volk, thats what I figured you did, was an led at each button because there is no way one led would work. I used to own a 5th gen accord, and thats how people did it, but for the legend it just seemed easier to use bulbs...I'd like to see how it came out, so if you'd post pics that would seriously be great...for the auto shifter how'd you do that, I am going to be doing the same thing and doing an led at each letter I just would like any info, I found out how to calculate the resistance and all that needed, so now I just need to sort of dig in, how did you hook up the leds to a powersource? I may find I need to do an led at each button for my a\c but for now it seems a bulb will work as long as it lights up my defroster, but for my shifter it will be leds...also in the shifter what color leds would I need to get a blue color out of the reds? or if I put a red one there and let it light up really red I guess that'd do too...thanks a ton, I had no idea you had even done any of this so any help is appreciated

I'll get the pix this weekend, I haven't had time to get batts for my cheapo camera since I work/school everyday.

What I did to the AT selector letters is made a base. I got a plastic notebook folder and cut a rectangle, and poked small holes for the LEDs. Each one at the letters. I used WHITE leds, but the numbers came out blue because of the tint behind the letters. The white LED behind the red part came out normal red. So basically I used white LEDS in everything and it comes out blue. Using bulbs make them come out white is because the bulbs are actually amber in color, so it mixes and become sorta white. White LEDs however shine true white light, so the tint makes it come out blue.

I'll have pictures of my workings this weekend. Show before/after pix and how I did them. They are clearly better than bulbs, and make the letters/buttons look very clean cut/sharp.

 

For some reason I can not get the plastic covers off of my doors. They bend to the point at which they look like they're are about to break. I'm using a small screwdriver and I'm afraid of breaking them, any other tool you might suggest?

 

I'll get the pix this weekend, I haven't had time to get batts for my cheapo camera since I work/school everyday.

Volk did you finish the Speedometer/LED project?

 

Volk did you finish the Speedometer/LED project?

I started halfway before I wanted to sell the car. I had the RPM side done, and it looked GREAT. Very bright and clear cut. Almost like the RL gauges. But when I decided to put my car up for sale... I chunked it in the can. But now, I'm doing the project all over again, so they are not finished. All these stuff is REALLY custom work. 1st time I used LEDs that were only 2mm X 3mm X 2mm, like a cube particle, LOL. But I'm going to use a bunch of 5mm LEDs this time. Those particle LEDs drove me insane, but they did spread light very well.

There's sanding of the back face gauges involved. They used black paint over the numbers that were directly under the stock light bulbs and the numbers that were farther didn't have the black paint. They did that to have the 'even' glow of all the letters. Also, there is a layer of green plastic just like in the buttons to compensate for the amber bulbs. So alot of sanding is involved and ofcourse, alot of soldering and wiring.

 

Man, Volk-- if you got this down pat, u could outsell those reverse indiglows!!...........

 

Man, Volk-- if you got this down pat, u could outsell those reverse indiglows!!...........

Hm.. that's a pretty good thought, but I doubt it'll sell much. the back housing of the cluster is needed since that's where the LED's will be embedded/mounted. And the needles will need to be removed to replace the gauge faces with the sanded down version to removed that green/blue layer. Sounds like a $250 item oppose to the $50 indiglos (correct price?).

The thing that is cool though is that the needles I used to replace it is 5th gen Preludes. I had to obtain a 5th gen Prelude cluster just for the needles! The reason why I used those needles is because it's the closest length, and they glow if LED is put under it.

Most of you are thinking.. "wouldn't removing the needes uncalibrate the gauges??". Yes, BUT I found out how to calibrate it EXACTLY where it was left off. There are 3 connections on the back of the needle motors. When applie voltages to a pair of them, they will ALWAYS point to a specific MPH. And there are 3 points that they point depending which connections you applie voltage to. You can apply 3volts ~ 12 volts, and they will ALWAYS point to a specific MPH point. So just take note before removing them. When installing, refer back to your notes which MPH it should point to at which connections you apply voltage to. I found the secret =D

 

send me some pics and i might be down... like corky

 

send me some pics and i might be down... like corky

Oh, the pics for the cluster project is going to be delayed. Remember.. I had to start all over since I chunked the last one. So i just started on this one.... But pictures will be taken during the process and after. I won't do a "write-up" but I'll just show what I did. There's too much specific steps to do and ..... ya know.. I'm kinda lazy to do write-ups... =P

 

me too. i did the mdx shift knob thang and i never did a diy on it. lemme know when its done. where r u in GA?? anywhere near ft benning??

 

me too. i did the mdx shift knob thang and i never did a diy on it. lemme know when its done. where r u in GA?? anywhere near ft benning??

Hmm.. I dunno where Ft. Bennin is, so I prolly pretty far from it. I am in northern part of Metro ATL.

After I saw your shift knob dealy, I want to do something similiar. Like... get a leather shift boot and a shift knob. Then make it a push down like yours or the RL. Yea yea.. manual wannabe, but hey, I've seen some factory ATs with shift boots too. I think in some Mercedes. All mercedes are AT, and I think I saw some use a shift boot.

 

Hey Volk did you test out your re-calibration theory? So let's say you popped off the needles and they're uncalibrated now... basically you ad the charge to those two connections and manually move the needle to where it's suppose to be at... then release the voltage+needle....have you tested this.. you could save a lot of headaches if what you're saying really works! =D

p.s: my uncle "MrLude" on Hpoa was talking about how cool your prelude was again last night when we went to a movie.. lol

 

volk, if ya need some help w/ the knob, hit me up and i will walk u thru it..

 

Hello Nima:

Because those bulbs are all painted by hand, there are irregularities in the coloration of them. All of our 31 mm incandescent bulbs in stock are like that. Because the LED's don't require paint for them to put out color, they have a more even look to them.

Sincerely,
Tracy


what bull....god this pisses me off. good thing they're only 5$ otherwise i'd be really mad. because there's no where on the site that says...oh we're not going to do a good job painting the bulbs so they'll be some white light getting through.

 

Hello Nima:

Because those bulbs are all painted by hand, there are irregularities in the coloration of them. All of our 31 mm incandescent bulbs in stock are like that. Because the LED's don't require paint for them to put out color, they have a more even look to them.

Sincerely,
Tracy

what bull....god this pisses me off. good thing they're only 5$ otherwise i'd be really mad. because there's no where on the site that says...oh we're not going to do a good job painting the bulbs so they'll be some white light getting through.

x2 thats pretty much what they told me except they also said they had no more of the fully dipped ones...which is crap, like I got the last 3? oh well whatever

 

Hey Volk did you test out your re-calibration theory? So let's say you popped off the needles and they're uncalibrated now... basically you ad the charge to those two connections and manually move the needle to where it's suppose to be at... then release the voltage+needle....have you tested this.. you could save a lot of headaches if what you're saying really works! =D

p.s: my uncle "MrLude" on Hpoa was talking about how cool your prelude was again last night when we went to a movie.. lol

Yea, I was playing around with a spare cluster and found this out. There are 3 connections behind it. #1 and #2 to move it from beyond 0 to halfway. #2 and #3 is to pull it from halfway to beyond 160mph. So basically, the needles are controlled by how much voltages are applie to two of them, while one is a ground. So the need is "pulled" to which ever there is voltages.

So for example, before plucking them off, put current to only two of them, and leave the last one nothing. That will always point to a specific point, it doesn't matter how much volts, just enough not to burn it, LOL. If you put 1 volt, it will just get there slower, but WILL stop at that point. If more voltage is applied, it will SHOOT right at the specific point, but will stop. Take note... then you applie voltages to the next one and leave the last one nothing. It will point to a 2nd location. Basically, doing it like this is a "double" check, but you could just do it to one.

After plucking the needles off and putting them back on, applie the voltage to the same connections, and just adjust the needle until it's where it left off. It's not "recalibration", but more like put it back where it "left off" from last time.

 

I got my bulbs today, I want to report that all of them are are completely dipped, they are stamped 12V10W, from the exterior they resemble those expensive B-1 Hybrid bulbs by Polarg. I'll install them later tonight (1030pm pst) i'm on lunch break at the moment from work.

I'll report on the light later.

 

Awesome!!! 95lastgreatones,

the bulbs came today and were just like you said. It's good to see people with good taste! Very nice bulbs! I installed the front 3 in and tried to get the door plastic cover off, but it wouldn't budge. How did you get the door cover and the footlight covers off?

 

Did any of you guys order blue 194 bulbs? the festoons I got light up a good blue, but the 194's I got light up pretty much green, they didn't use enough dye I think. It doesn't realy matter though cause I decided to buy more led bulbs, they don't shine as bright but they are WAY more vivid, blue looks really blue, whiute is actually white etc. I decided to just carry a little flashlight in case there is something I need to find and the lights don't do it for me, which is better then the incandescent bulbs could ever be anyone, plus I'll get a good look on the inside, I already installed the rest of my led bulbs and I am VERY happy with them, I love the look. I should take pics of the white led vs the super white incandescent, I put them side by side and you can see the white leds are like actually white...I will say the superwhites are alot better then stock though, that was just in comparison. The rear door panel covers were the hardest to take off for me, you just gotta be patient, I broke one, so I had to buy relacements, the other came off because I was rougher with it, and I did it hecka quick, I broke the other one being too careful I guess hard to explain...also the footwell light has like a clip you need to push out...however I broke that one too, trying to get the other side off, no biggie though you can't see it, and I think the led there spreads better without the cover...

 

i just did my in red the climate is not as bright i want it maybe bc i have manual and there is only 2 bulbs one bulb for each row of buttoms how could i make them brighter and i did remove the blue filter from each buttom i will post pic soon

also will LED's work batter in A/C so it will make it brighter ?

 

also will LED's work batter in A/C so it will make it brighter ?

NOPE!

 

i just did my in red the climate is not as bright i want it maybe bc i have manual and there is only 2 bulbs one bulb for each row of buttoms how could i make them brighter and i did remove the blue filter from each buttom i will post pic soon

also will LED's work batter in A/C so it will make it brighter ?

if you could post pics that would be awesome I'd love to see it...As for it not being as bright as you like, I have a manual one too, but I need to order some leds for the indicator lights before I go ahead and do mine...The buttons I don't think are supposed to come out super bright because like you said, there are only 2 bulbs for the whole row...is it like way less bright then stock? also it could be a combination of the color of the bulb and that fact that it is a colored bulb, perhaps red is not as bright as some of the other colors and then it is a tinted bulb so it won't be as bright as a regular bulb...I'm just guessing though...I think the only way leds would be brighter is if you did like volk did and wire one up at each button, but thats totally custom, I think if you replaced the stock bulbs with led bulbs it would probably barely shine if at all...From what I have seen with the accords LEDs will make it look really good, but it is alot more work then just switching bulbs..

which reminds me volk if you'd post pics I'd love to see how your setup looks, it is alot more work but I am considering it for the better colors we'll see maybe I'll put bulbs in for now and switch later

EDIT: Klein posted at the same time I did, but basically yeah I have been working with these led bulbs, and trust me they just don't shine like that, and besides I think klein has done it (correct?) so he's got personal experience with it, I believe I already wasted some money by not listening to him...

 

They're better than stock, more white, not much blue. I like them overall, in the install though as I took out one of the screws near the front dome lights (there are two big screws) I was taking them off cuz I couldn't remove the trim piece to access the side maplights..anyways one of the screws fell and went into the hole where the EBRAKE lever is.. and landed smack in the middle out of my reach. Now I gotta figure out how to reach in there, take the armrest center thing off. Anyone know how? I gotta remove the wood trim piece tomorrow anyways for the lightbulb underneath there.

 

Sorry guys, I'm trying to get the pics up, but Biology and Statistic tests coming up, and trying to cram on the weekends since I work fulltime during the day....

But as one says up there, it's complete custom wiring. 1 wrong move, and the board circuits fry up. Just to let you know... I fried part of my climate control circuits, and lost a bunch of connections because the copper burnt and flaked OFF. But good thing I know how to work on them, so I soldered wires to the points and it works now. Heh. Anyways... it's always good to have spare parts to play with.

I put 1 LED in each button with resistors. They are sooooo bright that when I put the illumen brightness to full LOW, it's still super bright! The shifter selector is so bright also that it reflects off my shifter knob.

Oh, FYI: I use white LEDs because I want everything white, and when working on the AC unit, the buttons will HAVE to be pryed off to removed the green/blue film under it. The button clips WILL break off. There is noway to avoid this, these were made to be installed permanently. So every single AC button clips were broken off, but it doesn't affect the way it's mounted, so once reinstalled, it'll look like it's never been touched. Then you'll have to superglue the mounting points back on. This will be permanent since thereis no more need to remove the buttons since the green/blue film is removed.

My current setup right now is ALL buttons are bright white... kinda like the TSX I think... but haven't completed my white led backface gauge project, and the window switchs.
The switches on the sides of my gauge cluster is so white and bright, it makes my gauge cluster look sooooo dull yellow/brown and really dark.

I know alot of you are waiting for the pix.. but I have to knock these tests out. It's my major class so I gotta Ace them.
Sorry for the delay......

 

after 5 months,blue turn to white light

when it was new..(colored bulb)

after 5 months.noticed its turns out white light now.

today i install a blue led inside the A/C VENT..

then i took out the lighter and ashtray bulb and replaced it (white LED). relocated it to coins bin.

crazy huh? i know some fellow members here will have some comments about it.( looks like a club inside my car).any way i dont care..its my taste..but its ok.im happy for it,especially cruisin at night..

festoon LED (4 LED)WHITE

 

^I like it all except the blue around your cdplayer. I've learned my lesson many times though that unless you see something in person, you really have no idea how it looks. What scent do you have in those air fresheners (i had one just like it but the scent smelled soooo bad i had to throw it out)