Centre Consul Display And Switch Back Lights

[Guest]

David, have you thought about producing a book on how to Pimp your iQ? The amount of work you have done on your car is nothing short of heroic. My wife reckons a purple look to the lights would be good. Maybe because our iQ is Amethyst/Purple. Personally I like the blue lights. Nice work.

[tarquin]

Thank you Bob. I did test a variety of colours. There are some LED' that dont output enough visable light at certain colours i.e. Purple going into violet and then into ultra violet. I did measure them all with a light meter and they were all about the same output except some of them fall close to the edge of human visable light range and the older you are the rods and cones in your eyes drop off a bit requiring you to put more light on to read etc. The brightest colour for human sight isnt white. Its cyan a kinda light blue. So i used blue And it looks great!!

The LED change came about with some one on the site saying they didnt like the orange look, so i started with the air con unit and it kinda grew. There were a couple of dodgy moments taking the steering wheel off to do the navigation joystick. But it was all simple really and fun. Glat you and your wife like it

David

[DFish]

Bob, well done for bringing this thread back to life. :)

David, did you try red led's? What/how did they output?

Fish

[sweet-dentist]

Well done David! My compliments....

[marcandsebe]

Looks very smart in Blue David. Looking forward to seeing your iQ

[tarquin]

Bob, well done for bringing this thread back to life. :)

David, did you try red led's? What/how did they output?

Fish

Ok this is a bit technical, Firstly I am not keen on Red. My friend has it in his BMW and its a bit harsh. Also I found red a weird light. If you have a Red display alarm clock run off the mains, and the power supply inside is not well designed then it has a tendency to flicker out the corner of your eye as you can see the effects of half wave rectification of the mains and so you get 25hz flicker. another thing ,in a very dark room with Red LED's, you get retina retention, If you move your head even slowly, the digits wobble like jelly. Because of the 3 cylinder engine and smart charging, again I fount the Red LED's flicker a bit. enough to annoy me anyway..

Hope the answer helps

David

[tarquin]

I have Blue lights in my bathroom as well

David

[DFish]

David, I think we need to have a chat. ;)

Fish

[tarquin]

David, I think we need to have a chat. ;)

Fish

I know sad Muppet

David

[tarquin]

David, I think we need to have a chat. ;)

Fish

I know sad Muppet And they are wireless. I built it all myself including the bathroom

David

[Marcos Ch]

David, your iQ looks amazing, congratulations, very impressive. I wish I knew how to do mine. Well done, it looks a lot better than the original orange LEDs.

[tarquin]

OK

I have found some smaller LED's to back light the mirror navigation switch . Not for the faint hearted Have a look. That is 0.7mm pencil lead

David

[surfcitylocal]

Amazing work. Thank you for all the detailed information.

[tarquin]

Amazing work. Thank you for all the detailed information.

Thanks Taz

David

[DFish]

Got my strip this morning, and have to admit I'm shocked how small they are. :o

Not looking forward to replacing this lot!

Fish

[tarquin]

Got my strip this morning, and have to admit I'm shocked how small they are. :o

Not looking forward to replacing this lot!

Fish

What colour are they. Do not use temperatures above 175deg because they either die or you shorten the life expectancy

David

[tarquin]

Of course you could use these to back light the mirror switch

David

[tarquin]

This is 3 LED's The top one is a golden Yellow, the middle is orange and the bottom is a dashboard original. The top 2 are the very micro one's I used to back light the mirror switch

David

[DFish]

David, I've got the following spec.

Type of LED Surface Mount (with Pads)

Emitting Colour Blue

Lens Type Smoked Diffuse

LED Size (mm) 3.5 x 2.8 (3528)

Emitting Wavelength (nm) 465-470

Intensity (mcd) 400-450

Viewing Angle (deg) 120

Forward Voltage (V) 3.0-3.4

Forward Current (mA) 20

Wire Length (cm) No

Fish

[tarquin]

David, I've got the following spec.

Type of LED Surface Mount (with Pads)

Emitting Colour Blue

Lens Type Smoked Diffuse

LED Size (mm) 3.5 x 2.8 (3528)

Emitting Wavelength (nm) 465-470

Intensity (mcd) 400-450

Viewing Angle (deg) 120

Forward Voltage (V) 3.0-3.4

Forward Current (mA) 20

Wire Length (cm) No

Fish

Who did you buy from Dan

David

[DFish]

David, HERE's the link.

Fish

[tarquin]

David, I've got the following spec.

Type of LED Surface Mount (with Pads)

Emitting Colour Blue

Lens Type Smoked Diffuse

LED Size (mm) 3.5 x 2.8 (3528)

Emitting Wavelength (nm) 465-470

Intensity (mcd) 400-450

Viewing Angle (deg) 120

Forward Voltage (V) 3.0-3.4

Forward Current (mA) 20

Wire Length (cm) No

Fish

Who did you buy from Dan

David

What sort of soldering equipment do you have Dan

David

[DFish]

A maplins 18w soldering iron and a couple of different (1*thin, 1*thick) roles of solder. I guess a magnifying glass, new point tip for the iron and some decent tweezers are needed.

Fish

[tarquin]

You really need to know what the temperature of the iron is and tweezers with an elastic band round them to hold the LED whilst tinning them. And holding the LED whilst positioning it because if you squeeze to hold it is easy to ping it across the room. A solder sucker is a useful tool also

David

[DFish]

This little project might get expensive. :( But the end results might be worth it. :)

Fish