DIY: LED Gauge Cluster

[hoyoung02]

I finally did it. This took me about 3 hours from start to finish from the start. I explained most of this on the pictures itself, but I will also be explaning the process BELOW the picture. This DIY is done on 1995 Honda Civic DX manual gauge cluster. I am not responsible for your mistakes and false moves doing this DIY, if your gauge stops workings from this DIY from your mistakes, I will not be accountable for it. do it at your own risk, but there is no reason this should mess up your cluster if you did what I did on this DIY. I did not do the whole gauge cluster, because this work is the "basic" idea of converting your gauge cluster's illumination to LED, instead of just simply replacing the lights to LED. I will also not explain what LED and resistor you will need to use in this DIY, because I already have a whole thread covering that subject here. Now, before anything, it is entirely up to you to decide how to make your own circute bord. Circute bord[aka PC bord, find be found at your local electronic store such as Radio Shack, Fry's..] I only used PC bord to have a very secure connection that will last, you can also just wire the LED's up with resistor's from your choice of power source. ok, now, let's get started. pics are huge, I don't care, don't like it, don't bitch about it. Step 1. Reguired materials. Gauge Cluster you will be working on, LED's and resistors, solid and standard wires;22 or thinner gauge wires recommended, wire stripper, sets of pliers, soldering iron OR cold heat[btw, cold heat is POS], lead solder[aka soldering braid] & desoldering braid or gun, screw drivers[you'll need size #1 or #2 + screw driver], xacto knife, eletrical tape, and PC bord. Step 2. Wires close up. when you are getting ready for this DIY project, warm up your soldering iron. make sure you have a clean soldering point-tip, if not, heat up your solder and file/grind down your tip to have clean/clear contact surface. Step 3. Take your gauge cluster apart. as said in the picture, figure it out on your own. Step 4. this does not apply to all gauge clusters, but for this app[95 civic DX 5-spd gauge cluster], just simply pull out the reset knob, it's rubber. Step 5. hooray..it's off... Step 6. This is back of the gauge cluster, I explained everything on the picture. take the screws off.

Registered and logged-in users don't see this ad! Register your free account today.

[hoyoung02]

Step 7.

try not to touch the display area of the gauge, finger oil = no good. nasty looking.


Step 8.

the green blocks indicated on the picture is the amount of space we have for this project, and agian, this varies for each application.


Step 9.

back of the speedo incase some of you are wondering..
To explain bit more on the shades behind the gauges...black/dark spots are where the bulbs lie to light up your gauge.


Step 10.

More refenrence for your future work. as captioned on the picture, some empty portals for your wires to go through, if you can't find any, drill a whole on side of the gauge cluster if you aren't a wuss.


Step 11.

make your measuring...and cut the bord according to your measurements.


Step 12.

Yess.....

[hoyoung02]

Step 13.

put out a piece of the PC bord to make a socket connection like you would have from your OEM bulb. PC bord just happends to have about same thickness for this app, acclent.


Step 14.

Trim the little piece, and test fit it. it will be a tight fit, but that just means more secure connection.


Step 15.

Making a connection..I hope my MS-Paint work explained it well enough.
basically, you are making a replica of your OEM bulb to make a connection


Step 16.

test fit it agian...this will be harder to fit into before you wired up the wires.
so you don't have to worry about "what if the wire connection gets loose" situation.


Step 17.

Fun of this DIY..soldering!
and agian, it's entirely up to you to make decision how to wire up your circutes.
just remember agian that each LED should have resistor for it's own. not sharing one resistor in a serise. I used 3 leds, so I also used 3 resistors.


Step 18.

solder..solder..solder..ooh..solder..the smell of that rasin..ooh...yuck!

[hoyoung02]

Step 19.

the wire legs from the resistor go from red box to pink box. thus making the resistor's legs appear back on top of the circute bord.


Step 20.

the other side of resistor's legs went to the positive side of the LED to make a connection, and that's what the green boxes represent. and the wires that are not soldered are the negative leg from the LED's.


Step 21.

Top side of the circute bord completed.
Note: positive legs of LED should have it's own power, but the negative side, can all be joined together. it's only a ground.


Step 22.

test it out! I used a phone charger[your ordinary house wireless phone charger, they are usually 9v, but read the specs on the adapter to be sure.]. so the lights will be brighter once it's hooked up to the cluster's 12V power source.

Step 23.

test fit your work. and mount the bord with hot glue. I LOVE HOT GLUE!!!!


Step 24.

Be amazed..not amazed, but proud of your work. Don't mind the blue-ish look, it's just how cam's work, but the middle big white one should be a good reference.




ok, last step is to put everything back together just like you took it apart.
remember to test out your lights before making a final assembly. I do not know which side is positive or negative, so you are going to have to figure that out on your own. it shouldn't matter if it was your ordinary OEM helogen bulbs, but LED's only work when the current flow are correct.

Ok, how was this DIY? Easy? Hard?

Please give me feed back on this. and correct me if anything is wrong.

Happy DIY, mad-ass aka Hoyoung

[hoyoung02]

BTW, I posted this on there because DIY section was closed.
and I choose civic section because that was my material choice.

Anyhow, please feel free to move this to the DIY section Mods, but leave it in here for about a week or so for civic people to use

mad-ass, hoyoung02, hoyoung...blah blah....

I go my mad-ass on any-other forums


EDIT: I'd like to give credit to Rhythm Kid [Channing W.] as a supplyer for the gauge cluster and also for truly being one of life-long friend. Thanks man!!

[ReVenGe]

beautiful man...... just beautiful

[cvchtchbck92]

Wow. Good work. Really detailed. I can't wait to create my own DIY on something.

[CivicRacr]

nice write up...was planning on doing this on my 00 civic cluster, i already got the leds and resistors, but this give me a better idea of what i need to do next.

i noticed your leds are "cloudy", did you sand them or did yours just come like that?

[hoyoung02]

Originally Posted by CivicRacr

nice write up...was planning on doing this on my 00 civic cluster, i already got the leds and resistors, but this give me a better idea of what i need to do next.

i noticed your leds are "cloudy", did you sand them or did yours just come like that?

you sand off the tip of them to get more evenly spread light patturn.

[Kestrel]

You have any pictures of the whole thing? It looks nice...

[hoyoung02]

update:

I got started on the same gauge cluster agian, and I'll be posting pics of it when it's done by weekend, stay tuned!

[hoyoung02]

update: I joined USAF back in July, so I am not resuming this LED work until I get to my P. Duty Station, which will be around June 2007.

well, happy holidays and new years!!!