red guage cluster needles how to..

[turbo2nr]

what do you mean by adujust the led to shine the brightest? im asking b/c i just ordered led for my dash so i want to convert the needle to red. just trying to visualize it but im a little lost. thanks.

[ZooMxxl]

well l.e.d.s shine in a form of a projectile not like regular bulbs. so if you dont aim it right through the plastic piece in the back, it will not shine as bright or shine at all for the needles. i used 2 6 volt batteries to test how the shine was coming through, then i mounted them in place with shrink wrap.




again...the white bubs are stock, blues are l.e.d.s, and the needles all shine as bright as the speedo/rpm. the camera made the other two shine much brighter.

~Xuan
-----------------
SEE NOW--DRIFTABILITY

[AllenRPS13]

i really like your gauge, Zoomxxl!!! i will try to make it also if i have time... (busy school... ><)

[axiomatik]

For those that wanted pictures, here you go (this is the back of the tach):



As you can see, there are little clear 'legs' coming out from the base of the needle. The ends of these 'legs' point at the bulbs in the cluster and funnel the light to the needle. If you attach an LED of your color choice to the end of these, you will be able to change the color of your needles independent of the rest of your gauges.

[turbo2nr]

thank you sir that helps alot. ill be trying this to my s14 dash. if all go well ill have white led backlit and red led gauges.

thanks

[ZooMxxl]

thanks for your comment allen. its a pretty nice mod and easy the second time doing it. the only part thats a pain in the rear is mounting the led to the "legs" then trying to bolt the gauges back onto the cluster WHILE keeping the leds from moving from their positions or else youd have to take it apart again and re-line the led. plus wires run everywhere for each led, so you gotta know where to run your extra lines out from the cluster.

[a2low240]

For those of you guys who want a drop in kit without any fabrication you can use for free shipping for Zilvians. Here's a couple links for the lighting:coupon code 6307 on our website

#194 Bulbs Hyper Red and White ( Not LED Bulbs )
http://www.importintelligence.com/FM...dex.html&-Edit

Needle Kits:
http://www.importintelligence.com/FM...dex.html&-Edit

Here's a collection of pics from the past.

[krustindumm]

Originally Posted by upSLIDEdown

Also, if response to the opening sequence on gauges like Defi, they are electronic stepper motors, I don't think you could do that to our stock gauges.

For fuel & temp you would just need a DPDT relay and a timing circuit. Then it would just flip them both to ground for like 3 seconds on startup. For the tach and speedo, it would be easiets with a similar timing setup, but would also need a couple frequency generator circuits. When I figuured that out I stopped caring.

[bxsvx]

would my s14 dash look like the picture on importintelligence if I go led's? I want to put led's but dont want it bright in one area and light in another area, and also light sticking out like the pic, If I get the bulbs from where nbrindley got em would they be even all around? Thanks

[TipStylez]

might as well add my write-up

http://www.nissanpacific.com/forum/i...?showtopic=569

[240silvia]

I did this about 6 months ago. I used a transparent paint so the lights would shine through the needles. Red paint for the needles, and amber bulbs.









-Charles.

[AllenRPS13]

i have a similar setup like u, but i just have not paint the needle... hehe, i used 2 red bulbs and one amber bulb for the gauge

[fliprayzin240sx]

Im running red bulbs for my cluster using polarg bulbs. Only downside is that after a couple of years, the red bulbs have a tendency to fade. Im on my
2nd set of bulbs since i started doing this back in 02.

Stock white faced cluster with red bulbs, looks like the shiet at night.

[AllenRPS13]

i am running polarg and some other JDM bulbs also... i dunno if they will fade... but couple years... i dun care, hehe

[crazy9ceguy]

hey the lights for the AC control unit and window switch doesnt shine, is there a bulb that makes it shine so i can replace it with the LED bulb?

[P4rD0nM3]

Originally Posted by n1sm0r

I just finished mine,

daytime pic (it's much red(der?) at night time)

For future reference, Non-HUD s13 cluster only needs 3 bulbs.
I used the ricelights from pepboys, about $6 total and 40 minutes of my time.

Man this is the colour that I want at night...not at morning though.

[HyperTek]

w/ importintelligence face covers

[240meowth]

Originally Posted by AlexAtPerformanceNissan

BMW runs red gauge cluster lighting on pretty much all of their cars... so i'm pretty sure that there is nothing wrong with the fact that it's red on red.... But it does look kinda wierd to see a 240 with a cluster that stands out that much.... i always loved the IntelliGlow needles.....very sweet looking and also very klean.. ;-) Klean with a "K."

-Alex B.

actually, it's more orange than red, sort of amber. It's what I did w/ mine. Raining outiside don't want to go and take picture. I just painted the bulbs w/ transparent paint and BAMN done.

Also a note on the LEDs, it will not work because LED's light angle is not wide enough. Basically, the bulb lights up around the bulb, and the LED lights up more in one direction. Since the instrument panel is designed for the regualr bulb, when you chuck a LED in there, it'll be complete failer.

[AllenRPS13]

Originally Posted by 240meowth

actually, it's more orange than red, sort of amber. It's what I did w/ mine. Raining outiside don't want to go and take picture. I just painted the bulbs w/ transparent paint and BAMN done.

Also a note on the LEDs, it will not work because LED's light angle is not wide enough. Basically, the bulb lights up around the bulb, and the LED lights up more in one direction. Since the instrument panel is designed for the regualr bulb, when you chuck a LED in there, it'll be complete failer.

yes, i have tried to put LED bulbs on the gauge... it just seems very dim...

[axiomatik]

Originally Posted by 240meowth

Also a note on the LEDs, it will not work because LED's light angle is not wide enough. Basically, the bulb lights up around the bulb, and the LED lights up more in one direction. Since the instrument panel is designed for the regualr bulb, when you chuck a LED in there, it'll be complete failer.

Actually, LEDs work fine as long as you get wide-angle LEDs. The pictures I posted above with the blue lighting are all LEDs, and the color is completely consistent across the IP. The LEDs that I purchased have an inverted cone molded into the top of them, so that the light is scattered all around instead of focused. With the analog cluster, things may be different, due to the different placement of the bulbs, but I doubt that it will be much different. It is also just as bright as stock lighting, though I had been hoping that it would be brighter, since stock is a little dim for my tastes. The brightness that you get also depends on the color you choose. Certain color LEDs, due to the materials used to acheive that color, are inherently dimmer than others. Also, I've noticed that the blue lighting is just hard for my eyes to focus on. It looks cool, but isn't terribly practical. I plan on changing to white LEDs. They are brighter, and it should be easier to read. Because of the blue tinting on the back of the gauges, they will still be a little bluish.

Originally Posted by crazy9ceguy

hey the lights for the AC control unit and window switch doesnt shine, is there a bulb that makes it shine so i can replace it with the LED bulb?.

The HVAC controls do have a bulb, actually two bulbs for illumination. However, because of the way it is designed, you can't just replace it with an LED bulb for lighting. The stock lighting system only uses the light that comes out of the sides of the bulbs (perpendicular to the axis of the bulb), so even wide-angle LEDs wouldn't work. Also, the bulbs are tiny. I have actually converted my HVAC unit to LED lighting, but you have to disassemble it, pull out the stock bulbs and lighting prism, and replace it with a small circuit of LEDs. I have been meaning to post pictures with a how-to for a while, but just haven't gotten around to it yet. I'll try posting it tonight or tomorrow. I have also put LEDs in the buttons around the steering column (headlights up/down, cruise, hazards etc.) Those were difficult to do, but it looks pretty slick to me, and all the bulbs were burned out on my car. I'll post pics of those as well.

[Irukandji]

Originally Posted by P4rD0nM3

Man this is the colour that I want at night...not at morning though.

I used the generic bulbs at Pep Boys. They look great at night, but its a little pink when its light outside.

[s13poop]

what brand/size are the pep boy bulbs?

[Irukandji]

Originally Posted by s13poop

what brand/size are the pep boy bulbs?

Its covered on the previous pages.. but since I'm feeling nice...

Bulb size 194.... brand doesnt matter...

[s13poop]

Thanks!!!

[P4rD0nM3]

Yeah, thanks man.

[SwiftS14]

For my 97 240sx SE, i put in white LEDs into the cluster and they came out purple.

[AllenRPS13]

Originally Posted by SwiftS14

For my 97 240sx SE, i put in white LEDs into the cluster and they came out purple.

any pics?

[axiomatik]

I've been getting a lot of questions regarding my HVAC illumination, so here is a little how-to. It is not terribly in-depth, since I didn't take pics of every step, but it should be enough info to get people started, and if anyone has questions, feel free to ask me. For those who haven't seen the pics in the pic thread, here's how my dash currently looks:





I was inspired to do this by a thread on freshalloy, along with some know-how gleaned from hidplanet.

For the HVAC illumination, I used 5mm white LEDs from superbrightleds.com, specifically the RL5-W2545 (quantity 7). This is the circuit I used (from the LED Wizard:



I'll assume you can figure out how to remove the HVAC controls from your car. If you do need some tips, let me know. Opening the controls isn't too difficult. If I remember correctly, I think there is just one screw on the top of the unitand the rest of the case is snapped together. The hard part is disassembling it without breaking the snaps (I broke them), all is not lost if they do break. You will have to slide the bottom half of the case off of the unit. To do this, you will have to unplug the short plug on it (that goes to the main unit) and pop off the handles of the sliders (they just snap back on, all you have to do is pry them off). After removing the housing, you will see the backside of the circuit board on the top (with the two lightbulb sockets) and the lighting prism on the bottom. You will have to remove both sockets, and then the prism, which is just sitting in the housing.

I built a circuit that sits where the prism used to be. In order to power the circuit, you will have to determine which lead for the lightbulbs is +illumination, and which is -illumination. To do this, simply trace the leads back to the plug on the back of the unit and identify which pins they are connected to. You can use a multimeter and test for continuity to double-check. In order to determine which is positive and which is negative, simply go back to your car and measure the voltage of those two pins that you have identified when you have the headlights/driving lights on.

Here is a picture of the circuit installed in the unit. The first pic shows the top cover in place, the second pic shows it removed. You will have to remove it to access the circuit board.







As you can see, I have one LED mounted behind each button. The viewing angle of these LEDs is only 45 degrees, so I wanted to ensure complete coverage. The two on the left side are angled slightly to illuminate the entire slider.

(I seem to remember that I had to slide the HVAC circuit board back a little bit for some reason, perhaps to remove the prism. To do this, you have to unsnap each of the button covers from the actual button on the circuit board, and then gently pull it back.)

For power, I soldered some leads to the original lightbulb leads.

Here are the results:



The color is actually much more even than this pic would suggest.


The buttons were a little trickier. Some of them have little sockets that you can remove and replace the bulb with. Others have to be disassembled. For the ones with a socket, I simply removed the lightbulb and put an LED in it's place. You will have to use 3mm LEDs here (I used RL3-W3030 for white, RL3-R4545 for the Hazards). At first, I attempted to mount the resistor with the LED so that I wouldn't have to modify the wiring, (see below)




The first pic shows the sockets, and just how tiny these bulbs are (that's the original bulb on the right). The second pic shows one of the switches that have to be disassembled. Be careful you don't lose any springs or other parts when you disassemble them!!!


But that really only worked on one switch, where the bulb was mounted on the back of the switch. On at least 2 of the switches, the sockets are on the side of the switch, so that the LED had to be mounted perpendicular to the socket. It proved to be too difficult to mount the LED with the resistor on these, so I gave up and lounted the LED only within the switch. I then snipped the wire leading up the the switch an mounted the resistor there, in series with the switch. For the buttons, you will again have to determine which pins are +illumination and which are -illumination.

Here's some results with the buttons:









For the HVAC controls, the buttons are tinted blue to overcome the inherent yellowishness of the incandescent bulbs. The result is a light, icy blue which looks very good to me (see first pic). The buttons have no such tinting, so they appear perfectly white. Both are more than bright enough.

[FinalDrive]

nice write-up
it doesn't seem too incredibly hard to do

...time to start ordering some LEDs

[crazy9ceguy]

can u just buy the LEDs with the socket for the HVAC? i have a s14 so it might be different?