Has anyone used LED bulbs for the dash, heater, and trans ind. I'm talking about the ones you buy as replacements for 194 bulbs. My only problem is they sell them with 1 to 6 LEDs. Which ones would give me the best light. Thinking of going with blue or red. 2 of my dash lights are burnt out so I might as well replace them all while I'm in there. Any other suggestions would be cool.

 

ya i soldered a whole bunch of 194s behind my guages...but i also bought white overlays...the "super white" leds are so bright they have a blueish tint to them. It didnt work to well for me because of the overlays and the whole guage does not light up enough the needles are very bright. The HVAC and shift plate controls turned out great...im about to get leds for the rear view mirror/hatch/dome light.

Just wish it wasnt illegal to run them on the outside of the car...i got a ticket for using 2 of them damn 194s in my license plate. I loved it while it was there.

 

LED Pros vs Cons

Pros:
-Super bright and crisp light
-Last forever (theoretically)
-Low Current Draw*
-Color never fades (under normal conditions)

Cons:
-They are either on/off... LEDs don't dim
-They can not withstand prolonged heat
-Low Current Draw*

*Low Current draw puts less strin on your alternator when lighting up a large number of bulbs. 3rd Gen's electrical system relies on current draw so you cant use them for blinkers/hazards without a large resistor inline.

I use LED bulbs for my gauges, Heater Controls, and interior lights. I reccomend "Hyper White" LEDs for the gauges, and your choice of color for the interior lights.

I have wasted money on LED bulbs for my side markers, headlights, and blinkers. If you need a hand picking some out, feel free to PM me and I'll point you in the right direction.

-Jim

(LED lights in my sig (except fogs)

 

i have led's i am using for blinkers and they work great....i bought them at autozome and they are amber colored...cost was $10...i needed a brighter light because the clear turn signals...they look like the stock amber turn signals at night


they must have a resistor built into the housing to fit in the stock location...they use 4 leds

 

LEDs can be dimmed with a variable resistor.

 

1 major con to LED's is that the light is directional. In a normal light bulb light comes out at 360 degrees. That gives the dash a nice even color. LED's on the other hand have certin angles that the light comes out usually 30 degrees. This sends a beam of light instead of nice soft even light. I was going to use LED's to light my gauges but I could not stand the bright and dim spots. It may have been due to someone modifying my gauges already but I didnt like it.

A little tech info on LED's
Voltage rating is about 3-5.4 volts. Using them in groups of 4 works nicely on a 12 volt system...Heres how

Hook them up in series of 4 positive to negative. (LED's have polarity and can only be hooked up 1 way.) Using 4 drops the voltage down to around 3-3.4 volts
12/4=3


+O-+O-+O-+O-

Try it out and post some pics.. The 194 bulb holders are also great to solder wires into to power low current things. The dimmer will also dim the LED's but its very touchy...too low volts and they just dont light.

 

1. LEDs DO DIM. That is so false that its just absurd.

2. Define "prolonged heat". I've never burnt up an LED in my entire life from heat. Unless you're soldering the plastic lens itself, then you're not going to be damaging it with anything short of a 50W iron or just blatant carelessness.

Don't make generalizations. *MOST* LEDs are directional, however 180* LEDs are available and work well. Also, sanding the lens with steel wool really helps disperse the light evenly. THere are also boots and lens for LEDs which spread light as well.

First, LEDs come in ALL values you can imagine, far outside the 3 - 5.4V range. Average is probably 2.5 - 3.5V though.

 

I bought high-intensity 194's from MacEwen and painted the inside of the metal bezel arctic white to better reflect. I also used them in the HVAC controls, my console clock and the kick panel lights. Very bright.

https://www.thirdgen.org/techbb2/sho...hreadid=107995

JamesC

 

Only place one can buy those brighter 194's is online ? I'm changing my AC/Heater controls and transmission indicator to blue, and the standard 194 bulb is not bright enough, heck it's actually more dull than before.

What intensity or brightness would I need for a bulb for those two locations ?

I'm running silver reverse glow gauges, set at almost max brightness, so yes need some blue to match the brightness.

 

I know of 2 online sites that sell direct replacement LED bulbs for cars.

http://www.superbrightleds.com

http://www.autolumination.com

I got all my exterior lights from Super Bright LEDs, also needed load resistors on the front corners to make the markers/blinkers work correctly.

 

you have your parts mixed up a bit..

the alternator isnt the problem.

the blinker module is... see, a conventional blinker module is a switch that has a very thin piece of metal in it.
when you pull power thru it, this metal heats up, and when it gets so hot, it goes "click" and curls up.

this disconnects your lights.

well, now that the thin metal strip isnt carrying current, it cools off and straightens... connecting the light again..

this repeats. over and over while the turn signal is on.


but if you blow a bulb, or put LEDs in, the current pulled thru that thin piece of metal isnt enough to make it heat up.. and they dont blink.



this can be fixed by replacing the flasher module with a "heavy duty" one, or with a solid state one.. niether one of thoes are dependant upon the load carried to switch.

for more info and cool animations of it, click here (cool animation is on page three )

 

Bought two sets of 194's at PepBoys, one's blue LED's, one's some other kind that's blueish and is written o nthe package to be "3 times brighter than regular bulbs"


ABSOLUTELY $%$!^!!$! !!!!!!!!!


I just now, in the dark, compared them both to the blueish 194 I got at Walmart, the one from Walmart, which is a standard blue 194, is A LOT brighter.


So the only thing I got out of the deal is that I'll take the LED 194 apart, use the base of it since it's a 194 base, and now pop in a blue LED from Radioshack, although I'll have to use a resistor since my LED's can only take up to 6 Volts I think it was.

3 times brighter ... HA !!!!!!!!

 

I think you should do some research before you post info.

Check out the LED forum of this board; http://www.hidplanet.com/forums/

 

dimming LEDs.


LEDs are capable of being dimmed...

HOWEVER, theres a cutoff point..

see, on a conventional lamp, more power = more light, less power is less light..

think of it as a graph with a straight 45* line... power vs light.


now think of the same graph with a sharp almost, but not quite vertical line. this is a LED.

so there is a slim area where LEDs are dimmed, its just harder to get to.




the way i dim LEDs on microcontrollers is PWM... instead of being on all the time, i flick it on and off really fast... so, lets say i set it on to be on only 50% of the time... its flickering so fast that it just looks dimmed to you. but even this method is tricky.
make the pulses too close together, it looks constantly on.
make them too far apart, and your eye can see the flicker.
conventional LEDs are ideally suited for constant light applications, not variable, but it can be done.

for a example of some LEDs intended to be dim, look no farther then a LED video screen...

 

LED video screen? Do you mean LCD?

 

no. thats a liquid crystal display.. they operate totally differently.

im referring to a LED video display. they're usually quite large and used in signs, stadiums, advertising... that kind of thing.


edit:
http://www.google.com/search?sourcei...+video+display

 

Yeah, I was going to tell you the same exact thing.

 

ok tried this one for transmission indicator
http://www.radioshack.com/product/in...&tab=techSpecs
with a 470 ohm resistor, however still not bright enough.

So I'm trying this one tomorrow:
http://www.radioshack.com/product/in...entPage=family


Could the problem also be the viewing angle ? I noticed that the LED wasn't blinding when I looked at it from the side, but a bit brighter right at it. Although I'll have to say, the 300 MCD LED wasn't really that bright anyway.

 

my shiftlight LED is 1200.
i wouldnt use anything less then 1200 for any backlighting.. and id prefer somthing around 3000..

also, if you drill a tiny hole in the tip of a LED with a sharp drillbit, it increases the light coming out the sides.....

 

I'll have to try that with the one in my HVAC control. My guess would be a "dimple" rather than a hole so that the light has something to reflect or refract from.

 

yes. more of a dimple.
it actually is just a angle like this : \/ not a hole with flat sides... just the tip of the dremel bit....

 

On the very tip of the LED ?????