Gauge cluster bulbs - LED replacements?

bigacuralvr

New member
Hmm...I guess I never thought of brighter cluster lights...it always seems mine are too bright in stock green form. But then again...bright lights inside the truck/car at night really bug me.
Brett
 

Simba

New member
Well, I did mine for giggles today, using white backlight leds (similar to older Lexus lighting, which I like) and the appropriate colored caution and warning lights.

A few things I learned:

First, the Airbag and Battery warning lights must use regular bulbs. In the case of the Airbag light, the circuit doesn't have enough resistance to illuminate with a LED in there. With the Batt/Voltage light, there's enough voltage on the circuit when the car is running to slightly illuminate a LED, but not enough for a bulb. So, unless you want the battery light glowing slightly all the time, you need to use a bulb.

Here's how mine turned out:

cluster1.jpg


cluster2.jpg
 

Simba

New member
bigacuralvr":173unsa7 said:
Where did you get the bulbs, and how many did you use, etc? It looks AMAZING!

Super Bright LEDs -- they're pricey, but they stock everything and ship stuff quickly. All of the required bulbs are here-- I've only seen the 180 degree 194's come out very recently, which are what makes the project possible.

You need:

5x WLED 5-Led #194 bulbs (backlighting, available in red/amber/white/blue/green)

1x #74 Wedge Base bulbs (white, or whatever your backlighting color is)

1x WLED-A Amber #194 bulb (narrow focus) - Fuel warning

3x #74 Wedge Green (cruise, signals)

1x #74 Wedge Blue (high beam)

2x #74 Wedge Amber (ABS, Check engine)

4x #74 Wedge Red (Seatbelt, Door, Brake, Oil)

And you retain two of the normal #74 bulbs for the Airbag and Charge.

Cost is around $60 or so if you order extra bulbs of each type, which I did, as it's fairly easy to break them. Installing the #194s is easy, they pop right in. The #74's are harder as they're polarity sensitive and slightly bigger than a normal #74 bulb, which makes the base harder to pop back into the cluster, and if you put them in backwards you have to pull them back out, turn them around, and reinstall.

Still, they're MUCH brighter and get rid of the awful green. If you wanted to do the HVAC controls and other bits, you'll need 6-8 more of the #74 wedge bulbs in whatever backlight color you use, which will do the glove box, HVAC, fog light button, and window switches.
 

Simba

New member
Yes, they're very bright. Much more so than stock. One thing that surprised the hell out of me is that the 194 led bulbs have a very tiny resistor and diode built right into the bulb casing, so you can dim them, unlike just about any other LED.

The photos are on full bright, which if anything is a little too bright for night driving. Half dimmer seems to make my eyes happy.
 

toayoztan

Moderator
Simba, VERY great work and write up you did there. However, i have a few questions that i know people will probably are curious about too. I hope you can help us out a little more!


Okay with the pic above, those are the different bulb types i ran into when changing and looking at the cluster bulbs and HVAC bulbs. Can you identify the bulbs there that are unknown? They look smaller than 74...or are they still 74? I believe the gray socket base is used for lighting such as fog light button. The smaller black one at the right is used for the HVAC.


This picture shows (and i what i know heh) that there are only 4 microbulbs illuminating the entire HVAC. They are the small microbulbs you see in the 1st picture i posted, at the far right of the pic. Would we still order 74 bulbs for those??


This picture shows the two bulbs used for the rear defroster button. The HVAC for this by the way is from a 93 alltrac, may be different for 90-91. You can see there is slightly two different sizes. Still 74 bulbs to order here too??


This picture shows that there are 7 LEDs used for indicators for the HVAC. I soldered 6 in, 1 isn't shown (i was still working on that). Also, for the door switch, it consists of 2 LEDs that must be resoldered.


This pic shows the back side of the gauge cluster. For anyone that is curious, here it is. If you add the number of bulbs Simba told you to order, and you add up the number on the back of this picture, they both equal 19 (just an FYI).

Also Simba, when you talked about ordering 74 wedge bulbs, which ones exactly did you mean? They showed 3 kinds.
1) T1.5 Instrument LED bulb - 74 bulb with socket base
2) B8.3D Instrument Cluster LED bulb - another kind of 74 bulb with socket base
3) 74 Wedge Base LED bulb - just the 74 bulb alone without socket base

The microbulbs can't use the 74 bulbs w/o a socket base, so which socket base 74 bulb should we order?

And which bulb should we order for the smaller mircro bulbs used in the HVAC?

Thanks for the all the help Simba!
Bryan
 

Snyder

New member
I converted all my interior lights to blue leds. Here is the store you need:
http://www.superbrightleds.com/1157.htm

The gauge clusters # 194

the key light, cigaritte light, glovebox light are # 74

These are 12V direct fit bulbs and they can only go in one way. If they don't lite, flip the bulb around.

The gauge cluster are direct plug in. Your aftermarkets gauges (Autometer) are also direct plug in. They all are 194 bulbs.

The key light, cigaritte light, glovebox light are # 74 direct plug in.

The HVAC is different. I have a ST165 and a ST162 swapped Gen2 3SGTE. I had to take apart the control unit. The little leds that light up the buttons are different. I went to the electronic store and bought 12v little leds. I took the board with the originals and matched them to the ones in the store. The ones that light up the unit are different also. I used a # 74 and modified it to fit in that socket.

My ST165 is red leds and the ST162 has blue leds. If I can remember I will take pictures of them.
 

bigacuralvr

New member
I think I'm going to order this one...

B8.3D Instrument Cluster LED bulb - another kind of 74 bulb with socket base

It looks like they are the same, just one has a longer neck than the other.

Hope I'm right....here goes $35

Brett
 

Simba

New member
toayoztan":1vqhtt5c said:
Okay with the pic above, those are the different bulb types i ran into when changing and looking at the cluster bulbs and HVAC bulbs. Can you identify the bulbs there that are unknown? They look smaller than 74...or are they still 74? I believe the gray socket base is used for lighting such as fog light button. The smaller black one at the right is used for the HVAC.

The small bulbs in the twist-lock bases in the instrument cluster are #74. The smaller ones, with the flush screw-head base are also #74 bulbs, but they are not a conventional type. I believe these are Toyota-specific bulbs that have the bulbs permanently attached to the base. For these, you cannot use a #74 led, and must instead pull the bulb out of the twist base, and solder up a LED/resistor replacement.

I'm going to do this next, so, I'll document the process.


This picture shows (and i what i know heh) that there are only 4 microbulbs illuminating the entire HVAC. They are the small microbulbs you see in the 1st picture i posted, at the far right of the pic. Would we still order 74 bulbs for those??

No, for those you will need to make a custom LED based on the original base. I'm going to do this and will post instructions-- it's fairly straightforward. The only location you can use the #74 LED bulbs, either with the bases, or the regular spade sort, is on the back of the gauge cluster for the caution/warning lights. The rest of the twist-lock bulbs for the HVAC, et al, are a custom job.

Also Simba, when you talked about ordering 74 wedge bulbs, which ones exactly did you mean? They showed 3 kinds.
1) T1.5 Instrument LED bulb - 74 bulb with socket base
2) B8.3D Instrument Cluster LED bulb - another kind of 74 bulb with socket base
3) 74 Wedge Base LED bulb - just the 74 bulb alone without socket base

I got the 74 Wedge Base bulbs and put them in my existing #74 sockets. You could also get the T1.5 bulbs with the bases, which would simplify the install somewhat. The B8.3D's will not fit in anything.

The microbulbs can't use the 74 bulbs w/o a socket base, so which socket base 74 bulb should we order?

Either the T1.5's, or just get the wedge bulbs and use your existing sockets.

And which bulb should we order for the smaller mircro bulbs used in the HVAC?

Any small 3mm wide angle LED in the color you desire. However, one should note that the lighting of the HVAC will probably not be as uniform using LEDs.
 

Simba

New member
bigacuralvr":36hafy9w said:
B8.3D Instrument Cluster LED bulb - another kind of 74 bulb with socket base

I don't believe these will work, as they have a different socket than what Toyota uses. You want the #74 bulbs with the T1.5 base, or just the #74 wedge bulbs.

I know the wedge base bulbs fit, so that's what I recommend people order.
 

toayoztan

Moderator
Cool, thanks Simba.

A note/question about the gauge cluster still though. So i understand that the gauge cluster uses 74 and 194. However, only like half or so of the 74 bulbs have a wedge bulb, and the other half are as you already noticed are the flush type customized by toyota.

It's no problem, i can just order the T1.5 74 bulbs that come with sockets to replace those, right? I think that's what i understand from what you are telling me.

Oh, but that makes me wonder...does that mean all your 74 bulbs on your gauge cluster had removeable 74 wedge bulb and socket base? Just curious is all, I thought you maybe would have had some that you had to replace with T1.5 74.



Also, for the HVAC, i also figured it out too that 74 wouldn't fit. So what i did (which was mentioned earlier from someone else) was grab some microbulbs from RadioShack, unwrapped the wiring off the socket base of the old bulb, wrapped the wiring around the socket base of the radioshack micro bulbs, and that worked out fine. They dont' have red, so i will probably order the bulb covers bigacuralvr gave us a link to, probably double up the covers to make them deeper red, and hopefully they should match the red leds from the gauge cluster. Problem is, the radioshack microbulbs aren't as bright as the OEM bulbs (go figure). So i will probably just order new OEM bulbs from 1sttoyota, take the green covers off, and slap the new red covers on. That way, i get brighter and brand new OEM bulbs that are red.

I dont' want to use LED's in the HVAC as i alreadly presume and know that no LED that will be able to fit in the microbulb socket will illuminate (wide enough anyway) to get eveness across the HVAC. And bright spots really annoy me, but it's personal preference.

Thanks again Simba!
Bryan
 

Simba

New member
toayoztan":qd8zb9q6 said:
Oh, but that makes me wonder...does that mean all your 74 bulbs on your gauge cluster had removeable 74 wedge bulb and socket base? Just curious is all, I thought you maybe would have had some that you had to replace with T1.5 74.

All of my #74 cluster bulbs had the spade-type base socket on them. The only thing that has the flush bulb sockets are the HVAC controls, et al, at least in mine. You should be able to pop in the T1.5's just fine if you have flush bulbs in yours.

I dont' want to use LED's in the HVAC as i alreadly presume and know that no LED that will be able to fit in the microbulb socket will illuminate (wide enough anyway) to get eveness across the HVAC. And bright spots really annoy me, but it's personal preference.

Actually, I found some (relatively) low power 180 degree LEDs that should do the trick without any hotspotting, so I guess we'll see.

I did my Supra cluster years ago with conventional narrow focus LEDs and it worked out great, though there's considerably more space for the LEDs to light in that design than in the AT.
 

toayoztan

Moderator
Cool, let me know how those 180 degrees work out for you. If you don't plan on getting around to it soon, just let me know what they are and i can order them to try them out as i'll have some time over the xmas break into january before school starts again, and let you know how it goes too.

Bryan
 

Simba

New member
Okay, entirely more than you probably wanted to know about LEDifying the HVAC lights.

First off, a few things of note: I had planned to use some 5mm 360 degree white LEDs for backlighting the HVAC controls, however, upon making the things, I found that 5mm leds will not fit into the backlight holes, so I had to use 45 degree conventional white LEDs. The results of this were lackluster, so the search is on for 180 or 360 degree 3mm white LEDs. Fortunately, the backlighting bulbs are fairly easy to replace.

I'll step through this in the various parts that need to be done for a full conversion: The door window switches, the fog light button, HVAC board, and defrost button.

I should also point out that while changing the backlight bulbs to LEDs of whatever color is fairly easy, doing the rest of the OEM LEDs in the door switches and HVAC buttons is a complete, royal PITA. If you want to do it, prepare for pain.

This is what you get when you're done. I used red LEDs for my "on" HVAC buttons (except the AC button, which is blue) and white 45 degree backlighting LEDs.

final-done.jpg


final-done2.jpg


As I said, the backlight LEDs fairly well suck save for the one spot behind the heater control in which it shines straight through. Once I find some better LEDs, it should all look like the heater control.

First off, the window switches. After you completely disassemble the door panel, you will be able to remove the switch box. There is a third screw that holds the box in, and in order to get it you have to remove the pull handle from the door panel itself. Then, you can pull the switch box apart, which is a fairly trivial matter. However, when you rip it apart, parts will go flying, so do it on a large, clean desk or table. The flying parts in question are typically the two contact points for the switches themselves. If you are extremely unlucky, the passenger window lockout button will come apart on you as well. It takes about an hour of swearing to get it back together if it does come apart, so DO NOT press the button with the switch box apart.

Once disassembled, you'll have this:

window-open.jpg


There are two circuit boards for the LEDs under the switches. In the above photo, I've removed one. They are held in with melted plastic pegs. You will have to cut the heads off and gently pry the boards up to remove them.

When you have the boards out, you can desolder the original green LEDs, like so:

window-pullold.jpg


This is a blue LED put into the board. Note that POLARITY MATTERS, and the LED can only go in one way. Fortunately, Toyota labeled every circuit board that uses a LED with the correct flow polarity. The annode of the LED (longer prong) goes on the arrow side of the diode symbol, not the bar side. In this photo, the annode (positive) lead is on the top.

window-newled.jpg


Once you're done, you can secure the boards back into the switch box with a few dabs of epoxy on top of the old plastic pegs. Be sure and test the boards once installed, as putting it all back together only to find out they don't work would pretty much suck.

window-test.jpg


Finally, you can put everything back together, and get this:

window-donw.jpg


... more to follow in the next post.
 

Simba

New member
Okay, next up is the fog light switch. It has a single #74 bulb to illuminate it, so it's a fairly trivial matter to LEDify. In fact, this is the only location in which a 5mm 360 degree led will actually work. So, first, the process for making them.

First, take the old bulb and pull it out of the holder. To do this, you need to pry up the tiny bulb leads with a small slotted screwdriver, and then unwrap them from the base. You can then pull the bulb out of the holder, and replace it with a LED, like so:

backlight-prongs.jpg


(While it looks yellow, this is a 360 degree 5mm white LED.)

Then, you can bend the negative prong (shorter one) around the bulb base as normal. This is fairly easy, though a good set of needel nose pliars and a small slotted screwdriver will make it easier.

backlight-negative.jpg


Once wrapped, you can trim the negative prong to size.

For the positive lead, you start by threading a resistor into the other side of the bulb holder. I am using a 1k Ohm resistor here, and everywhere else. You could probably go with a smaller resistor, like a 500-700 ohm, though given the fluctuating nature of a vehicle electrical system, a little extra resistance is a good idea. These are the same resistors Toyota uses on all the original LED boards, so it's a good example to follow.

backlight-positive.jpg


Finally, you can bend the positive LED annode and the other end of the resistor into proximity with each other, and add a dab of solder:

backlight-done.jpg


You should now test the LED.

backlight-test.jpg


Even with a 1k resistor, it's still plenty bright. It's not a bad idea to put a small sliver of tape under the resistor to insulate the postive lead from the negative LED lead, which is directly under it. If you position the resistor well, you should not have to do this, but it doesn't hurt to be careful.

When you're done, it pops into the fog light housing easily:

fog-installed.jpg


Be sure to TEST the housing plugged into the dash before you put everything back together, as LEDs are polarity sensitive, and if you have the older in "backwards", the LED will not work. If that happens, you'll have to take the older back out, rotate it 180 degrees, and reinstall.
 
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