22 replies to this topic

[OldSkoolEX]

i had an idea about 20 minutes ago.. why not change the color of the lights in the gauge cluster and repaint the needles. my question is can i replace the small lightbulbs that are used to light up the cluster with LED's? will it need a resistor or anything?

[cbstdscott]

And this would improve your car..... how?

[DarkHand]

i had an idea about 20 minutes ago.. why not change the color of the lights in the gauge cluster and repaint the needles. my question is can i replace the small lightbulbs that are used to light up the cluster with LED's? will it need a resistor or anything?

I guess there's no reason it wouldn't work... You'd either have to find 12v LEDs or put enough resistance in the line to drop the voltage down to whatever the LEDs you have can take.

Put some blue LEDs behind the red lenses and you'd get purple lights.

[BlankReg]

And this would improve your car..... how?

dude, higher wave lengths weigh less...

[celerity]

It won't work like that. Your gauges are orange, and no matter color light wave you put at them, Orange they remain.

The lights in the dash are fore-lit and incandescant bulbs. The light wave from an LED behaves very differently. You will also need to pulse the LED to make it dim which is a complex endeavour.

I think the only way to update the gauges is to make a back plate, run your turnsignal / high beam lights to a dash backing and install completely new gauges. Someone near me did that to his second gen CRX, and the result is very nice.

-> Steve

[C_piddy]

what if you want to keep the same colour... i like the idea.. and am thinking about doing it.. to have brighter gauges

chris

[DarkHand]

It won't work like that. Your gauges are orange, and no matter color light wave you put at them, Orange they remain.

The lights in the dash are fore-lit and incandescant bulbs. The light wave from an LED behaves very differently. You will also need to pulse the LED to make it dim which is a complex endeavour.

Well the gauge lights themselves would be difficult to set up and aim correctly, and shining a blue light on an orange needle indeed wouldn't change the color, but using white LEDs for the main illumination might have a nice effect. The blue LEDs would only be good behind the idiot lights, and only if you liked purple.

But the dimmer should work fine. LEDs will run just fine from variable voltage, in fact they run much more efficiently than incandescant bulbs at lower voltage. Incandescant bulbs emit more useless infra red light as their supplied current drops, while LEDs just emit less usable light. LEDs are only typically dimmed with a pulse method when power draw is an issue.

Edited by DarkHand, 01 April 2004 - 10:22 AM.

[celerity]

Now hang on a sec,

Are you saying that if you run a 3.4 volt LED at 1.5 volts it will be dimmer ?


-> Steve

[OldSkoolEX]

hmm.. i think my EDM cluster is different from the ones you guys have cause it lights up green and its just two tiny lightbulbs in my cluster.. ive got the bulbs out and all.. theres a filter ontop of the cluster that makes the light green.. i could melt that filter out and make a different one using transparent colored plastic or i could just remove the filter and paint the bulbs with bulb paint (which i just happen to have).

if i decide to do this ill take pics and post before and after pics..

thinkin i might paint the orange needles red and use blue bulb paint.. then the tach, speedo, etc would look blue and the needles would look purple.

also if i do this ill also change the color of the light in the ashtray and ill have a whack at changing the rest of the dash lighting to the same color.. if i can pull it off it would look sweet.


i know how to change the color of all the dash lights in the fiesta but ill have to figure out how i can do it to the civic since it doesnt seem like anyone on here has done this yet..

if i can do a complete job ill make a tutorial

Edited by OldSkoolEX, 01 April 2004 - 11:57 AM.

[vervepipes]

i saw white face guages on egay. anybody have them?

[DarkHand]

Now hang on a sec,

Are you saying that if you run a 3.4 volt LED at 1.5 volts it will be dimmer ?

Absolutely. Hook an LED up to a few batteries and a variable resistor... You'll be able to control the brightness.

For the car example, Lets take a 14 volt supply (about what we get with the alternator running), 3.4 volt LED, 12 milliamps draw. Subtract the 3.4 volt LED voltage from the 14 volt supply voltage to get a difference across the resistor of 10.6 volts. Divide 10.6 by .012 (milliamps). This gives 883.3 ohms.

So you need a pretty fat resistor to drive an LED that small. You can find bigger LEDs with higher drop voltages, but they're a little more expensive. There really shouldn't be a problem driving the LED a little harder than that though, most have a 'typical' current of about 20mA. 10.6 / .02 = 530ohms, a lot less resistance needed, and you'll get a brighter light.

Edited by DarkHand, 01 April 2004 - 12:24 PM.

[celerity]

Ok, I have on my workbench right now:

a variable (to within .001) DC power supply,
3.4 volt LED
My eye balls.

1 volt. Nothing.
2 volts. Nothing.
3.1 volts Bling it's on.
3.4 volts still on
4.0 volts still on
4.5 still on

Not going higher.

I've observed no difference in brightness. Now, lets go hook up the timer I have on my bench.

starting at 3.4 volts.

Timer set at on (bypass) On.
Cut to 60Hz, slightly dimmer
at 30 Hz (27 corrected) dimmer
at 10 Hz (or 9 corrected) It's still on, but it's not too noticeable.

Explain to me where my LED knowledge has gone wrong. Then, I'm going to back to my tech school, Translite (Where I used to design lighting systems) and ProLume (Where I do a few hours at a lighting company) and I'm going to ask them how they've wronged me so

-> Steve

Edit: The timer is set to Square-wave generator, and the oscilloscope confirms.


EDIT AGAIN:

I'm wrong. I didn't line up a resistor. I only regulated amperage from the powersupply.

With a 630 ohm resistor, it will take the 14.4v at 2 amps and dim accordingly (With a superbright 3.4 volt at 20ma LED)

Edited by celerity, 01 April 2004 - 12:51 PM.

[OldSkoolEX]

hahaha!! ive done one engineering course (passed) and am doing a higher level of it now (currently in my 2nd year of the 2 year course).. i was wondering what the hell id ever need to (realistically) use an oscilloscope for.. now i know..

close to 3 years of engineering and i can play with an LED.... woot! well i spose all the mechanical stuff would be handy tho.. i can operate lathes, milling machines and can program cnc machines. i wish i had my own cnc machine.. i know how to write the programs so i could make literally anything...

i think it will be easier to just paint the stock bulbs and remove the green filters..

im also toying with the idea of making a custom gauge face.. possibly white.. i could use the stock one as a template.


my easter break starts today... i got 2 whole weeks to tinker with the civ... err ballade..

EDIT: how do you have your eyeballs on your workbench?

Edited by OldSkoolEX, 01 April 2004 - 12:51 PM.

[DarkHand]

1 volt. Nothing.
2 volts. Nothing.
3.1 volts Bling it's on.
3.4 volts still on
4.0 volts still on
4.5 still on

Ok, I may not be TOTALLY right about this.

It does a take a certain minimum voltage to light the LED, which is why it didn't light at the lower voltages, and LEDs are non-linear when it comes to voltage input and light output, so the dash dimmer might not be the best way to control them, but LED's CAN be dimmed by controlling the voltage, just in more precise amounts than you used on the bench. If not, an LED flashlight would just blink off when the power got low, rather than just getting dimmer as the batteries weakened.

::tries to think of an experiment::
Hook that same LED up to a capacitor... It will dim as the cap is drained rather than just turn off. The larger the capacitor the longer it will dim.

[crxmobber]

I have the white face guages from makotoautotrends.com with the aluminum bezel around it. I think it looks good. you can adjust the brightness and switch from either green or blue.