hey all,
i've been doing research on replacing my gauge lights with some leds. i am planning on getting some from superbright as some of you have and was wondering how many led bulbs will be bright enough. is the single led bulb enough? or should i get the 4 led one? it seems like the viewing angle on the four is rather small and i don't know if it would illuminate the tach and speedo evenly or properly. also, i've noticed that if i install them i should attach a resistor in series with them. why do we need to do that? does it get too hot if we don't?
what's the fascination with replacing gauge bulbs with LED's unless your bulbs are burned out? but even then, why not just replace them with regular bulbs? light is light. it's not going to look any different behind the gauge faceplate unless you are changing colors, but you can just get a colored bulb.
I think is was starwalt that posted some pics of the gauges lit by led's and the light was only a very small spot. The rest of the gauge was almost unreadable.
First off, I love electronics. Been making a living at it for 27 years. I have tried to find a good reason for doing this type of mod. But, read on.
LEDs are fundamentally a different thing from a bulb. It is a semiconductor diode that emits visible radiation when forward biased. They need the resistor in series with them to limit the current passing through them to prevent overloading and destruction. The tach and speedo take one bulb each and are designed for a bulb. Your research on the smaller display angle of an LED is one reason a direct installation of a LED isn't an easy project.
A GSTwinner has an LED how-to on the main page. Here (http://www.gstwin.com/led_gague_lights.htm)is the link to it.
One problem is the housing of the GS gauges is taylored for lamps. The gauge faces being black depend on a lot of light behind them to make the while marks and numbers appear. LEDs concentrate their light whereas lamps are almost omnidirectional (except for the base).
On the plus side of LEDs, they can be polychromatic or monochromatic depending on the application. For the gauges, a polychromatic white would be the correct choice. Another plus is they use less power and run cooler because of it.
Do a search of this board for LED and gauges. Mull this over for a while. I haven't given up the idea either and may pursue this after getting my GS back on the road. After I get some other projects finished. After getting the projects finished that really need doing first. Well... :roll: