I see BLUE!!!!

which bulbs are used for the cluster? i've been thinking of doing this for awhile, but, i haven't been able to find specs on what LEDs are on the board. there was a picture before of someone with a G, i think (?), that did this step-by-step, but, i don't remember where it was.

i don't think it's as bad as it looks, really. i'd love to see this in person before i did it, but, the pics make me wanna go off and rip my car apart.
 
The lights for the gauges are 2 twist lock bulbs but i don't know which ones. The one's i bought kept blowing the fuse.

The needle LED's are PLCC-4
All the accessory things like SLIP, ABS, Cruise are PLCC-2
The LED's under the LCD screens are PLCC-4 and there's 4 total.
 
oh! thanks for the super quick response! time to price em out and check the schematic to see exactly what i'm getting myself into.

that's strange that they'd keep blowing the fuse like that. some transistors and such run at different ohmage. i wonder if these bulbs can be similar and were just pulling too much juice. if i can find anything out once i do some research, i'll post up a warning on what may be wrong..

again, thanks for the help.
 
Nice, that's more info than I got.

From Andrew's description of the cluster. There is an amber film on the clear backing that needs to be sanded off to get the color out. From there the bulbs can be replaced but the light dispersion was not enough for him. He installed a whole lot of additional blue leds to get the effect I have.
 
I forgot about that too. All the gauges have a layer of amber on the back then a layer of white/black over that. I'm still working on mine but i'm gonna have to add more LED's like rookie mentioned. My gas and temp gauges are kinda dark. I ended up wiring a couple PLCC-2 LED's with resistors in place of the twist-lock bulbs but i still haven't given them power yet.
 
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Yea, the needles gotta come off and they're on there pretty good. Your dash looks pretty sweet.

Rookie, did Andrew tell you which LED's he used behind the stereo buttons? I got 1206 LED's but they're too big. That's got to be the worst part of the whole blue led conversion, there's about 60 TINY led's behind the buttons in the stereo.
 
any answer for what's behind the radio buttons yet? i haven't had a chance to pull everything apart, but, i'm gonna try this pretty soon. i've been debating between blue and white. i'd like to use both, but, haven't figured out a way to integrate both yet. prolly just gonna decide on one color and go with that.
 
shralp said:
Yea, the needles gotta come off and they're on there pretty good. Your dash looks pretty sweet.

Rookie, did Andrew tell you which LED's he used behind the stereo buttons? I got 1206 LED's but they're too big. That's got to be the worst part of the whole blue led conversion, there's about 60 TINY led's behind the buttons in the stereo.
Click to expand...

the next size down from a 1206 would an 0805. I've never actually seen what the LEDs back there look like, but I work a lot with electronics, being an engineer, and that is the next standard size down from 1206
 
thanx gchris. i work with electronics, just not led bulbs...... i may pick up a couple of these to compare when i tear it apart.
 
shralp said:
keep us updated on your progress chi. I'm waiting on 16 PLCC-4 LED's right now to swap from the radio/climate screen.
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will you be sure to post some pics of the disassembled screen?


also, i work for the LED lighting development division of Philips Global Electronics. I've been here for about 3 years now so i've seen a wide array of LEDs in different packages. dont hesistate to contact me with any questions
 
as soon as i get the chance to do this, i'll post some pics and possibly do a write-up if people are interested.

if this is what i think it is also, i may be able to do the mod for people. but.......let's start at step 1 first.
 
my only real concern is the gauge cluster. i tried to do this on my old explorer and the film on the back of the gauges was a NIGHTMARE. not only did it have a green film, but it had a white mesh with different densities in different places. the grid was more dense right above the bulb, to block more light, and it was less dense further away. the end results was even light distribution when looking through the front. when you scrape all this away and light it with just an LED, you get hotspots where it is significantly brighter in some spots. i spent a lot of time playing around with different things to make it work but eventually just got fed up and quit. From what others have said in this thread it seems that this gauge cluster would be the same.
 
rookie had said before that they added in extra LEDs to brighten it up. i'm sure evening out the light had to do something with it too.

i don't know if i'll get the chance to tear anything apart this weekend, but, i'm going to pick up some bulbs in a few minutes. i found a place in chicago that sells them and has them stocked.
 
gchristopher9 said:
my only real concern is the gauge cluster. i tried to do this on my old explorer and the film on the back of the gauges was a NIGHTMARE. not only did it have a green film, but it had a white mesh with different densities in different places. the grid was more dense right above the bulb, to block more light, and it was less dense further away. the end results was even light distribution when looking through the front. when you scrape all this away and light it with just an LED, you get hotspots where it is significantly brighter in some spots. i spent a lot of time playing around with different things to make it work but eventually just got fed up and quit. From what others have said in this thread it seems that this gauge cluster would be the same.
Click to expand...

The back of our gauges are exactly the same. A layer of yellow under a layer of white/black with varying darkness.
 
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