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!

 

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 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. 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?

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!

 

Well, that is actually a perf board

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 **** 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. 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,

 

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..

*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 **** 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 **** 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.