DIY: LED Gauge Cluster - Tuner-Junction

mad-ass · #1 (**permalink**) April 7th, 2006, 07:00 PM

I finally did it. This took me about 3 hours from start to finish from the start.

I explained most of this on the pictures itself, but I will also be explaning the process BELOW

the picture.

This DIY is done on 1995 Honda Civic DX manual gauge cluster.
I am not responsible for your mistakes and false moves doing this DIY, if your gauge stops

workings from this DIY from your mistakes, I will not be accountable for it. do it at your own

risk, but there is no reason this should mess up your cluster if you did what I did on this DIY.

I did not do the whole gauge cluster, because this work is the "basic" idea of converting your

gauge cluster's illumination to LED, instead of just simply replacing the lights to LED.

I will also not explain what LED and resistor you will need to use in this DIY, because I

already have a whole thread covering that subject here.

Now, before anything, it is entirely up to you to decide how to make your own circute bord.

Circute bord[aka PC bord, find be found at your local electronic store such as Radio Shack,

Fry's..] I only used PC bord to have a very secure connection that will last, you can also just

wire the LED's up with resistor's from your choice of power source.

ok, now, let's get started. pics are huge, I don't care, don't like it, don't bitch about it.

Step 1.

Reguired materials. Gauge Cluster you will be working on, LED's and resistors, solid and

standard wires;22 or thinner gauge wires recommended, wire stripper, sets of pliers, soldering

iron OR cold heat[btw, cold heat is POS], lead solder[aka soldering braid] & desoldering braid

or gun, screw drivers[you'll need size #1 or #2 + screw driver], xacto knife, eletrical tape,

and PC bord.

Step 2.

Wires close up. when you are getting ready for this DIY project, warm up your soldering iron.

make sure you have a clean soldering point-tip, if not, heat up your solder and file/grind down

your tip to have clean/clear contact surface.

Step 3.

Take your gauge cluster apart. as said in the picture, figure it out on your own.

Step 4.

this does not apply to all gauge clusters, but for this app[95 civic DX 5-spd gauge cluster],

just simply pull out the reset knob, it's rubber.

Step 5.

hooray..it's off...

Step 6.

This is back of the gauge cluster, I explained everything on the picture.
take the screws off.

mad-ass · #2 (**permalink**) April 7th, 2006, 07:02 PM

Step 7.

try not to touch the display area of the gauge, finger oil = no good. nasty looking.

Step 8.

the green blocks indicated on the picture is the amount of space we have for this project, and

agian, this varies for each application.

Step 9.

back of the speedo incase some of you are wondering..
To explain bit more on the shades behind the gauges...black/dark spots are where the bulbs lie

to light up your gauge.

Step 10.

More refenrence for your future work. as captioned on the picture, some empty portals for your

wires to go through, if you can't find any, drill a whole on side of the gauge cluster if you

aren't a wuss.

Step 11.

make your measuring...and cut the bord according to your measurements.

Step 12.

Yess.....

mad-ass · #3 (**permalink**) April 7th, 2006, 07:03 PM

Step 13.

put out a piece of the PC bord to make a socket connection like you would have from your OEM

bulb. PC bord just happends to have about same thickness for this app, acclent.

Step 14.

Trim the little piece, and test fit it. it will be a tight fit, but that just means more secure

connection.

Step 15.

Making a connection..I hope my MS-Paint work explained it well enough.
basically, you are making a replica of your OEM bulb to make a connection

Step 16.

test fit it agian...this will be harder to fit into before you wired up the wires.
so you don't have to worry about "what if the wire connection gets loose" situation.

Step 17.

Fun of this DIY..soldering!
and agian, it's entirely up to you to make decision how to wire up your circutes.
just remember agian that each LED should have resistor for it's own. not sharing one resistor in

a serise. I used 3 leds, so I also used 3 resistors.

Step 18.

solder..solder..solder..ooh..solder..the smell of that rasin..ooh...yuck!

mad-ass · #4 (**permalink**) April 7th, 2006, 07:04 PM

Step 19.

the wire legs from the resistor go from red box to pink box. thus making the resistor's legs

appear back on top of the circute bord.

Step 20.

the other side of resistor's legs went to the positive side of the LED to make a connection, and

that's what the green boxes represent. and the wires that are not soldered are the negative leg

from the LED's.

Step 21.

Top side of the circute bord completed.
Note: positive legs of LED should have it's own power, but the negative side, can all be joined

together. it's only a ground.

Step 22.

test it out! I used a phone charger[your ordinary house wireless phone charger, they are

usually 9v, but read the specs on the adapter to be sure.]. so the lights will be brighter once

it's hooked up to the cluster's 12V power source.

Step 23.

test fit your work. and mount the bord with hot glue. I LOVE HOT GLUE!!!!

Step 24.

Be amazed..not amazed, but proud of your work. Don't mind the blue-ish look, it's just how

cam's work, but the middle big white one should be a good reference.

ok, last step is to put everything back together just like you took it apart.
remember to test out your lights before making a final assembly. I do not know which side is

positive or negative, so you are going to have to figure that out on your own. it shouldn't

matter if it was your ordinary OEM helogen bulbs, but LED's only work when the current flow are

correct.

Ok, how was this DIY? Easy? Hard? rate it. 1 being worst, 10 being perfect.

Please give me feed back on this. and correct me if anything is wrong.

Happy DIY, mad-ass aka Hoyoung

EDIT: I'd like to give credit to Rhythm Kid [Channing W.] as a supplyer for the gauge cluster and also for truly being one of life-long friend. Thanks man!!

DrivinVtec · #5 (**permalink**) May 29th, 2006, 02:22 AM

wow. nice work. looks like alot of work for me to do.

Slipjack · #6 (**permalink**) October 3rd, 2006, 02:06 AM

Looks pretty simple to me. I was thinking of doing pretty much the same exact thing with red LEDs.