ive seen on here that pepole have used them in tail lights i was wondering if anyone has tryed to use them in there dash im trying to change my gauges all to blue but any blue replacement bulbs allway come out more blue/green then BLUE i saw where the sell super bright l.e.d's in every freekin color and they say they run on 2 volts but the stock bulbs run on 12 volt so how would you hook up some to replace the stock one and would you need to put more than one in each socket?????????????? any help would be appreciated im really trying to get this project done ive tryed 3 different bulbs and none r what im looking for..

 

Get 12v LEDs and either 1) run a resistor inline so you don't burn our the LED or 2) run enough of them in series for the same effect.

 

i hate to be a pain in the *** but could you explian a little more do they plug into the same sockets 12v l.e.d's?? and what size resistor if i use more then one how do i keep them all in the same spot?????????

 

They do not make 12v blue LED's you will have to put a resistor on the LED. The resistance value of the resistor depends on how much the LED draws and at how many volts.

Here is a picture of my dash. I did a Blue LED conversion about 5 mounts ago:
(pretty big, may take awhile)

It is a lot brighter in real life it is just hard to take a picture of it.


Here's how i modifyed the bulb socket:

 

thats exactlly what im lookin 4 you have to tell me how you did it email me if need be but thats just what im looking for you gotta help me out

 

any help???

 

hey 89 Iroc Z,

did you ever get around to writing that tech article?? if not, do you think you could give a little more info on how to do it, where to get parts, etc, because i would like to attempt to do this to my camaro over spring break (2 weeks).

Thanks

 

tech artical should be done this weekend!

 

I have been working for a while to complete this tech article. It is still in draft form and I am sure there are spelling errors and so forth. Anyways check it out and tell me any suggestion or comments you have.

http://www.apmracing.net/lukeS/led/LED.htm

 

This is what it looks like on a 91 Z28. As you can see it's not finished because the middle gauges arent lit up. Also the tach needs a little more work. The blue is fantastic and it looks absolutely beautiful. The camera distorts it A LOT.

 

Sweet Blackened can i use that pic in my artical?
Did you do this using my artical?
How many bulb sockets are there on the 90-92 dash?
What LED's did you use?

 

Well this is an old idea of mine and I used a different method of stringing the LEDs in series of 4. There's about 50 LEDs inside that thing. About 25 around each "big" guauge. Now I have to put around 4 or 5 around each small guage in the middle and I'm done. To get cheap LED's go to http://www.lc-led.com ! I paid about 80 bucks for all 60 LEDs i'm gonna use. You can use that picture in your article, but I'd wait unti I finish it tonight or tomorrow so you can get a better picture. Then maybe you can list my method of soldering the LEDs in series. I mounted them using lots of hot glue They dont get hot at all even after having them on for a full hour so I'm not concerned.

 

Oh yeah.. there's 10 bulb sockets in mine. I wouldnt even think about using them to mount the LEDs in. You want the LEDs to shine DIRECTLY on the back of the guages. I used a thing piece of paper behind each guage to spread out the light evenly. It works very well.

 

Can you take a picture of the back of the dash?
What MCD LED's did you?
How did you fit 25 LED's in one hole?

 

I didnt. I took the guages off and put the LEDs in a row right behind the guages. I'll take a pic later on when it's done...

 

Can you tell me what LED you used. And as stated above what MCD are they.

 

THe 1,100 mcd one.

 

Here's another pic. It's still not completely finished. I didnt tape any of the guage faces to the actual gauges so the blue light bleeds into areas it's not supposed to be in. Plus they're not centered or anything. BUT, whoever wants to do this gets the idea. Again, the camera makes it look awful as fas as the colors go.

 

what size led?

 

T 1 3/4 ?!? I dunno. Why is this so important anyway ? It's a blue LED ! lol

 

I dont think I can even reccommend the LEDs from www.lc-led.com anymore So far I've had 3 ded LEDs and I think I have a 4th coming. They're either low quality or they're overheating ?!? I'm only running them at 20 mA which is WELL within specs. Now an entire guage (water temp) went out. I think a dead LED is keeping the other 3 from coming on and not lighting up the guage. This is in the two days of testing it off the car. It sucks
I'll replace the LED and keep it of on for two hours to see if anything happens. If it does... I think I'm scrapping this project.

 

Blackened,

Could up upload a basic schematic for the circuit you are using with the LED's? Could you also include your calculations as to how you came up the values for the components in your circuit? Do you have any links to the datasheets of the products you are using. For your benefit I would like to review what you have done. While sometimes LED's have a bad production run it could also be you have made a minor mistake. I am sure you would rather discover some minor mistake than trash all of your work. If something is a little off and stressing the LED's they won't live that long. If they are in series as you mentioned once one goes it is likely to put more stress on the others.

 

Basic schematic ? There's no "schematic". It's simply 4 LEDs in series. I've had them on for 3 hours so far and they're fine. Maybe they'll survive afterall. I have a degree in electronics engineering myself. Rather than complicating myself with using resistors for each LEDs I just soldered im in series. I plan on making a small voltage regulator to keep the voltage steady. LEDs are very sensible to that and the flicking of the dash when I would rev the engine would probably get annoying.

 

And here it is ... what I'd like to think... FINISHED!

 

What voltage are you testing the lighting at? Just throwing four in a row doesn't guarantee everything is going to work out. I assume you know you are well under 20mA because you have measured the current through each set. The problem is that the forward voltage of the diodes will vary from unit to unit and especially from production run to production run. The current also increases significantly over a very small increase in voltage. You have already noticed that since you commented on minor alternator output changes affecting the display. Most of the LED's I have worked with go from a barely noticeable glow to burning out over just a couple hundred millivolts. Four in a row gives you a little more range but not terribly much.

The datasheets for the product you used should not be called a datasheet. If they were real datasheets they would have information about the Vf rating in relation to the current. If you carefully set the voltage regulator to give just enough voltage to light them adequately you may get away with it. Honestly I would have to recommend going back to using a resistor to set the current. Blue LED's have a high enough Vf that I wouldn't even try stringing two together with a resistor across 12-13V. With the resistor the diode can bias itself where it is happy. A minor change in Vf has a minor effect on the current through the resistor. So the current will be basically set by the resistor allowing the diode to fully light without stress and without concern for tolerances. There was a reason why the entire world uses a resistor with an LED, and it wasn't because they liked the complexity or cost.

Having a degree doesn't put you beyond making mistakes or even having bad ideas. I sure wish it did but in the end we are only human.

 

I'm gonna get into a technical argument with you but I will say that the reason the "rest of the world" uses a resistor in series with an LED is because 99% of the time only ONE LED is needed. I need LOTS of them and grouping them makes it a heck of a lot easier.

 

I take it you meant you aren't going to get in to a technical argument about it. I wouldn't call it an argument but if you wish to have a sensible discussion go ahead. Listening is optional. I just tried to be of help, not only to you but to others that would attempt to duplicate your work.

 

cna this be done to an 84 camaro?

 

Sure. If nothing else you can just make replacement bulbs using LED (where the thread began). It would work for any car.

 

ookkk, i tried using blue 194 bulbs to turn my dash blue, and it looked good, but i couldn't get behind the speedo, i couldn't pull it out, is thos a saftey anti roll back feature or something, do i have to unscrew the face of the speedo, how do i take it off???

 

there are two screws and a speedometer cable on the back of the speedometer holding it in. you have to remove the whole cluster housing in order to pull the speedometer out.