blue dash lights

[USDISC]

Any progress with the project?

[mcwilly]

nah need to pay rego etc put on hold

[EVOlution]

I just did my dash and door and roof lights in LEDs - they are not your average little dinky LEDs you buy from Dick Smith or Jaycar, nope, these are industrial type ones, these are so bright you can use one as a small headlight.
So, here's the dash in white and one of the door lights. I have designed a system that will operate with multi-colour LEDs and you can set the colour or have them cycle through the whole range of colours, I might save up and prototype it into my car and post up a small movie of it one day.

[mcwilly]

can u still get these industrial leds in blue im very keen for a real bright blue dash, havent found decent leds

[EVOlution]

Yeah, they come in a range of "set colours" in what I call the "industrial brightness" range. They retail for around $30 each but I buy them for $17 each. They aren't cheap compared to a normal parking light or dash globe but they have a specified life of 10,000 hours and a 90% rating of 50,000 hours (that means they will still have 90% of the original brightness after 50,000 hours), they don't suffer from vibration and they use 1/6th the power of a normal dash light globe.
I have used 6 of them in my dash and they all together use 2mA more than one single dash globe on it's own.
Anyway, I have also used a couple in the front parking lights and I intend to use some of the absolute biggest ones for my stop/tail and turn lamps - the brightest ones retail for about $75 each but will cost me about $55 each, but as I said, these will outlast the car compared to normal globes.
The fixed colours are red, amber, green, blue, white and "incandecent white" or sometimes called "warm white".
Oh yeah, there are some cheaper ones that are not as bright that cost me about $12 each but they are not as bright as the "genuine" ones.

[Rupewrecht]

what sort of Mcd do they put out?

[mcwilly]

how do these fit into the dash are they in the right design to fit straight in or is soldering required etc. they sound pretty good.

[EVOlution]

Soldering is required until I find a way to produce them as replacement bulb units, I know you can buy these type of LED bulb replacements but they are nowhere near the brightness of these little buggers.
The output is from 80 to 120 Lumens, what that actually equates to in mcd I don't really know - they are so bright you cannot look directly at them, seriously. There is a warning from the manufacturer that they are rated as Class 2 Visual which means they are almost up there with laser light.
I have one in each front parking light so far but these are not the brightest ones in the range, I think the brightest would be too bright for parkers so I have used the second most brightest. They are actually sold in retail stores as 1W, 3W and 5W, I am using the 3W as parkers and dash lights. I will save up and get the 5W for stop lights and turn indicator lamps.

[ROB-80E]

Leds in my dash and how they are setup.


Dash


I do need a variable exposure camera...what I have done here is also put white leds in the pespex that transfers light to the front of the dash to light up the needls...this worked very well, but my camera still doesn't pick up the kneedles sorry.

Stereo setup with leds (white)


Here you can see the roof leds, they were setup like the ones in my amp on the above pic.


mcwilly, if you need help with this, just ask. As i've said in previous posts...I have all the parts at my finger tips.

[steve_666]

KMart now have blue dash light kits, they are around $10. There not LEDs just normal bulbs but blue.

[89sp1.8]

hey rob, did u add in extra bulbs to get coverage in dash? or r they just standard amount of bulbs just leds?

[ROB-80E]

I think i added one more over in the corner of the fuel and temp guages. I know I added one.

[zappy65]

so if i grab some blue covers and sand the back of my dials this will work????Rob im not to good with finding what resistors to use and where to solder them (nor am i confident at soldering my dial pcb board) so if u can explain (that is if my first plan of attack doesnt work....

[tjongdy]

Bringing this thread up again,

I was thinking about changing the dash lights from the green on my BJII ... i took the meter unit out and saw that there are 2 sizes, 2 "bigger" ones and the rest are the "smaller" type ... just wondering if any of you guys know what sizes they are, since i was thinking about using LEDs off ebay, unless there are better options out there...


EDIT
...and yes i have looked in the manual for sizes .... only has wattages in there...

[zappy65]

if you wait 2 days im puttign a how to thread on here to describe how to install different coloured lights and how to install a oil pressure gauge....

[mcwilly]

sounds good

[reshiek]

has anybody done one for the BA??
i want to do this but am sure what to get and how...?
help would be great
cheers

[phly]

Hey mate, i found a guide over at club323f a while ago cuz i was planning on doing this too. Just havent got around to it yet.

http://www.club323f.com/content/ba/g...eplacement.pdf

[02-KQ-LASR]

Originally Posted by tjongdy

Bringing this thread up again,

I was thinking about changing the dash lights from the green on my BJII ... i took the meter unit out and saw that there are 2 sizes, 2 "bigger" ones and the rest are the "smaller" type ... just wondering if any of you guys know what sizes they are, since i was thinking about using LEDs off ebay, unless there are better options out there...


EDIT
...and yes i have looked in the manual for sizes .... only has wattages in there...

we have the same issue, you will need to sand it all back.... i couldnt be bothered so i stayed with the crappy green...

[reshiek]

thanks heaps for phly.
hope you get a chance to do it.
i am going to buy the parts from auto barn...hopefully