Tom Posted November 30, 2020 Share Posted November 30, 2020 (edited) 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. 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. 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! Edited November 30, 2020 by FTM Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DBLXX Posted November 30, 2020 Share Posted November 30, 2020 What a difference. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom Posted November 30, 2020 Author Share Posted November 30, 2020 It would be kinda cool to have the cluster look stripped down I agree 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? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SwampNut Posted November 30, 2020 Share Posted November 30, 2020 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? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom Posted November 30, 2020 Author Share Posted November 30, 2020 Here they are, just snapped a pic of them. The strip on the left is the ones I bought, Sloan SMD-WPLCC-02 is the name. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SwampNut Posted November 30, 2020 Share Posted November 30, 2020 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. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RXX Posted December 8, 2020 Share Posted December 8, 2020 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. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
superhawk996 Posted December 8, 2020 Share Posted December 8, 2020 I've soldered surface mount stuff with an old school Weller gun and very little soldering skill, maybe I got lucky. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom Posted December 14, 2020 Author Share Posted December 14, 2020 My first soldering project passed the test! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
superhawk996 Posted December 15, 2020 Share Posted December 15, 2020 Sweet. I kinda figured that the pros were being overly cautious. Makes sense tho, if something went wrong they'd have to buy you a new board. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
XXitanium Posted December 15, 2020 Share Posted December 15, 2020 Pic with the dash cover back on please? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom Posted December 15, 2020 Author Share Posted December 15, 2020 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. I'll take better pics tonight. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom Posted December 15, 2020 Author Share Posted December 15, 2020 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 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
XXitanium Posted December 16, 2020 Share Posted December 16, 2020 Yeah, I was thinking it looked pretty bright. I don't like things to bright when I'm riding at night. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
superhawk996 Posted December 16, 2020 Share Posted December 16, 2020 I thought they were too bright in the first photo, but was waiting for your first person impression. How bout just putting a little tint on them? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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