Topic: IC's Interesting LED Gauge Lighting

[Industrial Cafe]

if you'd like to, sure.

[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.

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

Those are from superbrightleds.com.

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? 

Bullet connectors sound like a bit better idea.

[Industrial Cafe]

I soldered bullet connectors to my led tail light, but I'll never understand why they use such thin wire.

[Industrial Cafe]

and VIOLIN!

all fixxxxed. you gotta be sure to keep the temps down on the LEDs by working quickly.
  'cause too much heat screws 'em up and they don't work anymore.

[wannabridin]

lookin goood!!!  i'm still waiting for mine from hong kong.  i should of just searched more and ordered the ones for cheaper from the US, haha!  oh well, i'm in no big hurry at all...

[void909]

great post!

[Old75_ratafe]

Yep just got mine from hong kong today... which is funny I ordered them after a bunch of stuff from the US and they got here first... go figure.  Anyway... Wow has me feeling guilty because its pretty obvious that a 2 year old sweat shop worker soldered them... I'm gonna test them tomarrow but I'm seriously afraid they might not work looking at the connections at least two of the resisters don't look they might fall off.     But hey it was cheap what did I expect right lol.  The componets look like they are in good quality I'm sure after I resolder it will work fine.

[Old75_ratafe]

So I just finished redoing some of the connections and hooked them up to a 12v tester.... and I got good news and bad news... Good news is they work.. bad news is I am freakin blind  holy hell those are bright.  You sure these arn't gonna blind us at night IC? lol

[Industrial Cafe]

no, the brightness is dulled by the number plate.  they sure are blinding though aren't they!?!!

I had an idea for my next gauge face setup, but I'll post a new thread on that when I do it.

[Old75_ratafe]

no, the brightness is dulled by the number plate.  they sure are blinding though aren't they!?!!

I had an idea for my next gauge face setup, but I'll post a new thread on that when I do it.

yea hey IC did you try them without the new faces? My stock ones are in really good shape so I was thinking about just leaving them be and doing the lights but now am afraid they might be to bright without the covers.

[Industrial Cafe]

try it and take pics. I bet it would look cool because the numbers would light up bright. and I doubt it'll be too bright, mine seem kinda dim to me.

[Old75_ratafe]

try it and take pics. I bet it would look cool because the numbers would light up bright. and I doubt it'll be too bright, mine seem kinda dim to me.

Good to know...hmm I could probably hook a dimmer switch to it if I had to I bet.  Not sure when I'll be able to convert it over I'm still a bit worried about can openering my gauges but if I take my time I'm sure they will be fine.

[OldSchool_IsCool]

I doubt it'll be too bright, mine seem kinda dim to me.

Maybe its the sunglasses?

"

[Industrial Cafe]

try it and take pics. I bet it would look cool because the numbers would light up bright. and I doubt it'll be too bright, mine seem kinda dim to me.

Good to know...hmm I could probably hook a dimmer switch to it if I had to I bet.  Not sure when I'll be able to convert it over I'm still a bit worried about can openering my gauges but if I take my time I'm sure they will be fine.

tell ya a secret-  I didn't can opener mine
I cut the ring with a cut-off wheel and glued them back on with little dots of JB-weld and a big hose clamp
   I did it that way cause I wanted to be able to open it over and over, for experimentation purposes.

[Old75_ratafe]

I doubt it'll be too bright, mine seem kinda dim to me.

Maybe its the sunglasses?

"

Damn it I thought I saw someone in the bushes with a camera when me and my cousin came from that concert last week!

[/quote]
tell ya a secret-  I didn't can opener mine
I cut the ring with a cut-off wheel and glued them back on with little dots of JB-weld and a big hose clamp
   I did it that way cause I wanted to be able to open it over and over, for experimentation purposes.
[/quote]

Yea I heard about that before too but mine are near perfect originals and I didn't want to hack them up if I can help it. I'm actually pretty leary of doing this at all... But it just looks to damn cool to not do it lol

[kwaggs27]

This may sound dumb but are the CB500 gauges the same size as the 750? I have a 71 500 and would love to add this mod to my bike but maybe with some green led's.

[Industrial Cafe]

if you want to do it, go for it.
 the rings should fit fine. 

[Old75_ratafe]

if you want to do it, go for it.
 the rings should fit fine. 

I hear ya man and I am once I get this damn project car out of my garage lol.  I'm doing the gauges and a dual spoke wheel disc swap with air forks and breaks from a 81 750f.

[OldSchool_IsCool]

If you pack 'em right, you can get SIX bikes in the same space as a car 

[wannabridin]

so i got my halo's in the other day, i'll post pics soon!  they are actually pretty nicely constructed!  very good solders, i can't find a flaw in any of them!!  cables are thing, but they're just LED's so amp draw is a minimum!  and holy LUMENS batman!!  this puppies are BRIGHT!!

[Old75_ratafe]

If you pack 'em right, you can get SIX bikes in the same space as a car 

Actually its funny you say that.... Over easter my uncle offered me his 76 550 for $200... My 750 is more a street bike I was thinking get the 550 and maybe do a full on cafe with the 550.  Its got full vetter fairing, stereo, hard side bags and trunk... figure I could probably sell that for what I need to cafe it.

[supersports400]

Hi,

If the leds are producing heat and are to bright, just put a resistor between the power supply and the led ring.
Try to figure out how the leds are wired, and calculate the resistor for it.

You also put in a switch with several resistors, so you can adjust from daylight to night-time driving.
If needed, I could offer some help with the calculating stuff,

Jensen

[OldSchool_IsCool]

Hi,

If the leds are producing heat and are to bright, just put a resistor between the power supply and the led ring.
Try to figure out how the leds are wired, and calculate the resistor for it.

You also put in a switch with several resistors, so you can adjust from daylight to night-time driving.
If needed, I could offer some help with the calculating stuff,

Jensen

I like the multi-resister idea.  I was thinking a variable resister but The Shack doesn't carry one in the 0-500 ohm range.  I figured that in series with a fixed resister would do it.

[Industrial Cafe]

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=360243826860&rvr_id=&crlp=1_263602_263622&UA=WXF%3F&GUID=da33909b1260a02662b7d317ff978f0e&itemid=360243826860&ff4=263602_263622

 12v DC dimmer for LED light strip lights brightness adjustment or other 12 v DC loads up to 96 watt.  It will control any load up to 8 amp (8000 ma), for example five 16 ft LED light strips 18 watt each (12 volt 1.5 amp DC). It can be used to adjust lumen output, saving power and extending LED's life. Dimmer dimensions are 2.25x2.5x1.5" including knob (HxWxD),  mounting flange dimensions 2.25x3.5".



the good thing about this is, you can disassemble it and just use the knob assy.

[supersports400]

Hi,

If you use the on-board 12 V and sending for example 0.5 amps through the leds as a load, please keep in mind that you need a high wattage resistor, for example :

I count 24 led's in one circle, every led has a forward voltage of let's say 2 V, then you have 4 groups of 6 led's.
The total current would be 4 times the current in one leg, that means, let's say 4 times 0.5 amps is 2.0 amps DC current.

If you want the led's burn on, let's say, 0.2 A, then the total current in the system should be 0.8 A instead of 2.0 A. Per led that means a current drop of 0.3 A, if you look at a given voltage -current sheet, than for example you need to cut the voltage back from 2.0 to 1.4 per led. Doing so, that means a voltage drop of 12-(6*1.4)= 3.6 V

This 3.6 V voltage drop should be done by a resistor (R=3.6/0.8, R = 4.5 ohm) with a wattage of 3.6 * 0.8 = 2.88 Watt, and that's a lot of heat, especially in a closed environment.

A better idea is to put more led's in a string, but that's more difficult with a pre- assembled lamp.

jensen