DIY: Custom LED Gauges & needles

[Roger]

Well here it is !!! see the link below for the pdf version. If someone want to add this the the legend wiki that would be excellent!
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=3MT5ECET

MATERIALS


PROCEDURE

1.0 Assuming you have all the parts you need to complete this project I would first begin with removing the red needles from whatever donor cluster you choose. Like I said I used 99-03 TL but you will need two TL cluster if you go this route because the speedometer and RPM needles are different lengths. You could however cut the Speedometer needle down to the length of the RPM needle if you are satisfied with the length.


2.0 Now take your stock spare OEM cluster and remove the plastic cover and the plastic trim piece that sits over the front of the gauges. Next look toward the back and you should see three screws that hold on each instrument they are independent of the white plastic piece. Remove these screws making sure as you remove the last screw (of each set of 3) you hold the corresponding gauge in front to keep from falling out.

3.0 Now lay out all 4 gauges to focus on for the time being. At this point I used my 9V battery and began to hook it up to the back of the gauges (you will have to put the screws in the gauge) . I was able to get consistent readouts from the gauge at certain configurations (See my drawings).


4.0 I suggest at this point you tape up the front of the gauges with painters tape to avoid scratching or scuffing the surface. You must remove your stock needles. I suggest cutting them off with a dremel and a small cutting disk very carefully!! The RPM and Speedometer are fairly easy to pull off with your fingers or pliers gripping very carefully in the middle and pulling strait out. However these pegs that the needles sit on are very very very fragile!!!!! My fuel gauge needle was a bit bent from the needle removal and snapped like a twig when I tried to bend it back! Again this is why I recommend cutting them off to avoid any stress and strain on the pegs and the delicate motors they go in.

5.0 After your needles are removed you need to peel the gauge face off . Use a butter knife and stick it in between the face and the bottom plastic and wiggle until the adhesive comes apart. Be very careful in these next few steps because you can easily ruin the face of your gauge if you aren’t careful. Take your rubbing Alcohol and begin to remove the paint coating on the back of the gauge face. Be careful not to get any of the alcohol near the edge or near the hole for the
needle stopper. Any alcohol that leaks on the face of the gauge will also eat the paint off that side!!!





6.0 Now you can begin work on the lighting which will allow your needles to glow!! Take the smallest round circuit boards and 6 of your red LEDs. 2 series wired parallel with a 580 ohm resistor on each series




7.0 Now experiment with carefully placing your assembly over the needle motor . Be sure to cover the bottom of the circuit board so there is no connection made with any of the wiring on the motor. Next you must hollow out the needle holes in your gauge faces and the plastic that they attach to make room for your LED assemblies.




8.0 At this point I suggest you take a break from your needle work and start to focus on illuminating your cluster. This is very solder intensive. I suggest you take your 5MM white leds and first sand /cut the dome tips off. This changes the spread of light from a narrow to wide beam to avoid hot spotting. Although not totally necessary I sanded the tips down with 800 grit and buffed with Plastic X for a totally clear top. This just slightly provides more intensity over the cloudy sanded finish.





9.0 Next take all those LEDs and solder a 580 Ohm resistor to the longer leg on the LED (Anode). There are different ways you can do this but I choose to do one resistor per LED to be safe I really don’t want any failures and its always good to run eBay LEDs lower then they are rated.



10 After you have all your LEDs ready to go begin planning out where you want to drill the holes they will be placed into. Find a drill bit that is a slightly smaller then the led itself so you can tightly squeeze it into the hole. This will be a be hassle to keep all the LEDs in place as you move along if you don’t (I also suggest a glue gun for the stubborn ones) . If you place them all exactly like I have mine in the picture below you should be good on light distribution. (Note the changes in red)




11. Now this part can be difficult but you need to begin wiring all you strands together. If you went my route you already have the resistors on each LED so you just need to connect all the negatives and positives together while also making sure the circuit boards on the back will still attach and sit flush. If you followed my LED pattern you can also try and follow my wiring pattern if I have provided enough information in the pictures. (Note: I ran out of black/red wire that’s why there are some that are all green) Also I forgot to mention I put a dab of gorilla glue on around the back of each LED to help hold it securely in place, you may want to do this before you start wiring depending on how well you drilled your holes.








12. After you finish wiring up all your LEDs you can jump back over to the needles again! First I suggest using some red/blue filter paper and slide it under the RPM redline and little HOT/COLD marks on the temp gauge. With the LEDs shining through your red will look orange compared to your bright red needles! This film will give them back the rich red and dark blue color. (Filter packet from B & H Photo)



13. Now take you gauges they should be all ready with your LED array that slips over the top and the holes widened on your gauge faces. You must use some type of adhesive to keep the gauge face against the plastic base because the glue that was previously there is useless now. Make sure you scrape all the old glue off and use something that is “temporary” because you will find yourself removing these faces probably several times lol. I used a tiny pieces of rubber butyl, its like putty and has some stick to it but once stuck can be pulled apart rather easily.

14. Once the gauge faces have been installed you can now take out your 9V battery and attach it to the configurations you wrote down as you referenced my pictures. I think all the gauges are similar to these measurements but I am not positive yours may be different. The speedometer and the RPM are by far the easiest to do the movement are quick and precise so just add the power and stick the needle pointing toward the point you wrote down (I suggest 2 notches above because the weight of the needle will move it down about this much) Oh and before you push the needle on put something at the base about 1-3 mm thick so the needle doesn’t push allll the way down onto the pin!!! If it does it will probably be resting directly on your gauge face and will either not move, or you will get erratic jumping movement when installed in your car.

15. The temp and fuel gauges are the worst to both calibrate and install the needles on. First issue depending on the needle you used are the pins, mine were smaller then the holes on the needle. I had to build up the surface of the pin for the needle to fit. I used a thin strip of foil tape. Scotch tape didn’t work it would slide down every time, you might have luck filling the hole on the needle with JB weld and drilling out a smaller hole too. Calibrating the smaller needles can
be a pain! I had a problem with the polarity on the fuel gauge. When I hooked power up to the same point I had written down the needle was going in the opposite direction! I couldn’t figure it out until I begin to play with the pin, lifting it up and down it slide into different levels so to speak. Mine may have been damaged I’m not sure but once I had it in a point where it was traveling the correct direction it was fairly easy to calibrate to what I had in my notes. The temp
needle you can try your notes but in the end I just hooked my cluster up to my car after it was warm and stuck it on pointing toward the notch below half like it should be!! This has been working out great.

16. Now you can run your wires for the needle lights through the back and attach in to everything else and be done!! Or you can stick around and really make some custom gauges!

[Roger]

Round two!


1.0 Here I will show you how to really update the look of your cluster by changing your instrument icons from blinding lights with an outline to nice crisply illuminated icons. Fist you need to locate your icons for the project. I had some help with a few of the stock ones from a forum member who had made a template. I however wanted to change all the icons that used
letters (ABS,Cruise,Brake,SRS) to actual icons. I search the web and found some images on a vector image web site but they were only samples unless you wanted to purchase them. I used these but because they were so small the quality was not good enough so I basically traced them in Photoshop. So essential I drew them all on my own.




2.0 Once you have the icons you want you may want to arrange them so they print out evenly in the spaces they will display. Do this through trial and error or scanning the little plastic piece they will go behind on the trim piece. There are several ways you can print these out but I have only tried one so far and it is working very well so I have no plans on changing. The three ways are vinyl label film, repro film, or overhead transparencies. I used overhead transparencies and layered them 4 deep to completely block all the light from passing through the black areas.










3.0 If you have TCS and would like to do something similar with those icons you are limited on options. You cannot remove the letters “tcs” that are printed on the face of the RPM dial. Well I take that back you can but you will ruin your dial in the process! The solution to this and much much cooler way is to relocate these two indicators over to the left where you have 2 empty spots all ready to be used! (USDM only of course). I relocated the pins and everything but if your lazy you could just solder the legs to the spots. Then you just link the wires over with jumpers. Not sure if it matters but I cut the link between the mounting points and the circuit board so I wasn’t sending current into the connection









4.0 Next you need to use your rubbing alcohol and remove sections of the paint so your icons can shin through. I taped out the sections as good as I could and carefully used a Q-tip to remove the paint. Make sure your tape lines are strait!






5.0 Now you should be ready to put your gauge rings on!! Not much too these just stick them through the hole preferable on a flat surface. Next fold the small aluminum flap over with a pen and be done!!!



6.0 Now reassemble and be done!!! At least until you completely recalibrate your gauges!










Remember always protect your eyes with safely glasses!




UPDATE: Added custom Legend lettering!!! Done similar to the reverse Icons

[OLDSKOOLACURA]

[Legend-Coupe]

that's one hell of a diy this must be sticky'd

[samblaze]

Great write-up Roger! PDF saved! So did you figure why the rpm/fuel gauge were a little off? Did the 'spike to voltage' method of maintaining calibration not work out? That's my biggest worry with taking apart my cluster.

[Wes]

holy moly great DIY Roger. I wish I could attempt this but I've never wired up that many LED's and it looks like a lot of work and patience. Maybe I'll attempt it some time when i'm really bored haha

[Ken]

goddamn, you are truly the craftsman!

[Roger]

Originally Posted by samblaze

Great write-up Roger! PDF saved! So did you figure why the rpm/fuel gauge were a little off? Did the 'spike to voltage' method of maintaining calibration not work out? That's my biggest worry with taking apart my cluster.

The calibration method I showed in the movie does work good for the RPM and speedometer. The RPM is only like 300 off I just need to move it a bit. The fuel and the temp are hard because they don't move the same way the others do. When you apply voltage they move very slowly to their positions I just had a hard time getting them to the right spot with this method. However the good thing is unless you have a BHG your temp needle always rests at one notch below half way. So install your cluster without the cover and with the temp needle off. Bring it up to operating temp and stick the needle on in your car pointed at that notch! The fuel I need to adjust still but I know what I will do for this. You need to figure out where your needle is pointing when your fuel light comes on. After you change your needles your going to drive around until your light come on then put the needle on with the car running at that spot right before empty. So as you can see these two are slightly difficult but they are still very much accurate after you follow these procedures.

[2cool]

very nice , wish i could do this too but im no good at soldering . hhaha

[-X-]

Gorgeus, if I only knew the fundamentals of soldering and LED Placement