emelianenkov
New member
Yes sir it will! Mine is crazy dim!
DIY: Interior LED swap (cluster, HVAC, switches, window, *steering wheel)
- Thread starter darkie3495
- Start date
Yes sir it will! Mine is crazy dim!
emelianenkov
New member
Woot. And I figured out how to do the 12v mod thanks to [MENTION=5149]riceandpho[/MENTION]! Great timing
CookieRoe
Senior Member
When you do the mod, take a picture of the reverse polarized screen to see how it looks. :biggrin2:
emelianenkov
New member
Niche market and also, you want your LEDs from quality suppliers, not just the company who put all the LEDs into one package...
Dash bulbs are tiny LEDs. Any interest of having a swap done? Lol
emelianenkov
New member
Oh shit, am I giving you more ideas?
And I will!
Current brightness
Essentially useless during the day
CookieRoe
Senior Member
LED crazy
Yeah, that's looks dim. I'd want mine to stay "stock orange". :behindsofa:
Anymore ideas???? Hmmmmmmmmmmm :naughty:
Footwell: Already bought CMT LEDs (orange) for the footwells (to be turned on by an OEM like button I pictured on another thread). Haven't installed it yet b/c I can't decide if I want to add more LEDs (as ambient) for inside the grab handle on all 4 doors. I would have to wire them all (parallel) first before I install anything.
Other LEDs: Actually, I was playing with the idea of installing LED strips in the engine bay to work on at night AND install some LEDs in the cargo area. I've been under the hood many times at night. Don't worry, I won't bother ya for any of these projects, hahahahahha
Yeah, that's looks dim. I'd want mine to stay "stock orange". :behindsofa:
Anymore ideas???? Hmmmmmmmmmmm :naughty:
Footwell: Already bought CMT LEDs (orange) for the footwells (to be turned on by an OEM like button I pictured on another thread). Haven't installed it yet b/c I can't decide if I want to add more LEDs (as ambient) for inside the grab handle on all 4 doors. I would have to wire them all (parallel) first before I install anything.
Other LEDs: Actually, I was playing with the idea of installing LED strips in the engine bay to work on at night AND install some LEDs in the cargo area. I've been under the hood many times at night. Don't worry, I won't bother ya for any of these projects, hahahahahha
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Johnny4runner
New member
Any one try these Neo / T3 bulbs to replace the center dash lights (AC / Air controls)?
T3 0.4W 16lm 6500K 2-SMD 3014 LED White Light Car Instrument Lamp Bulb (5 PCS) - Free Shipping - DealExtreme
I keep burning out the OEM lights and buying more from the dealership at $2-4 a pop. The cost is really adding up. If these LED lights work the price is right, and free shipping.
T3 0.4W 16lm 6500K 2-SMD 3014 LED White Light Car Instrument Lamp Bulb (5 PCS) - Free Shipping - DealExtreme
I keep burning out the OEM lights and buying more from the dealership at $2-4 a pop. The cost is really adding up. If these LED lights work the price is right, and free shipping.
riceandpho
Elite Member
Superbrightleds.com has the neo3 and neo4 leds that works, i mean i use the hp versions and did the mod for brighter lcd so itll work for hp, the regular ones will work with no mod but itll be dim.
riceandpho
Elite Member
Oh shit, am I giving you more ideas?
And I will!
Current brightness
Essentially useless during the day
Is this be4 the 12v mod or after?
emelianenkov
New member
Before 12v mod and at night. During the day I can't see shit. Plus these are the non-hp neo 4's
tips and tricks that I had to learn..
Did this mod a week or two ago (from scratch i.e. sponsored by random-dude-from-ebay-china, no neo bulbs) and thought I'd share a few things I learned, for those hardcore DIYers that would rather do it themselves than take up emelianenkov's generous service (his price for labor is really worth it if you're not extremely patient).
You have to figure out which way the contacts go, because the LEDs care. That was an annoying trial/error process for me for a few hours, especially for the twist-on bulbs in the HVAC.
Speaking of the HVAC, if you have bulb sockets like the OP, all is good and well, but if you have this different kind, or bought replacements from the stealership like me (before thinking of doing this), there's a different kind of plastic piece on some of those that has a small metal plate on either side for contact, instead of the grooves for wrapping the wire.. I found the best way to go about this was just to spend some time with a knife and pop off the plates (so I could take out the OEM bulbs), and then kind of cut my own grooves in the plastic to wrap the wires around, as getting those plates back on is worthy of many expletives.
Speaking again of the HVAC, my experience with twisting them back on was painful as well; I almost stripped them with the flat-head screwdriver, and ended up having to disassemble the plastic covers off each of the parts of the HVAC until I got to the circuit board, so that I could get a grip around the side of the bulb assemblies with some needlenose pliers.
Speaking once more of the HVAC, contrary to OP's suggestion perhaps (unless I misunderstood?) it was better lighting and less hotspottyness to point the two LEDs that are behind the LCD directly at it, rather than at some angle. If you're changing out the bulbs that light the OEM switches, however, I would recommend figuring out which way they angle so that it points at the switch button when you lock it in; these are ok without that care taken, but dimmer than they could be.
Last note on the HVAC, I swear. The two bulbs that light the LCD (those two only, nothing else that seems "in-line" with them such as the one that lights the reset and mode lights) run on 6v rather than 12v power, as mentioned before. For 12v power, a 1.2K Ohm resistor is fine, but for those two 6v bulbs, get some resistors in the 300 Ohm range (I used 330) for something that looks to be about the same brightness as everything around it. Especially important if you're doing the LCD reverse polarization as I did.
And if you're embarking on changing out the LEDs in the stereo, I'm sure that the PLCC2 LEDs will kind of work, if you're ridiculously careful, but I just got a T1808, which looks pretty darn similar on the circuit board to the factory stereo, and right after changing out all the tiny LEDs on that board for some of the spare PLCC2s I have, I put the plastic faceplate back on and screwing on all the fastening points made some crunching noises that sounded exactly like solder cracking and separating LED from board; I also heard a piece of something bouncing around in there after that :dammit:. The problem is that the PLCC2s are about 8x the size of the LEDs on the stereo. Therefore, for the stereo use instead 0603 SMD LEDs which are (I have been told) the exact size of the ones originally on the circuit board on a fresh factory stereo.
By the way, if the OP or others here didn't mention, for free-standing LEDs (just a bulb and wires) the longer one is the anode and the shorter one is the cathode; also if you look at the bulb top-down (wires pointing away from you) you'll notice that the round rim at the base of the bulb is flattened out on one side; this is the cathode side. On PLCC2s, the cathode is on the same side as the key corner of the LED, which, if you imagine the light-outputting part of the LED as a spa/jacuzzi, looks like a step you might use to get out. I like to think of it as an arrow pointing in the direction of current's flow. Lastly for 0603 LEDs, if you look really close at the top, you'll notice a distinct dot closer to one side or the other. The dot side is the cathode side.
The anode gets the positive side and the cathode gets the negative/ground. The LED (by design of a diode) won't work if you switch this, that's why I'm so excessively specific.
For those who don't do soldering much, it's best to tin the LED's contacts as well as the circuit board's pads (enough, not too much) so that you can kind of just lay the LED down and melt the solder together.
Hopefully that wasn't all "duh" stuff and I helped someone :]
Did this mod a week or two ago (from scratch i.e. sponsored by random-dude-from-ebay-china, no neo bulbs) and thought I'd share a few things I learned, for those hardcore DIYers that would rather do it themselves than take up emelianenkov's generous service (his price for labor is really worth it if you're not extremely patient).
You have to figure out which way the contacts go, because the LEDs care. That was an annoying trial/error process for me for a few hours, especially for the twist-on bulbs in the HVAC.
Speaking of the HVAC, if you have bulb sockets like the OP, all is good and well, but if you have this different kind, or bought replacements from the stealership like me (before thinking of doing this), there's a different kind of plastic piece on some of those that has a small metal plate on either side for contact, instead of the grooves for wrapping the wire.. I found the best way to go about this was just to spend some time with a knife and pop off the plates (so I could take out the OEM bulbs), and then kind of cut my own grooves in the plastic to wrap the wires around, as getting those plates back on is worthy of many expletives.
Speaking again of the HVAC, my experience with twisting them back on was painful as well; I almost stripped them with the flat-head screwdriver, and ended up having to disassemble the plastic covers off each of the parts of the HVAC until I got to the circuit board, so that I could get a grip around the side of the bulb assemblies with some needlenose pliers.
Speaking once more of the HVAC, contrary to OP's suggestion perhaps (unless I misunderstood?) it was better lighting and less hotspottyness to point the two LEDs that are behind the LCD directly at it, rather than at some angle. If you're changing out the bulbs that light the OEM switches, however, I would recommend figuring out which way they angle so that it points at the switch button when you lock it in; these are ok without that care taken, but dimmer than they could be.
Last note on the HVAC, I swear. The two bulbs that light the LCD (those two only, nothing else that seems "in-line" with them such as the one that lights the reset and mode lights) run on 6v rather than 12v power, as mentioned before. For 12v power, a 1.2K Ohm resistor is fine, but for those two 6v bulbs, get some resistors in the 300 Ohm range (I used 330) for something that looks to be about the same brightness as everything around it. Especially important if you're doing the LCD reverse polarization as I did.
And if you're embarking on changing out the LEDs in the stereo, I'm sure that the PLCC2 LEDs will kind of work, if you're ridiculously careful, but I just got a T1808, which looks pretty darn similar on the circuit board to the factory stereo, and right after changing out all the tiny LEDs on that board for some of the spare PLCC2s I have, I put the plastic faceplate back on and screwing on all the fastening points made some crunching noises that sounded exactly like solder cracking and separating LED from board; I also heard a piece of something bouncing around in there after that :dammit:. The problem is that the PLCC2s are about 8x the size of the LEDs on the stereo. Therefore, for the stereo use instead 0603 SMD LEDs which are (I have been told) the exact size of the ones originally on the circuit board on a fresh factory stereo.
By the way, if the OP or others here didn't mention, for free-standing LEDs (just a bulb and wires) the longer one is the anode and the shorter one is the cathode; also if you look at the bulb top-down (wires pointing away from you) you'll notice that the round rim at the base of the bulb is flattened out on one side; this is the cathode side. On PLCC2s, the cathode is on the same side as the key corner of the LED, which, if you imagine the light-outputting part of the LED as a spa/jacuzzi, looks like a step you might use to get out. I like to think of it as an arrow pointing in the direction of current's flow. Lastly for 0603 LEDs, if you look really close at the top, you'll notice a distinct dot closer to one side or the other. The dot side is the cathode side.
The anode gets the positive side and the cathode gets the negative/ground. The LED (by design of a diode) won't work if you switch this, that's why I'm so excessively specific.
For those who don't do soldering much, it's best to tin the LED's contacts as well as the circuit board's pads (enough, not too much) so that you can kind of just lay the LED down and melt the solder together.
Hopefully that wasn't all "duh" stuff and I helped someone :]
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emelianenkov
New member
My labor charges and typical turn around times are totes worth it 
Great many words of advice good sir! Thanks for the input! I need to wire up the direct 12v mod for the hvac
Great many words of advice good sir! Thanks for the input! I need to wire up the direct 12v mod for the hvac
BigNuge
New member
My labor charges and typical turn around times are totes worth it
Great many words of advice good sir! Thanks for the input! I need to wire up the direct 12v mod for the hvac
I'll be the first to endorse Alex. Great work, I'm one of his happy customers!!!
Love my all white cluster!
emelianenkov
New member
I thought you have a white and red fade just like how I redid mine to look like yours haha.
Thanks for the endorsement Jim
emelianenkov
New member
You wanted all white but I twisted your arm lol. We still need to do the 12v mods.
BigNuge
New member
Yup, and I mentioned switching the gear indicator backlight to white from the red.
Diod you do the 12v mod yourself yet?
When I do it I want to be sure I connect it to another backlight so it dims with the rest of the dash lights. The HVAC is probably a bright set of lights when on full power!
emelianenkov
New member
I know of a live 12v circuit. I don't know of a dimmed 12v though.
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