LED Dash Lights

[Utester]

OK boys and girls.

As promised, I did get the LEDs today. I got all excited and fitted them to the stereo, the results are ASTOUNDING!!

Attached is a pic to show it off - the display looks in the photo to have lost some contrast, but believe me that's just a trick of the lens. (looking at the real thing there's no problem at all)

Since there's been a moderate amount of interest, I'm going to go ahead with another order of LEDs tomorrow. The supplier still has a partial reel, with almost 300 pcs on it. (better than 1,500!!)

Enjoy! I reckon it looks pretty damned OK, but then I might be a little biased!

Cheerz!

Mate, that looks great!! :w00t:
One of the few things I miss about the BA XR8 is the blue dash lighting.
I am watching your progress with interest.
I am keen to purchase a kit if you are keen to supply them (pending confirmation of cost to do the entire job ie: dash, stereo, a/c controls, window switches, trip computer controls and headlight switch etc), are you also thinking about providing a "how to" type writeup with pics etc as you do yours so us interstaters can copy your writeup?
Again, great job!

 

[stockVN]

Hey Phreddy,

Thanks for the follow up, I never thought of something like this till I seen the forum so I had no idea how the instrument cluster was done or not. Bit of a piss off really :bang: !!!! The car shoul be off the road next weekend having central locking, remote start alarm, new stereo, custom speaker pods and maybe new splits in it. Ill give something a go and see while its in pieces an get back to you.

Cheers!!!!

 

[Phreddy]

Leap of faith!!

G'Day All.

OK, hope I haven't made a mistake!

Today I've ordered $600 worth of LEDs - mostly blue, but a quantity of red as well.

I still have a little groundwork to do to work out the finer points of what LEDs go where, but this will happen shortly too. The order of LEDs should be in my hot little hands sometime next week.

OK, so for those who would like a "kit" and instructions, that I can do easily enough. (have to take some more photos and get busy at the keyboard, but...) I would think I'll provide a document in PDF format for this. For others who'd like me to do the job, no worries either.

Please bear with me for a little while longer until I can get the details sorted out, then I'd be happy to provide cost and timing info for all those who are interested. Thanks to all for your patience, I'm certain it'll be worth the wait. (if the results on the stereo are any indication, it will be!)

Cheerz!

 

[MySV6]

Today I've ordered $600 worth of LEDs - mostly blue, but a quantity of red as well.

Lol

I'd love to see the dash once it has done, but based on the stereo, I'll get it for sure. Once you get the LED's I assume you'll do a full conversion price - I'd probably get you to do it for me as although I am OK at soldering normal stuff, the surface mount LED's frighten me a bit... :shutup:

MySV6

 

[Troy711]

Hey, thanks Troy!

(as a matter of interest, I grew up in Canberra!)

In fact, I was planning to head down there in the near future to catch up with a few friends. There's a posibility that I could bring some equipment along and do the job for you while I'm there. Something to think about??

Cheerz!

mmm maybe... ill see how it all turns out and we shall go from there

 

[GroopA]

Hey does anyone know how this would affect warranty?

 

[sting ls2]

yeah true that iz the only thing that worries me ,as i got the extended warranty 5 year on my car,but nice job,look sick with red l.e.d's,holden red.

 

[GroopA]

yeah true that iz the only thing that worries me ,as i got the extended warranty 5 year on my car,but nice job,look sick with red l.e.d's,holden red.

Yeah same, I would like to do this as I think the green just looks a bit too early nineties, but I don't want to void my nice 5 year warranty.

 

[Utester]

Yeah same, I would like to do this as I think the green just looks a bit too early nineties, but I don't want to void my nice 5 year warranty.

It will only void the dash and radio warranties.....

 

[Phreddy]

I guess warranty would be an issue - but only if they turned the lights on!!

To be honest it doesn't worry me too much. The instrument cluster itself is a fairly simple device - as far as I know all the actual "smarts" are in the BCM. Apart from the gauges themselves there are no moving parts in the cluster, and given that the LEDs (and all other components in the cluster) are soldered to the circuit board there's very little chance of loose connections screwing things up. There's one single connector to the cluster, and I would suggest if that went funny it would just be a matter of unplugging and replugging a couple of times. (I work with computers all day every day - you'd be AMAZED at how many problems just go away after re-seating a connector or circuit board - fellow computer/electronics techs back me up here! )

I only got my car mid-Feb, but warranty issues don't bother me too much. If the engine falls out and they want to blame my modification to the dash for that, I'll see 'em in court!!

Cheerz.