Centre Consul Display And Switch Back Lights

[tarquin]

Ok Been playing again. This time I thought I might change the back light colour of the centre consul that lights up the temp display and fan,mode temp switches I am assuming that all the iQ's have a sort of amber colour. Its ok, but wondered what it would look like in blue or white. From the pic's you can see I have stripped it down and discovered there are 17 smt LED's on the printed circuit board to change . I suppose you could group them, having the switches one colour and the display another and then the rotary mode,fan temp another. I have ordered 20 blue and 20 ultra white LED's should come in a few days. Looking at how the LED's are compartmentalised off, there is room around the LED for positioning error when soldering. I reckon anyone who has reasonable soldering experience should be able to do this. It is essential that you dont use these cheap soldering irons with big chisel points and are huge to hold . You will also need tweezers as the LED's are 3mmx2.8mm and of course some fine solder not plumbing welding rods!!! Take a look at the pic's of the disassembly. There are only 6 screws holding the back cover on and 6 screws and 4 clips holding the printed circuit board on then its apart.!! More to follow when the LED's arrive

David

[sweet-dentist]

Nice work!! and good information....

Keep us updated...

Peter

[Lisa H]

I'd like blue lights!

[tarquin]

Hi Lisa

I have been looking at the LCD display where it show's the temp, fan and mode setting. The background is orangey/amber but the numbers /fan segments,air arrows are black. So there is a contrast so it can be read ok.I'm wondering what the effect of having a blue back light will have with contrast. will it (swamp) out the segments.. have to try it and experiment. It maybe that the display may have to be white but the switch and rotary lights could be blue.If this all goes well , which I am confident it will, then I will look at the odometer display and change the colour of that..Have you seen the photo's of my foot well lights? they look great. They are hidden from view until they are on. The official MR T accessory is a weak feeble single amber LED just as poor as the centre internal light.

David

[Lisa H]

I have looked at what you've done with the interior light and footwell lights and have to say I'm very impressed!

I agree, white lights in the centre and odometer would look rather nice and I look forward to seeing pictures of your project!

Cheers Lisa

[tarquin]

I have looked at what you've done with the interior light and footwell lights and have to say I'm very impressed!

I agree, white lights in the centre and odometer would look rather nice and I look forward to seeing pictures of your project!

Cheers Lisa

Thanks Lisa

Actally the dusplay only consists of 2 LED's. So trying blue and white will be easy.Might try a combination so instead of white it might have a bluey tint with good contrast.Although the switch indicators are going to be blue,the switch itself is illuminated when the lights are on.Not sure what colour they are until i run the circuit board without the front cover on..If they are orangy/amber i will change them to white and they will be brighter in the dark..should have it done over the weekend when the LED's arrive

Cheers

David

[tarquin]

OK folks here it is Blue Lights!!

I took the pic,s on my phone when it was really dark. can't reduce the aperture on the iPhone so will take some tomorrow in day light What do you reckon so far. Actually , I didn't realise how many orangy lights are in the car. Have got my work cut out. Going to do the the seat belt light thats always on thats to the side of the satnav next. Then I am going to do the back lights around the satnav unit.Then the traction switch and the adjustable head lamp dial and investigate the orange light in the start switch before moving onto the steering wheel and finally the rev counter and LCD main display.

David

[Salsadicto]

It rocks !!!

I also made some tries to put footlights (same leds as you) but decided not to touch the elerti wires of the car not to loose warranty.

[tarquin]

To be honest, the connection points i used for the footwell lights on a different topic were the same ones recommended by Toyota when fitting their illuminated scuff plate which you can purchase over the spares counter so no warranty issues. As for the blue LED display in this topic they are direct replacement ones of the same type.

David

[tarquin]

Here are the Pictures of the display taken this morning in daylight One of the pictures is with the headlights on and the other off.You might be able to see the dimming effect .

On another note could someone check for me something. The window winder switches have a small clear/opaque window in them that looks like they should illuminate, mine doesn't .Could some one check with the usual ,engine on, light switches on /off ect to see if theirs light up. Cheers

David

[dash]

Hi David

Just checked our iQ2 (2009). No illumination of elec window switches in any combination of light switch/ignition switch

Dave

[tarquin]

Thanks Dave thats really helpfull. I may investigate populating them would look good.

David

[Lisa H]

Here are the Pictures of the display taken this morning in daylight One of the pictures is with the headlights on and the other off.You might be able to see the dimming effect .

On another note could someone check for me something. The window winder switches have a small clear/opaque window in them that looks like they should illuminate, mine doesn't .Could some one check with the usual ,engine on, light switches on /off ect to see if theirs light up. Cheers

David

It looks great and I love it! Are you going to explore white led lights too?

Lisa

[Kip]

Really nice work, it's good to see someone posting it all up. Especially the photo's, very useful. I'll definitely be having a play around with my iQ's lights, although I'm in the process of moving in to our new house so it may be a little while yet. :(

[tarquin]

Ok Kip good luck with your projects when you get time to do them

David

[tarquin]

Hi Lisa Thanks for your comments

I sort of tried white. On the display I tried one white and one blue. The result was instead of the 2 mixing together to make a light blue, one half of the screen was white and the other blue. Didn't really like the white and as blue still gave good contrast I carried on with that.I decided today to do the TMS510 satnav music centre. It is NOT for the faint hearted, It requires a fair bit of experience as a lot of the unit had to be disassembled requiring releasing ribbon cables within the unit etc etc. NOT recommended unless you have done this sort of work before.

David

[tarquin]

Dash, Dave

I have been sitting in my car and it is very dark out. With the engine running you can see the door switches and lock switch illuminated. Its very subtle and there is no way you could see it in the day time.They don't change brightness when you have the light on. When you shut the engine down they stay on for about 1 min., or if you exit they go off. Needless to say more work for me. Will put brighter ones in, think it will look good.Have done the seat belt /airbag light to the left of the satnav, the one people complain about that normally is a very bright yellow/orangy and tape it up.Well now its a soft blue..Also done the traction control switch, it doesn't look so "Hazardous" in blue lol

David

[dash]

Dash, Dave

I have been sitting in my car and it is very dark out. With the engine running you can see the door switches and lock switch illuminated. Its very subtle and there is no way you could see it in the day time.They don't change brightness when you have the light on. When you shut the engine down they stay on for about 1 min., or if you exit they go off. Needless to say more work for me. Will put brighter ones in, think it will look good.Have done the seat belt /airbag light to the left of the satnav, the one people complain about that normally is a very bright yellow/orangy and tape it up.Well now its a soft blue..Also done the traction control switch, it doesn't look so "Hazardous" in blue lol

David

Thanks David

Yes. Just checked and as you say the glow is there !!

Dave

[tarquin]

Me again. Not much more to do.Finished all the centre consul and moved on.Have done the gear change consul, the traction switch,both sides of the door switches and door lock,the headlight height adjustment and the start switch. This now only leaves the volume/track change/power switch on the steering wheel and the rev counter and main display.Run out of LED's got to wait until Tuesday.The only real problem was the lamp in the gear change consul and the start switch..

The gear consul was easily removed by that old well used method of grab and pull, The illumination this time was a small filament lamp with a yellow sleeve over it. The holder was bayonet fitted and on close examination the bulb was a small wedge type.Rather than over engineer changing the colour, I tried blue nail varnish. After waiting for it to dry , I switched it on only to find smoke rising from it. I then tried blue hest shrink, this was too thick and hardly any light escaped.I then got a 12v blue LED and soldered down just inside the bulb socket and attached it.

The Start switch is something I was concerned about because it also houses the transponder receiver. I had to use many little bits of metal to slide down various points of the switch to first remove the red cover of the receiver then remove the receiver itself.I had to desolder the loop aerial from the circuit board before it could be removed to get to the other side where the LED's are.Was worried that the module may of contained code information. It seems that, that might not be the case but stored in the ECU instead. Anyway it all went well. Hope the pic's help some one on here

David

[tarquin]

Bit more today. Worked out how to get the steering wheel cover off. To the left and right of the steering wheel shroud there are 2 holes.Place a screw driver in them one at a time and the cover is released.You can see by the pic how it works.As a precaution It may be best to remove the Battery in case the air/bag is somehow tripped. It was just a matter of removing the nab switches and replacing the LED's.

David

[tarquin]

Well it's finally finished, everything is BLUE!!!! There are some final pic's taken from the back seat. Again the iPhone is not very good in the dark and if i use the flash the blue is swamped. Not sure if people want me to continue with me detailing my work on the car.I have one more project, which is to fit puddle lights under the doors for courtesy. Hope these detailed projects someone who may be looking to do somethings themselves.

David

[João Cabrita]

Oh no.. You're missing the warning lights! :P just kidding, Great Project! I wonder how much did you spent on LEDs.. but it's perfect! :D

Congratulations!

João

[tarquin]

Hello There

I spent Total on the project £12.95 for the LED's off eBay. Bits you can't see on the pic although already documented are the gear change light, and the window switches.There was a comment on another topic that MR T didn't put any lights in the mirror switches. Well I did take them apart and there isn't any opaque area's for light to shine through. Shame really.. Thanks for the nice comments

David

[Soeley]

Well done, your threads are very informative for those who choose to follow your example.

Keep up the good work

[tarquin]

Well done, your threads are very informative for those who choose to follow your example.

Keep up the good work

Thank you for your comments Soeley, much appreciated

David