I am currently changing the back lights in my Dash to High Output Blue LED's. I am wondering if anyone is interested. If so I will spend the time to make a tech article on how to do this.

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1989 Iroc-Z Blue T-Tops
Lightly Moded:
Headers, Rebuilt B&M 700R-4 tranny, Airfoil, K&N's

 

Im interested, sounds kick *** . It will also go better with the way overpriced Pioneer cd player I recently got. The movie function isnt very practicle...

 

i'd definately be interested! Sounds awesome, please write the article!

 

Oh, hell's ya

 

Could u please post some pics up of how it looks. I imagine it looks great!

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1992 z28 25th Anniversary
All black w/ z28 wing
Flowmaster Exhaust
350 TPI

 

Yup! go for it man!

 

that'd be awesome man

 

Is it possible red can work? I'm going for awhole black and red thing. Not real fond of yellow.

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91 Z28
Best Time Slip:
60' - 2.098
1/8 - 9.137 , MPH - 76.21
1/4 - 14.213, MPH - 97.55
Performace Mods: B&B Exhaust, few free mods.
Appearance Mods: SS wheels, 2.5" Cowl Hood... New 100% Black paint job, Clear Side Marker Lights
Stereo: Alpine 855, Infinity Kappas all around, Infinity 150x2 amp (POS), Infinity Perfect 10 in hatch.
Pictures are Here
ICQ: 1437212
AOL: normalmatt9

 

Any color LED you can buy works. RED, Yellow, Blue, Green, White, Orange.. you get the idea. The problem with LED's is that they run off 5 volts so I am currently building a simple regulated circuit that converts the 12v to 5v. I hopefully will be able to put this all in this weekend I’ll have pics then.

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1989 Iroc-Z Blue T-Tops
Lightly Moded:
Headers, Rebuilt B&M 700R-4 tranny, Airfoil, K&N's

 

By the looks of this thread, your going to need to know how to produce more than one.



------------------
91 Z28
Best Time Slip:
60' - 2.098
1/8 - 9.137 , MPH - 76.21
1/4 - 14.213, MPH - 97.55
Performace Mods: B&B Exhaust, few free mods.
Appearance Mods: SS wheels, 2.5" Cowl Hood... New 100% Black paint job, Clear Side Marker Lights
Stereo: Alpine 855, Infinity Kappas all around, Infinity 150x2 amp (POS), Infinity Perfect 10 in hatch.
Pictures are Here
ICQ: 1437212
AOL: normalmatt9

 

Go for it. I'm interested

 

Yeah man! Make an article!

Later
Mike

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Check out My Car Pics http://albums.photo.epson.com/j/Albu...667&a=13599419

Gran Turismo Americano "The Ultimate Firebird"
Smokin 1989 GTA- Bone stock except for exhaust. (no catalytic-stainless pipe into Flowmaster 2 chamber) & AC Delco Rapid Fire Plugs

 

I know where you live Luke! I'll give you lots of beer if you install them for me ,

While were at it, can I have my 10 bolt back some time.


[This message has been edited by UVA3rdGen (edited September 11, 2001).]

 

it sounds good, lets see this but i think i'll use red.

 

89 Iroc,

It looks like, that while everyone has their own color preference, we would all be interested in your article!

I know there are super-bright LEDs available now that you couldn't get just a few years ago...but aren't they very focused, like a flashlight beam? How do you plan to get the light to spread out evenly across the instruments?

LEDs are pretty much meant to operate at one brightness level, I'm pretty sure. I think that after you install them, if you decide to turn the dimmer ****, the LEDs will probably just go out completely instead of dimming.

Perhaps you (or even an aftermarket light bulb company) could make this: An LED, and the appropriate value resistor, combined with a base that fits a standard #194 socket. Then, you can simply pop out the factory 194 bulbs and slip the new LED ones in.

 

I say strobe them at ~60+Hz, you can get them sooo much brighter that way, infact I think if you strobe them you can run a lot more power through them(atleast I remeber jeremy telling us that one time). Then again that is a real pain to rig up and how bright do you want your dash anyway. I have seen LEDs dim, seems like on my bike light when ever the battery starts getting low they get dimmer.

[This message has been edited by UVA3rdGen (edited September 13, 2001).]

 

Chris,
Yes LED's are focused but 89 and below Camaro’s have a dash that the light is reflected off a plate onto the gauges so this is not a problem. 90-92 Camaro’s I will have to figure out once I finish my car.

LED's have a peak output but can be run at different power levels. They can be dimmed, they don’t really cut out but they are very sensitive to voltage. There is a certain voltage need for a led to put out light when that when you go below that level the LED will turn off but that is a very low level so it should affect this too much.

I am not going to use the power off of the normal dash lights I am going to use the power from the fuse for headlights or where I can find power that is switched on and off but not dimmed by the headlight switch.

I have built a simple circuit based on the LM317T IC. I put a potentiometer on the output from the circuit so the dash will have a separate dimmer.

[This message has been edited by 89 Iroc Z (edited September 13, 2001).]

 

I finished my dash last night. It looks very cool. All the red on the dash turns neon, like the redline on the tack. I will have some pictures soon. I just have to download them off my camera.

 

Out of 20 pictures this is the only one that look any where close to what it looks like in real life.

 

Thats what I wanted to do

 

hmm...need a little more light I would think. Have the numbers aren't lit up. Anyway to get around that?

------------------
91 Z28
Best Time Slip:
60' - 2.098
1/8 - 9.137 , MPH - 76.21
1/4 - 14.213, MPH - 97.55
Performace Mods: B&B Exhaust, few free mods.
Appearance Mods: SS wheels, 2.5" Cowl Hood... New 100% Black paint job, Clear Side Marker Lights
Stereo: Alpine 855, Infinity Kappas all around, Infinity 150x2 amp (POS), Infinity Perfect 10 in hatch.
Pictures are Here
ICQ: 1437212
AOL: normalmatt9

 

They are very well lit but I can't get a good picture.

 

I'm doing my 91Z's dash as we speak but I'm a little more ambitious. I'm doing it in red/blue. The lines are going to be blue and the numbers are going to be bright red. A dedicated circuit for this isnt really needed and it just adds unecessary cost to the project. If you connect the right amount of LEDs in series they will be just fine as long as you dont go over their 20-40 mA rating. I did my tailights this way by using about 100 LEDs in each light and they look REALLY cool. Now the dash is about to be done and believe me I will post pics for you all to see

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1991 Z28

 

I decided not use a circuit. I just used the following formal to find the resistor I needed.

Rs=

+V-(V led)
----------
Iled

Rs = The ohms of resistance needed
+V = Input voltage (About 13.45 in my car)
V led = The volts the LED is rated at (mine were 5v)
I LED = The amps the LED uses (mine was .02 or 20MA)

Example:

Rs=

13.45 - 5
---------- = 422.5
.02

I used a used 423 ohms of resistance by wiring a 390 ohm and a 33 ohm resistor in series.

I was going to use a circuit so I could dim it separately form the dimmer on the dash because the dimmer on the dash will not dim LED's.

[This message has been edited by 89 Iroc Z (edited September 16, 2001).]

 

Oh man that looks sweet!

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1988 Jet Black IROC
5.7L W/ 64000 miles
Flowmaster Exhaust
Fully Loaded
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My IROC In Readers Rides
My IROC

 

That looks really sweet, but I have a 92 which means the light doesn't reflect off the back of the gaugs like they do in 89's. Any ideas on what I can do?

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1992 Camaro RS
5.0L TBI
Custom white-faced gauges
K&N Airfilter and ready to take on the world!
My 1992 RS



USA

 

90-92 Camaros use a piece of plastics that the light travels through. I think what you will have to do is mount the LED to shine into that clear peace of plastic 90-92 Camaro's have potential to look even cooler if done right. My bro has a 92 when I get some free time I'll take apart his dash (hope you don't mind Sam) and take a better look.

When I get some free time I will make the climate control light up blue too!! I think that will look cool.

 

Here's how I did it. Here's how i modifed the socket that holds the normal light bulbs.

 

Can you buy those sockets anywhere? I might try this too, but I dont want to mess the only ones I have up, plus, I might be able to use them in something I am making too.... Thanks.

 

You can buy them at any local auto store. Just buy the dash light bulbs for your car. You will have to remove the light bulb and solder in the resistors and LED.

 

Are you going to be able to write a tech article on how to do this?? I think it is something i would like to try to do over spring break...also, where did you buy the LED's from???

Thanks

 

I tried to do that a coulpe of months ago and put lights back there but on my car the panel the light shines off of is painted orange from the factory ......any suggestions.....

 

paint it white like I did. It will refelct much better.

 

tech article, tech article, tech article.......

 

I will make tech artical.. I was very busy before but now i have some free time.

 

hey guys... iwork for a company that sells LEDS... if you want i can find out a price... i am in the sign industry and cut vinyl for signs... if ur interested i'll find out..

 

Having a blue is cool.. Here is another thought for anyone.. I'm thinking of using this put behind the guage faces so it luminates the faces evenly.. http://www.itsrealstuff.com/ACCESSOR...glo-wirez.html

 

Wicked! Get the tech article up. Plz :hail:

 

That should work but it may not be bright enough

 

The tech artical will be finished this weekend, who do i send it to, to get it posted?

 

are these 194 leds? i bought a set off ebay for my license plate lights and they are 12v bulbs. They work fine and look great. I was thinking about doing this for my dash in red (replacing my red xenon which have faded a bit), but can I do this? Shouldn't an led 194 be just like a regular 194? Also, it would be a bit of a pain because leds don't work if you put them in the socket backwards so I would have to put them in, put the dash back together, then figure out which ones i had in backwards.

 

Hey 89IROC, send it to me .....Black85TransAm@hotmail.com

 

I have see these things going for $12 on ebay that mean to do your whole dash it would cost $144!!!!! (12x12 there is 12 bulbs in your dash) I would never pay that when you can get high output LEDs for as cheep as .35 for red. Blue or white will run you the most at $3.25 a peace. Still much cheaper then $12 each

 

well, my dash only has 4 bulbs and they are sold in sets of two. So do you think that these will work fine?

 

Thanks a lot for taking time to write a tech article!!! :hail:

If you cant figure out how to get it posted, i would greatly appreciate it if you could email it to me at:

kaliszewski1@student.wit.edu

Thanks again!

Matt
82CamaroZ28