Bulbs

I replaced the courtesy dome light with an LED bulb purchased from a fellow club member at the monthly PCNC meeting. It looks like this one that came up when I Googled the bulb number from your chart + "LED", but measure yours to see if this is the right length.

http://www.amazon.com/De3425-D...terior/dp/B0060OL34W

And for what it's worth, these are the bulbs I ordered for my instrument gauges. You can order them in fewer quantities, but this bulk group was so cheap I ordered extras, gave a set away, and sold the remaining sets.

I used the extended bulbs for the Tach and Speedo:
10X 9-SMD5050 LED T10 W5W 194 360° GREEN INTERIOR DOME WEDGE LIGHT BULB NEW
http://www.ebay.com/itm/151105...e=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

And I used these for the small gauges:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/160957...e=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

Hey Garth, great info there. Did this help brighten up the gauges from the old incandescents? Or did it just create less heat, less power consumption?

Very interested in making my gauges visible at night!

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Hey Garth, great info there. Did this help brighten up the gauges from the old incandescents? Or did it just create less heat, less power consumption?

All of the above! I can see my tach and speedo at night for the first time in 12 years! Some might think they're almost too bright, but I can turn the rheostat ever so slightly to at a point just before they go out and it will dim them just a bit. Eventually I'll incorporate an LED dimmer, but that's a future project. But i LOVE being able to see the gauges at night - no more pulling a flashlight out of the door pocket to check speed on the highway at night.

Also, use the green bulbs! I first tried white bulbs and found they had a bluish tint I didn't like. They looked more like they'd be at home in a tuner Civic or Jetta.

I ordered bulbs from the same company a few months ago. Great price! Quick delivery.

I also used the green color, and used the longer ones in the speedo and tach. They look good in the gauges, and you can easily read them at night. (it used to have to be a moonless night, after midnight, out in the country, before I could read them!)

The new bulbs are a close fit in some of the holders and you may need needle nose pliers to remove them if they are not orientated correctly.

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The new bulbs are a close fit in some of the holders and you may need needle nose pliers to remove them if they are not orientated correctly.

That's one thing I forgot to mention... They are pole specific (polarized?). That means that the bulbs will work only if inserted correctly. Half of mine were initially inserted 180-degrees off, so I had to remove and rotate them. However, I managed to destroy a couple with the needle nose pliers cuz these things are pretty delicate.

So here's what you do...
1. Insert the bulb in it's socket (not in the gauge).
2. Turn on the car's headlights, or parking/running lights.
3. Touch the metal ground contact on the side of the bulb socket/holder against the edge of a gauge or some other ground source. The bulb should light. If not, simply pull it out and rotate 180-degrees, reinsert and touch to any metal ground contact again; it will light.
4. Insert bulbs back into gauges.

I did this one at a time as I inserted my LED's when I put the green ones in.

quote:

Hey Garth, great info there. Did this help brighten up the gauges from the old incandescents? Or did it just create less heat, less power consumption?

Very interested in making my gauges visible at night!

Hey Hudson, Did you ever get some LED bulbs? Just curious how you like them?

I ordered a set of these leds after seeing your post. I did use different leds on mine but my speedo & tach are still a bit dim, the small gauges also had a bluish tint. The leds are marked as shipped, I will let you know how I get on with these.
Cheers..

Received the leds from China the other day. Installed and went for a drive in the dark last night. Nice color and certainly bright enough. I now have a glare from the speedo and tach dials in the windscreen when dark, I suppose I can't have everything. :-)
Thank you.

There is a thread on installing a new dimmer for the LEDs

I have this http://www.protizmo.com/Product-Info/AILD-1/ Works quite well with stock dimmers.

Even with the dinner there is a lot if glare? I fugured that would fix that

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I now have a glare from the speedo and tach dials in the windscreen when dark, I suppose I can't have everything.

Hahahaha. I have the same thing. Driving out to Murphy's for the Ironstone Concours Friday night I turned off the gauge lights with the dimmer switch for a bit to see if things were better without the reflection in the windshield, but found I preferred being able to see all my gauges. One of these days I'll install an LED dimmer as others on this board have done.

The reflection is not too bad. The dimmer from Protizmo does not work correctly with the stock dimmer switches. I am in contact with Ed the designer and he is working on a new unit for me to try.

I wonder if 3M "louvered" anti glare film would work on eliminating the reflections on the glass.
http://multimedia.3m.com/mws/m...dustrial-prod-br.pdf
price list
http://www.apioptics.com/3m-display-film-spec.html

I installed a 1K-Ohm potentiometer in place of the stock rheostat when I installed my Protizmo. It works good. At one point I did have to send the Protizmo back to have the chip re-flashed. Something went wrong with it and I could not make it learn even after resetting it back to factory default. All is good now.

Steve

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Originally posted by JFB #05177:
I wonder if 3M "louvered" anti glare film would work on eliminating the reflections on the glass.
http://multimedia.3m.com/mws/m...dustrial-prod-br.pdf

That might be an interesting product to try. It seems that if you get the speedometer and tach dim enough to eliminate the glare, then you can't see them well enough to be of any use. I had the problem with the stock units and now with the Autometer ones and LED bulbs it is even worse. I will be installing an Autometer LED dimmer in the system soon, but I am not sure if it will correct the glare problem and still be able to read the instruments.

is the bothersome glare in the windshield or is it in the back glass (or door glass)?

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Originally posted by JFB #05177:
is the bothersome glare in the windshield or is it in the back glass (or door glass)?

The windshield is where the reflection is. Bright LED bulbs makes is worse.

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The windshield is where the reflection is. Bright LED bulbs makes is worse.

The bulb type (LED, incandescent, etc) makes no difference. It's just a product of the angle of the gauges and slope of the windshield. The windshield will reflect any light from the Speedometer and Tachometer that makes them bright enough to see at night.

I've ordered a sample of that 3M louvered anti-glare film; anxious to see if it makes a difference. I'll let y'all know.

which type did you order?

Also, is your car a two pod of latter dash?
I will be very interested in your opinion.

A second benifit would be blocking the passenger from seeing the gauges

I ordered the ALCF-P as it's designed to go on the outside of an LCD, rather than in the backlight of an LCD (ALCF-A). Sounded better suited to being mounted on the outside of the gauges. We'll see when it arrives.

And I have a 2-pod dash.

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Originally posted by T.Solo:
I installed a 1K-Ohm potentiometer in place of the stock rheostat when I installed my Protizmo. It works good.
Steve

I received a new re-programmed chip to go in my existing Protizmo and an additional Pantera specific unit to control the lamps above the center console gauges.
The stock dimmers work great now. The off part of the dimmer works and dims from faint to full on. Ed has created a new version, the G3.
http://www.protizmo.com/Store/

Highly recommended when using stock dimmers to control gauge leds which are much brighter, consume less power, create less heat and no need now to drill an additional hole in your gauge to mount another bulb.

Great for Ed to step up and create something for us. Support your vendors!!

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I ordered the ALCF-P as it's designed to go on the outside of an LCD, rather than in the backlight of an LCD (ALCF-A). Sounded better suited to being mounted on the outside of the gauges. We'll see when it arrives.

FWIW, the sample I ordered never came.

Hi Garth,
Many thanks for the follow up. Did you find any other solutions?
Cheers, Tim.

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Did you find any other solutions?

No. The issue is so minor that I haven't followed up on it. I'm just so thrilled to be able to see my gauges after so many years that I don't care if there's some reflection in the windshield.

As I looked into the louvered films a bit more, it looks like the privacy computer screens are made of the same stuff; if I remember the next time I see these at the store I'll get one and try it - just have to remember to mount it 90-degrees to how it would sit on a monitor.