Contrary to what others on the forum have described... the STRI gauges I got do NOT match the FD interior lights. They are advertised to be "amber". They are not. They are laser red. Whoever said they match is colorblind (or mine are for some reason different).

So anyway, I got pissed off and decided to really "unbox" them

PS My newly acquired innovative wideband gauge didnt match either... had to unbox that one too

 

so... who knows anything about replacing microscopic LED's?? I assume I need to find out the voltage and current draw, and then find a nice little store online that sells replacements in amber (and then call Rick Morranis and get honey-i-shrunk-the-kids's down to a size that would let me actually de-solder and re-solder these things without overheating them). If anyone has suggestions I'm all ears -Heath

 

Likewise for the Defi BF amber gauges to be honest

 

Have you never searched for a video of these gauges on Youtube? The pics on the site don't accurately show what color your getting because they're a digital rendering of the design. Looks fine to me, thanks for posting pic of them disassembled, I'm throwing STRI's in the cluster to replace the screwed up water temp and oil pressure gauges.

 

Those are big enough to be easy to replace. Since you have it on, get a volt meter and see what it's seeing. Then you can go to a site like ledtronics and get something similar in the color you want. Get the measurement too.

Also, you can try to get them for free. I had asked for samples of some SMT LEDs for a prototype of a project and was able to get 20 of them. 10 of one type and 10 of another. You can try that and see if it works out.

They'll either be 3.3v or 5v. Probably the latter.

As far as soldering, get a really fine tip and you should be OK. It's a small amount of solder on 'em and it should be quick to break the connection.

 

Why didn't you just return them and get something else?

 

^^^^ same thing I was wondering....

 

Anybody know how the Pro Sport amber compares to the original?

 

suggest something that looks stock, is amber, is in units I am familiar with (not metric lol) and has a warning setting.



If you want to make an omelet you have to break a few eggs

 

Greddy 60mm all come with warning settings, and look as stock as you can get with the black face and amber lighting (yes it is actually amber). I bought the 52mm and I couldnt be happier.

http://www.rx7.com/store/rx7/fdinterior_gauges.html

The shop that I had install them were really impressed how well they matched. I will post up a picture in about 5 min.

 

greddy has 52mm w/ warning and US units? (I'm very picky )

Yeah I saw pics/ video. The led's actually flash on/off really fast so on camera they appear amber, while they are actually laser red in person.



Thanks Christian! I'm gonna go find my multi meter and see what type they are. PS you have a package coming your way

 

 

Sadly only in the 60mm can you get the warning lights.

 

My Defi BF Series gauges in Amber match up fairly well.

 

I hope you find something. I've been looking for the same thing:
- amber lighting similar to stock (not red or that through dial BS)
- 52mm / 2 1/16" D
- warning or peak hold
- US unit of measure

I'm looking for water and oil temp.

And yes, I share your frustration on some people's feedback:

- "matches perfectly" which basically means its a shade of red and not blue or green or pink

- "fits great" especially with regards to wheel fitment which basically means that it could be installed w/o a hammer but you might have to buy coilovers so you can raise the car to stock ride height and never, ever go up a driveway...

- "rides great!" when talking about 12k springs on coilovers which basically means their fillings haven't fallen out of their teeth yet

and other BS / false feedback from idiots in some threads...

 

yeah i would have gone that route but its 60mm. So re-working these STRI's are really the only way I can go.

 

Yeah I've realized that I need to take what people say on the internet with a grain of salt . The innovate gauge is relatively easy to do as its white backlighting with a clear plexiglass disc in back of the face. I've got it temporarily amber (looks really good) but I want to wait till I get the STRI's led's swapped out so I can better adjust the color to match). I'm really **** about interior parts matching... I guess others on the forum think close enough and move on. Red gauges would bother me every day I drove it LOL... if its not perfect its not right. Took me two years to find a head unit that matched and looked stock. I ended up paying a pretty penny for it but at least I wont be blinded/distracted by a blue and white light show in the middle of my dash. -Heath

 

 

I have the AEM Analog gauges, they have changeable backlighting for 7 different colors and have Amber that match the interior lights, are available in US or Metric measurements, and work fantastic. They just don't have peak recall or warnings...

 

I have to ask, what's wrong with 60mm gauges?

 

I know its off topic but I'm curious. What head unit did you end up getting?

 

Rich I just have 52mm gauge pods... that kinda dictated the 52mm decision. That and I think 60mm just looks too big IMHO



Nakamichi CD700II. Amber backlighting, looks pretty stock, and it should sound decent

 

Christian... found the multimeter and ran into a problem. Apparently this is a Pulse Width Modulated circuit which i guess allows them to have the dimming feature. This also explains why digital cameras are capturing the color as "amber" and not red, as it's actually flashing on and off really fast (infact my digital camera happened to catch the led's in their "off" phase which showed no apparent light in the picture despite the fact that the gauge was on.)


So this leads me back to the beginning of the problem.... figuring out what voltage and amps the current LED's are so I can replace them. Any suggestions? (google didnt turn up much useful info). Anyone got an electrical engineering degree in here lol

 

^ 1.91v (Bright setting)
.63v (Dim setting)

so yeah I not only have no clue what voltage but do not know the amps either. To measure amps you have to disconnect ONE of the leads from the LED's... I haven't gotten that far yet but I'm worried that the amp draw will also be modified by the PWM

 

I have two of Pro sport gauges and they match the oem color very good, however the quality might be so so, because it's been 1 year since I brought them and the oil pressure gauge keep reading 100 psi while a mechanically read 25 psi at idle, I have deceide to send to pro sport to torubleshoot it to see if the sending unit or the gauge is shoot.
Khris