LED Dash Conversion

[chevychic]

Ok guys...I said I was going to do it and here it is.
I started on this last Friday and worked on it over the week. I finished it last night and just finished putting this write up together for those interested.

If any of you are interested in doing this conversion but don't feel like doing it yourself, I might be able to be convinced to put some together and ship out.
I've got a professional soldering station that I'm borrowing from my company and I have all kinds of tools at my disposal.

Here's the finished product installed in my truck.


Write up: http://www.digitalcampground.com/chvchk/ledinstall.html

[Mike76251]

Very Nice Writeup! A LED company should hire you!

If you want to make them even brighter (too bright?), look at the Luxon LEDs.

Pic 1. A group of standard 194 LEDs that will plug right into our sockets.

Pic 2. A 194 LED design that throws light 360 degrees to the sides, useful in a cluster such as ours.

[bigblock73]

That is really cool Heather, good job!!!

If I didn't already convert to Autometers, I would be doing this upgrade.

Would you care if I linked your article to 73-87.com?

[chevychic]

I looked at the 194 LED conversion at first but they are pretty spendy. I paid .45 for each LED in my set up. I maybe have $20 invested in this conversion at most.

Luxeon LEDs are nice but at 25000 mcd, they're a bit much. I'm driving a truck not landing a plane

The mcd rating of these LEDs are 5500 (plenty bright)...standard LEDs used as indicator lights are 300 mcd.
BTW - You can get a standard LED to throw more light by sanding it down flat with a dremel. You can sand up to the diode inside without ruining it. When the pinpoint of light hits the flat surface of the bulb, the light is diverted to the sides. Just don't get it too hot when you dremel it or you could heat up the diode inside too much.

The other reason I decided to make my own is because the design of our truck's gauge clusters prohibits much light of any type through. Since the bulbs sit behind the gauge cups which are a heavy metal painted brown on one side and a dingy blue on the other, with not much ability to divert the lost light, the brightness will never be what a lot of people are looking for. The only way to really get around it is by installing autometers or redesigning the light source.

Jeff, feel free to link to this write up. It's there to help everyone out.

[cliffsta]

Wow, that's amazing how someone can say "I want to do this", and, well, just do it. It looks killer. But i got 1 question: How hard is it to make out the numbers now? My eyesite is terrible so i probably couldn't read those gauges

[79BIG10]

That's sweet Heather. I'm like Jeff in I had not already changed over to Autometers that would have been a option.

[botboy]

I had this fantasy when I was still driving my '72 that I'd eventually like to do to my '83 K5, that is, to convert all the lights over to LED's for better visibility at night, but also install a second set of ultra-bright LED's in red or orange near the same places as the other lights, and wire them to a shift light so that instead of a single source of light indicating when you should shift, the whole gauge cluster lights up real bright.

God I hate automatics

[chevychic]

Originally Posted by cliffsta

Wow, that's amazing how someone can say "I want to do this", and, well, just do it. It looks killer. But i got 1 question: How hard is it to make out the numbers now? My eyesite is terrible so i probably couldn't read those gauges

The picture doesn't do it justice. The numbers are plenty legible. In fact, if you were to have the stock gauge cups without overlays like mine have, the lettering would take on a glow effect because of the way white surfaces reflect the blue LED.
Also with the dimmer installed, you can adjust the light to best see the numbers.

[plumbcut]

cool, heather.. I see in one of the pics that you had a second guage clip in the back with white guages already..

next project- LED tail light conversions!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (sidemarker and turn signal too)

-pc

[cliffsta]

cool. like i said, thats just incredible you came up with an idea, and just, well, made it happen.

[chevychic]

Originally Posted by plumbcut

cool, heather.. I see in one of the pics that you had a second guage clip in the back with white guages already..

next project- LED tail light conversions!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (sidemarker and turn signal too)

-pc

Yep that's a second gauge cluster. That one has been my test cluster while designing the overlays and testing the install of the overlays. I used it as a guideline to cut my wires so my truck could still be driven until I had the LED string ready to install into the cluster out of my truck.

Tail lights, sidemarker and turn signals are definitely on my list to do someday since no one has them for our truck. I just need to get a set of tail lights and marker lights to use as a test.

[apstguy]

Very Cool. I've been wanting to do the same thing but instead of the gauges, gdo the dome lights, make light up covers for the door & window switches. I just use resistors I didn't really think about a regulator. I did the rear licence lamp with 2 while LEDs and a resistor. I was conservative on the rating for the resistor and I don't exactly want my licence lamp to be that bright. I have 2 extra gauge clusters I can play with... Cool stuff!

[1972C10]

Did you do it to where the leds are installed on the bulb holder and still remove from the back?

i Had thought about taking a few leds and soldering the legs together in a flat pattern that would go into a wedge bulb holder but thats as far as it got .

[Mike76251]

Originally Posted by chevychic

Luxeon LEDs are nice but at 25000 mcd, they're a bit much. I'm driving a truck not landing a plane

Ha ha Ha! I thought they might be too bright right after I wrote that!
I was really more concerned witht the heat they give off (melting plastic bits and such).

Next you might want to get some of that E.L. light tape and print your nice overlays on that. I think it comes in sheets and would really give even lighting. You could glue it down just like your overlays. Just a thought.

[Greenlee]

Nice writeup! That looks pretty cool.

[chevychic]

Originally Posted by 1972C10

Did you do it to where the leds are installed on the bulb holder and still remove from the back?

No. I actually strung them in wires so I could place them anywhere I wanted. I wanted the light to come from in front of the gauge and shine down on it instead of from behind. With light coming from behind a solid metal gauge, I believe there is always going to be large amounts of light lost.
You would really have to think through just installing them into the bulb casing since you have to have a resistor to decrease the current going to the LED. Rather than using an axial leaded resistor you could use a surface-mount resistor. They come in sizes as small as a piece of rice (better be REALLY good at soldering by hand). With that size you could make it work in a bulb casing but don't forget about your voltage spikes through your system that could reduce the life of your LEDs. You would have to think about how to get a voltage regulator in there so you have a constant current going to your LEDs regardless of the spikes. Also you wouldn't have much control in the way of brightness and dimming capabilities since the stock dimmer doesn't have a wide enough ohm range to allow adequate dimming. Believe me, you do want to be able to control the brightness on these as they are quite bright. With the stock dimmer you have the option of on or off. That's it.

Mike, I've never heard of E.L. Lighting Tape. Could you post a link or more details? Can it go through a gerber printer?

[alpha_male0203]

very nice job. i wish i would do that stuff

[SanitysBane]

to many big words for me to understand much of it, but it all speaks for itself, great job!

[andrew king]

do you want to make me one ??? Ill pay $$$$ that looks total bad ass. since I have to swap out all the burned out lights anyway. Is that the white face gauge overlay???

[chevychic]

Originally Posted by andrew king

do you want to make me one ??? Ill pay $$$$ that looks total bad ass. since I have to swap out all the burned out lights anyway. Is that the white face gauge overlay???

Sure, I'll make you a set. Let me figure out what a fair price would be and I'll send you a PM with that.
You'll just need to figure out how many LEDs you'd like to use. I have 1 per small gauge and 2 for each large gauge to make a total of 7. If I were to do it again, I'd probably throw in 1 or 2 more just to make the lighting a little more even across the larger gauges or figure out a way to mount them better.

Yes that is the white face gauge overlay I designed.


Riptide, If you're saying you would like a set also, send me a PM

[SanitysBane]

id like a set too, pm me with a price on them please.

[chevychic]

PMs sent

[Paso76GMCstepper]

I would also like to say Great Job!!

Could you sent me a price also

Tony