True Ice Blue / Red caps for the clusters !!
10-29-05, 06:34 AM
#1066
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LCD readout on AC/TEMP panel
My read out on the LCD for temp, fan speed, mode etc is totally blacked out.
Do I have to get a new unit or can the back lighting be fixed somehow.
When the weather is warm, the LCD works OK, but now that winter is approaching it's all but blacked out. HELP!
Do I have to get a new unit or can the back lighting be fixed somehow.
When the weather is warm, the LCD works OK, but now that winter is approaching it's all but blacked out. HELP!
10-29-05, 11:19 AM
#1067
Lexus Champion
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lcd
For your time and piece of mind.. Go out and get another one.. It will not be worth the trouble to fix because it will be too expensive and time consuming. Not to mention you have to find a place first. The small 1121 bulbs are soldedered on, so you can't just replace them.. You have to have the tools and equipment and have to know what you are doing.... I did a mod on the stereo and temp controls where i changed the color to white.. If you do a search.. you should come across and see what I mean about the tiny bulbs.... You can usually find used displays on e-bay or junk yards.... just make sure they work properly. I hope this helps...
Rock
Rock
10-29-05, 11:21 AM
#1068
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bulbs
Originally Posted by O. L. T.
best info I have is they are 0.5mm grain of wheat bulbs and not sold anywhere that I have ever looked.
there actually is a company that sells them in Irvine, ca I think... I used cell phone LED's to change the color of the dispalys to white..
Rock
10-29-05, 11:26 AM
#1069
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Ooops, just realized you have an Sc... i have a GS.. Anyway, here is the link I was talking about....
Rock
https://www.clublexus.com/forums/sho...stereo+display
Rock
https://www.clublexus.com/forums/sho...stereo+display
10-30-05, 11:19 PM
#1070
Keeper of the light
Thread Starter
iTrader: (17)
Originally Posted by Don Fila
My read out on the LCD for temp, fan speed, mode etc is totally blacked out.
Do I have to get a new unit or can the back lighting be fixed somehow.
When the weather is warm, the LCD works OK, but now that winter is approaching it's all but blacked out. HELP!
Do I have to get a new unit or can the back lighting be fixed somehow.
When the weather is warm, the LCD works OK, but now that winter is approaching it's all but blacked out. HELP!
Your LCD is drying out and the liquid crystals are turning black. Heat excited the crystals and takes some of the blackness away, but the cold always brings them back to a dormant state. This has nothing to do with lighting.
You will indeed need to find yourself another climate control unit.
Rockero, the SC's are different and I've covered them many times in pics
You did good with your GS though
10-31-05, 08:18 AM
#1071
Lexus Champion
Originally Posted by O. L. T.
Rockero did not understand your question or was responding to agapsdiver. Here's the answer.
Your LCD is drying out and the liquid crystals are turning black. Heat excited the crystals and takes some of the blackness away, but the cold always brings them back to a dormant state. This has nothing to do with lighting.
You will indeed need to find yourself another climate control unit.
Rockero, the SC's are different and I've covered them many times in pics You did good with your GS though
Your LCD is drying out and the liquid crystals are turning black. Heat excited the crystals and takes some of the blackness away, but the cold always brings them back to a dormant state. This has nothing to do with lighting.
You will indeed need to find yourself another climate control unit.
Rockero, the SC's are different and I've covered them many times in pics
You did good with your GS though 
11-13-05, 09:18 PM
#1072
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Cheap Fix Cluster.....
(texlady's husband
I just thought I would share my cheap fix with this long ongoing thread that has impressed me and kept me reading for years!
I pulled the wife's cluster out today and did a little work so she could read her guages and until we get the time to send it to Brian/Lextech to get it done right. Lextech, by far has it mastered and i'm looking for a spare cluster to send to him but in the meantime was experimenting..
I replaced all the backlight bulbs first, 8 total and hard to find the ones that fit as you all know by now. For the needles, I bought thin pinstripe tape and she painted it with neon color orange'ish. Carefully put the small pieces of tape on the needles without removing them. Next, installed just two white LED's above the guages (takes alot of time and patience to position) pointing towards the guages to light up the needles. Had to put small pieces of black tape on the face of the glass to hide the backside of LED's behind the glass (plastic). It works better than expected and she is happy for now untill we can send out the cluster to Brian to fix right.
I spent less than $20 on parts from the local Radio Shack but very time consuming, probably about 4 hrs or more plus a 12 pack of beer.
I will try to attach a pic to see my cheezy work but hey? It works???
[IMG]Cluster[/IMG]
I just thought I would share my cheap fix with this long ongoing thread that has impressed me and kept me reading for years!
I pulled the wife's cluster out today and did a little work so she could read her guages and until we get the time to send it to Brian/Lextech to get it done right. Lextech, by far has it mastered and i'm looking for a spare cluster to send to him but in the meantime was experimenting..
I replaced all the backlight bulbs first, 8 total and hard to find the ones that fit as you all know by now. For the needles, I bought thin pinstripe tape and she painted it with neon color orange'ish. Carefully put the small pieces of tape on the needles without removing them. Next, installed just two white LED's above the guages (takes alot of time and patience to position) pointing towards the guages to light up the needles. Had to put small pieces of black tape on the face of the glass to hide the backside of LED's behind the glass (plastic). It works better than expected and she is happy for now untill we can send out the cluster to Brian to fix right.
I spent less than $20 on parts from the local Radio Shack but very time consuming, probably about 4 hrs or more plus a 12 pack of beer.
I will try to attach a pic to see my cheezy work but hey? It works???
[IMG]Cluster[/IMG]
11-13-05, 10:34 PM
#1073
Keeper of the light
Thread Starter
iTrader: (17)
They call that the "kludge fix" as it has been dubbed. They sometimes post it on LOC as a way to temporarily see the needles. Unfortunately once you have painted your needles..................... you have painted your needles. Visibility during the day is minimal also. For night driving it seems to help, but you still have the problem of painted needles. Once you spend 4 hours to paint them and wire these led's and all the other jive, your needles can only be used for that purpose. You basically have to purchase a new cluster and get the needles to send to LLS after that when the time comes to send them in.
For people who don't intend to ever have the needles fixed, it does indeed seem to help a little at night. If you DO however......... just try and "Deal with it" a bit longer instead of painting them. All the removal attempts of paint in the past has left the needles with a 30% loss in lighting.
They seem to never be anywhere near as bright after being painted and having it stripped off. Otherwise if this is "good enough" for you, it helps a little at night.
For people who don't intend to ever have the needles fixed, it does indeed seem to help a little at night. If you DO however......... just try and "Deal with it" a bit longer instead of painting them. All the removal attempts of paint in the past has left the needles with a 30% loss in lighting.
They seem to never be anywhere near as bright after being painted and having it stripped off. Otherwise if this is "good enough" for you, it helps a little at night.
12-21-05, 07:13 AM
#1075
Good work. Couple ?'s
Hi O.L.T,
Nice to meet you and good work on what you have done here. Couple questions for you:
I am familiar with SMT, and see that the surface mount devices you are using are surface mount diodes. With these diodes we obviously do need to adjust the duty cycle as you have found, and using an oscillator with an OpAmp to maintain the oscillations works.
Question: Do you use an add on circuit, say a Wein Bridge oscillator circuit? Or have you actually found a way to modify the existing circuit (frequency, gain, etc)?
I also see you have these discontinued on the site. Temporary? When you do make these is it with LMP solder, pad to pad?
Regarding the waterfalls, this is basically a 3mm LED firing up a light pipe? Do you fab a new light pipe for the needles? Use a dropping resistor on the LED's?
Most likely I will just send this to you for repair as I am so busy with my automation project (currently incorporating RFID into the cars) and have so many components all over my workbench that I could keep my Weller busy for months, just was looking for more data.
Once again, great work.
Peter
Nice to meet you and good work on what you have done here. Couple questions for you:
I am familiar with SMT, and see that the surface mount devices you are using are surface mount diodes. With these diodes we obviously do need to adjust the duty cycle as you have found, and using an oscillator with an OpAmp to maintain the oscillations works.
Question: Do you use an add on circuit, say a Wein Bridge oscillator circuit? Or have you actually found a way to modify the existing circuit (frequency, gain, etc)?
I also see you have these discontinued on the site. Temporary? When you do make these is it with LMP solder, pad to pad?
Regarding the waterfalls, this is basically a 3mm LED firing up a light pipe? Do you fab a new light pipe for the needles? Use a dropping resistor on the LED's?
Most likely I will just send this to you for repair as I am so busy with my automation project (currently incorporating RFID into the cars) and have so many components all over my workbench that I could keep my Weller busy for months, just was looking for more data.
Once again, great work.
Peter
12-21-05, 08:06 AM
#1076
Climate control LCD
OLT,
Another ?
Have you found a pinout for the climate LCD? If we have the IO specs we could easily get some custom LCD's made - though it would be expensive.
On my next trip to Taipei I can meet with a vendor to discuss.
Peter
Another ?
Have you found a pinout for the climate LCD? If we have the IO specs we could easily get some custom LCD's made - though it would be expensive.
On my next trip to Taipei I can meet with a vendor to discuss.
Peter
12-22-05, 05:52 AM
#1077
Thc3
OLT:
This is what I pm'd you about:
THC3 diode: (no, do not smoke it folks)
Parameter Min Typ Max Unit
Luminous Intensity ~ 22000 24000 mcd
Viewing Angle ~ 30 ~ Deg
Peak Emission Wavelength ~ x=0.31
x=0.32 ~ nm
Forward Voltage ~ 3.6 ~ V
Reverse Voltage ~ ~ 5 V
Forward Current ~ 80 100 mA
Reverse Current ~ ~ 30 uA
Operating Temperature Range -40°C to +70°C
Storage Temperature Range -40°C to +100°C
Lead Soldering Temperature
(4mm from body) 260°C for 5 seconds
And the tricolor:
5mm Tri-Color Blue, Red and Green Full Spectrum LED
These LEDs are common anode. Our 5mm Full Spectrum LEDs are the same size as a regular 5mm LED but have four legs instead of two. One leg for each color and a fourth leg (common anode) which is shared by all three colors. By powering the common anode and whichever cathode lead one likes he or she is able to choose which colors light, be it one or all of the three.
Please keep in mind while blue and green require around the same forward voltage red demands less.
Parameter Min Typ Max Unit
Luminous Intensity 4000 5500 7000 mcd
2000 3000 4500
4000 5500 7000
Viewing Angle ~ 30 ~ Deg
Peak Emission Wavelength 460 465 470 nm
635 642 650
520 525 530
Forward Voltage 2.9 3.2 3.5 V
1.9 2.2 2.5
2.9 3.2 3.5
Reverse Voltage ~ ~ 5 V
Forward Current ~ 20 30 mA
Reverse Current ~ ~ 10 uA
Operating Temperature Range -40°C to +80°C
Storage Temperature Range -40°C to +80°C
Lead Soldering Temperature
(4mm from body) 260°C for 5 seconds
P
This is what I pm'd you about:
THC3 diode: (no, do not smoke it folks)
Parameter Min Typ Max Unit
Luminous Intensity ~ 22000 24000 mcd
Viewing Angle ~ 30 ~ Deg
Peak Emission Wavelength ~ x=0.31
x=0.32 ~ nm
Forward Voltage ~ 3.6 ~ V
Reverse Voltage ~ ~ 5 V
Forward Current ~ 80 100 mA
Reverse Current ~ ~ 30 uA
Operating Temperature Range -40°C to +70°C
Storage Temperature Range -40°C to +100°C
Lead Soldering Temperature
(4mm from body) 260°C for 5 seconds
And the tricolor:
5mm Tri-Color Blue, Red and Green Full Spectrum LED
These LEDs are common anode. Our 5mm Full Spectrum LEDs are the same size as a regular 5mm LED but have four legs instead of two. One leg for each color and a fourth leg (common anode) which is shared by all three colors. By powering the common anode and whichever cathode lead one likes he or she is able to choose which colors light, be it one or all of the three.
Please keep in mind while blue and green require around the same forward voltage red demands less.
Parameter Min Typ Max Unit
Luminous Intensity 4000 5500 7000 mcd
2000 3000 4500
4000 5500 7000
Viewing Angle ~ 30 ~ Deg
Peak Emission Wavelength 460 465 470 nm
635 642 650
520 525 530
Forward Voltage 2.9 3.2 3.5 V
1.9 2.2 2.5
2.9 3.2 3.5
Reverse Voltage ~ ~ 5 V
Forward Current ~ 20 30 mA
Reverse Current ~ ~ 10 uA
Operating Temperature Range -40°C to +80°C
Storage Temperature Range -40°C to +80°C
Lead Soldering Temperature
(4mm from body) 260°C for 5 seconds
P
12-22-05, 06:32 AM
#1078
If I am dumping too much here let me know OLT.....
For the LED backlighting have you looked at using a TO-92 sized transistor? Or to control the led string by coupling the resistor with a LM317. It is a voltage-regulator, but wired with one resistor to create a current-regulator. Used with a 75 ohm resistor, it will drive the LEDs at 16.7 milliamp, no matter what the voltage was. Depending on the forward bias of the LEDs, you could put 4 to 6 LEDs in series safely. I succesfully used the LM317 to drive some spot LED's for our basement stairway.
Thoughts?
P
For the LED backlighting have you looked at using a TO-92 sized transistor? Or to control the led string by coupling the resistor with a LM317. It is a voltage-regulator, but wired with one resistor to create a current-regulator. Used with a 75 ohm resistor, it will drive the LEDs at 16.7 milliamp, no matter what the voltage was. Depending on the forward bias of the LEDs, you could put 4 to 6 LEDs in series safely. I succesfully used the LM317 to drive some spot LED's for our basement stairway.
Thoughts?
P
01-01-06, 12:29 PM
#1079
Got it!
With the help of these posts and some reading I got the Climate, speedo and needles redone.
Excellent info and it all cost me about $50 in parts and about 8 hours. Very nice with LEDS. Also got the LCD display figured out and some ideas for those that do not want to buy a refurb or new LCD unit. Its great to have a few EE's around over the holiday's.
Happy New Year!
Peter
Excellent info and it all cost me about $50 in parts and about 8 hours. Very nice with LEDS. Also got the LCD display figured out and some ideas for those that do not want to buy a refurb or new LCD unit. Its great to have a few EE's around over the holiday's.
Happy New Year!
Peter
01-15-06, 10:06 AM
#1080
Driver School Candidate
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Hello Guys,
I few months back I read every post in this amazing thread and was just so fascinated with LEDs. After that I started reading up alot on the internet from various sources about LEDs, resistors and other components. Thus I started to work on my own project for an LED array for my cluster. I have all my parts but i'm not sure about if my wiring is correct.
Brian, I'm not sure if you still post or check this thread but I have this request for you or anyone on here who knows about circuit wiring with LEDs.
Below is my tentaive LED array setup. Could you LED Gurus check that my wiring will be ok without going over current draw and such. The LEds will be powered by tapping into my 12V source wire that powers the regular Incandescent bulbs. Thanx alot!
I few months back I read every post in this amazing thread and was just so fascinated with LEDs. After that I started reading up alot on the internet from various sources about LEDs, resistors and other components. Thus I started to work on my own project for an LED array for my cluster. I have all my parts but i'm not sure about if my wiring is correct.
Brian, I'm not sure if you still post or check this thread but I have this request for you or anyone on here who knows about circuit wiring with LEDs.
Below is my tentaive LED array setup. Could you LED Gurus check that my wiring will be ok without going over current draw and such. The LEds will be powered by tapping into my 12V source wire that powers the regular Incandescent bulbs. Thanx alot!