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EFI gauges LED color change


Tom

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So I decided to change the orange lights in my cluster, and also change the "old" rev gauge face with the new one, the one with blue strip. Bought the late model cluster for that, if this whole operation goes well I'll sell it. 

 

I took the clusters apart, the rev gauge faces are made from pretty solid cardboard material, with halftone pattern printed on the bottom side, to disperse the light from those 2 bulbs that light up the rev gauge. So my idea of designing my own gauge face was nulled, I don't think any aftermarket guy doing gauges can make them on such precise level, and I prefer OEM look tbh. I put both faces against the light, it's clear that old model has orange tint so the color of 2 leds doesn't really matter on that one, the newer one though will look good with updates led bulbs down there.

 

xBRn1rM.jpg

 

 

Which leaves us with the LCD lights, both sides are surrounded with orange leds. At first I feared that the LCDs are orange due to some colored film or something, just like the main rev gauge is. But when I took it apart and connected it on the bike for test, I was happy to see that the LEDs are actually orange. Now they need to be replaced.

 

6NODTEG.jpg

 

Since I have 0 experience with soldering (I went to electrical engineering high school....no comments on that) I'm reluctant to go DIY route, although I probably should. I went around town the other day with the cluster in my backpack, visited 4 electronics repair shops and asked them if they would do the LED swap - they all turned me down saying it's risky to do it, the chances of short-circuiting the board are high etc.

 

So any of you have some advice I can't pickup on YouTube when it comes to doing this, what kind of equipment I should get, preferably something cheap because I see no point buying a soldering station just for this one job. I saw some ytbers use tweezers, some use only soldering iron and flux, others have fancy air guns etc...I'm aware that the indent on the smd LED is negative polarity so that's also a thing to watch for, but what would be the safest and cleanest approach to do this right and not mess up the board, with minimal equipment is possible? Thanks! :D

Edited by FTM
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It would be kinda cool to have the cluster look stripped down I agree :D

 

Forgot to ask - I bought 3 packs of 3528 SMD LEDs (PLCC2), rated at different intensity - 1000, 1200, 2000. Any idea if the 2000 mcd intensity would be too much, causing hotspots of light?

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16 minutes ago, FTM said:

At first I feared that the LCDs are orange due to some colored film or something

 

LED lights are never coated or use lenses to change color, because that doesn't really work.  The spectrum of LEDs is nothing at all like a true white light, and indeed, there's no such thing as a white LED nor white light from an LED.  You just perceive it what way after light has been passed through phospors, or combined as RGB.  But it's still a very broken spectrum, so lenses don't work.

 

If you have a red lens, like in a tail light, then you must use a red LED, not white.  For yellow/amber, obviously, match that color.  There is actually a difference between them but I bet they interchange with only small losses.

 

19 minutes ago, FTM said:

Since I have 0 experience with soldering (I went to electrical engineering high school....no comments on that) I'm reluctant to go DIY route, although I probably should. I went around town the other day with the cluster in my backpack, visited 4 electronics repair shops and asked them if they would do the LED swap - they all turned me down saying it's risky to do it, the chances of short-circuiting the board are high etc.

 

This makes it sound like they are SMD, not standard pinned LED units?

 

Which one of these?

 

LED-banner.png

 

5050-pw6000-store.jpg&w=585&zc=2

 

 

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Yeah, that's going to be a bad time, fraught with peril.  If experts turned you down, there's a reason.  For this you need an SMD rework station, not a normal soldering iron.  I have one, and still hate doing it.  I think my station was $200 and it was a "cheap" Chinese import.

 

Oh, found it:  https://smile.amazon.com/Aoyue-968A-Digital-Rework-Station/dp/B077PYCYQR/ref=sr_1_8?dchild=1&keywords=Smd%2BRework%2BStation&qid=1606772956&sa-no-redirect=1&sr=8-8&th=1

 

Youtube it and see if you want to take it on.  

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On 11/30/2020 at 4:52 PM, SwampNut said:

Yeah, that's going to be a bad time, fraught with peril.  If experts turned you down, there's a reason.  For this you need an SMD rework station, not a normal soldering iron.  I have one, and still hate doing it.  I think my station was $200 and it was a "cheap" Chinese import.

 

Oh, found it:  https://smile.amazon.com/Aoyue-968A-Digital-Rework-Station/dp/B077PYCYQR/ref=sr_1_8?dchild=1&keywords=Smd%2BRework%2BStation&qid=1606772956&sa-no-redirect=1&sr=8-8&th=1

 

Youtube it and see if you want to take it on.  

 

Damn you Carlos. After decades of using an old Weller gun, I have GOT to get me one of those.

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C5RRAzf.jpg

 

But this is a phone snap and I took the exposure down because you know how crappy these phones are in these challenging dynamic range situations. When I took the video of it, it looked better, on this photo it looks as if the numbers and washed out on LCD which is not the case.

 

84Ez1XL.jpg

 

I'll take better pics tonight.

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OK just finished the garage test on both amber and my white led cluster. We are gonna be soldering again, these 2000mcd leds are way to much, both pics were taken from the same spot, same exposure iso f everything. It looks drastic on the photo, human eye compensates bit better for this BUT - the difference from rev gauge to the LCD is just distracting. I definitely picked too bright LEDs. Back to solder city :D

 

bs67ayI.jpg

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