2.0 KCC 356 Speedster - www.356speedster.co.za

[Muderick]

Hey alan. I think you missed the part. But the above is only for the backlights only on the gauges. Not for every little globe.

Muds was selling led globes kits for beetles at about R600 odd. Buying those for my ride would be about a grand. Hence me saying that I could do a set up for my car for under R100 and I said that. Read buddy.......then chew me out. Lolz

The pcb is custom by the way. A total 1 off.

Gary... not paying attention in class I see.

I did not offer them for sale nor did I sell them as a kit. I simply offered to have anyone interested in getting the correct item for the application, order some LED's at the same price as the website, amount of bulbs of their own choice, and I get it for them on my next order. Considering the fact that all 3 previous orders by-passed customs collection and arrived at post box, there is not much of a postage price to even consider.... Nobody else said "Nice.................pity my 912 gauges use 15 of them" other than you. Then you moaned "just have to get around the fact that I'm paying about a grand for bulbs" Actually about R750 for your 15 bulbs, or R150 for just the 3 illumination LEDs for your gauges at $5 each.

This was an offer, not really a FOR SALE post. Not being too tight-fisted, I prefer to ALWAYS get the correct purpose built, 'more expensive' item the 1st time around. Its always cheaper that way for me.

If you read the write up ..." These LEDs vividly illuminate standard gauge configurations and have a uniquely distributed 120º wide viewing angle. This is important because most LED bulbs emit light like a flashlight, focused out the end with no side illumination." its easy to see that your LED is too big, too bright, and over engineered, will emit too much bright light to the eye, amongst others.... as opposed to just replacing a bulb. I dont mind spending R50 - R60 on something for my ACVW, that only has benefits in an area that is always been a problem on all ACVW's.... bad dash illumination, burnt out oil, genny, and indicator light gels... some so bad that the colour even changed over the years.

The BA7 LEDs in my post (colour ones) actually have the tiny LED inside, and the larger blue red or green colour cap over it. On the bay window bus LEDs, do you actually get to see how tiny, and yet robust, these LED's are.

I know that the R150 (for 3 of 'my' LEDs) you could have spent is and will be more cost effective than your make-shift set up.

Good luck with your build mate. Im positive you will find a way to compact and neaten it up.

Muds

[flatfourfan]

You started a thread "LED bulbs for your ACVW dash", so yeah excuse me for thinking that you were selling LED globes.................my bad.

If you read my thread, you could see that I said....."They can be dimmed to tone down the dash if it's too bright". I know that these don't have the 120º wide viewing angle, but there's nothing stopping me from buying a R10 120º wide LED and fitting it to the module.

I'm all for direct drop in replacements, but at R60 a globe, I'll stick to make-shift thanks.

[Muderick]

You started a thread "LED bulbs for your ACVW dash", so yeah excuse me for thinking that you were selling LED globes.................my bad.

No worries, your oversight is excused.

If you read my thread, you could see that I said....."They can be dimmed to tone down the dash if it's too bright". I know that these don't have the 120º wide viewing angle, but there's nothing stopping me from buying a R10 120º wide LED and fitting it to the module.

Over engineered I still say....Why install a module with dimming function for your LED when you should already have this dimming function on your headlight switch like most ACVW's have? Unless that is also make-shift?

I'm all for direct drop in replacements, but at R60 a globe, I'll stick to make-shift thanks.
You could have fooled me Gary...even @R60 per LED x3, its still comes to R180. Still cheaper than buying your own LEDs and having someone make up the module for you (even if it was for free), wiring it and then who know how many hours of labour to fit, refine, neaten and compact it, and then to eventually test it in normal daily use?

Muds

[flatfourfan]

No worries, your oversight is excused.

Not oversight..............it was sarcasm....... ......as was yours no doubt..........

As for over-engineered?.................oh hell yes......I mean look at it, it's awesome on so many levels.

Overall I'm into this little project for pretty much nothing as in (R 0.00), I approached someone to look into an option that would give me good back lighting. I'm pulling my gauges apart to fit a new fuel gauge, a new water temp gauge as well as a more accurate tach, so I have no problems with tinkering and getting everything to work as I want it, so a few hours in the grand scheme of things won't make much diffs in my books.

Yes I could of just paid R60 a globe and replaced them, but as I'm gutting the gauges anyway and will need as much space inside as I can get, this just made more sense.

[Retrobug]

You could use a relay to on/off the indicator, high beam, battery and oil lights
Put the relay between the led and the board and use the old power wire to activate the relay.
Not sure of what the wiring diagram should look like, should work.
Me, I feel more at home with the old feint incandescent bulbs

[flatfourfan]

You could use a relay to on/off the indicator, high beam, battery and oil lights
Put the relay between the led and the board and use the old power wire to activate the relay.
Not sure of what the wiring diagram should look like, should work.
Me, I feel more at home with the old feint incandescent bulbs

I'm getting old, I have to squint at night to see the gauges...............in fairness of it all I just wanna know RPMs..........the rest is all bonus.

[acpaterson]

So having just finished this project, I don't understand why you need 16 Bulbs\LED's..

Speedo has 2, Rev Counter has 2
Rev Counter has Indicators, 1
Combo has 3, Brights, 1 LED, Oil and Gen, standard bulbs

So I fitted 6 LED's, cost me R 30. Sorted.

Must say, they aren't really THAT much brighter than the bulbs actually. But it's done now.

[flatfourfan]

I don't need 16.

I have 13 slots on the pcb, not going to use them all.........just those that I need for the backlighting. I have 2 globe slots in each pod for backlighting.

We need a night pic man, I'm curious to see.

[Muderick]

So having just finished this project, I don't understand why you need 16 Bulbs\LED's..

Speedo has 2, Rev Counter has 2
Rev Counter has Indicators, 1
Combo has 3, Brights, 1 LED, Oil and Gen, standard bulbs

So I fitted 6 LED's, cost me R 30. Sorted.

Must say, they aren't really THAT much brighter than the bulbs actually. But it's done now.

@ Alan... Mine is at least 5 x brighter than standard filament bulbs. I could for the 1st time see that the actual colour of the light on my bay window dash binnacle should actually be green...

Standard LED bulbs are generally not as bright as standard incandescent bulbs, they have many advantages over filament bulbs (longer life, faster on/off times, lower power consumption, more vivid colors) but brightness is not one of them. They are generally not as bright but some of them with large numbers of LEDs, will appear brighter than filament bulbs. As an exception, High Power LED car bulbs are as bright or brighter than most standard filament car bulbs.

Most LED bulbs emit light like a flashlight, all out the end. Regular filament bulbs emit light from the end and all sides, so they will be better suited for some lighting applications than LED bulbs. This is the same reason why we do not rate LED car bulbs in lumens or watts, the numbers would be deceptively low because the light is measured from all sides and the end on standard filament bulbs, but only from the end on LED bulbs

[acpaterson]

Ok, interesting Muds..
I dunno as I had bought some new BA7 white bulbs which i ten coated with Green Nail Polish, so that could have 'dimmed" them but, they were ok, not BRIGHT BRIGHT.
These gauges also don't have surround relectors, they just have a "slot" which lets the back light bleed around the faces.. Having redone my own gauge faces myself, and not having used phosphorous ink etc, they aren't as bright I guess as they could be, but they are visible though, and the green LEDs do finish them off nicely.

I'll take a Pic tonight with no flash.

[Muderick]

Cool

[flatfourfan]

so. To give some support to my man Manny and also the speedster community in SA. I'll be updating the speedy and supporting http://www.356speedster.co.za/.

So once we have it all up and going, I'll be doing the bulk of my updates there.

[MarshallGTi]

hey FFF, i see none of ur pics seem to be showing up on my side, have u deleted them by any chance? i'm helping a mate sort out some cooling issues on his watercooled bug over xmas and if possible i'd like to copy ur radiator and scoop setup. please will you post up those pics again........?

[flatfourfan]

Hey there. Send me your email address in a pm and I'll email you the pics. I'm actually re-doing all of the radiator set up, up front as I want to get it smaller and more compact.