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Blue Gauges For Less


Guest ScottyDo

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Guest macliver

How do you guys think red LED's would look? I've seen this in the Audi cars versus the blue in the VW cars. Both look good and apparently, per the tech at Digi-Key, the red LED's have a higher intensity/brightness level.

I've ordered both and if I don't like it I'll put the blue in. But i'm gonna try the blue in the middle and the red on the sides. Photo below.

I just love red though!

Mac

Edited by macliver
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  • 2 weeks later...
Guest macliver

I did it. Bought the lights from Digi Key, got some new solder and a finer soldering needle for my handheld soldering gun, and pulled out the tools.

With patience, a little manual labor and finesse and i completed it in about 3 hours. Not that bad and this is the first time I've ever soldered something and desoldered something so damn small.

I did Red on the two outside gauges and Blue for the tachometer. I will post photos later this evening.

Thanks for the great instructions for everything from start to finish!! :thumbsup:

Cheers,

Mac

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Guest macliver

Compliments to ScottyDo for the wonderful instructions. I finished over the weekend and per my earlier request, here it is, my rendition of my own colorful gauge cluster. It's wonderful and make a significant difference. I'd love your comments.

gallery_1997_188_11758.jpg border='0' alt='user posted image' />

Red & Blue Gauges

gallery_1997_188_61017.jpg border='0' alt='user posted image' />

IMG_0505.JPG

Edited by macliver
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  • Member Contributer
Compliments to ScottyDo for the wonderful instructions.  I finished over the weekend and per my earlier request, here it is, my rendition of my own colorful gauge cluster.  It's wonderful and make a significant difference.  I'd love your comments.

Great! Now the hard part is choosing a color scheme! Can anyone tell me if I am correct in assuming that for a 5th gen, all I need is 7 #194 "wide angle" replacement bulbs?

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Guest ScottyDo
Compliments to ScottyDo for the wonderful instructions.  I finished over the weekend and per my earlier request, here it is, my rendition of my own colorful gauge cluster.  It's wonderful and make a significant difference.  I'd love your comments.

Looks sweet! :thumbsup: I'm glad my destructions helped. :joystick:

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  • 10 months later...
  • Member Contributer
My cheap blue coloured incandescent 194 bulbs sourced from the local auto parts store were pretty dang dim at night, so I just sprung for the LED's from the above website. I got the wide angle ones as I remember reading elsewhere that somebody did this with regular LEDs and got a "spotlight" effect on their gauge faces everywhere there was an LED but poor lighting elsewhere on the gauge face.

Hopefully the wide angle LED's cure this right up. :thumbsup:

Perusing this thread and never noticed the reply that it actually did clear things up...what was the verdict? smile.gif

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Perusing this thread and never noticed the reply that it actually did clear things up...what was the verdict? smile.gif

Yes, the LED's were the answer. The gauges are not dim any longer, but the needles are still kinda purplish.

No problems with that though.

See my thread on the subject here:

http://www.vfrdiscussion.com/forum/index.p...c=20337&hl=

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  • 5 months later...
  • 1 year later...
  • Member Contributer

How delicate is the soldering?

Also, I can't seem to get my meter panel off... I'm pulling pretty hard, but don't wan to break it. How do the grommets work?

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My '83 750 uses bulbs for everything... I have some homework to do, as I want to replace all of them with different colored LEDs, that is to say, that currently all the bulbs are clear/white, and they light colored pieces of plastic.

What I'd like to do is, for example, the high beam and neutral are blue and green, replace the clear bulbs with a blue and a green LED... I think Veefer800canuck had found some leds the fit the bulb socket for his 5th gen, I'll have to look his thread up again...

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for those that dont have the time ,or skills i highly recommend bluegauges to them scott hooked me up and did a outstanding job with a quick turnaround .

:laugh: :fing02: :wacko: On Scott @ Blueguages. I went to see him a while ago and let alone he offered to receive my CRV trailer hitch for me, we installed it on his front lawn, and while we went out to have lunch, he did the led thing and it was ready when we came back!

Friendly and A1 integrity... based on this alone, I'd highly recommend his services. He's done lots of our members a quality job.

DIY is great but, I count myself among the 'mechanically declined' on this site. I also bought a speedo healer from him too.

I felt it was the least I could do for someone who never even met me to receive an accessory for my vehicle.

Ps I LOVE the end result!

Will post pics sometime.... :fing02:

Greg

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  • 5 months later...

Here is a pic of my 1996 with the Blue 5 led 194 bulbs. The other bulbs were replaced with single led wide angle bulbs. I find them much eaiser to read at a glace. I dont notice any diminished night vision, however the bikes after the fourth gen have much more light shining back at the rider from the LED panels.

gallery_14579_3991_170289.jpg

leds03.jpg

Edited by D4N
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Wow. I saw a bike that had the same set up and it inspired me to do my own as well. I brought up this topic several months back and started a forum on this topic. The majority of the coments were negative. I wanted to do the mod myself and everyone who replied said that blue leds are not good for night riding and red is better. Red leds don't kill your night vision etc etc etc. How are the blue leds on your eyes at night? Have you had any problems seeing your gauges? You made we want to try this after seeing your install. Great job. :media:

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  • 2 years later...
Guest PAFirefighter11

Hate to bump and extremely old post but any chance the OP's photos are still available? Not showing for me... I'm trying to find out how many bulbs illuminate the speedo, how many illuminate the tach, and how many illuminate the info cluster on the right (Fuel gauge, temp, etc.). From what I gather it's:

Speedo: 2

Tach: 2

Cluster: 1

Is this correct?

Edited by PAFirefighter11
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Hate to bump and extremely old post but any chance the OP's photos are still available? Not showing for me... I'm trying to find out how many bulbs illuminate the speedo, how many illuminate the tach, and how many illuminate the info cluster on the right (Fuel gauge, temp, etc.). From what I gather it's:

Speedo: 2

Tach: 2

Cluster: 1

Is this correct?

Dangit, I looked up my old post and it seems it has disappeared. Likely due to the recent "troubles?"

Anyway, I'm pretty sure the lcd is 2 bulbs. I only used blue for that one, and (I think) clear/white for the others. I don't think it was one or two per dial. More like three across both? Best bet is to take off the cowl and take a look! Needs to come off anyway.

The dials are nice and bright, and the blue from the lcd is a nice contrast.

Go ahead and get same color replacements for the brights/neutral/oil lights. If you use led for the FI, it stays on at half brightness. Same problem with the turn signal indicators. Actually I forget if the turns did that... I know for a fact they did on my PC800. Perhaps on the VFR, too...

Edit: I just read a few posts back. If indeed there are 5 total, then it is 3 for the dials and 2 for the lcd. IIRC

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  • 9 months later...

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