Topic: IC's Interesting LED Gauge Lighting

[wannabridin]

no inverters, leds just use resistors soldered on the board.

Ahh I was wondering why led's would need those.  That one link posted took me to a site that had the cold cathod neon rings I think (which require the inverters).  I do have one more question how is the power consumption on those?  I know are bikes arn't the best on output and I am already running dyna ignition and the green coils..  I was considering the capsule halogen conversion to the headlight too and I am thinking I might be getting kinda close to max output....  Then again I guess if I just go really fast everywhere (is there another way?) and keep the RPMs up it won't matter right lol!

LED's are typically on the 1/10 power scale compared to conventional bulbs.  meaning they only require about 1/10th the power to run, and they last 100X longer!  in order to get my power consumption down, i'm going to switch over to HID in a sealed headlight housing (with an on/off switch too), use these LED's in the gauges, run LED's for my idiot lights, LED turn sigs (if i use turn sigs), and swap over to an LED brake light.  i'll also run a SS reg/rect (dunno if this will help charging much) and an AGM battery or one of Voxonda's super slick mini batteries!!  these ol girls don't have the electrical power of a new bike, but with good grounds and a properly sorted wiring harness, they do just fine. 

[Laminar]

But what I want to know is how you got it to glow blue/green.  
I keeeeeed.

Read up in the post the gauge face is actually a semi see through green blue plastic, all you do is sand off the old numbers and use a new vinyl one and walla the light will come through the plastic as that kinda blue green light...  Man those look bad ass I am gonna have to do this now.  Damn you industrial as if I didn't have enough side projects with this bike lol!

[mystic_1]

But what I want to know is how you got it to glow blue/green.  
I keeeeeed.

Read up in the post the gauge face is actually a semi see through green blue plastic, all you do is sand off the old numbers and use a new vinyl one and walla the light will come through the plastic as that kinda blue green light...  Man those look bad ass I am gonna have to do this now.  Damn you industrial as if I didn't have enough side projects with this bike lol!

So, are you saying that they glow blue-green because of Jean-Luc Picard?

 

mystic_1

[Old75_ratafe]

But what I want to know is how you got it to glow blue/green.  
I keeeeeed.

Read up in the post the gauge face is actually a semi see through green blue plastic, all you do is sand off the old numbers and use a new vinyl one and walla the light will come through the plastic as that kinda blue green light...  Man those look bad ass I am gonna have to do this now.  Damn you industrial as if I didn't have enough side projects with this bike lol!

So, are you saying that they glow blue-green because of Jean-Luc Picard?

 

mystic_1

Yes that is exactly what I was saying.... Its a little known fact that back in the 60's Honda contracted Jean-Luc Picard to design their gauges... The contacted Scotty to make a warp drive for them too... They made one prototype but when they tried to run it there was a flash of light and it disapeared never to be seen again.  Coincidentally Picard was the one to run or "engage" the engine dyno for that test..... 

[Industrial Cafe]

I like Star Trek.

also I'm running a really bright 120/160w off road H4 in my bike and haven't noticed any low battery issues.

but just to be safe I want to run a ring of LEDs as a day time running light, cause the cops like to pull you over around here if your headlight isn't on

[Old75_ratafe]

I like Star Trek.

also I'm running a really bright 120/160w off road H4 in my bike and haven't noticed any low battery issues.

but just to be safe I want to run a ring of LEDs as a day time running light, cause the cops like to pull you over around here if your headlight isn't on

Seriously cause my 75 cb has a on off switch for the lights... plus the regular high low switch.  I think legally its stock equipment and they couldn't get away with it.

[Industrial Cafe]

we're talking about Citrus County cops here. 
   they'll pull you over for smiling too much on suspicion of having a good time without a permit.

[bistromath]

If your motorcycle came stock with a headlight switch, I believe it's grandfathered in. This is going to be a state law, though, so it might not apply everywhere. Headlights were required to be on at all times starting in '75.

[Industrial Cafe]

huh. my bike is a 71, and I don't want the headlight on all the time, it wastes the bulb life.  
   Cops don't know what year the bike is and will pull me over 'n' find something else to ticket me on.
(having fun without a smile permit)

cops around here have nothing better to do.  when I lived in st Pete/Tampa they wouldn't give you a second look unless you were doing a wheelie or something like that.

[bistromath]

I blew by a cop car by accident yesterday, while breaking in the new engine, doing near 90 (on the stock speedo, probably more like 80 in real life) and got nothing more than an incredulous stare that my old bike could roll that fast.

[Industrial Cafe]

heh, around here they drive in unmarked vehicles (like a toyota matrix or a chevy cavalier) with rolling radar, and they'll pull a u-turn if you're doing 10 over.  freaked me out once to get pulled over by blue matrix with tinted windows. they don't even put county tags on them. (sneaky sneaky)
    Now I have a radar detector that picks them up, ahead of or behind me, for about a mile or so before I see them, even over hills.   (now if I could only mount it on my bike...)
Haven't got a speeding ticket with it in the car since.


 when I say "nothing better to do" I mean I live in a rural area with a big police budget and not much going on.



   every time I get pulled over they make me wait around to get drug dog there to sniff my car/truck. I guess there's lots of drugs here but I don't see 'em.

[Old75_ratafe]

heh, around here they drive in unmarked vehicles (like a toyota matrix or a chevy cavalier) with rolling radar, and they'll pull a u-turn if you're doing 10 over.  freaked me out once to get pulled over by blue matrix with tinted windows. they don't even put county tags on them. (sneaky sneaky)
    Now I have a radar detector that picks them up, ahead of or behind me, for about a mile or so before I see them, even over hills.   (now if I could only mount it on my bike...)
Haven't got a speeding ticket with it in the car since.


 when I say "nothing better to do" I mean I live in a rural area with a big police budget and not much going on.



   every time I get pulled over they make me wait around to get drug dog there to sniff my car/truck. I guess there's lots of drugs here but I don't see 'em.

Yea around here they roll in unmarked malibu's and they have interior flashers that are super thin like half an inch.  Hell even the regular crown vic rollers have super thing bar's I swear their under and inch.  Luckily I have good copdar lol.  Oh btw guys as far as detectors go check your state some they are illegal and other if u have one the cops can DOUBLE the fines....  Also I got some angel eyes on the way!  Now if Michigan will just make up its freaking mind if it wants to be winter or summer I can work on my bike... Honestly 65 and sunny one day and 35 and rainy the next wtf!  

[OldSchool_IsCool]

Now if Michigan will just make up its freaking mind if it wants to be winter or summer I can work on my bike... Honestly 65 and sunny one day and 35 and rainy the next wtf!  

I feel your pain!! 

[evan77]

industrial,

nice work on the gauges. i might have missed it but can you please tell me how you wired up the led's. the stock gauges have two bulbs per gauge. did you just cap one set of wires.

also a question to everyone.  the angel eyes posted on this thread appear to have some sort of external module.  anyone know of a good place to put these if one was to go this route?

thanks,
evan

[Industrial Cafe]

I've never seen the size of the external module for the CCFL angel eyes, so I don't know.
that's another reason I went with LEDs

I stripped the OEM wires mid-wire and soldered the LED wires to them, then I covered it in silicone so it wouldn't move around and short out. no need to cap anything off.

 and if I wanted to, I could put regular bulbs back in the original holders, as I didn't cut anything off.

[Industrial Cafe]

See? The bulb sockets are in their original holes, and the connections are under the silicone blob.


it looks rough, but it's inside the shell so who cares.

[77cafe750]

I so need to do this to my phantom gauges

[Laminar]

You covered bare electrical connections with a glob of silicon? Did you run out of heat shrink tubing?

[Industrial Cafe]

yes, yes I did.

 haven't you ever heard of liquid electrical tape?

 

[Zaipai]

yes, yes I did.

 haven't you ever heard of liquid electrical tape?

 

Wow that's a new one to me.. I did not even know they made that...

.: Scott :.

[Industrial Cafe]

it's old timey stuff.
   We used to use when repairing traces or adding a jumper on a circuit board.
not necessary but my car had no roof. and I didn't like to replace parts if I could fix 'em.

[Joel]

industrial,

nice work on the gauges. i might have missed it but can you please tell me how you wired up the led's. the stock gauges have two bulbs per gauge. did you just cap one set of wires.

also a question to everyone.  the angel eyes posted on this thread appear to have some sort of external module.  anyone know of a good place to put these if one was to go this route?

thanks,
evan

It would be pretty easy to wire something like this to the LED ring and plug it right in.

[Old75_ratafe]

yes, yes I did.

 haven't you ever heard of liquid electrical tape?

 

FYI if you've never used this stuff.... Be REALLY sure its dry ALL the way last time I used it, it was still wet and.... yea it caught on fire.  Let it dry.. no problem.

[wannabridin]

industrial,

nice work on the gauges. i might have missed it but can you please tell me how you wired up the led's. the stock gauges have two bulbs per gauge. did you just cap one set of wires.

also a question to everyone.  the angel eyes posted on this thread appear to have some sort of external module.  anyone know of a good place to put these if one was to go this route?

thanks,
evan

It would be pretty easy to wire something like this to the LED ring and plug it right in.

where'd you find these??  this would be a nice setup instead of a hard wire

[knowsnothing]

My LED rings came in yesterday.  After looking at the back of them, couldn't you just take off those wussy wires and solder in some larger nicer ones and then put honda connections on the other end?  That way you can just plug them in to the harness like the stock lights?