JoshEH

well i was thinkin it would be way easier to just solder the led and resistor right where the stock bulb was.

AlienX

iTrader: (2)

I will take apart the stock deck this weekend and ill tell you the best way to go

JoshEH

here's a pic with the spot where i broke the bulb.
yea any thoughts would be cool, for now i'll deal with the dingy white color my deck is now, haha.

gearbox

iTrader: (95)

hmm well it looks like there is room to solder led and resistor but it's gonna be tough unless you're good at it. I would also worry about ruining the circuits if you heat it too much. But check out www.ledautomotive.com since I think they have kits that may also work for the radio with tiny resistors on them.

JoshEH

i do have a back up deck that's actually better then the stock, just been tryin to sell it so i can buy the one i really want. so if i ruin the stock player i dont care.
i have a kit from LEDautomotive, he did a green one for me so I could see what it would look like, since they dont seem to normally offer them. It looks fine, but not bright enough. I ordered several different types of green LED's today, now where in the hell do you get those tiny resitors at?
i've been readin most of this thread and don't wanna go this route as described for the controls, I'd prefer to just pull out and convert the stock bulbs, less mess, and will keep me much busier tryin to solder that crap on such a small scale.
i'd just buy a whole bunch of their kits but i think it's all over priced. (though still have to find the resistors.)

gearbox

iTrader: (95)

maybe radioshack or online... www.partsexpress.com may have some cause they sell leds. Also www.superbrightleds.com for leds that have hi mcd.

JoshEH

okay i'll check those sites out, i got 50 3mm 12000mcd LED's on order and a set of 20 3mm something else, ha, i didnt see the mcd for them, so i have to ask.
and i'm sure i missed this, but humor me, how again do i determine the correct resistor?

gearbox

iTrader: (95)

that's really dim. most these days are up to 10,000 mcd. The blue ones I got from the shack are only 2600 so not too bright but good enough about comparable to stock brightness. There's a calculator for that somewhere. I believe you need to know the forward voltage of the led, which is different for each color usually. I just remember using 560ohm for blue, but could have gone about 100 lower and still be okay. I'll try and look for the site with the dash light diy. It was somewhere on kseries...

AlienX

iTrader: (2)

best thing you can really do is get a multimeter and check the voltage the runs though there. Also good to check so you know the polarity, for the best light displacement it would be good if you use those mini LEDs (the ones they use in cell phones and stuff ) they go for like $25 on EBay for 20 or something. it might even be a straight swap but you prob need a resistor.

gearbox

iTrader: (95)

And you may have to slightly sand down the plastic on the tip so the light spreads out more. Otherwise you're just gonna have dots of light.

AlienX

iTrader: (2)

gear, these little LEDs are like 2mm and you dont need to sand anything down.

i can't find a pic of them at the moment, but they are REALLY small..

gearbox

iTrader: (95)

but are they bright enough? or do you need to put alot of em in.

AlienX

iTrader: (2)

they are super bright, and nice and blue.

they are the size of these resistors

AlienX

iTrader: (2)

found a nice.. dont let the size of the picture be deseving but they are as small as the resistor above.

JoshEH

12,000 mcd is dim?

gearbox

iTrader: (95)

oh i thought you said 1200

JoshEH

so ya think 12k might be too bright?

gearbox

iTrader: (95)

well it depends. for the dash i have one 2600 mcd led behind each button and it looks like stock. Best way is to try it out. I know the light will get filtered and dimmed a bit anyway once they're installed.

JoshEH

still not findin these micro resistors, are they called that?

ncirom2003

iTrader: (7)

^^^ try talkin to the guy at ledautomotive.com i got those lil resistors in his kit ... way to small for my liking but if thats what you need go for it

metallicivic

Is it possible to convert the lights off an alpine HU???? I.E. changing the green to blue leds?

gearbox

iTrader: (95)

oh that is tricky. I opened up my pioneer deck faceplate to try and see if I could change the purple leds with blue, but I couldn't even see them. There were just a bunch of plastic light guides. So I think it depends on the deck.

AlienX

iTrader: (2)

my alpine goes both green and amber (duel polarity LEDs) Even if I was to change mine I could just use single and only have one color and the other setting will be off since LEDs will only allow current to pass one way ( Diode ). But if I found White/blue duel polarity LEDs i should be able to swtich from white to blue ( Which would be really sick )
Eitherway back on topic. Yes, as long as you find the LEDs and test them to see how much current and voltage is running though ( the green ones ) you would just need to match a Blue LED with the same characteristics or lower ( Blue and White LEDs run on higher voltage neway should you shouldn't have anything to worry bout but always good to double check )
and I would really advise agaist opening open that is still under warrenty and unless you are tottaly confident in your workmanship.
I opened up a couple panasonic ones and I know that its not always fun putting them back together.

Seabass

iTrader: (1)

Great DIY but would go with brighter led's. just my $.02

AlienX

iTrader: (2)

pictures dont show the true brightness of these guages. You just have to see it in person to admire the colour.

JoshEH

AlienX, did ya open up the stock unit over the weekend?

AlienX

iTrader: (2)

no sorry I thought that u just wanted to know a method.
Ill open it up this weekend and mod it for blue LEDs and just sell it to someone that wants to DIY and keep everything stock.

Ill get back to you on thurs, or fri with a finished unit.

JoshEH

lol, why not just do it in green and i'll swap ya units. heh, what can i say, im lazy
i'd settle for the DIY info though in a pinch

AlienX

iTrader: (2)

green ?!?! stock sedans come green, just take someones. Maybe I will do white, since 04s come white guages. But I'm Mr.Blue, so I really dont wanna go and buy white LEDs since I have a sh*t load of blue.

gearbox

iTrader: (95)

white won't work with the older clusters. The plastic is slightly tinted on some, so it will come out looking like muddy white. I've tried it on mine.