i have an 88 gta
can you change the color of stock digital gauges?

i would like them to be blue but i wasnt even sure if changing the color of stock digital gauges is even possible.

anyone heard of this being done?
thnx

 

I think it can be done with LED bulbs. The LED bulbs are sold on ebay and local auto parts stores might have them. They would work IF the digital guages use lightbulbs to light up the DIGITAL dash. Otherwise, its going to be somewhat tricky to change the colors.

One thing to keep in mind is that its harder for a person's eyes to focus on blue light. Red light is really easy to focus in on. I've tested this theory on a cd player that I have that changes colors, and its no myth.

 

"One thing to keep in mind is that its harder for a person's eyes to focus on blue light. Red light is really easy to focus in on. I've tested this theory on a cd player that I have that changes colors, and its no myth."

i never thought about that

well my car isnt really much of a daily driver anyways so i guess it would be ok, and its a bit to late to change my favorite color

thnx for the reply

 

I dont think its possible. Well... maybe its possible, but I cant imagine it would be easy. THere is no "backlighting" in the digital dashes. Each segment for each little thing that lights up is its own separate little light. Dont know if its LED or not...but Im guessing its a really small bulb. Probably attached to a PC board and not easy to replace. Then I think the covering is colored...not the light itself. I looked into swapping a digital dash into my 87 TA for awhile...and I dont remember too much about them.

If you want blue..your best bet is to sell your digital dash, and pick up some aftermarket digital gauges in your color choice. Or go analog and put blue LEDs in them. There are plenty of guys that will buy up a fully functioning digital dash to either swap it in, or fix theirs that doesnt work.

Good luck and if you find any more info...post it up!

Justin

P.S....the red vs. blue being easier to see thing is true. All of my gauges and what not are red/orange. My pioneer head unit is blue. The little button lights are almost imposible for me to see at night. The blue makes this weird 3-d effect when I loko at it and its kinda weird. I need new glasses too...but its something Ive noticed.

 

You may find some tips here, but when it comes to digital I am not sure.



https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/interior/403737-changing-dash-display-lights.html

 

The digital dash is a LED segment display, which is many LED's in a block. Unless you can find that identical part with blue LED's I don't see any way to change them.

I wanted to change my green dashclock to blue... still haven't found the parts!

 

Suggestion.........call someone like say dakota digital and ask them. The y might have some suggestions and parts that will help. Also try painless wiring. I remember them selling bulbs that might be of use. Asking questions is free.

 

thanks for all the great suggestions

 

Tkae a picture of the dash bare, and tell me the L and W if the 7segment LED's, I can probably get you what you need....

 

i dont live all the far from you, im in mchenry, if your still in illinois. ill pull out the gauges this weekend and post up some pictures.

thanks again

 

the digital dash is backlit like all the others, you can put other color bulbs in however the lcd stuff is colored itself so if you go blue it will come out bluish green with purplish red zones. i've though bout this whole thing myself and the best hope is LED's nothing else will be bright enough to overcome the gauge's lcd color without being too hot.

in my opinion, the best overall option is to have a stock color digital dash in good order.

 

yaaaaaaaaawn... sorry, thread was sleeping

 

Actually, the colors on the gauges come from colored plastic panels, behind the LCD panels themselves. The LCDs emit no light, they simply block or allow light to go through. I have another digital dash I need to take apart and clean, and I'll get some pictures of the plastic color panels. I will also try and get them scanned into the computer, that way they they can be colored any way, and printed on plastic sheets.

This is the only picture I have of the gauge cluster apart showing the individual panels. They can be removed from the circuit boards VERY carefully. I wouldn't have even attempted this unless I had a spare cluster. I'm considering doing mine in blue, but I need to see how hard it will be to get the digital climate panel blue also.

 

If I was going this route I would try working with some electroluminescent panels. They are paper thin. It would cure the problems with the edges being dim because the light comes from a point called a filament.

I am tinkering with the idea of starting to replace some of the gauges with LED bar graphs, but I don't know how well they would work in the daylight. I understand that possibly if the color of the "lens" the LED shines through matches the color the LED emits, the situation is better. Everything in the dash can be replaced with an LED equivalent. The hardest one to replace would be the tachometer. With the advent of 3D-printing being affordable, that still shouldn't be difficult to replicate.

 

Man, this thread is 7 years old! Might do better making a new one

 

he's added useful info to the already existing topic. A new thread would just be clutter. As well as wouldn't work in context without the rest of this thread. That's the point of a forum. To build a repository of knowledge to come back to later. Otherwise we might as well be in a chat room.