LED Gauge Conversion (109 LEDs!!!)

jowo9 · 10-19-2009, 08:14 PM

Ok, so here are some pics of my LED gauge conversion I just finished on my 5.5 gen Maxima. It turned out to be physically impossible to remove the blue filter, but look at how awesome it looks! The pictures don't even do it justice either. I used 109 3mm white LEDs and it ended up having a bright bluish-purple tint. (the purplish tint is subtle and my camera doesn't pick it up as well as eyes do...

jowo9 · 10-19-2009, 08:19 PM

*JNCoRacer* · 10-19-2009, 08:22 PM

Holy crap. Youre gonna go blind.

Looks awesome though. Where did you mount the LED's?

*Scottwax* · 10-19-2009, 08:34 PM

How about a write-up?

ReasonableDoubt · 10-19-2009, 08:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JNCoRacer

Holy crap. Youre gonna go blind.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Scottwax

How about a write-up?

I'm in the process of doing LED conversions on most my of lights myself. Sort of nervous about taking apart the dash w/o any direction.

Also, what bulb(s) did you use in the shifter lights and the foot wells? Did you plug and play or solder?

Looks good though

jowo9 · 10-19-2009, 08:53 PM

haha, they're not tooooo bright. Just perfect IMO. umm... I'm not going to do I full write-up because what I did was so similar to what Metal Maxima did in his 60+ LED conversion... the only differences are that I used more LEDs, a different kind of LED, and thin clear plastic with holes drilled in it instead of PCB board(that's how I mounted them...with hot glue)... So, using that thin clear plastic, I marked with a sharpie where to drill holes, and mounted 30 on the tach piece, 29 on the speedo piece, 9 on the temp piece, 9 on the fuel piece, 8 on each of the 2 digital display pieces, and 4 on each of the pieces that go behind the needles.

-I don't have a pic of the ones around the actual gauges, but its the same basic idea but in a horseshoe shape and with many more LEDs and resistors in it.

jowo9 · 10-19-2009, 08:55 PM

-Oh, and for the shifter and footwell lights I used 5mm blue LEDs soldered with resistors. (and sanded to cloud them up to distribute the light more evenly) Here are my pics of all the other LEDs in my car:
Check out all my LED mods!

*nsnrider* · 10-19-2009, 09:00 PM

too bright IMO, but nice work.

*unrealii* · 10-19-2009, 09:03 PM

Nice work! Doesn't that blind you at night?

jowo9 · 10-19-2009, 09:06 PM

It's pretty bright, but really, it doesn't blind, no. If someday I decide it's too bright, I'll just add a resistor in the main line powering it. Easy... but for now, I love it. It's not as glaringly bright as it looks in the pictures. It looks better in person.

DarrenHD · 10-19-2009, 09:08 PM

Looks absolutely amazing. I am very jealous! Can you do that with my car, too?

I took the cheap-o route!

jowo9 · 10-19-2009, 09:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DarrenHD

Looks absolutely amazing. I am very jealous! Can you do that with my car, too?

I took the cheap-o route!

-haha thanks! and honestly, this project was like a 2 and a half day one and required a lot of tedious work, fiddling around, dremeling, etc. to get everything to fit and work right. My entire house was full of plastic bits after

and I don't know if I'd ever wanna do that again. It was sooo tiring.

jowo9 · 10-19-2009, 09:14 PM

for those of you who thought the pics made it look like it was too bright, here. This was taken on a different camera setting and might be a more accurate measure of brightness... i dunno, it's impossible to duplicate how awesome it looks in person on a camera...

avciugroar · 10-20-2009, 01:34 AM

JEEZ jowo, I knew you were going to be the guinnea pig on this project, but WOW it turned out amazing. That's just how I'd like mine to look. Sort of on its way to a VW I must say.

Just exactly what kind of LED's did you use?

Did you actually hot-glue the leds to the clear plastic? They wont get hot?

And you canadians and your kilometers.... I'll never understand. I enjoy having to figure out how many inches in a foot, feet in a mile, etc.

a33i30 · 10-20-2009, 02:15 AM

Good job, gotta do this to mine too, could you dim it?

Professor · 10-20-2009, 06:16 AM

epic, i would pay you to do this.

bigpopaj369 · 10-20-2009, 07:23 AM

thats like above mentioned epic!! looks really good bro nice work!

Prophecy99 · 10-20-2009, 09:38 AM

thats alot of work, looks great.

for climate control button indicator lights, 3mm.

Those are LED sizes, but are the stock lights for that area LEDs?

Nothing like the small halogen #74 bulb in the stock ignition light ring ? Just yesterday my Climate Control Button Indicator light went out only on the left side.
Thanks.

J2FRESH · 10-20-2009, 10:09 AM

Your speedo goes to 260

J2FRESH · 10-20-2009, 10:15 AM

That's a dope project u did

*NissanMan97* · 10-20-2009, 10:48 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by J2FRESH

Your speedo goes to 260

yes but km/h not MPH

B

jowo9 · 10-20-2009, 10:49 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Prophecy99

thats alot of work, looks great.

for climate control button indicator lights, 3mm.

Those are LED sizes, but are the stock lights for that area LEDs?

Nothing like the small halogen #74 bulb in the stock ignition light ring ? Just yesterday my Climate Control Button Indicator light went out only on the left side.
Thanks.

-yeah, they're halogen lights... little like the #74's... not sure if it actually is 74...

jowo9 · 10-20-2009, 10:51 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by a33i30

Good job, gotta do this to mine too, could you dim it?

-the way i spliced in power, no, it can't be dimmed... but you can always add a resistor in the main line if it needs to be dimmer......

*NissanMan97* · 10-20-2009, 11:04 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jowo9

-the way i spliced in power, no, it can't be dimmed... but you can always add a resistor in the main line if it needs to be dimmer......

i sent a PM to you with some questions

B

latinmaxima · 10-20-2009, 11:51 AM

Very nicely done. It looks a lot better in the last picture with different settings.

s1mply_v · 10-20-2009, 12:07 PM

Is it Christmas already???

JK, good job. It looks realy good. I went half way with my LED interior and stalled lol

*zero2sixtyZ* · 10-20-2009, 01:35 PM

Very nice work. Looks perfect. I have a friend who used a similar amount on his Spec-V cluster and blinded me with the dimmer on "low", haha. If you could do a write-up or add any tips, we'd appreciate it.

M1RAG3 · 10-20-2009, 08:48 PM

that looks AMAZING...

*Andrew* · 10-20-2009, 09:18 PM

Nice work!!!!!

I commend your hard work. Thats some serious time involved in there

jowo9 · 10-20-2009, 09:30 PM

Thanks everyone!

yeah, it was a lot of work... but worth it if everything holds up

might invest in a dimmer sometime... hehe

DarrenHD · 10-20-2009, 10:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jowo9

for those of you who thought the pics made it look like it was too bright, here. This was taken on a different camera setting and might be a more accurate measure of brightness... i dunno, it's impossible to duplicate how awesome it looks in person on a camera...

Again, looks amazing. Good work!!

Prophecy99 · 10-21-2009, 07:39 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jowo9

-yeah, they're halogen lights... little like the #74's... not sure if it actually is 74...

Thank you.

MaximusMorpheus · 10-21-2009, 07:43 AM

Great work!!

Definitely need to do this, can hardly see the gauges at night!

mandyfig · 10-21-2009, 10:13 AM

Awesome upgrade. Would have been the bomb if the work was easy. Lot of sweat and tears, eh? But it is worth it.

jowo9 · 10-21-2009, 06:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mandyfig

Awesome upgrade. Would have been the bomb if the work was easy. Lot of sweat and tears, eh? But it is worth it.

-yeah, it was brutal. But yes, sooo worth it

-So, I ordered a dimmer for it. This one:
http://www.virtualvillage.com/led-li...ch%20Box%2012V

*knight_yyz* · 10-21-2009, 08:29 PM

you don't need a dimmer, just solder the power wire to the pins on the female harness connector. Then you can use the stock dimmer. I know you have way more led's than I used for my setup but it should still work.

jowo9 · 10-21-2009, 09:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by knight_yyz

you don't need a dimmer, just solder the power wire to the pins on the female harness connector. Then you can use the stock dimmer. I know you have way more led's than I used for my setup but it should still work.

-Which pins did you solder to? it's in the white plug right? Do you know what wire it is that goes in to the male end of the plug that powers that pin? I'd like to just use a quicksplice connector to splice into that wire.(or are there 2 wires that power/dim it?) Also, something deterring me from doing that is that I just don't really want to wire up to the dimmer switch of the car, because I like how bright the HU/CC is at night. I wouldn't want that to dim at all, and the OEM dimmer switch controls that too. But, I guess it'd be nice to have the option right?

Yeah, I guess on second thought, I'd like to wire up to the dimmer of the car. I can just wire my dimmer switch I ordered later if I still want to... Thanks for any help and clarification!

jowo9 · 10-21-2009, 09:36 PM

I'm pretty sure I spliced into that wire #64... but I didn't use the same ground you did. I grounded it elsewhere in the car... does the dimmer work through that ground wire going to the left white plug??? Cuz I'd just have to switch that maybe and then would my dimmer work?

*knight_yyz* · 10-22-2009, 02:45 AM

according to the FSm it is the ground for the dimmer, and the red is the power. My led's dim when I want them to

jowo9 · 10-22-2009, 03:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by knight_yyz

according to the FSm it is the ground for the dimmer, and the red is the power. My led's dim when I want them to

-I spliced into that ground, and now they do in fact dim. Buuut, they don't go as bright as before... even if they're turned up all the way. I'll have to see if they're bright enough at night. We'll see. Thanks though!