'Tower' LEDS for instrument cluster-- any good?

[andyneed4speed]

Originally Posted by chaz_r33_gtr

....However, they are that bright that I reckon putting a coloured condom thing over them, like the OEM Bulbs wouldnt reduce their brightness much and give you any colour you need..

Yeah, but where do you get coloured condoms from? - can you tell I've had a vasectomy?

[chaz_r33_gtr]

Ouchh....!

Originally Posted by andyneed4speed

Yeah, but where do you get coloured condoms from? - can you tell I've had a vasectomy?

[andyneed4speed]

Too right ouch - especially when they didn't put enough anaesthetic in the left hand side at first. Really weird chatting to some nurse sat at your side while some consultant (only the best for me) is snipping away in your ball bag. There seemed to be a lot of nurses in the room not really doing a lot - I think they must sell tickets, you know how much women like to see us men suffering

[TheD]

Originally Posted by DeanN

Chaz, this is where I got mine mate.

eBay UK Shop - Zero Point Electronics:

Fitted in my motor, first with standard clocks then second pic with white Nismo clocks. Not the best pics but......

These look great. I oredered some of these purely out of coincidence!

Jonathan.

[TheD]

Originally Posted by DeanN

LEDs are polarity sensitive. In short, unlike a bulb, they have a positive and negative side.
What I did when i got my leds was test them using a 9Volt PP9 type battery. Once they lit I knew which way was pos, and i scored a small mark on the positive side with a needle file.
On the PCB on the back of the instrument binnacle you can work out which is supply and ground. then you can fit the leds into the holder the correct way around.

If you want to avoid that process, just plug them in and if they don't work, turn them 180 degrees, but doing it this way means u might have to plug in and remove you binnacle a few times unless you're lucky and get it right straightaway.

You WON'T break them pluggin in wrong way

It's really not difficult and I will help anyone out local who needs a hand.

Just to elaborate on your post mate. An easy way to tell the polarity of LEds is to look at the lens.

At the base of the lens (where the contacts come out) there is a rim. The contact closest to the flat on the rim is negative.

Image:Uvled highres macro.jpg - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


Jonathan.

[666DAN]

Hey guys, just another catch up-

The R34's only use 4 x T5's to illuminate the main cluster, so unfortunately they will always have some level of shading as you can't currently get a T5 to solve that issue (just too damn small to fit more than 3 LEDs per bulb)

Andy, you didn't change the odometer bulb over, they look good in red as well

The R32 and R33's however have a healthy 5 x T10's so effectively a total of 30 individual rectangle LEDs to illuminate the dash compared to the 12 in the R34's

The triple gauges in all three models use 3 x T5's

Hope that explains.

Dan

[ru']

Originally Posted by TheD

Just to elaborate on your post mate. An easy way to tell the polarity of LEds is to look at the lens.

At the base of the lens (where the contacts come out) there is a rim. The contact closest to the flat on the rim is negative.

Image:Uvled highres macro.jpg - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


Jonathan.

Also, the 'big' bit inside the lense is the negative (see image as per link above)

[Alex Creasey]

A bit of 'thread from the dead' action but finally got round to doing mine today inc the aux gauges... Only had the LED's sitting at home since this thread started but now its done... Much much better! Hopefully some pics to follow .

Cheers.

[kgleeson]

Chaz

Empty your PMs

[Ads]

Be great to see some pics alex!

[Alex Creasey]

I'm doing a little 'how to' but have got to take a couple of pics tomorrow to finish it off, so hopefully Sunday I'll have it sorted

The difference is much better though!