Thanks to Andrew (a.k.a., Acree) for showing us this is NOT an impossibility!

My "blackout" gauge face design came from Black Cat Custom.
The silver portion of the needles are painted black.
The entire backlighting utilize white Luxeon side emitters.

http://members.***.net/xdjtoniumx/img/index.htm

 

that looks awesome, keep playing with the camera, i'm curious to see the gauges!!

 

Ditto on the above post. Looks amazing! Thats the first time I have seen a white conversion. Most people do blue. What are you going to do for the display screen for the head unit? Is it going to be possible to change it from the orange to a blue or white? Looks nice, try to get some more pics!

 

good job!

 

Excellent! Props!

 

Looks sweet, I wanted white also...

 

Ok, I have to have that done to my car. How do I do It?

 

It will be a 7" Lilliput touchscreen LCD. I am not sure about this part yet, but I'll do some measurements once I start work on my gauges. I will probably take it apart and mount it so it looks flush with the navi box. I hope to get the display to switch on when the PC powers up.

It is possible to change the backlighting of the OEM LCD display. There are 14 amber LEDs with 3-4 resistors (0603 I think). The LCD has a bunch of pins on one side, and held down by a metal retentioner. You can pull it off and "bend" the LCD far enough so you can swap the LEDs.

For removal, you can refer to instructions when installing door speakers and an aftermarket headunit. You'll need a soldering tool that is capable of handling tiny surface mount parts. Metcal is my favorite, but pricey. The door switches, gauge cluster, and the A/C control indicators require 3.5X2.8MM LEDs. Other A/C control LEDs take right angle LEDs. I got creative on this one with 0805 LEDs. The headunit PCB takes 0805 LEDs, and 0603 possible.

Example parts from http://www.us.kingbright.com include AA3528SURC and AA3528PWC/J (search option).

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My gauge faces have a blue tint to give it a blackout impression. I didn't want this because it would dim the lighting. I'd like to let you guys know this LED work is a PITA because the OEM LEDs have 4 contacts (3 pins = GND, 1 pin = Vcc). It took me awhile to figure out why things didn't work.

The sad news? The result wasn't all that great, so hopefully I can work with Alex with some improvements. During the day, the gauges were a tad difficult to read because of uneven lighting. I had to double up each LED sideways, but it improved things by a little bit. At night it looks better, but the lighting is more blue than white.

I'm going to see if Alex can do the same gauges without tint of any kind before I continue modding. I'll do away with the stock LED lighting and put in Luxeons. The result is more brightness without dimming capability (no need).

BTW, the camera exaggerates the brightness so the dark patches are more noticble in person.

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looks great.................

 

Here's another update. I went overkill with the Luxeons, so I'm going to change the resistor value later this weekend. I didn't have time to find the correct Vcc line that would turn the lights on when I flip the key to "ON" position, so I ended up rigging it to the IGN line.

There are 6 LEDs that light up the LCD display, but I used 4 and bridged the other two to complete the circuit. I filed the amber filter to make it clear.

Each gauge takes 2 LEDs in series with a 470 ohm resistor. Since I didn't need the backlight LED, I bridged it. Then I used a single 560 ohm resistor and lit the LEDs in parallel. It turns out the brightness wasn't all that great, so I'll fix it later.

Overall, this mod is PITA! I'll try fix everything this weekend.

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nice. I love it.

 

I managed to tap into the Vcc supply from each of the boards, so I did not need to tap into the ignition wire.

After cutting, wiring, epoxy, rigging, painting, etc., I finally completed the gauge mods. It is not entirely perfect, but it's great anyhow :-)

Here is a small library of pictures:
http://members.***.net/xdjtoniumx/img/index.htm

 

this is all DIY? simply pop out the gauge and solder in a different LED? well, obviously thats the watered down version, but is that the jist of it?

 

The needles pop out with a pair of butter knives.

The amber backlight and red needle LEDs each have 4 contacts. One of them is Vcc, and the rest is ground. If the LEDs you buy have 2 contacts, take care not to solder 2 "opposing" contacts on one side. Else, it'll short and the LED won't light up (no smoke).

I realized that even with the white LEDs, the light output was far too weak for my blackout gauge faces. It might work better if the gauges are not blackout, but I cannot gaurantee that.

So I removed the LEDs and attached a Luxeon LED over them with epoxy (permanent mod). Then I wired them up as 3 strings of series connected Luxeons (2,3,2). For a 2 LED string, I used a 100 ohm resistor. For a 3 LED string, I hooked up a 33ohm and 2x 10ohm in series to make 53ohm.

For ground, I used any pin 10,11, or 12 (common). For Vcc via IGN, I used Pin 23. The pin numbers are clearly labeled, but double check with a voltmeter.

This summary is for the main gauge cluster only. There were cutting involved to get the wires to squeeze in properly without bending the PCB too much. It was big PITA.