Led Glow Needles
 

First and foremost, a thank you goes to YaleroYnot for being the first documented member to do this.

Difficulty - High! If your not good at soldering, and have jumpy hands... don't do this.
Time - ~2hrs - discluding epoxy/hot glue set times and led test times.

His how-to write up...

the best way to put it is everything has to come apart in this order

back cover
front "glass"
circut board
front gauge face ( slowlly pry it and let th glue release work al the way around slowly it is only plastic )
remove the gauge "motors" label them (don't know if it matters but i did"


drill #12 holes at 9/3 and 12 o'clock then go and redrill # 33 hole ( .116 ) 3mm leds are .115 and drill the hole on the small gauges at 3 o clock. ( looking from the back ).

place the leds in the holes ( conecting them in series + - + - .... ) solder the leds together the final result should be three leds in a circle about the size of a AA batery. with a positive and negitive lead.

take a hack saw blade and put two groves in the plastic around the gauge "motor" so there is a place to run the wires.

after pressing in the leds.and pushing the wires in the dished area. take hot glue and glue the leds in and cover the wires with glue to insulate them from the gauge "motor". contiue till all 4 gauges are done. then solder a resistor (220 ohm 1/4 watt for 3 leds) to the positive side of the series curcit. then chain all the curcits together and come out of the cluster at the bottom center. using hot glue to attach the wires.


i recommend testing the leds thru out the process to make sure that every thing is working. i use a power wheels charger as my 12 volt power.


--------------------------------

My revisions...

I used 3mm leds (as did he) in a series 3 per gauge, 2 gauges wired together. This gives you 6 leds together, which is ~12v. (for myself, i had to add a resistor inline with the wire to prevent them from blowing up, when the alternator is running) TEST BEFORE MOUNTING. I did this 3 times because i got roostery, and didn't.

I used a dremel on top of the drill listed above. An engraving bit to cut down some of the plastic on the inner ring, so the wires have somewhere to tuck into. Also, to drill the holes on the back of the gauge face a little bigger, for a better flush fit for mounting.


THE MOTORS ARE NOT INNER CHANGEABLE! Keep track of where your needles are, and what order they are mounted in.


You WILL remove your needles, so have a good way to recalibrate them. The gas/coolant are easy if you know where they normally sit when the car is warm/tank is full.
The tach, you definitely need to know where your car idles.
For the speedometer you have a few options. When the car is on, but not started... clearly its at ZERO. But, this will not perfectly calibrate it.
-Best option, have a OBDII reader that will give you your actual MPH and calibrate it with the front end lifted.
-There are other ways (the way I did it) and its just much to risky to recommend to others. (involves a GPS and an empty highway)

Pics!









I will add pics that have them with the other lights on, later.

If the spots around the leds seem odd, its because its blue plastic. If they seem darker then yours, its because I used a sharpie to darken the back of the plastic to prevent the other leds in my gauges from adding color to the needles.

The 2nd to last picture has too many holes, I know. I was originally going to have 2 colored needles. Decided not to... when i found out that many leds wouldn't fit. The leds are shiny, because of the epoxy on the back of them, holding them in place/protecting the wires.

Ahh, the gps method of redoing the speedo... lol, been there, its always fun

Now the question... how much would you charge to do it? lol

Couldn't pay me enough. Like most of my led work. I do it once, revise it 2-3 times... wouldn't ever want to do it again. :lol:

Very nice work man. I'll check this out and see how hard it will be when i am doing the LED gauge mod.

Few more with everything on and functional. (obviously taken indoors still)

Red:


Blue:


Both:

nice mang.

Do any of the needles change brightness as they move around???

only the tach (the light in the 9 o'clock position didn't push through far enough)

the rest of them don't at all...solid color the whole time.

looks great, will definitely be something I tackle before getting her on the road,

Thanks for the great write-up!

looks good I am thinking of buying LEDS for the inside of my car and trunk. red and blue LEDs and blue ones for the gauges.

great job! A nice solid, well thought out write up!!

Yeah, that looks pretty nice.

did u have to do any solder any of the wires.

yes... lots of soldering is involved.

:huh: what makes you think i didn't?

amazing job.. all my projects are on hold, until i get my new soldering gun..

just bought a soldering gun today. Going to do the sub wiring and speaker wiring the right way.

cross my fingers that i dont hear a report

"from Milton NH, a 19 year old kid sets fire to a 1999 Olds Alero, for improper soldering techniques)

:-D

do not worry I have soldered before when I Helped hook up my friends system.

cherry thats how my led needles r dont but how are yall getting the prnd321 to light blue, is there a way to change the color of ur miles too?