I finally did it. This took me about 3 hours from start to finish from the start.

I explained most of this on the pictures itself, but I will also be explaning the process BELOW the picture.

This DIY is done on 1995 Honda Civic DX manual gauge cluster.
I am not responsible for your mistakes and false moves doing this DIY, if your gauge stops workings from this DIY from your mistakes, I will not be accountable for it. do it at your own risk, but there is no reason this should mess up your cluster if you did what I did on this DIY.

I did not do the whole gauge cluster, because this work is the "basic" idea of converting your gauge cluster's illumination to LED, instead of just simply replacing the lights to LED.

I will also not explain what LED and resistor you will need to use in this DIY, because I already have a whole thread covering that subject here.

Now, before anything, it is entirely up to you to decide how to make your own circute bord. Circute bord[aka PC bord, find be found at your local electronic store such as Radio Shack, Fry's..] I only used PC bord to have a very secure connection that will last, you can also just wire the LED's up with resistor's from your choice of power source.

ok, now, let's get started. pics are huge, I don't care, don't like it, don't bitch about it.


Step 1.

Reguired materials. Gauge Cluster you will be working on, LED's and resistors, solid and standard wires;22 or thinner gauge wires recommended, wire stripper, sets of pliers, soldering iron OR cold heat[btw, cold heat is POS], lead solder[aka soldering braid] & desoldering braid or gun, screw drivers[you'll need size #1 or #2 + screw driver], xacto knife, eletrical tape, and PC bord.


Step 2.

Wires close up. when you are getting ready for this DIY project, warm up your soldering iron. make sure you have a clean soldering point-tip, if not, heat up your solder and file/grind down your tip to have clean/clear contact surface.


Step 3.

Take your gauge cluster apart. as said in the picture, figure it out on your own.


Step 4.

this does not apply to all gauge clusters, but for this app[95 civic DX 5-spd gauge cluster], just simply pull out the reset ****, it's rubber.


Step 5.

hooray..it's off...


Step 6.

This is back of the gauge cluster, I explained everything on the picture.
take the screws off.

 

Step 7.

try not to touch the display area of the gauge, finger oil = no good. nasty looking.


Step 8.

the green blocks indicated on the picture is the amount of space we have for this project, and agian, this varies for each application.


Step 9.

back of the speedo incase some of you are wondering..
To explain bit more on the shades behind the gauges...black/dark spots are where the bulbs lie to light up your gauge.


Step 10.

More refenrence for your future work. as captioned on the picture, some empty portals for your wires to go through, if you can't find any, drill a whole on side of the gauge cluster if you aren't a wuss.


Step 11.

make your measuring...and cut the bord according to your measurements.


Step 12.

Yess.....

 

Step 13.

put out a piece of the PC bord to make a socket connection like you would have from your OEM bulb. PC bord just happends to have about same thickness for this app, acclent.


Step 14.

Trim the little piece, and test fit it. it will be a tight fit, but that just means more secure connection.


Step 15.

Making a connection..I hope my MS-Paint work explained it well enough.
basically, you are making a replica of your OEM bulb to make a connection


Step 16.

test fit it agian...this will be harder to fit into before you wired up the wires.
so you don't have to worry about "what if the wire connection gets loose" situation.


Step 17.

Fun of this DIY..soldering!
and agian, it's entirely up to you to make decision how to wire up your circutes.
just remember agian that each LED should have resistor for it's own. not sharing one resistor in a serise. I used 3 leds, so I also used 3 resistors.


Step 18.

solder..solder..solder..ooh..solder..the smell of that rasin..ooh...yuck!

 

Step 19.

the wire legs from the resistor go from red box to pink box. thus making the resistor's legs appear back on top of the circute bord.


Step 20.

the other side of resistor's legs went to the positive side of the LED to make a connection, and that's what the green boxes represent. and the wires that are not soldered are the negative leg from the LED's.


Step 21.

Top side of the circute bord completed.
Note: positive legs of LED should have it's own power, but the negative side, can all be joined together. it's only a ground.


Step 22.

test it out! I used a phone charger[your ordinary house wireless phone charger, they are usually 9v, but read the specs on the adapter to be sure.]. so the lights will be brighter once it's hooked up to the cluster's 12V power source.

Step 23.

test fit your work. and mount the bord with hot glue. I LOVE HOT GLUE!!!!


Step 24.

Be amazed..not amazed, but proud of your work. Don't mind the blue-ish look, it's just how cam's work, but the middle big white one should be a good reference.


ok, last step is to put everything back together just like you took it apart.
remember to test out your lights before making a final assembly. I do not know which side is positive or negative, so you are going to have to figure that out on your own. it shouldn't matter if it was your ordinary OEM helogen bulbs, but LED's only work when the current flow are correct.

Ok, how was this DIY? Easy? Hard?

Please give me feed back on this. and correct me if anything is wrong.

Happy DIY, mad-*** aka Hoyoung

EDIT: I'd like to give credit to Rhythm Kid [Channing W.] as a supplyer for the gauge cluster and also for truly being one of life-long friend. Thanks man!!



Modified by mad-*** at 10:26 PM 4/8/2006

 

just wondering is the light output dim on someplaces of the cluster ? if so could you take a pic ? and also did u change all the bulbs or only the ones directly behind the gauges

 

Light Dim switch? I believe that's on the left side of the steering wheel...[for 92~95 civic atleast]

I did not go full crazy on this gauge as it is not mine.

but on this particular one, I used only 1 power source to light up 3 leds,

so, no, i didn't change everything out. unless you really want LED indicator lights..for what ever reason..

 

Looks good. Is this the basic diagram of the circuit board?


Also if you want people to follow your DIY, you should at least provide the size of resistor and type of LED you used for people to follow. If people want to do it differently, then the link you provided is a good source. But tell us what you used or this makes for a crappy How To. Also remember to remind people that LED's only work one way and the long side is the positive side.


Here is an EXCELLENT site that teach you what size resistor to use and how to wire LEDs. They also sell LEDs cheap.
http://www.lsdiodes.com/shop/i...age_4

Here's a very handy Resistor Calulator
http://metku.net/index.html?se...x_eng



Modified by TurboLaxx at 12:00 AM 4/8/2006

 

Ya, does the dimmer work with LEDs? I have had various results with dimming and LEDs at work.

Nice DIY. Of course everything is not given as baby steps but oh well, part of DIY is learning. Nice.

 

looks nice! But I just bought the wedge LEDs, been going good for close to 9 months now.

 

aaah yessir that is the basic of this whole DIY.

and agian, I made a thread and linked it because that thread alone focuses on this subject.

I used 470 ohm resistor and 5mm white led with 8000 mcd specs on them.

My work is simple, but this is the area people don't like to focus on, so I made the base of every thing for LED work possibly.

 

I have not tried this specific gauge cluster out yet to see if the dimmer works.

but all my other LED retrofitting's worked with dimmer swtich.

but it won't be as noticeable as the helogen bulb's are, but it does work.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by mad-*** &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

My work is simple, but this is the area people don't like to focus on, so I made the base of every thing for LED work possibly.</TD></TR></TABLE>

I love LEDs. At my old work we use to use them everywhere.....natually some of them migrated to my car.

https://honda-tech.com/zerothread?id=1486878

I "self donated from work" some circuit boards with LEDs and resistors meant to run off 12V from my work. I stuffed some of those in the trunk of my hatch as a light. I was bored, it was fun.

 

update:

I got started on the same gauge cluster agian, and I'll be posting pics of it when it's done by weekend, stay tuned!

 

Hey looks real nice.

 

Just a quick question that i dont understand.whats the point of this, what changes? if the gauges are still white lettering? no trying to be a dick or anything just curious as to what changes when you do this.

 

As mentioned above, this is not just for this gauge cluster application alone.

this should be thought of as a basic outline of how to do such convertions on other models. and my aim/goal of this project is just that.

I know the civic letter lightenings are white with good o'l 194 helogen, I know.

But, I want to get my point accross the people, and the best way to do it is to spread it on the car forums, which I have posted on not just here, but on Tuner-Junction.com, Superhonda.com, Honda-Acura.net, and Everything-Honda.com.

My ultimate goal with this DIY write up is this. To Educate and motivate people with my work that I love doing, that is all.

I learned all this from ground up with no knoledge of doing any of this, I've been involved with LED work for about 2 years now, I think it's about time for me to spread it around


Modified by mad-*** at 2:08 PM 4/13/2006

 

u still didnt answer my question, why would anyone waste there time doing this? is it just so that the bulbs wont go out anymore? why this? why not a tail light or something, that would be something there in my opinion

 

Me want pictures, MORE PICTURES, Like a over all view installed, yea yea, and from different angles too. (too much red bull)

 

Kevinarich.

I didn't do this DIY to argue with people like you. I don't know what in the world you want to hear from me. Why should I waste my time answering questions you have, which I think I already answered. If you don't want to do it, then don't do it. what changes? the lights are now turned into LED's, and thats the only change[if that's what you want to hear ]

I think you should read over what I replied to you. Why not this? why not that?

kinda like asking why don't you turbo your car when you can? why not mod your car like a mad man when you can? why don't you burn all your personal data into a CD-R when you can?

about something "being" there, I am sure you look at your gauge cluster way more then your taillight. unless you really want to impress people and have them say "ooh snap, you have LED tail lights!", i don't think many drivers on the road will even notice it but few that knows what kind of work it was involved if they did it them selves.

I think it is little too obvious what changes from this DIY...

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Vintech &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">too much red bull)</TD></TR></TABLE>

Was there vodka with this? I just had a bad exam this morning and I am having tons of vodka and redbull...but without the redbull...LOL


Anyways, Pictures of lights or light related items are very hard. Due to appature settings and exposure times pictures can be very deceptive. LEDs offer brighter light in different spectrum ranges for less power and a longer life. They are not always brighter or better. It depends on the applicatioin. But all the power to the OP for doing this project. I have quite a few LEDs in my honda.

 

nice set up

 

instead of running 3 resistors, you could have used just one and run the setup in series. Seems like a lot of work just for brighter gauges. If you wanted brighter gauges, you should of just got the white faced type. I think you should make something more practical with the LEDs. Like what Kevinarich said, make a LED tail light or something else like that.

 

I am real **** about my project.

and running LED's in serise isn't something I prefer doing, especially on something like this.

if we are talking about just doom light like "old man neri" did here [ https://honda-tech.com/zerothread?id=1486878 ], then yeah sure, but

every learning source I had suggested not to use LED's in serise

so I am sticking with that, I know it's xX times of work for each LED, but I think it's worth it not taking a risk.

 

Looks good man. but too much work for me imo lol

 

Lol...do mine next.