you can light up your speedo with LEDS

**Wiggles** · 20-12-2005, 09:57 PM

That would help, but the replacement bulbs i got are made of 4 tiny LEDs in a splade holder. Very fiddly to rough up for not much gain.

It comes down to the fact that LEDs just don't produce the same amount of light as incandecents.

The LEDs are more efficient (produce more light for a given amount of power than regular bulbs). But even 'wide angle' Super bright LEDs have a very narrow bright spot compared to incandesant bulbs that spew light in pretty much all directions.
Perhaps a luxeon star type LED with a reflector would produce better results ( more light with a wider distribution) but in a larger package and producing more heat. We will just have to wait for bigger and better LEDs.
Personally, i can live with the patchyness.

**ZZE92** · 20-12-2005, 11:21 PM

Craig - Do I recall correctly you saying that you'd swapped your globes for some different colour ones other than the Red?

How do they compare and what would you recommend? (Keep meaning to stick my head in your car at night to check it out!!) I'm thinking I really might like to try some Blue ones

**Rattlehead** · 21-12-2005, 09:14 AM

Here's mine....

I bought the LEDs from www.superbrightleds.com

The MK3 Supra dash took 3x 194 (WLED-x5 LED Wedge Base Bulbs) and 1x 74 to change the green cluster lights to blue.

**puzzle man** · 21-12-2005, 06:48 PM

Originally Posted by AE92GTi

Craig - Do I recall correctly you saying that you'd swapped your globes for some different colour ones other than the Red?

How do they compare and what would you recommend? (Keep meaning to stick my head in your car at night to check it out!!) I'm thinking I really might like to try some Blue ones

hay Paul give me a yell when you want to do it as i want to do it in a sx/gti dash.
the blue will work but were the red is it dose nit show up.....

**Farkurnell** · 03-01-2006, 02:54 PM

Do LED's give off much heat?
I have some small reptile enclosures that I'd like to illuminate, but putting a normal globe or fluro tube in isn't really appropriate for these particular encs. I need the illumination to not give off much heat. Can you get 240v LEDs or could I use a converter thing? In the open do they throw much light?

Cheers, Greg.

**The Witzl** · 03-01-2006, 03:40 PM

Greg,

LED's typically give off fuck all heat, and a "normal" 5mm LED will draw a megre 20-30mA at around 2-4Vdc. Depending on how much light you want, there are most certainly options available to you in the world of LED technologies, or perhaps even CCFL.....

From 240Vac, you'd just use a little 12Vdc plugpack, and a 510ohm resistor for each LED to limit current. Alternatively those little "strip" LED's i recommended before will also work a treat, and work straight of 12Vdc and are a piece of piss to mount. I'll try to get something happening in the 28 to show you what it's like

**Farkurnell** · 03-01-2006, 04:50 PM

So where's the best place to go suss this sort of stuff out Karl? Dick Smith? Jaycar?

Cheers, Greg.

**puzzle man** · 03-01-2006, 04:57 PM

Originally Posted by Farkurnell

So where's the best place to go suss this sort of stuff out Karl? Dick Smith? Jaycar?

Cheers, Greg.

yes he will tell you Jay car as he works there but im sure he can fix you up

**Farkurnell** · 03-01-2006, 05:17 PM

Ah ok I see.......lol

I was just looking at the Jaycar webpage and liked the look of these. Not that there's an image of them but wondering how they'd go.

http://www.jaycar.com.au/productView...=&SUBCATID=393

**ShiRi** · 03-01-2006, 05:26 PM

I was using condoms, they looked crap

got 9LED Wedge Globes and i won't ever change them... cost me $5 on ebay from taiwan for 4

**deeps** · 03-01-2006, 06:46 PM

i did this to mine about 6 months ago..photo was taken during the day though so not as clear as it would be otherwise

**inertia** · 21-02-2006, 02:13 AM

In my experience the concave ones from ebay are no where near bright enough for the dash... they illuminated the gauges a dull bluish white... going to try 9led and 5-led dispersed/refractor types.

**inertia** · 20-03-2006, 12:39 AM

Ok,

After seeing the concave ones in a Sprinter's dash, I can see that they do a good job of making it a nice white. It's not a very bright white, but good non the less...

I have purchased a number of 5-led and 9-led ones, the 9-led I purchased without thinking, they are very bright, but don't physically fit in the cluster! Will make good parkers/number plate globes...

The 5-led ones are a fair bit brighter than the concave leds, they do give you some spots that are a bit brighter than others, they seem to make the SX cluster (which has a blue backing behind the numbers etc on the dials...) appear white, quite a nice white. The Spark Blue, in my opinion, looks awesome in the SX cluster, they are very bright little buggers and again give some bright spots, but no where near as bad as say the single LED, or 2-led pointing straight.

So, in conclusion...

5-led Refractor type are quite passable.
Concave LEDs are passable, more suited to older clusters without the blue filtering on the back of the dials.
9-led are too big to fit.
9-led dome light is a nice item, though could be a little brighter...

Hope this helps someone purchasing led's on ebay... I know I have a fair few spares and a lighter wallet

.

**ReQuieM** · 20-03-2006, 01:55 PM

I did this on my supras climate control unit with DSE super whites, too patchy for my liking. Has the 'defuser plastic' but it doesn't seem to carry the LED light. Had to wire in resistors too, I've got a web site that you can use to work out what resistor you need. i can dig it up if anyones interested.

Any ideas on replacement LEDs that will defuse better? Just normal wire end ones would be nice as the climate control lights a wire backed wrapped around rubber braces. I was thinking of building a full circuit board strip of LED's but if theres a 'defused' one that'll work good then awesome!

**Lonewolf** · 21-03-2006, 11:34 AM

Originally Posted by Bananaman

I didn't know there was an easy alternative to this, so i made mine myself just recently using white LEDs from jaycar:

And the result:

Considerably better than the stock ke20 globes

Turned out pretty blue, but not bothered

Going to change my interior light over as well.

I've done something like that be4 for my old mans 4runner and my volvo, It worked a dream and we had 2 leds per skt so it lit up pretty bloody well as we were able to direct the lights. Appologies for lack of photos, i'll describe it as best i can. Also this wont work if the globe holder is bidirectional (the contact spreads the whole way across.)

Parts needed (can be bought from dick smiths or jaycar... i just happen to work at dick smiths)
1- Went and bought a prepunched PCB (which should cover all the globes, we had enough in one board to do both cars and have some left over)
2- (per bulb) 2 x LCD's in your choice of colour (cant remember if we used 3mm or 5mm led's thou)
3- (per bulb) One 250 ohm resistor (i used 1/4W metal film)

Ok, the PCB needs to be trimmed into sections 3 holes by 5 holes.
Now the LED's need to be secured at one end of the trimmed PCB, make sure you have +ve and -ve on same side. both legs should fit through one hole.
The +ve side needs to run all the way to the other end and double back at one of the half holes that you trimmed(the middle half hole doesnt get used).
The resistor needs to connect to the -ve legs of the led's and loop around the bottom like the +ve leg did.(the middle half hole doesnt get used)
You could solder it all up now.
Anyway once its soldered, notice how it fits wuite snugly in the wedge socket. Run some test power and it should light up. If it doesnt spread the light out properly you can aim the LEDs so it throws it out a bit better or lightly rub it with emery cloth (this normally dulls the LED something chronic.)
If the globe holder is bidirectional, you wont be able to loop the legs around the bottom, it'll just skip the circuit, you can trim the legs so they dont wrap around, but the reliability will be questionable unless its firmly secured.