Hugh said:
No worries. Sounds like you got your hands full there.
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Wanna get the Blues?
- Thread starter D'Ecosse
- Start date
No worries. Sounds like you got your hands full there.
lithiumus said:
I have a question for you...have you given any consideration to adding some type of voltage regulator to the LEDs?
Many of us that have the WLED 6 LEDs as parking lights fail prematurely, and one theory is the high voltage output of the NSX and/or general voltage irregularites. I seem to recall some saying their interior LEDs are failing as well.
I would hate for you to have to replace these prematurely, as this sounds like a time consuming project.
I am far from being an electrical engineer, but thought that I would throw this out to ya. :wink:
I modded the CCU last night.
Observations...
The factory amber lens is actually a thin piece of tinted glass or pehaps clear plastic. The gel that I used is slightly thinner and if can be depressed from the front of the unit. I'm going to investigate the possibility of having a thin piece of glass cut to match the factory template and apply the gel to it and give that a try the next time the CCU is out of the car. This will apply the correct pressure and take up the "slack" between the actual display and the faceplate.
Any thoughts or suggestions gentlemen?
B.T.W: It looks cool as hell and matches the Alpine 7996 perfectly.
Thank you demigod for the strip of gel.
Observations...
The factory amber lens is actually a thin piece of tinted glass or pehaps clear plastic. The gel that I used is slightly thinner and if can be depressed from the front of the unit. I'm going to investigate the possibility of having a thin piece of glass cut to match the factory template and apply the gel to it and give that a try the next time the CCU is out of the car. This will apply the correct pressure and take up the "slack" between the actual display and the faceplate.
Any thoughts or suggestions gentlemen?
B.T.W: It looks cool as hell and matches the Alpine 7996 perfectly.
Thank you demigod for the strip of gel.
You shouldn't have had to remove the panel on the face Hugh - see the opening post of the thread
djdrock said:
Hey DJ,
Thanks for the tip. Definitely a good one as I'm not sure either, how resiliant these bulbs are to voltage fluctuations. I've not had any of my LEDs from Superbright fail on me yet and I'm going on 2 years for the WLED 5 that I use for my parking lights (same as the ones for the cluster). I did purchase extra LEDs just in case but have not needed to use them.
G
D'Ecosse said:
I didn't remove the panel on the face. I fact I didn't realize there was a panel on the face. It's just that the original red filter is slightly thicker than the blue replacement. When I applied slight pressure to the panel from the outside of the unit to dust it off, it moved inwards a bit. I thought I was making direct contact with the blue gel. Thanks for setting me straight on that.
In any case the reduced thickness of the blue gel results in small amount of play in the front panel. I'm still going to work on an upgrade to the mod. I'm going to have to get back in there because one of those damn twist-in panel bulbs is making intermittant contact. Yes I gave them each a twist and secured them with a dab of white out but it was 4am and Jose Cuervo was assisting me.
I also installed the fore-aft component of the Comptech short shift kit and I likey very very much.
Update: Sorry, still no pics yet… =)
I obtained a light filter sample of all the Roscolux filters they have available from a local Theatre lighting supply store just down the street from my work.
I took apart my climate control and removed the filter I obtained from a surplus shop, re-assembled the CCU and started going through what must have been hundreds of filters. Looking at the color temperatures and color wheel, I knew that I would need either a Blue or a deep Magenta / Purple color to achieve that LED blue. Good thing I had my TL radio which has that nice blue light from the knobs and I recently installed a Blue LED for the ignition key light which is the same blue.
Result… there were a few filters that were very close and a few that were spot on but had varying attributes. I’ve listed them with my observations in descending order of color match.
Roscolux
#74 Night Blue (perfect match)
4% transmission
#56 Gypsy Lavender (near perfect, allows some red but not noticeable)
4% transmission
#357 Royal Lavender (near perfect, slightly brighter, similar to #56)
5% transmission
#2006 Storaro Azure (brighter less green)
9% transmission
#2007 Storaro Blue (brighter but has more green)
10% transmission
#4990 90 Lavender (close, brighter but not as deep)
18% transmission
#3220 Double Blue (close, but color has some purple)
10% transmission
#4290 90 Blue (brighter but not as deep, allows some red also not noticeable)
15% transmission
I’ll show an old / new comparison of my climate colors when I’m done. I still owe my cluster pics, but I’m still waiting for one more Blue 194 LED wedge to arrive.
I obtained a light filter sample of all the Roscolux filters they have available from a local Theatre lighting supply store just down the street from my work.
I took apart my climate control and removed the filter I obtained from a surplus shop, re-assembled the CCU and started going through what must have been hundreds of filters. Looking at the color temperatures and color wheel, I knew that I would need either a Blue or a deep Magenta / Purple color to achieve that LED blue. Good thing I had my TL radio which has that nice blue light from the knobs and I recently installed a Blue LED for the ignition key light which is the same blue.
Result… there were a few filters that were very close and a few that were spot on but had varying attributes. I’ve listed them with my observations in descending order of color match.
Roscolux
#74 Night Blue (perfect match)
4% transmission
#56 Gypsy Lavender (near perfect, allows some red but not noticeable)
4% transmission
#357 Royal Lavender (near perfect, slightly brighter, similar to #56)
5% transmission
#2006 Storaro Azure (brighter less green)
9% transmission
#2007 Storaro Blue (brighter but has more green)
10% transmission
#4990 90 Lavender (close, brighter but not as deep)
18% transmission
#3220 Double Blue (close, but color has some purple)
10% transmission
#4290 90 Blue (brighter but not as deep, allows some red also not noticeable)
15% transmission
I’ll show an old / new comparison of my climate colors when I’m done. I still owe my cluster pics, but I’m still waiting for one more Blue 194 LED wedge to arrive.
The sad thing about this project is that once you get it perfected, none of us will have the balls to try and duplicate it. :biggrin:
:biggrin:
djdrock said:The sad thing about this project is that once you get it perfected, none of us will have the balls to try and duplicate it.
Hehe... no, I don't entirely agree. Most of the things are straight forward and as long as you follow some of the already available guides like D'ecosse's CCU blues earlier in the post, the cluster is now quite easy to do... just some Blue LEDs and a bit of modding on the top cluster light which is easy and harmless.
As long as you can pull off the pieces that need conversion, it's not too bad really... the CCU remains the hardest piece.
Updated CCU pics...
This is a shot of the CCU with the Red filter removed in the daylight...
During daylight with parking lights / illumination on, to see the color difference of the CCU / Keylight and TL radio knobs
Night shot comparison of colors
Longer exposure, you can see all the other illumination colors. You can see the weak CCU bulbs (I'll need to change these)
Comparing the old (lighter) and new (darker) filters
Daytime shot with new filter in place.
I'll have to post a night shot. It's a perfect match. Next is the speedo and finally the headlight switch illumination. I'll finish this off and post a full DIY article and consolidate all this info for eveyone.
This is a shot of the CCU with the Red filter removed in the daylight...
During daylight with parking lights / illumination on, to see the color difference of the CCU / Keylight and TL radio knobs
Night shot comparison of colors
Longer exposure, you can see all the other illumination colors. You can see the weak CCU bulbs (I'll need to change these)
Comparing the old (lighter) and new (darker) filters
Daytime shot with new filter in place.
I'll have to post a night shot. It's a perfect match. Next is the speedo and finally the headlight switch illumination. I'll finish this off and post a full DIY article and consolidate all this info for eveyone.
I'm interested in getting the blues also. I'm not sure where to buy it - so if anyone has extra that they would sell me - please let me know.
Thanks
Thanks
ny2ca said:
I have some extra you can have for free. I'm in Orange County..
Bumping this up.
Hey all,
I found this thread a while ago and finally decided to get the blues myself over the weekend. After waiting for the Gel Film to arrive which it did last week, I started with the project.
I had already had the speedo etc done ... just the centre console took about 2 hours from start to finish. I ran into a few snags. It seemed on my 96 that the orange filters in the Clock, Climate Control and Radio were all dyed plastic lenses ... so I had came up with other ways to mount the thin Gel Film. All in all I think it turned out a pretty good. I am happy with it and it gives the NSX dash an updated look!
I am going to be installting a Double Din Nav head unit in the near future so the radio will be coming out soon. I did not have to do the radio but figured I would as I will be using for a few more months.
Let me know if you have any questions.
I found this thread a while ago and finally decided to get the blues myself over the weekend. After waiting for the Gel Film to arrive which it did last week, I started with the project.
I had already had the speedo etc done ... just the centre console took about 2 hours from start to finish. I ran into a few snags. It seemed on my 96 that the orange filters in the Clock, Climate Control and Radio were all dyed plastic lenses ... so I had came up with other ways to mount the thin Gel Film. All in all I think it turned out a pretty good. I am happy with it and it gives the NSX dash an updated look!
I am going to be installting a Double Din Nav head unit in the near future so the radio will be coming out soon. I did not have to do the radio but figured I would as I will be using for a few more months.
Let me know if you have any questions.
Image location or names must have changed over the years... thought I would update them...
Updated CCU pics...
This is a shot of the CCU with the Red filter removed in the daylight...
During daylight with parking lights / illumination on, to see the color difference of the CCU / Keylight and TL radio knobs
Night shot comparison of colors
Longer exposure, you can see all the other illumination colors. You can see the weak CCU bulbs (I'll need to change these)
Comparing the old (lighter) and new (darker) filters
Daytime shot with new filter in place.
This is the best shot I have at night... it's blurry but at least you can see the colors...
I'll have to post a night shot. It's a perfect match. Next is the speedo and finally the headlight switch illumination. I'll finish this off and post a full DIY article and consolidate all this info for eveyone.
Lithiumius,
what bulbs is needed for the gauge cluster, how many, where to get them?
Can you post pic of the gauge cluster please.
Danny
what bulbs is needed for the gauge cluster, how many, where to get them?
Can you post pic of the gauge cluster please.
Danny
For the gauge cluster, I used LED bulbs. You need 3 x 194 type and a bunch of 74 types. I can't remember how many or what specific colors.
Blue LEDs will come out looking white in front but very dim. If you use white LEDs, the cluster will be orange / red like OEM, maybe just brighter.
The lights that shine over top of the cluster I used were blue but the pattern isn't perfect so I'm not sure how to perfect this. I'll try working on this again this year...
Blue LEDs will come out looking white in front but very dim. If you use white LEDs, the cluster will be orange / red like OEM, maybe just brighter.
The lights that shine over top of the cluster I used were blue but the pattern isn't perfect so I'm not sure how to perfect this. I'll try working on this again this year...
The cluster pics are not perfect but the best I could do at the time. Not sure why the right side is so much brighter than the left...
The Blue light made the yellow type R needles hard to see and I suspect the red OEM needles will be just as hard.
I'm considering using a white LED and using a light purple filter so that it looks more like the newer Acura color instead of Blue. I wanted to match the OEM TL radio knob illumination colors but I think making every match up to that color is too tacky so I might just leave it light purple / white illiumination for the cluster and leave the ignition key LED Blue matched.
Might even change the temp LCD to light purple / white if I can...
The Blue light made the yellow type R needles hard to see and I suspect the red OEM needles will be just as hard.
I'm considering using a white LED and using a light purple filter so that it looks more like the newer Acura color instead of Blue. I wanted to match the OEM TL radio knob illumination colors but I think making every match up to that color is too tacky so I might just leave it light purple / white illiumination for the cluster and leave the ignition key LED Blue matched.
Might even change the temp LCD to light purple / white if I can...
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