Many of you regulars may remember the Speedo and Tach Guage LED lights thread where a bunch of us practically formed an LED Special Interest Group.

Well, I've gone one step farther.  My Dashboard is now all LED.   

I bought a four WLED-x6 LED Wedge Base Bulbs (168/194 format) to replace the 3.4 watt Low Oil Pressure, Neutral, Turn Signal and the 1.7w High-Beam incandescent "idiot lights".  Apart for the bling factor, my reasoning was that I's already lost one bulb last riding season -- didn't ever want to loose the Low Oil Pressure or the Neutral indicator, and replacing them is a pain I'd rather be in charge of instead of fate.

So I bought a RED, two GREEN and one BLUE 6-LED bulbs from SuperBrightLEDS.com.  These bulbs are 11mm thick, compared to the stock bulbs being 9mm in diameter. 



They fit very nicely in the tubes  I installed them by disassembling the gauge assembly.  Here's what it looked like with three of four bulbs replaced (pick the incandescent):



I won't bore you with the details of disassembly & installation.  Suffice it to say the dashboard now looks like this:



In my excitement I failed to take the "before" picture.  The Digital Camera doesn't do justice to reality, but suffice it to say the LEDs easily look twice as bright as the stock bulbs, and draw only 26 mA versus 283 mA.  Replacing the four stock bulbs with LEDs save almost a whole Amp of power.

Tomorrow is the acid test -- trial in bright sunlight.  Hey, any reason to ride...

ooooooo... ahhhhh.... purdy

Quote from: RedShift on March 20, 2006, 08:02:23 PM
I won't bore you with the details of disassembly & installation.  Suffice it to say the dashboard now looks like this:
Tomorrow is the acid test -- trial in bright sunlight.  Hey, any reason to ride...

Veeerrrrry pretty....Bore us? Heck, we want a step-by-step FAQ!! 

thats alot brighter then i'm used to. it should work pretty good during the day. ypu only need to worry about the indicators.

Damn, you'll be able to see those bad boys a couple of cars back i like them , though.

• The Neutral Light always seemed to be the darkest of the bunch and depending on how bright the sun it was often tough to see when I was good to let go of the clutch.
  
  
• I got the 6-LED not for the number of diodes but that this bulb model is non-polarized, making sure they'll behave like stock no matter how I install it.
  
  
• I'll consider disassembly one last time Pandy, and attempt to the tell the whole story from the beginning for a FAQ.

Hey, gotta go.  The sun is coming up...

Just curious, dont you worry it will melt the plastic?  Just thinking about that.....I would like to do it, but what about the heat factor?

With LEDs heat is actually less of a concern than with bulbs. All the current that he has saved by using LEDs was senselessly heating the sockets before.

Could you post the part number for the Led's that you got?  Btw it looks really cool.

i'm guesing here....

"I bought a four WLED-x6 LED Wedge Base Bulbs (168/194 format)"

But what leds are under in the speedo and tach?

I read that he got "bought a four WLED-x6 LED Wedge Base Bulbs (168/194 format)"
I just didn't understand what 168/194 format was.  Ask someone understand now.

Great idea!  When it's bright, I have a hard time seeing my neutral light especially.  Do these bulbs just pop/screw into the same sockets as the stock bulbs?

Curious, though.  Why did you use green for the turn signal?  Do they not make yellow LEDs?

certain models of the LED's at the website he bought from are in limited colors, so the specific LED he used may not have come in yellow.
He was trying to avoid what I did... I bought a non polarized yellow LED so it only worked when my left blinker was on. If I switched the orientation of the LED in the socket then it only worked when my right blinker was on.
In the end I had to switch it back to a regular bulb, so my dash is almost completely LED's. I just can't justify paying like $5 shipping on one LED that would probably cost less than a dollar.

I've found that the high-beam indicator is too bright at night with the LEDs.  I'm going to try a single when I get around to it.  I really don't need a bright blue light blinding me.  Blue is bad for night vision.

QuoteCurious, though.  Why did you use green for the turn signal?  Do they not make yellow LEDs?

The bulb is for the indictor on the dash, not the the turn signals themselves.

Quote from: Egaeus on March 21, 2006, 09:53:48 AM
I've found that the high-beam indicator is too bright at night with the LEDs.  I'm going to try a single when I get around to it.  I really don't need a bright blue light blinding me.  Blue is bad for night vision.

I was wondering about that... I look forward to hearing about the single LED in there

Looks good. 

Did you just pop these LED lights in place of the old bulbs or was there some special wiring gizmo gadget work to be done?

Looks good, but everything is so bright. I'm not sure it'd do well for my night vision. Let us know how the night time riding thing works out for you!

Quote from: Egaeus on March 21, 2006, 09:53:48 AM
I've found that the high-beam indicator is too bright at night with the LEDs.  I'm going to try a single when I get around to it.  I really don't need a bright blue light blinding me.  Blue is bad for night vision.

You have a point, Egaeus.  I haven't tried them with a ride after sundown, but all these puppies are 'beaucoup' bright (at the French say) during the day.  I tried it briefly last night, and I didn't find them overwhelming.

But during the day -- boy are they pretty.  Just rode back from work with the sun low in the horizon, and no problems what so ever.  They catch my peripheral vision rather easily, and I'm thinking this is a good thing.

Neutral is very clear to see in any light.  The LED is so bright and quick that the downshift from 2nd to 1st briefly illuminates the bulb – a good Feature!!

I don't know what it'll look like during a ride in the boonies of Michigan.  The high-beam may be too intense with six LEDs, but we'll have to see.  (Four or two LEDs per bulb might be enough?)    To be honest, I tend to use my high-beam more during the day than at night.  My high-beam is tied into my bulb modulator, and I power that device up whenever traffic becomes heavy.  At night there seems to be enough random traffic to limit the number of times I put the high-beam on.

A good night ride is still a week or more away.  Temperature drops quickly when the sun goes down, and I don't trust the roads I can't see.  There's still too much winter debris on the roads, and it can intrude well into the roadway.  I still don't know what the gauges will look like, but they have a nice blue glow to them during the day so I'm hopeful.