I was able to get some photos of the gauges in the dark.

My camera won't adjust things like most smart phones do, so I tried some things myself.  First, I adjusted the "EV" value to +2.0 which didn't do anything in the dark.  So using what I can remember from the days of 35mm, I tried different shutter speeds like 8sec, 2sec, and 1 sec.  8 seconds was too bright, and even with the tripod, it was too blurry.  2 Sec. was still too blurry, though it was only hand-held.The latter (1 sec.) resulted in a photo you could make out.

The two tachos were hand-painted inside with gloss-white paint.  I also painted the back of the speedometer faceplate gloss-white. Most of the gauges and the heater panel have 24-emiiter BA9S LED bulbs.  The clock has a 5-emiiter bulb, which I think I will change to a 24 next winter.  It has enough light to make out the marks, but it's less important than the other gauges, so I'll leave it as-is.  I also used a green permanent marker to color the LEDs.  The heater panel  LED wasn't  colored so the printed colors of the panel show nicely.The electronic (PWM) dimmer is set to the lowest setting so that the LEDs are ON; any lower, and the lights are OFF.

 

Edited April 26, 20168 yr by TomoHawk

If you could only convert the CANbus LEDs to non- CANbus, then you'd have a very large supply and assortment of bulbs.  That is, if you don't mind having the  usual load on your electricals, which is contrary to why you are putting in the LED bulbs, right?

From the looks of it, the W5W bulbs, the 'paddle' type, or the ones that like like little circuit board, have a large resistor across the two contacts.   It looks like you could just use your Dremel with a thin cutoff wheel and cut through the chip to break that part of the circuit. Maybe you could desolder it.

I have had a couple of nights driving with the LED gauge illumination, and I can tell you how nice it is to be able to see the gauges in the dark.  The center gauges are less important compared to the ones in front of the steering wheel, and now I can read them all.  The speedometer is easily read- even the odometers! And the other tachy is easily seen, even though you don't really need to tell the exact reading.

So I think I can conclude my gauge illumination upgrade project, write it up for myself, and move on to the next thing.

I appreciate the inputs and comments from everyone.

I finished my LED bulb upgrade for the map lamp.

First I cut strips of thin plastic (the kind you get from stuff packed in the welded plastic display packages) to fit into the lamp.  The strips were covered in aluminum foil tape (used for taping heating ducting) and were glued into an arc to form a reflector for the light.  I used GOOP for the adhesive.  The bulb used is a 12 emitter paddle-style bulb with 100 Lumens output.

The reflector and high-output bulb made a noticeable difference in the light.  I might still put in a bulb of the warm-white 5500K color, but for now it is fine.    I did not paint the inside of the lamp with gloss white paint, but I might later.

I like what I did because I will not have to disassemble the lamp to change the bulb.

 

 

                

Edited May 15, 20168 yr by TomoHawk

After reading, what is the most popular gauge replacement LED.  I think the 5 LED tower bulbs were mentioned most and what about colors?  Warm white, cool white or green?  Thanks for any and all opinions. 

I need to find out what bulb is in the speedo and the tach and add them but here's what i think to start off with.  

Three 5 panel LEDs for the fuel/amp/clock gauges.

Two 4 panel festoons for the map light and the dome light

One 90 degree 4 panel for the glove box

 

You might need to remove the green lenses for the gauges to get the BA9 bulbs to fit. I removed the lenses from the gauges in my 260Z and went with green bulbs. I get good illumination from them.

Same 4 bulbs in the speedo and tach as the rest of the gauges.  Keep the regular bulbs in the turn signals, otherwise they may not work with the LEDs.

1 hour ago, gwri8 said:

Same 4 bulbs in the speedo and tach as the rest of the gauges.  Keep the regular bulbs in the turn signals, otherwise they may not work with the LEDs.

The speedo has two and the tach? So I need 7 gauge bulbs.

What color are you using Greg?  I like the way the green looks now but after seeing smorales white I like that too. I can image search and find some to compare. And your talking about the arrows need the regular bulb? 

Thanks guys!

2 hours ago, gwri8 said:

Same 4 bulbs in the speedo and tach as the rest of the gauges.  Keep the regular bulbs in the turn signals, otherwise they may not work with the LEDs.

Since I have LEDs in all of my exterior lights, I went with LEDs on the turn signal gauges, too. One thing to remember is that with LEDs on your exterior lights, you should use an electronic flasher unit.

Steve I think you just made my current project easier. I'm gonna get the OE radio in for now. Before I spend a dime on led gauges I need that headlight upgrade from mr Irwin. I won't drive at night unless I get stuck out after dark. When I get my exterior lights switched to leds, after the headlight fix, I'll do my interiors to leds.

I got excited and jumped ahead of what I need to do. 8^(

Plus I'll have time to read up/research more. I still haven't plumbed my heater core back in the loop. Lazy driver right now while the weather is soooooo nice. 

I went with all white LEDs in the instrument panel to unify the look of the LEDs on the maplight, courtesy light and glovebox light. Since I painted all my instrument needles fluo orange to match the second hand in the calendar clock, the white light picks up that orange nicely (much crisper than with green light). I left the original incandescent bulbs in the turn signal arrows because I just needed their green color to come through and they looked bluish with the white LEDs. The charge light on my voltmeter is also the stock bulb. If you have some incandescent bulbs in the circuit the light dimmer switch actually works much better than with all LEDs.

 

Edited May 7, 20177 yr by dmorales-bello