more.

 
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The thing is the white paint on the gauges isn't pure white. That's why it changes the color of the backlight. I have a voltmeter with white numbers, and the blue light shines through perfectly.

I'm done with the second EL wire install. I'll post up pics and DIY when it gets dark here. I also added a basic LED install DIY.

 
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I just made major and final revisions to the first page DIY.

I also added the following:

-->DIY for EL indiglo gauge backlight

-->Basic LED wiring info

 
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kewl kewl !!

I will be adding the extra LEDs tommorow. I will also write up a little DYI for my LED install. I did some things diffrently, maybe thats why mine came out a little better Pictures will be included, some if you dont mind from your DYI because I just wanted to recycle.

Thanks soo much gear for doing the DYI, I dont think I would have ever went though with it unless I had a push like this

again, I will post pictures once the odometer is changed to blue and the extra LEDs are added. I will also try to paint the needles since I will be taking them apart.

 
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Congrats again on making it look so good. That second EL cable helped even out the lighting, but yours is still brighter.

Just post your DIY here when you can and I'll move it into the first post.

 
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Can someone please send me a link for blue bulb condoms. I wanna order them ASAP.

Thanx