LED gauge conversion

[cal_look_zero]

This is a rough draft leading into a full write up after I finish up the project.

Bearing in mind, my method is definitely about a 7.5 out of 10 on the difficulty/risk scale, but worth it in my opinion.

My end result will be all LEDs in the cluster, total elimination of all halogens.

That being said, here we go.

First thing being to cut into the gauges. I gave it the ol college try to pry the bezel off, but no luck at all. So I got a nifty little diamond wheel and split my gauges... SCARY.




You'll see the little black marks I made in the housing, basically the full range of needle travel on the gauge.

You'll want 2 packages of these standard 5mm push in LED holders.



Next I marked and drilled out the holes for the LEDs. It's a smidge over 1/4" for a good fit, and I secured it all with model airplane glue for good measure.





The wiring is a bit tricky. Keeping the wiring from touching and making a bridge circuit is a pain. I decided to fillet the wiring and splice it that way. I used a single resistor for my input power.




After I cleaned up the glass and temped the housing back together. Tested out the light pattern and well...




Next: Gear indicator.

[cal_look_zero]

I made a boo boo when testing the circuit on the gear indicator and blew the circuit board up... Oh well, I like my method a little better.

I cut a chunk of PCB from radio shack to fit the same dimensions as the stock board.



I used small (3mm) high intensity LEDs since I had them laying around. The housing for the bulbs is deep, so I cut shrink tubing to 7/32" for spacers to keep the LEDs up higher in the housing.



Fortunately the holes fell right in line with the housing, so getting the lights to line up was easy. Soldered them in, and then straightened them out.






I lined up the 1st-5th wires and soldered them in to place. I installed a single in line resistor and bridged the source wire across all 5 LEDs with some 18ga hookup wire.




I don't have a picture of the end result, but they look great and the housing fits just like normal.

Next: Idiot lights.

[cal_look_zero]

May be a little bit overkill, but this is my plan for LED idiot lights...



More to come tomorrow.

[Guest]

Love your work! Definitely keener than me with the gauge backlights, but the spread of light with your method is far more even as I have a few darkish spots.

Nice work on the gear indicator circuit board too

Looking forward to see how you finish it off, but looks like you'll end up with a nice bit of quality work there for sure.

[BassCliff]

Hi,

Nice upgrade project! Thanks for sharing. You do good work.


Thank you for your indulgence,

BassCliff

[Matchless]

Well done! If I have to work on mine I may look at approaching it form this angle next time! I wonder what amber LEDs would look like as back lights?

[TheCafeKid]

Ive found in some of the bikes ive owned/worked on RED bulbs...might be worth trying some red LEDs to keep the stock look?

[refeicul]

i like what you did with the gear indicator but as for the rest why not just replace the bulbs with led bulbs you can get them here->http://www.superbrightleds.com/cgi-b...rake-turn.html

[Guest]

Ok, I'm doing this one next time I'm into the clocks

How about a few different color LED's just for fun

[cal_look_zero]

i like what you did with the gear indicator but as for the rest why not just replace the bulbs with led bulbs you can get them here->http://www.superbrightleds.com/cgi-b...rake-turn.html

Aside from tools and time, this entire project cost me a grand total of $8.50. Plus it's fun to mess around and make something no one else has. That, and USPS was taking wayyyyy to long to get to my house with parts, so I got antsy.

As far as tail and signal bulbs, I have some stalk mount LED signals I'm going to use, and the tail will eventually be an early 2000s gsxr with an integrated LED tail light.

[cal_look_zero]

Hoping to have it all back together tonight. The stupid cheap board I got from radio shack kept having the copper dots separate from the board, so I had to chop off the bottom of the "T" and cut a little 3/4" square for the bottom light. Oh well it all worked out.

I was going to mention earlier, but I use Shoe Goo and a cheapo acid brush to seal off the connections to prevent arcing and corrosion. Just squeeze it on there and use the brush to make sure it gets all over the connection. Primitive, but works very very well.

[Guest]

Certainly looks the goods! Looking forward to seeing it together and in action.

I got some batteries for the camera but I've had a few too many this evening to get down to the garage and get some pic's of mine in action...

[cowboyup3371]

Wanted to drag this out of the bowels of the forum to ask some questions if you don't mind.


You said the cheap board you got from Radio Shack caused problems. What do you mean by that? What's the recommended way around what you experienced?

How does this compare with Matchless' writeup in Basscliff's site? Which way is easier/better?

Any other advice?

Sorry for the dump questions but I'm trying to figure out how I want to go with some of my changes.

[four_shot]

the Radio shack "bread board" pcb he was using has small copper plated rings encircling each one of the little holes. This is so the components have something to attach to on the board when making connections. As he was soldering his components onto the board, the copper ring would flake off or otherwise lift off of the board rendering that particular hole virtually useless.

Very frustrating when soldering multiple components to a particular section of a board

[Road Rash]

And one more year later, a resurrection.

I found this while researching for my current project of building a custom dash. I am ditching the factory idiot lights for LED ones (Thought about converting the illumination bulbs like was done in this thread, too, before I discovered this. Glad someone else has proven success, already.).
As of tonight, I have the LEDs mounted and so far all is going well, but then a question hit me: Am I going to have to do something about the turn signals and their flashing rate now that the indicators are now LEDs, much like when you convert to actual LED turn signals? Is my flash rate now going to be screwed up? I didn't notice this mentioned in here, but that doesn't mean it had to be addressed. I plan on conventional turn signals, just the dash indicators will be LED.
Any help is appreciated.