pollax

Here's what my guages now look like:


Okay I wish they did look like that! I installed some blue leds in there but it's much, much dimmer in real life. I have to keep the dimmer all the way down or the leds will burn out.

So I guess I'm going to have to find some higher voltage blue leds and try again.

protegeDX

nice nice.. how come they would burn out tho if u made them any brighter? whuz the case?

kcbhiw

Put a 1k ohm resistor in series with each LED. Doing that will allow you to turn the brightness up. LED's have a voltage drop of approximately 1.4V. When you put raw 12vdc (full setting) across them, they can't handle the current and fry. A 1k ohm resistor will basically take up the slack with a voltage drop of about 10.6vdc, nominally. Give that a try.

pollax

But adding the resistor will not allow the LEDs to get any brighter will it??

The guages are way too dark with the LEDs in there it's hard to see anything unless it's totally dark, like in my garage!

I found these lights on ebay that are 4 LED's packed into a bulb the size of a 194 bulb but thery are $14 shipped for a pair. I'd rather save up a few more bucks and get some reverse indiglo guages. instead.

kcbhiw

Yes, the resister will allow the LED to acheive full brilliance. It all depends on the LED's that you purchased. If the maximum voltage drop and maximum current spec'd is put across the LED, it will acheive full brilliance. The resister does this by limiting the current through the LED.

Also, most of the [cheaper] blue LEDs are by far not the brightest available.

pollax

I think I'm going to abandon the LED idea for now. The resistor trick would be too difficult because a couple of the bulbs are very small to begin with so it's going to be very difficult to fit a resistor in there too.

Another problem is that the light from LEDs are very directional. As you can see in the pic I posted, there are bright spots where the LEDs are.

I also have a pair of blue APC 194 bulbs and I just tried them and they work much better than the LEDs. Only problem is now I have to find some smaller blue bulbs to match the larger 194s so my whole guage will be blue.

dafoo21

i would like to buy the reverse indiglos also but that requires putting them on, lol. has anyone perfected this technique?

NegatiZE

Unless you want to cut them, no one except for Blue LEDz.

gujustud

I'm extremely interesting in doing this mod, heck I've already started, but those damn smaller bulbs are pissin me off.

1) Are they #74's? I couldn't read the number of them.

2) Can You put blue film over the bulbs (take the green jacket off first)...

3) Where is a good place to get GOOD LED lights?

Thanks guys!

Red Racer

Just get more leds and share the current. Go to www.superbrightleds.com.

Smurfoo-rah

That looks awesome! It would go nice with my laser blue P5 - and the fact that I love the color blue!

pollax

It'b be very difficult to do so with LEDs. LEDs have a very directinal light so you whould have to fabricate some sort of reflector for them. Considering the size of the bulbs and the holes, that would be very difficult.

The bulbs are indeed size 74. I did come across one website that had them for sale but they were like $10.95 for a pair.