Good info on Instrument LED's and interior LED lighting

Ok ive done all the research and seen what some of the guys have done before with good results but that was with good quality LED's overseas and im not willing to ship down a few LEDS as its too much trouble right now, so i have found these 2 different LED's locally at china town, they're the same as in the pics but obviously of inferior quality but if i cant find better locally il give them a try:

Main Illumination bulbs:

im going for blue dash, which of the 2 above would give the best effect?

and now the hard part is finding the warning lights and the clock lights which are smaller LED's which i couldnt find at china town but here are how they look:

any of you guys know where i can find these smaller ones in SA? and anyone who can shed some light on their experiences with the different kinds of LEDS. thanks

looks like it should work

The first pic looks like a standard concave LED with a zener diode and resistor built into a custom housing. The second pic contains five surface mount LEDs also with custom housing.

I am not sure but you could perhaps check with electronics stores, such as Communica or NetRAM to see if they can source it for you. But the custom housing will probably make it difficult to find at an electronics store. You could also try to fabricate one yourself, an LED is like R5 and resistors even cheaper.

Whether they will work in your car, I have no idea. Maybe someone else has had experience with them. GL

check my thread i did mine myself got all the stuff i needed from mantech

cluster takes
3 t10
and all the rest is t5 even the clock
.
the rest of the buttons and climate control is t3
.
roof is festoon 32mm
.
i buy all from ebay
.
payed like $4 for 10
the t3 are not cheap got 10 for $20

Hi Nizan-R, do you remember exactly how many T3 bulbs you needed for all the buttons and climate controll? i would love to do my whole interior but didnt know you got the T3 LED's, could you perhaps also send me a pic of the T3 type that fits? and also which of the above bulbs did you use for your dash, did you use the concave for dash illumination and warning lights? if you had any pics of the complete effect that would be awsome too. But i dont trust ebay much, i would rather buy from the manufacturers website itself if i did go the import route but i dont feel like waiting a couple weeks just for a bunch of LED's...... but atleast they coudlnt charge you much customs and delivery for such a small package?

Thanks

on the analog climate controll i have no idea how many leds
on digital it uses 4 t3
then i just ordered 6 for the 6 buttons around the dash
i dont have my 180sx to check any more but will be fitting all my leds in my 200sx
now for results i will also post that in the write up
as i have the t10 5smd leds and the inverted ones
i could not find multi smd t5 leds only inverted but they are verry bright.
when i did my dash with blue leds years back i used flat top leds i got from flea market but have bright and dim areas on the cluster.
i also got red ones that was so small i fitted it into one of my switches t3 holder

on the analog climate controll i have no idea how many leds
on digital it uses 4 t3
then i just ordered 6 for the 6 buttons around the dash
i dont have my 180sx to check any more but will be fitting all my leds in my 200sx
now for results i will also post that in the write up
as i have the t10 5smd leds and the inverted ones
i could not find multi smd t5 leds only inverted but they are verry bright.
when i did my dash with blue leds years back i used flat top leds i got from flea market but have bright and dim areas on the cluster.
i also got red ones that was so small i fitted it into one of my switches t3 holder

t3 led vs oem
.

cdn.mkimg.carview.co.jp/carlife/images/UserCarNote/508355/p5.jpg?ct=95bef82dfea5

img.photobucket.com/albums/v350/xxkrazyaznstylexx/a6a2ee7a.jpg

Cool thanks for the reply and pics, yea i think the T10 5SMD will be ideal for gauge illumination as it should light up a wider more even area compared to the T10 inverted (concave) because the concave is wide angle 120 degrees wheres as the T10 5smd is 360degrees, for the T5 warning lights im sure the concave will be fine as it only needs to shine straight really, and for the T3 buttons surely the concave or flat will also be fine, but i would really like to find them all locally so i can do it soon. atleast i can get the main T10 5smd from china town, i asked them to plug them in for me at the table and they're pretty bright, and they're only R10 each. When do you think you will get around to the 200sx lights Renier?

Also Renier i did some reading and apparently people have an issue where they say if you replace the Feul gauge light with an LED then it constantanly stays on, have you experienced this aswell? and if so how can you rectify it? surely with a resistor then but itl be hard to do on such a space, but i suppose if the light only comes on when the ignition is on then i dont think il worry, only if it stays on alllllll the time then it would be a problem.

i dont see much gain on doing the warning lights as the red colour is part of the cluster so an led will only be brighter than the normal globe and i will leave feul globe as is.
R10 is not bad price ebay start $1.** ea
just remember almost any thing is made in china
will be on it in 5 weeks time

I want all my lights to be blue though, dont want my dash looking like a xmas tree with all different colors, so i will have to make everything blue, but il see what i can do, i was thinking of making it red but my gauges are blue and i prefer blue, will also get a blue light frontloader when the time comes.

Through the research i have done i have compiled a list of all the types and quanitites of LED's that will be required to do a complete interior LED conversion. These LEDS are already made for our application and wont need soldering or resistors put on.

You can download and view the list with photos in the following Word Document:

Word Document
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/21878969/LED's%20To%20Get.doc

I have counted the ammount of LED's from guides i have seen and photos, apparently you should not install an LED on the feul gauge as it will stay on without switching on lights but i dont think il worry with that, aswell i have added the T5 LED's for indicators which may cause indicators to flash faster but i just added it to the list and il experiment once i have all LED's, if anyone would like to add or comment on the list they are welcome and thank you Renier for your input from personal experience, i hope to source and purchase all the required LED's in due time. i will send photos once completed, here are 2 HOW TO LINKS that i used to gather info:

How to change bulbs on climate controll and buttons
http://forums.nicoclub.com/faq-write-up-s13-hvac-climate-control-and-dash-switch-light-bulb-replacement-t282768.html

How to remove cluster and install LEDS in cluster (must register with imageshack for free to view hosted images)
http://www.s-chassis.com/forums/showthread.php?t=40228

Well i finally did my own cluster, heres the results:

I used the LED's with the mini squares on it, i managed to find the big and small ones at china town, the small LEDs for the warning lights were R25 for a pair and the bigger illumination LEDs were R70 a pair. You can folow my guide above to see what kind and how many. I still need to find a local supplier of the small bulbs in the demister buttons etc.

Looking good. What needle did you use for the speedo?

Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk 2

Got complete cluster with all clear needles from Pakimonster, but his housing was broken so i put all his parts into my housing, wasnt gonna risk playing around with needles again.