Finally got my act together and put some effort into this project.
Before, I only soldered the leds in place where the regular bulbs were. There was major spotlighting effect because of the directional light of the leds. But make no mistake, it was just as bright as the bulbs, but there were hotspots like so:

(I know the picture is dark, but thats extra emphasis of the hotspots I guess)

Anyways, today I took about an hour or so and came up with this little idear based on a climate control ClubSi article:

Two of the leds had to be grinded down a bit so the capacitor on the circuit board wouldn't touch. I was then able to remount the circuit board flush.

When I popped the cluster back in, I was pretty happy with the outcome. Yes, the 0 is a bit brighter, but I don't give a ****. Glueing the leds to the back of the gauge and getting them to stick was a beeitch.

Here are comparisons of the two gauges:



They look like stock indiglo gauges compared to using bulbs. I'm damn happy with them. Soon, I will finish up the other two clusters. Comments are welcome.

 

i guess

 

 

looks good...be sure to post pics when u finish all of them.

 

I don't think it's bad at all for a DIY project. Nice work..

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by blaster834 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote"> i guess</TD></TR></TABLE>

same thing i was thinking

 

not bad, much brighter

 

yea the speedo needs to be brighter

 

Not bad, Just not my thing but I still give you a for a DIY post.

 

I like it

 

not bad i like it

 

how's this jdm ?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Yanta &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">how's this jdm ?</TD></TR></TABLE>

the color i guess??

 

i like any type of DIY. for you.

 

A sagestion to help you out with the hot spots would be to try a different resistor with greater resistance. That would help make them all the same brightness. Also you may want to try hooking them all up in series or them all individually to get the even light effect. Not to bad tho im not a fan of red clusters tho. But i think you did a pretty good job.

 

where did you get the LED's from?

 

radioshack has them

 

Theres also a site that makes leds that go into the stock holders in various colors. http://www.superbrightleds.com/ Was planning on trying them out when i get some cash. Which is now so ill write back and let you all know!

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by blaster834 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote"> i guess</TD></TR></TABLE>

 

hows it jdm? it's not. it was a joke. internet sarcasm.
for anyone who is interested, here is where i got my leds:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISA...98888
best price for that you get resistors. 6000mcd was good enough.