nine and a half hours... sheesh. and here i was thinking that my hour and a half drive from school to home last night was bad!

anyways, yeah, when you start making these, put me on the list. I did my hvac already with your old method, but a friend needs one, and im buying it for xmas for him :)

I will get in touch next week!

Yeah, its a long drive, but due to the location of airports and available flights, flying makes little sense (especially with three of us travelling). I like road trips, but after making the same one through Iowa for about the 20th time or so, it gets old :P Shutting down right now and getting ready to roll, so talk to everyone later.

Please count me in for one of those kits next week!

I'm looking to make a "shopping list" of parts needed for this and other LED mods. There are so many threads, and new ones every day with noobs asking " is this the right part number, etc"

Blue seems to be the most asked for ( and for some reason, higher priced) led's. BTW, so far superbrightleds.com has been the source for all my bulbs

Here is my list so far.

Licence Plate : 2 WLED 5-LED Wide Angle LED bulb
Rear Dome Light : 1 3022-x4 LED Festoon bulb
Front Dome Light/map lights : 3 WLED 6-LED bulb
Rear Cargo Area 1 3022-x4 LED festoon blub
Cubby Hole (under HVAC unit) #74 LED bulb

Now.. the question i have, as a noob myslef. I am going to do the full gauge cluster, HVAC unit, and the door switches as well. I have heard that PLCC's work the best, other places say that 1206's work the best.. Someone shed some LED light on this for me please.
Also if you have anything to add to the list, why not let us collect all the info onto one shopping list. When complete, clean up the posts and make a tech post for it.

plccs are what the stock size are for pretty much all but the door switches... (which are 1206)

there are plenty of threads that have this so called "shopping list".. including this one.

there is a tech section on this forums that lists every thread you can need and find.

Thanks Dave I appreciate it. I haven't gotten the chance to install you new kit on the HVAC yet but I will soon. My dad worked on soldering my LEDs in this morning. Took him about 30 minutes. I serioiusly screwed my speedo needle trying to do the color change on them though. I broke the inside of the needle where it attaches to the circular hub scrubbing the needle with finger nail polish remover. I tried to superglue it back but it ended up eating the paint of the circular hub. I had to silicone the needle to the inside of the hub. I gummyed up the paint pretty badly. If anyone has an extra speedometer needle please contact me

Here are the results...
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y267/all4degame/gauges/Tach.jpg
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y267/all4degame/gauges/SpeedoNeedle.jpg
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y267/all4degame/gauges/gastemp.jpg
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y267/all4degame/gauges/GaugesKV.jpg
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y267/all4degame/gauges/sciongauges.jpg

^ nice set up :P

Thanks Dave I appreciate it. I haven't gotten the chance to install you new kit on the HVAC yet but I will soon. My dad worked on soldering my LEDs in this morning. Took him about 30 minutes. I serioiusly screwed my speedo needle trying to do the color change on them though. I broke the inside of the needle where it attaches to the circular hub scrubbing the needle with finger nail polish remover. I tried to superglue it back but it ended up eating the paint of the circular hub. I had to silicone the needle to the inside of the hub. I gummyed up the paint pretty badly. If anyone has an extra speedometer needle please contact me



Looks good!

I take the needles completely apart when I do them. I remove the plastic lower peice and take the entire clear part out. This makes sure I dont hurt the center peice while cleaning and painting and also ensures I get it painted all the way back into the needle housing.

Super glue does work great to fix them if they break, but it is pretty nasty if you get it on the rest of it.

hey engifineer... how do you take out the little glue they have on it? and how do you put them together? thanks in advance.

you melt it... duh. :P

Yep, you can melt it. Most of the time I just clip the blobs off with a pair of small wire cutters and it comes loose. I use either "Shoe Goo" if I have more time to let it dry, or testers model glue to put them back together. Super glue gel is also a decent way. It only takes a tiny amount.

awesome thanks. and yes trung i know i could melt it.. but i was looking for something a little bit safer :silly:

i used cuticle cutters from my sisters finger nail cutting set. They work really well

Thanks Dave for everything!

Looks good!

I take the needles completely apart when I do them. I remove the plastic lower peice and take the entire clear part out. This makes sure I dont hurt the center peice while cleaning and painting and also ensures I get it painted all the way back into the needle housing.

Super glue does work great to fix them if they break, but it is pretty nasty if you get it on the rest of it.

Dave,

I did take the needles apart. I was just careless when i was scrubbing the needle and broke the T that connects the needle to the hub. I reccomend everyone be very careful how hard you clean the needle.

You can all look at the pics and see if you can tell what is different about this board (other than the LCD is not soldered in on the first two pics) :P


http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y111/engifineer/Front.jpg

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y111/engifineer/Back.jpg

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y111/engifineer/Installed.jpg

Write up to come after I drive it for a day or so :D Hint: It is just as bright as before.

I SEE differences!!!

haha... but then again... i know what to look for.. :P

damn.. why didn't we figure this out sooner? :doh: :doh: :doh: :doh: :doh:

^^ Yeah, your guesses dont count... you had inside knowledge :rofl:

:rofl:.....

i still kinda... knew what to look for though.. :P

now only if you had clearer pictures of the "thingies".. so i know what to stock up on.... :silly:

i'll just wait until the writeup i guess. :D

:bow: to the almighty dave!

I'll include all part numbers. The pics came out a little fuzzy. Good camera, bad photographer :P

i have a good camera too.... but i always have issues with lighting.. :?

:P

ITS PHOTOSHOPPED! lol. jp :silly:

it looks alot cleaner :) but im still kinda stumped, have an idea, but still no where to be found. lol good job :clap:

Thats my deal. I have an SD630 (Cannon). In the area I do the mods in, It is tough to get the lighting right for the picture. Shutter is either open too long, making it blurry, or not on long enough. But, probably because I am too lazy to set it manually. I have the same issue with most cameras when I dont take my time.

Ok, for everyone else, I'll stop being mean :P It is a modded HVAC board. No wires, no resistors added, no cutting of traces. Just a matter of knowing what to replace elsewhere on the board. I originally thought of this idea during my original mod, but due to not having the entire board mapped out, and some preliminary testing thought it would fool with the processing for the rest of the board. I did a LOT more mapping and testing on the board recently and found that it would work... so it is now done and installed on mine. A little more testing tomorrow and driving the car and I will call it good. Then create a new write up with all the new part values and instructions.

awesome .. please hurry lol jk I will give this a shot tho have no clue about electrical stuff :doh:

Awesome, squal was just telling me you had an easier solution,. I just ordered all my leds, so i'll be watching, and waiting for the writeup, then its on. :) thanks guys for all the hard work it must take to figure this ____ out.

Ok all... the fix works. I tried to start the new write up, but I had a set of gauges, HVAC, window and steering wheel controls, plus the LCD reversal on the odo (that adhesive takes a while to remove :P ) today, a school project to help my son with and I have the flu... joy :D

So I didnt get it done. I have have pics taken and part numbers, I will just have to write it all up tomorrow. Sorry everyone!

hope you get better! the flu sucks!

Just as I got your old kit in, you came up with a new solution Dave! Hahaha Good work.

Yeah, I was thinking of that :P Have you installed it yet? If not I would be happy to send you the parts for the new kit to use instead. Both kits work equally well, the new one is just easier and cleaner to install since it uses the existing board locations.

Basically, there is one IC and 7 surface mount leds to swap out. I will get the info on part numbers and location up tonight. I did an 07 over the weekend, so I will have info on both HVAC's in the same write up.

wow seriously engifineer and squallheart, u guys are mega pimps!

hmm... pimpin' ain't easy?

:D

i'm givin' most of the props to dave for this one though. he deserves it!

Yeah, I was thinking of that :P Have you installed it yet? If not I would be happy to send you the parts for the new kit to use instead. Both kits work equally well, the new one is just easier and cleaner to install since it uses the existing board locations.

Basically, there is one IC and 7 surface mount leds to swap out. I will get the info on part numbers and location up tonight. I did an 07 over the weekend, so I will have info on both HVAC's in the same write up.

I got the kit installed yesterday, It wasn't too bad of an install but that doublesided tape is death. I accidently placed it too high up so the bread board was hitting the plastic of the emergancy button. I couldn't remove the tape so i just dremel'd the plastic of the housing. It worked out well. Also, the 11th pin on the bottom.. is that also a ground? the lead was too short so my dad soldered it to the 10th. He said that the 10th was also a ground and that it didn't matter. The LEDs work great so I guess he was right.

After installing the kit, the LEDs in my guages dont seem as bright as the LEDs on the HVAC. I don't know if something went wrong or that the LEDs on the HVAC are just that bright. It may have changed my perception of what "bright" is. Can anyone clearify that the HVAC LEDs are brighter than the Guage Cluster LEDs? Or did something mess up...?

The screen may be a little brighter on the HVAC than before, which may throw off the perception a bit. If it doesnt seem right, let me know and I will look into it. It wont effect the brigtness of the guages though.

Yeah, that tape sticks :P I wanted to make sure and use something that would not come off over time due to humidity, heat, cold, etc. It is an outdoor sticky foam tape. You can get it off with a razor and some adhesive remover, but then you couldnt re stick it.


The 10th pin is also ground I believe. I think there are three that are connected together right there on the board. I solder them all before sticking the board down to make sure I leave enough slack in the wiring.

Sorry if there were any difficulties, but glad it looks good.

My dad was a bit pessimistic about the bread board working as he was installing the kit. I reassured him that you were an EE and knew what you were doing. :P I think the brightness of the HVAC LCD screen threw off my sense of brightness because my odometer LCD seems very dim now compared to the HVAC LCD.

So....since the Gauges are a bit dimmer than the HVAC... how about a guage fix? :eyebrow:

This was a very fun project other than the fact I broke my speedo needle. I learned how to solder as my dad showed me the technique. I'm really interested in this kind of thing and hope I can expand on it more! I'll be majoring in EE next fall so this was a fun heads start! :P :eyebrow:

Well, that is actually a perf board :P

I was going to work on getting surface mount boards professionally made for those, but it takes a little time to work out the details (gerber files created and sent to the manufacturer.. questions to answer, 4 week lead time, etc) so I figured I would start getting them to people rather than wait months. The board is built well and is better than the old mod, which left more room for error in installation.

I havent ever worked on making the guages brighter. If you mess up that board, you buy a new one and have toyota program it.

If the brightness is really that much different, it is possible a slightly out of tolerance part got in the mix. Shouldnt make it that much different, but always possible. If that is the case, I can take care of it. Shoot me a pm if you think it is faulty and I will take care of it asap.

The brightness is very blatantly different in person. I've been comparing old picture to new pictures but I cannot really tell a difference from the photos. I don't think your kit was faulty though because everything works. I unplugged the HVAC and it didn't seem to make a difference. I'm really puzzled by it and i'm kind of wondering if my imagination is getting the best of me. Only thing is one night when I was driving, I remember turning down the knob because the gauges were too bright. That is the only thing that is puzzling me right now. And I did turn it back to full power.

I am gone the end of this week until after christmas. After that, letst talk. I may just mod up a different HVAC board and trade it out with you. I will pay shipping. That way I can have yours back to do some testing on to see what is up. And you will get the newest mod.

That sounds good. We'll see how the weather is, I don't want to get stuck in crazy Oklahoma weather without a heating/defrost unit. :P I like the fact that the HVAC is that bright, unless you're just not sure if that would pose a problem later on. I don't want to have you go through all the trouble to find out the kit is perfectly fine.

In the mean time,

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y267/all4degame/gauges/IMG_3049.jpg
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y267/all4degame/gauges/IMG_3048.jpg
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y267/all4degame/gauges/IMG_3051.jpg
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y267/all4degame/gauges/HVACFix.jpg

On the gauges, it looks like colored film and white leds were used, so the blue parts will be of a different brightness than the rest.

The screens I can see a difference in (it is tough to take pics of those I know.. the lighting plays hell with the camera). I will be in NE OK Friday through Tuesday, but I will be visiting family the whole time. It is about 85 NE of you. If I can work out time, I could try to run down and swap out units with you. But I am not sure when I will have time to be gone for a few hours. If not then, we will touch base afterwards.

I will probably be better for something after the holidays. I don't want to keep you away from your family and I also have a large portion of my family coming here. We can work out the details after Christmas.

hey I was just wanting to know something...i'm sure i've overlooked it in this 13 page post but why can't we just replace the LED's on the HVAC? what happens if we don't use all the resistors and such that you have come up with?

it's dim.

the LEDs end up dim because there is not enough current running through them.

ok then how much for one of these kits or how about what do I need...a good parts list would be appreciated...everything looks like I can get at radio shack and my dad works for a space tech company and will get the leds again cause he got my guage ones....oh and btw what is the # of the led?

if you read a few posts up.... dave is working on a new one...

he'll post it up soon.

lol sorry man i got bored reading at about page 9 so i just skipped to the end...

Is it a 7809 or 7812 chip? (or some variation of a different voltage reg?) My thought was just to use a variable voltage regulator and leave everything else.. Took apart the HVAC panel, diagrammed the circuit, bought the LED's and regulators, but haven't had time to install yet. :) Any thought to using some PLCC RGB LED's with a controller chip to do multi-color / color changing gauges? I bought the RGB LED's, but not sure if I want to go through the trouble or not... Edit: do you use ExpressPCB at all, or just find it too expensive? I like the fact that just about anyone that has Paintbrush skills can design a circuit board and have it in a week. Just sucks that they won't give you the Gerbers... :) I've ordered hundreds of boards from them, they're a bit more $$, but way less lead time..

^^ noooo! my idea... but too broke for r&d.. :cry:

*shhh!!* i wanna try to get it done first.. :(

It is a 10V regulator. You still have to use different value resistors in place of the others to make the brightness come out right, and have to replace the resistors for the temp knob leds since they will be a little overdriven. An 11V regulator would be almost perfect, but those are not as common in this package, and you would still have to change out the temp knob resistors, so its 6 of one, half a dozen of the other. an adjustable regulator would be cool, but then you have to mod to add the programming resistor in for it.

RGB's are something I have thought about for a few different led projects for the gauges and hvac I am working for, but none of them I have found output well enough (usually arond 80 mcd as opposed to the 350 - 500 mcd that the gauges and HVAC use). I am still trying to find some higher output ones, cause one of the programmable mods I am building will take more than one color anyway, so it is either use multiple leds packed together, or find high output rgb's.

I originally (testing on a spare board I had when I first did this mod) thought that changing the regulator would effect other parts of the board over time, but I have since mapped out nearly every part of the board and know now that it wont.

I am working up the write up and will hopefully replace the one on page 1 of this thread later tonight.

Lol, I've already been working on it. I've had the parts for a while, just too busy. :D

Mine too squall :P Well, not exactly, but it does use a color changing scheme.. it just ties into the ecu signals to do it :D The oscillator for the microcontroller is on the way, so testing for the first chunk is upcoming (and may create another mod by itself :P ). At that point I will post more info on it rather than just tease everyone. But as always, I have about 4 hours per week to put into this type of stuff, and that is broken into chunks. I really think that if I had one full day to work on it, I would have three more mods ready! But.. time time

But as always, I have about 4 hours per week to put into this type of stuff, and that is broken into chunks. I really think that if I had one full day to work on it, I would have three more mods ready! But.. time time
Exactly! LOL Waaaay too many ideas, no time to do them. :( With a "variable" 12v reg, couldn't you put the resistor divider for the feedback across the pins, that way it would all be "self contained" on the voltage reg. chip? Or the legs anyway.. I did that on a switching power supply chip, but that goes way further than what we'd need here.. Either way, I'm sure everyone will approve when they use that kit and won't have to cut the etches! :) According to the eBay ad, the RGB's I got are: "40mcd for blue, 160mcd for green and 66mcd for red. This is a splendid device! Part number is NECM005T. For data spec go to: www.nichia.co.jp/product/led-smd-fullcolor.html " Not all that bright it looks like.. Haven't had time to power them up yet, but dang the pins are small. Also got some 140,000 mcd white 10mm LED's, I don't know why, but I did. LOL 50 of those on a board would sure light something up....... LOL Great work on the LED swaps, I think you're a lot of people's "saviour's". Everyone I meet with a tC seems to hate the color. :) SquallLHeart - at the rate I'm going, I'll never even get around to powering up the LED's, so I'm sure you or engifineer will beat me to it!

The problem is that if you have a higher power source for he button and LCD leds, then it is too high for the temp knob leds, so you still havet o change the resistors there. Two of them are powered alone and the top two are in series. The rest on the board are in series sets of three. So either way you have to swap out some resistors. So I figure, whats 4 more resistors to swap? Then you dont have any more parts than stock on the board, just different values.

Yeah, those high output whites will blind you! We mad a friends flashlight into an led light once using some of those.. it put out some serious light :P Just dont stare at them :rofl: Someone made a set of fog lights out of them using the corner vents.. they actually did light up things pretty well!

Just got my new WESD51 temp controlled iron in this evening as well. May not seem like much to some, but when you solder a lot, a nice new iron and power supply is like a new toy!

Oh, I just saw the pimp comment :P Thanks for the compliment! I am glad we can each add something to the site and provide those mods that arent the typical things!

Squall, WhiteBlazer, Karl and Garage1217 are some sharp guys and keep coming up with new stuff, so it keeps things fun!

Nice! I used to use the typical non-adjustable pencil Weller, but gave in a few years back and bought a Pace HW100 after seeing a demonstration at work. It looks like a kid's toy, but it's a heck of a lot cheaper than a Metcal, and hasn't let me down yet! Plus like your Weller, you don't need to buy different tips for different temps. Love that. Only thing I want now is a pair of hot tweezer tips for it! That would make resistors and LED's SOO much easier. Hopefully some day I can join the list of "cool new stuff" guys. :) Been doing Fieros for years, now it's time for the Scion! If you need any small parts CNC'd for any new Scion gadgets, let me know! I think I'm going to mill out a mirror copy of the left-side steering wheel remote to add a few more buttons... ;) I've successfully milled circuit boards with it too, which is great for simple quick boards! It put me in debt up to my eyeballs, but it's fun. LOL

At work I use a Pace with a digital temp readout, a Metcal (very nice for small tips), and a Metcal Hot Air Pencil (by far the easiest to use on tiny parts). Too bad I don't have a couple thousand to spend on a soldering station. I feel like an ogre when I use my $40 adjustable Weller.

i used to work with the Pace Benchtop Factory (PRC 2000/E) at my former work... but i can't afford a $4K+ station..

so i'm happy with my $250-80-ish WD1001 from Weller. :P

but yea.. i do miss that lovely thing though... *sigh*...

The 1001 is a nice setup.

We used all PACE equipment in a lab I worked in for a while. I miss it like no other. All 4 of the regular stations had dual irons, with one being suction on each. We had two units set up with tweezers, and an entire surface mount workstations with attachements to remove anything up to 144 pin flat packs with one pass. We built all of the products we designed, so we also had a surface mount oven and a standing wave soldering machine. About all we didnt have was an automated pick n place, but we had enough people in the lab to keep up with building them. PACE had us up to Lee's Summit, MO for a day long soldering class using thier equipment, which, although I was expecting a boring day, was pretty cool.

We did every peice of the design, layout, build, test and ship of our equipment, We had a company manufacture the boards themselves. We just placed the parts and went from there.

Now, if I only had all of that (plus the room to house it all) in my place :P

Ok guys. there ya go! Its on page 1. I will put up a separate one for the 2007 tomorrow. It is basically the same, but some parts have moved and the resistors need to be a smaller smt package.

For those that do them alot, you can use the 0805 package (for the 2007) on the 05-06 boards. It is a little short, but if you line it up right it works fine, so this will save you from stocking both sizes.

i dunno.. i've squeezed 1206 larger ones onto the '07...

ehh... whatever.. :P

THANKS DAVE! :bow:

oh.. btw dave.. that lock nut? i find it easier to just use a 11mm socket... doesn't even have to be deep. just use it without the ratchet..

if it's realllllly tight.. yea.. ratchet sure.. :)

:bow: What he said! :bow: Awesome writeup. One question - any difference in resistors say between blue and green? Or are the voltage / current requirements close enough? I haven't had a chance to check the specs yet... :no:

blue.. green..?

oh... no.. anything but red and amber will need this circuit mod. so yes... blue and green needs it

Yep, green is fine on the same resistors. The voltage drop is pretty much the same for blue, green and white.

^^ That's what I hoped to hear... :) Now to find the time....

Edited to fix some typos and stuff.. added a few things here and there, but the mod is the same. Just fixing my messed up writing :D

What were to happen if we swapped the LEDs but did not change/add resistors?

If you're swapping in all red LEDs you don't need the resistors for them to be properly bright. All the other colors require more voltage then the amber and red LEDs. Therefore, changing the resistors to allow more voltage to them is a must in order for the other colors to be properly bright. Otherwise, if you just swapped out the LEDs for any color other than red they would be much dimmer than the brightness of the stock LEDs. Trust me, makes a huge difference!!

Thats correct. And if you do the mod and use red leds, you may be killing leds shortly :D

bah, this hold true for the gauges as well? I have blue LEDs...

No extra mod is needed for the gauges. You can just swap out the leds.

ah cool. So then what's the parts list for on page 2? I believe it's for gauges...but I'm not entirely sure

Thanks for your help

The parts list on page 2 is obsolete with the new version of the mod. It is just there since the same thread was here for the old mod. But in either case those parts were for the hvac.

I have been referring people to scionwiki.com for this mod lately, as I have posted it as well as my needle painting walkthrough on there. Less confusion due to old posts being present as in the forums :P

ahh I see. Thanks

Aight, I went to a Radioshack in a mall and they had no resistors. So I went to Fry's and the closest ones I could find were:
47 ohm
150 ohm
470 ohm
680 ohm

I have 5 of each...will this do the job or should I look for resistors with closer rated resistance? There were a couple resistors with lower resistance than the list required...would they have been a better option?

Also...I've never seen a regulator before...does Radioshack carry them?

Bump for some help

where do you get your components... i found all on newark in one, but the regulator has a $15 processing fee.. wtf.. anyone else have them,? no jameco, cant match the digikey quantity, and no quickar.. anyone?

www.doctorisotope.com I list my parts and services under the led swap link on his web page. My email address is listed there as well.

They discontinued the regulator, but a full size TO-220 will work, just not as pretty. But I still have some of the package that we have been using on hand.