JaY_III
03-29-2004, 07:28 PM
How to add Blue LED’s to your dash…
1st just some general background and info on the LED’s…
Blue LED’s I used are 5mm and run spec at 2.8-3.8V and should draw 20-30mA of Current. They are rated for 4000mcd @ 20mA…
Next we know a Car is typically a 12V system. It can peak as high as 14V and drop down to 11V. Reason I am mentioning 11-14V is for tolerance as LED’s are extremely voltage sensitive and I ensured that LED’s would not burn out under overvolt situations.
Now to get the LED’s down to an appropriate voltage from my 12V source, what I did was connect 4 LED’s in series. What this will do is drop the voltage down to 3V for each LED. As each LED trys to draw all 12V’s for itself, they end up splitting the voltage evenly. This works great for my speed-o and tach. 1 set of 4 over each gauge for 8 LED’s total.
Now to get the clock to light up, what I did was put 2 LED’S in the hole were the light behind the clock was. I installed the 2 LED’s in series with a resister. I used a 220ohms resister. That gives my 2 LED’s 3.3V @ 25mA. Dead center in their spec range… but you can use any resister from 160-300ohms.. The less the resistance (less ohms) the brighter the LED’s
If you just want to add another single led, use a 300-470ohm resistor.
As for how I connected all the LED’s, I used a soldering iron. The positive leg is the longer one on the LED and that is also the same leg I connected my resistor to.
Now with all the LED’s made its time to install.
For the top gauges you are going to have to get a flat head screwdriver and remove the white covering as you are not going to fit 8 LED’s in 2 holes. Also, thier is a green film in that white thing that we dont want. It game the dash its old colour of green... But that is not the effect we want now s it. What I did next was bend the legs of the LED’s to make a U between each LED and tapped the LED’s into place. I found electric tape was the best thing to use after trying a few other options. If you something better, please let me know.. Now as for aiming the LED’s, don’t aim that at the gauges themselves…. Aim that at the bottom of the dash. It will give the best results.
As I did test everything before install with a 12V computer Power Supply.
Then when everything was in place, I soldered the Leads on the LED’s onto the back of the dash were the light normally goes.
Next came the clock, this one was easy; I just shoved the LED’s in the hole. Then I soldered the negative led leg to the negative contact that the light used. And I am sure, not too surprisingly soldered the resister to the positive contact the light used. No green film here. The clock gets its colour from shinning through the PCB (printed Circuit Board), and that just so happens tobe green.
Finally, I covered up any exposed wires with electric tape as I am not a big fan of shorts and a smoking dash.
Additional comments.
The clock didnt seem bright enough. So if i were to do this again i would try to get 3 LED's in the hole. Use a 180-330 ohm resistor.
If you can manage to fit 4 or can get 3mm LED's , no resistor needed.
Need more info than this? Just ask
http://www.members.shaw.ca/jordanstella/VW/dash.jpg
hopefully it will turn out something like this.
Oh, and it looks way better in real life.
and a pic of my car taken today with a cheap-o camera
http://www.members.shaw.ca/jordanstella/VW/jetta.jpg
Dont worry i fixed the bliker light today, but she still needs that wash.
1st just some general background and info on the LED’s…
Blue LED’s I used are 5mm and run spec at 2.8-3.8V and should draw 20-30mA of Current. They are rated for 4000mcd @ 20mA…
Next we know a Car is typically a 12V system. It can peak as high as 14V and drop down to 11V. Reason I am mentioning 11-14V is for tolerance as LED’s are extremely voltage sensitive and I ensured that LED’s would not burn out under overvolt situations.
Now to get the LED’s down to an appropriate voltage from my 12V source, what I did was connect 4 LED’s in series. What this will do is drop the voltage down to 3V for each LED. As each LED trys to draw all 12V’s for itself, they end up splitting the voltage evenly. This works great for my speed-o and tach. 1 set of 4 over each gauge for 8 LED’s total.
Now to get the clock to light up, what I did was put 2 LED’S in the hole were the light behind the clock was. I installed the 2 LED’s in series with a resister. I used a 220ohms resister. That gives my 2 LED’s 3.3V @ 25mA. Dead center in their spec range… but you can use any resister from 160-300ohms.. The less the resistance (less ohms) the brighter the LED’s
If you just want to add another single led, use a 300-470ohm resistor.
As for how I connected all the LED’s, I used a soldering iron. The positive leg is the longer one on the LED and that is also the same leg I connected my resistor to.
Now with all the LED’s made its time to install.
For the top gauges you are going to have to get a flat head screwdriver and remove the white covering as you are not going to fit 8 LED’s in 2 holes. Also, thier is a green film in that white thing that we dont want. It game the dash its old colour of green... But that is not the effect we want now s it. What I did next was bend the legs of the LED’s to make a U between each LED and tapped the LED’s into place. I found electric tape was the best thing to use after trying a few other options. If you something better, please let me know.. Now as for aiming the LED’s, don’t aim that at the gauges themselves…. Aim that at the bottom of the dash. It will give the best results.
As I did test everything before install with a 12V computer Power Supply.
Then when everything was in place, I soldered the Leads on the LED’s onto the back of the dash were the light normally goes.
Next came the clock, this one was easy; I just shoved the LED’s in the hole. Then I soldered the negative led leg to the negative contact that the light used. And I am sure, not too surprisingly soldered the resister to the positive contact the light used. No green film here. The clock gets its colour from shinning through the PCB (printed Circuit Board), and that just so happens tobe green.
Finally, I covered up any exposed wires with electric tape as I am not a big fan of shorts and a smoking dash.
Additional comments.
The clock didnt seem bright enough. So if i were to do this again i would try to get 3 LED's in the hole. Use a 180-330 ohm resistor.
If you can manage to fit 4 or can get 3mm LED's , no resistor needed.
Need more info than this? Just ask
http://www.members.shaw.ca/jordanstella/VW/dash.jpg
hopefully it will turn out something like this.
Oh, and it looks way better in real life.
and a pic of my car taken today with a cheap-o camera
http://www.members.shaw.ca/jordanstella/VW/jetta.jpg
Dont worry i fixed the bliker light today, but she still needs that wash.