DIY: Interior LED swap (cluster, HVAC, switches, window, *steering wheel)

[Ph3n0m427]

Whatever floats your boat. Happy to help.

Alex, Trying to PM you but your inbox is full.. thanks

 

[Cisco Kid]

Here is what my cluster looks like after spending a few hours on it this past week. Everything else is still orange for now.

 

[dgwood12]

Here is what my cluster looks like after spending a few hours on it this past week. Everything else is still orange for now.

Nice! What did you use to do the needles blue? Also, what LEDs did you use for the gauges? I like the temperature of the white you got and would like to get the same ones.

 

[emelianenkov]

Nice! What did you use to do the needles blue? Also, what LEDs did you use for the gauges? I like the temperature of the white you got and would like to get the same ones.

My leds from lighthouseleds.com light up the same and are reliable.

You need PLCC-2 LEDs for the entire cluster.

Doing the needle is much more complicated if you have a limited like he does

 

[Svtrickey]

Is there anyone on here that is willing to do this if I ship them everything minus the LED's? Everything being, cluster, and a/c controls. If so how muxh send me a PM I really want to get this done ASAP.

 

[emelianenkov]

Me. PM inbound

 

[dgwood12]

My leds from lighthouseleds.com light up the same and are reliable.

You need PLCC-2 LEDs for the entire cluster.

Doing the needle is much more complicated if you have a limited like he does

I have a SR5. Haven't gotten around to this mod yet but when I do, I would like to get rid of the ugly orange needles and go with red or blue. I'm assuming you have to scrape the orange off and lightly sand but what paint is translucent enough to light up like that?

 

[Cisco Kid]

The led's I used for mine are made by NTE. The blue ones are part # 30027 and the white ones are # 30028. The needles in the limited cluster are harder to do because they have to be taken apart. On the backside of the needle you will see 2 spots where the plastic has been melted to hold the assembly together.



The melted plastic has to be trimmed with an X-Acto knife to allow the studs to slide back through the black piece on the back. When you get them apart, the clear plastic part of the needle is what will need to be modified. They will have red paint on the front side and some chrome on the back. To acheive the results I did, both the red and chrome will need to be sanded off and some white paint applied to the backside of the needle in place of the chrome. Also, the led's at the base of each needle will need to be replaced with the color you want them to be.

For the sanding stage I used some very fine sand paper that normally is used for polishing fiber optic connectors. It is finer than 3000 grit and leaves a very nice finish on the plastic. This is where you want to take your time because knicks in the plastic will show up when lit. One word of caution on putting these back together: DO NOT use super glue! It will leave a white residue on everything as it is curing. I used Testors model car cement instead and had very good results. If it will help, I have no problem making a short video on how all of this is done as some people, like myself, tend to be better visual learners.

 

[dgwood12]

Thanks for your help [MENTION=107314]Cisco Kid[/MENTION] and [MENTION=63211]emelianenkov[/MENTION]

 

[emelianenkov]

I have a SR5. Haven't gotten around to this mod yet but when I do, I would like to get rid of the ugly orange needles and go with red or blue. I'm assuming you have to scrape the orange off and lightly sand but what paint is translucent enough to light up like that?

I sand the back and use Testors model paint. It's HARD to get even but I have it down to a science at this point

 

[dgwood12]

I sand the back and use Testors model paint. It's HARD to get even but I have it down to a science at this point

Do you use a similar color LED as your needle color? I would like blue needles but don't like the color that most blue LEDs emit. I am thinking about using a blue paint with a white LED. Thoughts?

 

[Cisco Kid]

Here's a short video on the Limited needles and how to modify them. Take it easy on me for the iphone video. :wave:

 

[CookieRoe]

..... I've gotten the high brightness neo4's working at full brightness 12V with dimming control. They actually look pretty close to the factory brightness when compared to the factory radio backlight.

As many people found, the neo4 high brightness LED's don't work in the HVAC backlight as it only gets about 6.5-7 volts not 12v. For some reason all the Neo3’s that backlight the knobs and buttons get full 12v but not the backlight for the LCD display itself. I did some tinkering trying to get the Neo4 High brightness LED's working. Many car dimmers that I've seen in the past use a PWM (pulse width modulated) negative side Transistor or Mosfet to control Brightness. I took my Oscilloscope out to the truck and confirmed that it seams to operate that way on my t4r. So the Ground side where the Neo4's plug in is the actual source of the dimming and we just need a straight 12v source for the positive side of the neo4... Make sure to disconnect the positive side of the neo4 from the circuit board contact before you give it 12V otherwise all sorts of bad stuff could happen. I just completely un-wrapped the positive wire out of the neo4 plastic housing and left it sticking straight out the back. Here’s what it looks like:

You can see that on my 05 sport HVAC control, the inner side of the neo4 plugin (ie closer to center of the board) are the positive sides. This may be different for the Limited edition as it is fairly different from the HVAC console on the Sport edition. You need to figure out which side of the Neo4 is positive as they are polarity sensitive. You can figure out which is the positive side of the neo4 using a 9 volt battery or some such. I then soldered a wire from a 12v source to the leads that are now sticking out and are isolated from the circuit board. The 12v source I tracked down and decided to use was pin 14 on the thick ribbon cable that goes from the small board where the main wiring harness plugs in to the board that runs the display.

There are a few other 12v lines that turn on at different times ie always/acc/on etc. Pin 14 turns on at the same time as the factory display did… The High Brightness Neo4’s at 12v give a good level of brightness and give a pretty even backlight when given full power unlike the regular neo4’s. All in all I am very happy with the results. Here’s a picture of my HVAC display half way through the upgrade:

The left side of the display is backlit by a regular neo4 running stock ie just direct swap of the factory bulb. The right side of the display is backlit by a high brightness Neo4 running at 12v. The difference is quite noticeable and actually turns out to be a pretty straight forward upgrade. There are a few things that could go wrong if you’re not comfortable with electronics and hook things up wrong or don’t isolate the LED positive side from the circuit board etc. I hope I have given enough information on the process that I did and have not forgotten any crucial bits.

Next I’ll move on to the dash and steering etc. which all sound fairly straight forward given all the information available here. I solder surface mount parts all the time and feel comfortable doing the chip LED swap... Thanks to all previous posters on this subject for the wealth of information here and hopefully this will in turn help people get a brighter and dimmable HVAC display working on their T4R’s.

While I'm not electronically proficient, this makes sense. We all know the backlight of the HVAC is stupidly dim. (not good for those of us want to do the reverse polarization mod to the display).

Anybody else do this with good results?
[MENTION=63211]emelianenkov[/MENTION] : Doable? :eyebrows:
[MENTION=102925]MirageT4R[/MENTION] : you pictures aren't showing.

 

[emelianenkov]

Do you use a similar color LED as your needle color? I would like blue needles but don't like the color that most blue LEDs emit. I am thinking about using a blue paint with a white LED. Thoughts?

If it is a limited or a tacoma, I use a matching LED. If not, you have to use white as your backing color for the LEDs if you're in an SR5 or Sport

While I'm not electronically proficient, this makes sense. We all know the backlight of the HVAC is stupidly dim. (not good for those of us want to do the reverse polarization mod to the display).

Anybody else do this with good results?

[MENTION=63211]emelianenkov[/MENTION] : Doable? :eyebrows:

[MENTION=102925]MirageT4R[/MENTION] : you pictures aren't showing.

Its possible. Too long, didn't read, but I know what you want to do!

 

[dgwood12]

If it is a limited or a tacoma, I use a matching LED. If not, you have to use white as your backing color for the LEDs if you're in an SR5 or sport.

Not quite sure what you mean. The color you paint the needle has to be white or the led to light up the needle has to be white?

 

[emelianenkov]

Not quite sure what you mean. The color you paint the needle has to be white or the led to light up the needle has to be white?

The LED behind the needle has to be white if you use some weird color.

Example: White gauges, green painted needles.

Red gauges, red painted needles or unpainted (my favorite)

 

[dgwood12]

The LED behind the needle has to be white if you use some weird color.

Example: White gauges, green painted needles.

Red gauges, red painted needles or unpainted (my favorite)

Gotcha. [MENTION=63211]emelianenkov[/MENTION] I know you have done quite a few of these... Do you have a pic of blue needles lit by white LEDs? I want to get an idea of the type of blue light it emits. Thanks!

 

[emelianenkov]

Gotcha. [MENTION=63211]emelianenkov[/MENTION] I know you have done quite a few of these... Do you have a pic of blue needles lit by white LEDs? I want to get an idea of the type of blue light it emits. Thanks!

[MENTION=91392]dgwood12[/MENTION]

 

[sr3tlaw]

Here's a short video on the Limited needles and how to modify them. Take it easy on me for the iphone video. :wave:

Are you CCNA?

 

[kevinpt]

anyone know if you can swap the tacoma gauge back plate?