My bulb to LED conversion - Tuner-Junction

Retroshark · #1 (**permalink**) April 17th, 2006, 11:20 PM

ive been working on it for a few weeks, i got the dash done to how i want it (brighter than the first time i did ti) and i have been toying with ideas on how to evenly light the AC controls while keeping only 3 LEd's per 12v source. i finally got it done tonight and it looked pretty good. here are some pics of the install, and tomorrow night ill get pictures of it lit up in the car. i have a feeling i still need to do the far right dial again.

Click For original image

Click For original image

hoyoung will be happy, i removed the transparent bar wich would normally spread the light out from a single bulb, and put a single LED in front of each button!

Tony_Bolony · #2 (**permalink**) April 18th, 2006, 12:31 AM

omg howd you take a picture of yourself? both of your hands are clearly occupied.

TSXmike · #3 (**permalink**) April 18th, 2006, 01:24 AM

pics of the results?

macbasq · #4 (**permalink**) April 18th, 2006, 01:57 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ALtronX

omg howd you take a picture of yourself? both of your hands are clearly occupied.

magic!!

jon ROCKS!!!! · #5 (**permalink**) April 18th, 2006, 02:15 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by macbasq

magic!!

snap fizzle!!!!

where are teh night pics fewl?

XLR8 · #6 (**permalink**) April 18th, 2006, 02:53 AM

This thread is useless without night time pics!!!

#7 (**permalink**) April 18th, 2006, 03:14 AM

Nice job marc but you do need the night time pictures

Retroshark · #8 (**permalink**) April 18th, 2006, 08:35 AM

im gonna do it tonight, i had my car already parked at the stadium ad it was raining so i wasnt gonna walk 20 minutes in the rain there and back to snap some pics.

Retroshark · #9 (**permalink**) April 18th, 2006, 09:43 AM

bad news... idk whjat happened, but i put it in my car this morning and the whole circuit burned out. i took a quick look and it looks like the part of the circuit that delivers the power to the first LED just got fried. there was smoke and the plasitc melted around the board. SHIT. now i need to get a new climate control unit (fairly cheap on ebay) but im pissed since i speant 5 hours on this and i tested it ebfore i put it in the car and it was fine.

either way, hoyoung or anyone else, any ideas on what happened? i only had 3 LED's per single bulb that was previously installed.

Retroshark · #10 (**permalink**) April 18th, 2006, 10:38 AM

ok im workign out a deal with an ebay seller to buy his climate control for 30 shipped... hopefully itll go through and ill get it next week. god im pissed becasue i have no idea what happened

mad-ass · #11 (**permalink**) April 18th, 2006, 12:35 PM

so your whole circute bord got fried? or just the LED's?

arg..why is it that you people don't listen to me and use resistor behind every LED?!?

and this might have happened from short circute.

and it looks like you need better soldering skills before you do anything like this agian. I am sorry to say, but your soldering isn't cutting it to me.

Retroshark · #12 (**permalink**) April 18th, 2006, 01:17 PM

the soldering in the first pics was shit becasue i was using 5 year old solder. i b ought new solder after the pictures and redid it. i know it looks crap

mad-ass · #13 (**permalink**) April 18th, 2006, 01:33 PM

age of soldering iron don't matter..

I used my first ever soldering iron when I was in korea if that makes you feel any better...[one I used when I was in 5th grade or something]

EDIT: question.

why did you wire up the LED for the temperature with this?

just out of blue's or with some plans?

Retroshark · #14 (**permalink**) April 18th, 2006, 01:57 PM

i said solder not the iron. the solder was old, discolored and hardly stuck to the wires. my new solder is lead free and of much better quality. and i wired the temp LED because there are holes for 3 led's:

1 for the temp
1 for top buttons
1 for bottom

i wired 3 led's to each connector so each button had a single LEd behind it for optimum outuput. this time im just removing the light filters behind the buttons and sing a single LED as i should have done. i have ordered a new climate control, this one is toast. i dont know what it was because all the leds were fine none burned out and they all worked when i tested them with a 12v source. as soon as i connected it and turned o n the lights, the board fried.

jadkar · #15 (**permalink**) April 18th, 2006, 03:06 PM

Just a guess without seeing anything you did at all. But I bet one of the leads (somewhere) was exposed and touched some metal inside the dash and shorted everything out.

You know guys, I'm really excited to do something like this but WE all have to be very careful. This is a great way to burn your car down. Especially since the fire can start from BEHIND something that's bolted/screwed in place. Meaning if there is a fire, before you can unscrew the thing to get behind it ....... it's too late.

mad-ass · #16 (**permalink**) April 18th, 2006, 03:26 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jadkar

Just a guess without seeing anything you did at all. But I bet one of the leads (somewhere) was exposed and touched some metal inside the dash and shorted everything out.

You know guys, I'm really excited to do something like this but WE all have to be very careful. This is a great way to burn your car down. Especially since the fire can start from BEHIND something that's bolted/screwed in place. Meaning if there is a fire, before you can unscrew the thing to get behind it ....... it's too late.

that reminds me of this one WV Golf that caught on fire in middle of the street. the fire started from the turbo, the heat went through the fire-wall and made the interior stuff catch on fire

Retroshark · #17 (**permalink**) April 18th, 2006, 03:34 PM

i know, its lucky that i dont screw down stuff im working on for that reason. i took appart the stuff that burned and its a major short, but nowhere near the led. ill take picture later but its still weird. anyway, so i took the color filters off the buttons and they do shiune brighter with just the one led in place, but hoyoung, how do you recomend getting it to be even witout hot spots? i cant see a way of doing it without making hot spots somewhere. ive tried flat head led's rounded led's what else can i do?

i wish i culd have gotten the way i did it last night to work but it doesnt seem like it would. what can you suggest?

mad-ass · #18 (**permalink**) April 18th, 2006, 03:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Retroshark

i know, its lucky that i dont screw down stuff im working on for that reason. i took appart the stuff that burned and its a major short, but nowhere near the led. ill take picture later but its still weird. anyway, so i took the color filters off the buttons and they do shiune brighter with just the one led in place, but hoyoung, how do you recomend getting it to be even witout hot spots? i cant see a way of doing it without making hot spots somewhere. ive tried flat head led's rounded led's what else can i do?

i wish i culd have gotten the way i did it last night to work but it doesnt seem like it would. what can you suggest?

white Icon filters.

I haven't been able to get ahold of them, but with this method of lighting up the cluster, you are putting LED behind each buttons, and the filter you are talking about are "blue" that are originally in the buttons, so with out taking them out, your buttons will light up blue with white or blue LED.

since you are doing it, this may sound ghotto, but I find plastic bags you get from walmart, the white bags, but not clear.
I use about 2~3 layers of them, and seem to work just find.

where to put them? infront of the LEDs, not right behind the buttons, maybe superglue them infront of them.

mad-ass · #19 (**permalink**) April 18th, 2006, 03:54 PM

if you are planning to put the clear plastic spread piece back in there, there isn't much you can do about it with just 1 led.

but going back to your method of doing this with same idea...

just wire up the LED's with it's own resistors, and i believe there are 3 buttons for bottom, and 5 on top.

remember how I made a connection for the gauge cluster LED? do the same method but with out the circute bord, i know this will be a wiring mess, but will be worth it.

oh, from now on, use heat shrink or cover up your wires with scotch/electrical tape from exposed wires, I am thinking the same thing jadkar is thinkg, it might have touched the components inside and fried this thing alive.

jadkar · #20 (**permalink**) April 18th, 2006, 04:26 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mad-ass

that reminds me of this one WV Golf that caught on fire in middle of the street. the fire started from the turbo, the heat went through the fire-wall and made the interior stuff catch on fire

saw that video........

It's time to unpimp ze auto!!!