basaltFD

Is there any way you can post up some pics? Thanks!

DCrosby

Try wireing them direct off the battery(temporarily), maybe your dimmer is going on you, besides LED's don't work off a dimmer anyhow... since they just turn off at a certain voltage....

Also for small stuff, LEDs etc... I typically use a small 3-15 V switchable DC power supply, since I don't want run in and out of the house that often.

And for bigger stuff I have one of those car jumper packs for 12v....

Railgun

The FD dimmer is a PWM design and LEDs can be dimmed with it.

speedjunkie

iTrader: (3)

I'll see if I can take some pics when I get home, I'm at work now. It'll be another 12 hours or so, so hang in there, haha.

Actually, if I'm getting 12v to the cluster, my lights shouldn't be dim right? Assuming the dimmer is all the way up? I'm not sure how to run power to the lights off the battery or how to hook up other lights for more light. I guess I'll get this ironed out one of these days, haha.

speedjunkie

iTrader: (3)

I actually took this pic not too long after my last post, I just forgot to post it yesterday morning when I got off work. The light isn't TOO bad, I'd just like it spread out a little more.

Railgun

I'm looking at both pics and I think one of the differences here is exposure settings on the camera. Both are showing the same dim areas, but without seeing them in person I can't tell. I think that may be skewing your thought on what it should look like.

There's also a possibility that your optics could be dirty too, which may or may not be possible.

IanS

iTrader: (4)

Couldnt you sand the clear parts under the gauges so it helps to disperse the light better? If its a little dim but even I think it would be a little bit more liveable than really bright areas that isnt even.

Railgun

They're already clear, that's how you get the white light. What's left to sand?

speedjunkie

iTrader: (3)

^actually my gauges look exactly like that, exactly how the pic came out. I'm not sure if Hyperite's did, but I can assure you mine did.

I see what IanS is saying. He's saying if I sand the plastic pieces the gauges rest on it will disperse the light better than something that is just clear. Like on a normal window, if it's just a clear window with a light shining through you'd see the light clearly, whereas if you sprayed some kind of glaze on the window it would spread out the light more. I know none of your are stupid, I'm just trying to remind you, haha. I had thought about this concept before, but not sanding the pieces, good idea. I'm just hoping I don't do this in vain or make it worse somehow.

And actually these lights seem to be bright enough for me, now it's just getting that light even.

speedjunkie

iTrader: (3)

Recently I finally got back to work on the gauges, since I got alot of the mechanical/upgrades done.

I ended up trying some lights from spectrumled.com, and I added a rope of 30 lights (2 actually) running behind each of the gauge faces. I also got some wax paper type stuff from Hobby Lobby and cut some out to put behind the speedo and tach.

http://spectrumled.com/194.htm

The super star with heat sink and the super nova are the ones I'm using, but the 4-star SMT and the regular super star work pretty well too.

http://spectrumled.com/tubes.htm

And I'm using 2 of the 14" 30 LED flexible light tubes as well. I just have them hard wired to the ashtray light and a ground. They're not dimmable, but I don't care. It is pretty damn bright in the car at night though haha. There is still a tad bit that is uneven, but overall it looks a lot better. I'll try to get a pic of just the stock gauges tonight.

The aftermarket gauges in the pic are from STRI.

staticguitar313

iTrader: (2)

better pics please, no pics of install?

speedjunkie

iTrader: (3)

****, I just remembered my gf has my camera. I'll have to get it from her tomorrow and take some more pics.

Nope, I wasn't even thinking of taking pics for posterity at the time, I just wanted to get it done. In retrospect, I should have done that. Sorry. I used one of the flexible light tubes behind the speedo and half of the tach, the other tube is run behind the 3 small gauges and the other half of the tach. I ran the wires through the two slots on the back of the cluster and spliced them together and into a wire coming from the power source (ashtray light, which is also where I have the STRI gauges hooked to).

If I have the cluster apart again at some point I'll take some pics. Or I'll use an extra cluster I have and use some wires or something to mock up where the light tubes are ran.

speedjunkie

iTrader: (3)

Is this better? Or do you need better ones? I just noticed tonight that my coolant gauge isn't fully lit up. Oh well, that's about as good as it's gonna get, for now anyway.

Railgun

Bump a little.

That looks great! Do you have any pics of the setup disassembled?

speedjunkie

iTrader: (3)

Thanks! It took a lot of trial and error but I think this is about as good as it's gonna get, for me at least, I'm tired of trying any more lol.

No I don't, sorry. I didn't think to take any pics with it apart.

turboIIrotary

iTrader: (9)

i remember back when i was 16 and in the ricer age i had an eclipse with clear side markers and i bought 194 bulbs from a local tuner shop they had a blue tint on them and they were super white i'll see if that shop still has them.