Snorklesteve
New member
Where do I buy these?
DIY: Interior LED swap (cluster, HVAC, switches, window, *steering wheel)
- Thread starter darkie3495
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S p a r k y
New member
Picture above says Amazon, I'd go with Amazon!
Cisco Kid
Member
I posted this in another thread. Just curious if anyone has tried it yet with their Sport/SR5 cluster. They have several colors available.
Fluorescent Speedo & Gauge Needle Restoration Paint - HiPo Parts Garage
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ChucktownRunner
New member
ChucktownRunner
New member
Do you or anyone else know how to fix a fading lcd screen? My display on my JBL head unit has been fading out and has gotten to the point where you can't read it. Also, swapped out my radios LEDs and when I put it back the knobs, led screen, and disc insert leds didn't light up. Maybe I didn't connect the white ribbon correctly when putting it back together? The fading has been going on for a while before the led issue. Thanks!
Not sure on the LCD screen, sorry.
did you check polarity? did you use a quality iron and not burn up the circuit board? did you properly solder both sides of the LED? did you use the correct replacement LED?
hopefully you can figure it out, especially if you are charging $100 for the cluster swaps!!
CookieRoe
Senior Member
The only thing that comes to mind are the pins that attach the LCD screen to the board. When installed wrong, some digits on the display do not "light". Check the connection.
ChucktownRunner
New member
Ouch. I can feel the saltiness from here. Definitely not the soldering/polarity/fried circuit board. I have a sneaky suspicion that it's the white connector in the back. I'll check it when I get the time and report back. As for the salt, you guys do the HVAC and all that other cool stuff, so me just offering help to people that only want the cluster shouldn't be a threat. Just trying to help out people who want it done but don't have $200 to pay for it (like myself). High sodium is a killer..
[MENTION=50507]CookieRoe[/MENTION] that's exactly what I was thinking. Was running out of time so kind of through it back together. Thanks for the response!
USMCEngineer
New member
I used this method to get the Neo 4 HP white bulbs in my info display and it worked great. I ended up using the green wire with silver striping for my 12V source. The wire is on the top row, second wire from the passenger side with the white connector oriented the way it is when it is connected to the HVAC. I have a 04 sport and the inner contacts were also the positive side of the board. I just soldered wires to the positive lead on the LEDs, and then taped up the exposed area. I then used a posi-tap to tap into the 12V wire. I feel this is better than using a regular inline tap or soldering since they just screw together and can be unscrewed and screwed back together as many times as you like. I'll post another picture when I get a chance of the 12V wire I used.
http://www.amazon.com/Posi-tap-Connector-20-22-Gauge-Wire/dp/B00389UT3I
http://www.amazon.com/Partsam-White-Climate-Heater-Switch/dp/B00KVXTSEK
http://www.amazon.com/Posi-tap-Connector-20-22-Gauge-Wire/dp/B00389UT3I
http://www.amazon.com/Partsam-White-Climate-Heater-Switch/dp/B00KVXTSEK
Been lurking a while but this is my first post. This forum is an awesome resource for everything T4R! I got inspired to do the LED color swap on my 2005 4Runner Sport V8. Using a lot of info from this forum and some extra tinkering, 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.
Here’s a pic:
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.
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no saltiness(?) here, just throwing out suggestions since you asked. never meant to make it all personal, just trying to protect others on the board from paying high prices and either having to wait months, or get back stuff that doesnt work (i have fixed many a clusters/HVACs from done by others on this forum).
and since you wanted to make it personal, not sure where you got the $200 from, i only charge $50 labor for the clusters, pretty darn cheap in my opinion, and half the price others stated they charge here... i have a dayjob as well, so not threatened at all. my work, turn around time, price and praise by members here and tacomaworld speaks for itself. not to mention that i help others (including yourself) do these things by posting actual pics of the circuit boards, making a dedicated post to show others what these clusters look like "under the hood" and answer countless PMs on the subject.
back on subject, does the radio display lcd pop in like the odo in the cluster, or is it soldered onto the board like the info display? kinda weird that all the other LEDs swapped would work, except for a select few if it was a connector issue. at least with the tacoma clusters, some of the LCDs are wired in series, so if one doesnt work, the entire chain will not work. wonder if this could be the issue here, since you stated you have correct polarity/proper soldered connections/no fried board?
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ChucktownRunner
New member
For some reason I thought I read that you charged $200. Seeing now that you only charge $50 I can see that you weren't being salty and I apologize. Wish I would have known that. I would have sent you my cluster! (instead of buying all of the soldering equipment). And for your work and help.. way past anything I can do and seems to be highly thought of.
On the lcd. I'm not sure how it's connected to the circuit board. I was up late swapping out LEDs and had to work the next morning so I didn't remove it but it's on a seperate circuit board than all of my LEDs that worked correctly. It sits on top of the other board and plugs into the bottom board with a white ribbon thing that looks like the ones that connect the HVAC dials. I think that must not be connected well. Thanks for all of your help and sorry for my last comment.
On the lcd. I'm not sure how it's connected to the circuit board. I was up late swapping out LEDs and had to work the next morning so I didn't remove it but it's on a seperate circuit board than all of my LEDs that worked correctly. It sits on top of the other board and plugs into the bottom board with a white ribbon thing that looks like the ones that connect the HVAC dials. I think that must not be connected well. Thanks for all of your help and sorry for my last comment.
Cisco Kid
Member
As far as the screen goes, if you don't get the lcd back on the board tight enough to get all the contacts to touch, it will not work correctly. I had the same thing happen to mine when I replaced the leds. Had to tear the radio apart again. If the leds are not lighting up, one or more of them are not properly soldered to the board. It is really difficult to get those soldered since they are so small.
The contacts for the screen can be seen here across the top edge of the board.
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ChucktownRunner
New member
Finally got a little time to mess with the radio. The black push down clamps for the white connector were the issue. I didn't see that when you push down one side at a time it pushes the other side out. I'm in the middle of soldering the leds behind the lcd right now. Anyone done this before? I got the LEDs to light up soldering them sideways. Not sure how it will turn out since the other LEDs had the plastic on the side. Wife wanted to go to the movies so I'll post an update when I'm finished.
Cisco Kid
Member
The leds for the lcd screen are soldered on sideways. Here is mine after replacing the leds.
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ChucktownRunner
New member
The leds for the lcd screen are soldered on sideways. Here is mine after replacing the leds.
Thanks. Phone died so I didn't get a picture but everything turned out great. The lcd screen looks brand new. Haven't seen it like that in years. Took a blow dryer to the lcd ribbon (the black cushion sandwiched between 2 white cushion looking things). After heating them up pushed them into the glass to get the ribbon to stick all the way across. Also made sure to clamp it down extremely tight to the circuit board when putting everything back together. Thanks!
ChucktownRunner
New member
Finally got a picture of the final product. Really happy with the lcd screen but not too sure about the color combination. I'll wait until the hvac is done to decide if I want to switch any of the colors.
On another note. Has anyone had issues with orange stained plastic from the factory amber bulbs? Any solutions? I have it stained on the gear shifter 74 bulb holder which causes some of the gears to have an orange tint. Thought about covering it with tin foil? Also the load and eject buttons on the radio have stains. Tried rubbing them down with alcohol. Helped a little but the stain is still there.
Sorry for such a large picture. New to this
On another note. Has anyone had issues with orange stained plastic from the factory amber bulbs? Any solutions? I have it stained on the gear shifter 74 bulb holder which causes some of the gears to have an orange tint. Thought about covering it with tin foil? Also the load and eject buttons on the radio have stains. Tried rubbing them down with alcohol. Helped a little but the stain is still there.
Sorry for such a large picture. New to this
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ChucktownRunner
New member
In the middle of doing my HVAC. In the post that you copied it said that the dial backlights get 12v. I tried my hp neo3s first and they didn't work, so I put regular neo3 Blues from superbright and they looked pretty bad IMHO. Is there something I can do to get them 12v without wiring each led to a 12v source? That'd be a lot of tapping.
USMCEngineer
New member
LEDs
I used the Neo3 white bulbs from Amazon. I had good luck getting them to work as long as the polarity was right.
Amazon.com: Partsam 10x White T3 Neo Wedge SMD LED Light Ac Climate Controls Radio Switch Lamps Gauge Bulbs: Automotive
I used the Neo3 white bulbs from Amazon. I had good luck getting them to work as long as the polarity was right.
Amazon.com: Partsam 10x White T3 Neo Wedge SMD LED Light Ac Climate Controls Radio Switch Lamps Gauge Bulbs: Automotive
Bluesky 07
Senior Member
Has anyone done theirs in red? I've seen white and blue, which are both sharp.
I will confess I have not read all 92 pages of this thread. Just wondered what red would look like.
I will confess I have not read all 92 pages of this thread. Just wondered what red would look like.
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