I am wanting to change the lighting in my car to a different color (red,white,purple,etc.) But I don't know where to start.
* LEDS are a good place to start. The thing I don't like about red is
* that if a trouble light comes on the dash it won't look like anything.
I also don't want to paint them like everyone else does.
* You could use theatrical lighting gels. They have good colors.
I just bought a bunch of LED's off Ebay. I know not the best place to buy but hey I got 100 LED's for .99 cents.
* It's cool.
Ok so it looks like first of all I need to use a resistor. Which ones should I use? 470 ohms as stated on ledmuseum?
* The listing for your LEDs. Did it have a table with a bunch of
* numbers, things like "forward current"? What are those numbers?
The ones I bought off of Ebay are 3.2v - 3.6v. Will that work with that resistor? What other recomendations do you have for a n00b like myself?
* Don Klipstein has a DIY LED guide here:
*
http://members.misty.com/don/ledd.html
* You could hook up a string of three of them, and another string of
* four of them, and a final string of five of them, and wire them to
* your car just to see what they do. The three will be brightest, but
* should burn out pretty quick. You can also buy LEDs that come
* with the proper resistor for twelve volt usage included. They
* have them at car part stores (but not for one cent each) and
* in the automotive section of eBay.
* Accept that you will make mistakes, but with that big pile
* of cheap LEDs you can make mistakes and not worry about it.
I want them bright, not dull. The LED's I bought from Radio Shack are not bright at all.
* They seem to specialize in little ones. You could drive
* them harder, although this cuts down on life expectancy.
Where do you recommend me buying some good LED's that will light up my gauges?
* I used stuff from Quickar Electronics
* (
http://www.quickar.com/leds.php )
When I see LEDs as advertised with a viewing angle of 15 - 60 degress are the reffering to the angle you will see the light?
* Yes. Incandescent bulbs produce a sphere of light but LEDs are
* normally directional. 15 degrees would be a narrow, tight beam,
* 60 reasonably wide, 180 is probably as wide as an LED can do.
Anything else you think I should know that would be very helpful!
* there will be a fair amount of crawling around and running wires in/
* on/under your dash. It will take a couple of goes before you get it
* just the way you like. Also, once you get good at it you may find
* yourself coming back to do the glovebox, the dome light, the trunk
* light, underbody lights, in-the-wheel lights, a crstal-skull-stickshift-knob
* with UV lights in it, etc. The CPF people
* will be absolutely no help with fighting the addiction. Heck, they'll
* offer to sell you stronger pharmaceutical grade lightingf!
* Are you familiar with how to wire them together, know that each one has a positive side? I think the longer leg is the positive side.
p.s. I was looking at this page to purchase LED's but am unsure of what all the numbers mean. Like
LUMINOUS INTENSITY(mcd) is this how bright they will be ?...
* Yes. Millicandles are small. More = brighter.