194 LED bulbs in 442 gauge

Aceshigh · 03-09-2010, 09:11:46 PM

Okay, for those that were interested.
These are the 194 5 SMT LED bulbs I ordered for my 442 gauges.
They are the one's from the Ebay retailer from Hong Kong for $4 for 2.
SuperBriteLED's wants $4 PER bulb, so I just got the one's from this guy cheaper.

They are EXTREMELY bright when you put them on a 12V source outside of the gauge panel.
I only had 2 hands so I couldn't get a pic for ya.
Against a black face , they are not as bright as the Phantom example Woody showed though.

Here's my filament bulbs dimly lit gauges in my 442. Car is NOT RUNNING
You'll notice the quad gauge to the far left is VERY VERY dim.
They use a common grounding plate across the gauge panel, and a common Grey 12V power wire through the back plugs.

This is them up close to see the difference BEFORE the LEDs were put in.

This is AFTER the LED's were put in, but my car battery wasn't doing so good and I missed one of the TOP bulbs on accident.

This is the gauge after I pulled it out, put the missing LED in up top, and hooked it up with
alligator clips to my Camaro's battery which is fully charged. There's a HUGE difference between PIC 2 and PIC 4.

So for starters I know I have to run a direct line to feed these FROM the
horn relay to give them more juice (14V full time) to brighten them up.

Gary S · 03-10-2010, 12:33:11 AM

Keep in mind that brighter isn't always better. The old cars were usually well engineered and those old engineers picked lamps with the intensity that worked well under most conditions. If you get the dash too bright, you end up blinding yourself if you try to drive it on a very dark night. That can be very dangerous because you don't see the road like you should.
I've actually driven factory vehicles where the engineers missed their mark on lighting and got the bright/dim light too bright. You end up needing black tape over the light on the dash to make it usable. (FYI, it was FORD, not GM vehicles)

Aceshigh · 03-10-2010, 12:35:19 AM

Gary,

My Lexus gauges, and most of your modern gauges are FAR brighter then this can ever hope to be. Trust me on that. Gauge brightness has come LEAPS AND BOUNDS in the past 10-12 years VS the old school stuff even with LED's.

I prefer a very bright gauge myself.....but this isn't going to hit that mark.
It's an improvement , but no where near modern standards.

BonzoHansen · 03-10-2010, 10:28:00 AM

Can you dim them?

mjoc · 03-10-2010, 04:35:32 PM

If you bypass the dimmer switch in the dash they will light up alot brighter. Also if you want them real bright you need to get a warm white bulb.

Mike

Aceshigh · 03-10-2010, 08:02:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BonzoHansen

Can you dim them?

CORRECTION.

Yes, you can dim them with the stock dimmer switch.
I just put the Speedo and Quad gauge back in today and they both dim normally.

Quote:

Originally Posted by mjoc

If you bypass the dimmer switch in the dash they will light up alot brighter.

I'm going to run a 14 Gauge wire through the firewall to the gauges with an inline fuse getting a full 14V to see how much it brightens up.

Quote:

Also if you want them real bright you need to get a warm white bulb.

Mike

These OUTSIDE of the gauges do appear completely white.

But inside the gauges they appear like a 6000K bluish because of the housing color I'm guessing. Not exactly sure.....

Twisted_Metal · 03-10-2010, 09:25:50 PM

I'm pretty sure it's the housing color, Aces.

The two small gauges on the right side of my cluster look more blue than the rest of them.

Yes, Scott, they dim before they wink out.... To about the same brightness (dimness) of the stock lights.

I agree with Aces..... They aren't so bright that I feel a need to dim them.
Brighter was the objective in changing them in the first place!
There isn't much point in the trouble/effort of swapping to LEDs if you want to dim them down to look as crappy as the stock ones.

BonzoHansen · 03-10-2010, 09:43:28 PM

14g? What kind of amperage do leds pull? I thought they pulled very little.

Aceshigh · 03-10-2010, 10:14:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BonzoHansen

14g? What kind of amperage do leds pull? I thought they pulled very little.

You know what, I just got done wiring my Camaro with the AAW Hwy 22 kit
and almost EVERY wire in every circuit is 14 gauge IIRC.

So I have a bunch of extra colored wire looms I bought to supplement it
with the extra circuits. It's just stuck in my head .....force of habit if you will.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Twisted_Metal

Brighter was the objective in changing them in the first place!
There isn't much point in the trouble/effort of swapping to LEDs if you want to dim them down to look as crappy as the stock ones.

Exactly. I don't dim anything, I go for full blast on every gauge assembly on every car.
It's just my thing I guess.....

I'm still not completely satisfied, and I want more juice to jazz it up a notch.

Aceshigh · 03-10-2010, 11:18:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Twisted_Metal

I'm pretty sure it's the housing color, Aces.

Well, I was close......I found more info on someone else's build.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/robsalb...7602930020786/

This speedo cluster started out as just a squeak in the indicater pointer...
Might as well overhaul the whole thing while it is out...
I cleaned it up good but did not repaint anything.
Note the pale blue color inside the metal case used to accent the illumination.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/robsalb...7602930020786/
Looks like I might need to pull my guages apart and paint a white ring instead.....