Here's an LED instrument cluster conversion I'm just finishing up. This mod sure makes the interior look much newer than a 98. I also made my own lighted "sunset orange" needles. The light leaking out around the hub of the tach and speedo needles bothered me at first but it looks sooo much like a solar eclipse that I'm going to leave it alone (luckily I drive an Eclipse and not a Talon :) ). The photos do pretty good explaining the process. All it takes is a boat load of patience and a spare dash cluster helps to relieve the stress of taking your dash all apart like this.


Video of latest LED tail light conversion with new dash mounted turn signal monitors and LED instrument lighting conversion.


Right click "Save as" please
http://www.rcaz.com/movieclips/eclipse2.1.mpg



93 LEDs wrap around the interior of the housing. Another 16 light up the four needles with white LEDs using 1206 SMTs.


Checking the fit to be sure nothing hits the gauge movements or mechnical parts.


Testing to see how even the light looks through the overlay.


All the yellow, black and white scraped off the back of the overlays. The strips of LEDs are quite flexible and pre-wired for 12 VDC. You can trim them every three LEDs and cut as required to fit them inside. Cut off pieces can then be wired and used too. I have only found these on ebay from a single vendor in this exact style. They come in lots of colors too. Search ebay for "white LED strips"


Here I'm comparing one lighted needle on the tach with the other needles that barely show up in the photo.


I also experimented with UV light on the needles but didn't care for the look. Monster size wires were just for testing.


These tiny little buggers sit under the needles and were a pain in the butt to make and wire up with .005" coil wire.



I had the dash out again tonight to tweak it a little, here it is with all needles lit and my little solar eclipses shining around the needle hubs.

:bowdown wow

nice work .

jeebas Dave, always making me jealous, whats your problem eh? lo1 jk, you have great skills man, invaluable part of the 2gnt community :thumbsup as always...looks nothing short of forking amazing!!!

wow that looks amazing, so much nicer than stock

That solar eclipse idea for the center of the needles is INGENIOUS!!! NICE WORK!!! BUT... dude... you are almost out of gas!

Dave's car run's on plutonium so it doesn't matter.

Wow...the whole star wars light show wasn't quite for me, but damn those gauges look pimp. So when exactly are you gonna make mine :shrug

DIBS!!!!

WOW!! thats awesome man!!! the solar eclipse is a niiicee touch. love it!

nice work Dave, that's a cool video too. Are you doing the 3rd taillight now? how are you coming with the microcontroller?


I have a guage cluster conversion in the mix too, but I'm using red EL film instead of LEDs. gotta give you some competition, he he, keep you on your toes. j/k

that IC looks sweet.

Shipping quote to 99702 Alaska?

Your electical wizardry never ceases to amaze me Dave, that is so far beyond slick. Aldo Nova ftw!

ahh, beat me to it. I've been wanting white lit guage faces forever. Good work, can't wait to convert mine, and holy hell those tail lights do some fun blinking!

Genius! Me wanty.




No seriously, how much for a unit? :-P

Originally posted by ez
nice work Dave, that's a cool video too. Are you doing the 3rd taillight now? how are you coming with the microcontroller? I have a guage cluster conversion in the mix too, but I'm using red EL film instead of LEDs. gotta give you some competition, he he, keep you on your toes. j/k that IC looks sweet.

Hmmm ive been looking into Electro Luminescence aswell, tell me (if you dont mind) how you plan on running that setup. I was going to use tubing for some accent lighting. I already have red LEDs in the cluster so it glows red...BUT BRIGHTER IS BETTER! hehehe keep me updated on that EZ!

Dude that is bad a$$. I like the vid too. Just a thought, could you somehow make the green leds in the cluster to work with the throttle if you want to? You know like the old electric tachs in the 1g 300zx. Going from left to right. I think that would be cool or even have the light change to red when you get around 6500 rpm.

Lol, there's probably so much work involved that Dave wouldn't sell these because he'd lose so much time to do other things.

Looks really good, man.

i hate you

Originally posted by selmerguy2003
Just a thought, could you somehow make the green leds in the cluster to work with the throttle if you want to? You know like the old electric tachs in the 1g 300zx. Going from left to right. I think that would be cool or even have the light change to red when you get around 6500 rpm.

Sure you could. Just takes more work with building all the drive circuits (or u-controller)and sourcing all the parts. That's not for me though. I never liked the bargraph style lighting on quickly changing data like RPM, MPH, etc.

Wow. You never cease to amaze this forum Dave.

Amazing work. No that doesn't cut it.

Spectacular work! :)

Originally posted by edxmon

Originally posted by ez nice work Dave, that's a cool video too. Are you doing the 3rd taillight now? how are you coming with the microcontroller? I have a guage cluster conversion in the mix too, but I'm using red EL film instead of LEDs. gotta give you some competition, he he, keep you on your toes. j/k that IC looks sweet.

Hmmm ive been looking into Electro Luminescence aswell, tell me (if you dont mind) how you plan on running that setup. I was going to use tubing for some accent lighting. I already have red LEDs in the cluster so it glows red...BUT BRIGHTER IS BETTER! hehehe keep me updated on that EZ!

yea, just source some generic RED EL film (tons of this stuff on the net), and then design a guage pattern on your computer. you can print this off onto a clear transparency, which then overlays the EL film. Since this setup is really thin, it will lay right over your existing guage cluster with very little modification. Option 2 is to cut out some chrome/vinyl decals to place directly on the EL film. it will look pretty trick afterwards. I was doing this with an "eclipse" motif too, so the center of the guage would be black and the outer periphery would be a glowing red circle. this would match the rearview mirrors I'm working on. I'm doing this so that my eventual setup will have all the guages look exactly the same (the stock guage cluster, and aftermarket guages)

Originally posted by ez

Originally posted by edxmon

Originally posted by ez nice work Dave, that's a cool video too. Are you doing the 3rd taillight now? how are you coming with the microcontroller? I have a guage cluster conversion in the mix too, but I'm using red EL film instead of LEDs. gotta give you some competition, he he, keep you on your toes. j/k that IC looks sweet.

Hmmm ive been looking into Electro Luminescence aswell, tell me (if you dont mind) how you plan on running that setup. I was going to use tubing for some accent lighting. I already have red LEDs in the cluster so it glows red...BUT BRIGHTER IS BETTER! hehehe keep me updated on that EZ!

yea, just source some generic RED EL film (tons of this stuff on the net), and then design a guage pattern on your computer. you can print this off onto a clear transparency, which then overlays the EL film. Since this setup is really thin, it will lay right over your existing guage cluster with very little modification. Option 2 is to cut out some chrome/vinyl decals to place directly on the EL film. it will look pretty trick afterwards. I was doing this with an "eclipse" motif too, so the center of the guage would be black and the outer periphery would be a glowing red circle. this would match the rearview mirrors I'm working on. I'm doing this so that my eventual setup will have all the guages look exactly the same (the stock guage cluster, and aftermarket guages)

im a little lost, but i think i rather pm you about this tho :P

P.S. You got Pm.

dsmmyth showed me this post because I had asked what kind of work azdave has been upto. I havent been on here in over a month but all I have to say is WOW. Dave as always I am impressed, and your is the only eclipse that would motivate me to come back and mod. I won't depart with my s2k but maybe later down the road I will buy a fixer upper and start all over again. Kudos Dave, it looks fantastic