gauge LEDs

[SmokennFasTT]

well Rob i took you advice and i took apart the gauge cluster on my RC to see if i can change the color.. and i must say i have never seen theese kind of LEDs before... now if i can just figure out how to take them off w/o hurting the board ill b all set.. anyone kno what theese square LEDs are called? i found a few of them(none that would work tho...) does anyone kno the MCD on them or direct me to were i can find out... it dident say in the book lol

[breakdirt916]

Are the little white squares the LED's?

[mikem317]

^ Yup.

[Punjistick]

ask ZX-12R (Bill) he should be able to point you in the right direction.

[ZX-12R]

Those are surface mount LEDs. To remove them (assuming you don't have a hot air rework station) you will need a soldering iron, tweezers, and a solder sucker or solder wick.

Heat one side of the LED and use the sucker or wick to remove as much solder as possible. Repeat on the other side. Next, grab it with the tweezers and lift gently while applying heat on one side. It should lift up a little bit. Once it does, keep pulling gently and apply heat on the other side, it should come right off.

To get replacement LEDs you will have to search through catalogs like Digikey or Mouser until you find the size you need. Digikey has a very powerful parametric search which will let you search by package size. Unless you can get me measurements, I'm not 100% sure what size the LEDs are on that board.

If you need more help, let me know. I can get you squared away.

[SmokennFasTT]

awesome bill thx, quick question... so do i have to worry about burning the board and screwing it up? i have a 15 watt iron.

[ZX-12R]

So long as you don't keep the iron in one place forever plus a day and a half you should be all set. As with all soldering, try and do it as quickly as possible. The traces on that board seem to be pretty heavy so you shouldn't have too much of a problem. Just remember to keep your tip clean.

Another thing to note, if you switch to different color LEDs, you have to take into account the voltage drop across them otherwise they might not light up.

What color are the LEDs that are installed right now and what color do you want to switch to? It might not be as easy as replacing them with a different color.

[SmokennFasTT]

Originally posted by ZX-12R
What color are the LEDs that are installed right now

amber/orange/yellow? lol

[SmokennFasTT]

Originally posted by ZX-12R
plus a day and a half you should be all set

u think its gona take that long to do? how much to buy one in a diff color? lol.. if its going to b to much of a hassle i might just leave it the ugly color it is.. i would like a blue or a red LED.. im prolly gona get 1/2 way into it and not finish it than have to buy a new one lol

[Honclfibr]

Originally posted by SmokennFasTT
u think its gona take that long to do? how much to buy one in a diff color? lol.. if its going to b to much of a hassle i might just leave it the ugly color it is.. i would like a blue or a red LED.. im prolly gona get 1/2 way into it and not finish it than have to buy a new one lol

Careful about blue LEDs, without going into too much technical details blue LEDs have a higher voltage drop than the yellow LEDs that you'd be replacing with. You might need to change the current resistors as well in order to get the proper brightness (otherwise they will be too dim), or they might not work at all if they're being sourced with a 3.3 volt supply.

Most red LEDs have a slightly lower voltage drop than yellow, so by swapping them out with red LEDs you might get slightly higher brightness (and correspondingly decreased lifetime) but the difference is likely to be fairly minor, yellow/red/green leds are *mostly* interchangeable without fiddling with the current resistors.

As bill said, a soldering station with a pair of SMD tweezers makes it a whole lot easier to change out LEDs, we have one at work and I'd be willing to swap out the LEDs for you if you run into trouble.

[SmokennFasTT]

Originally posted by Honclfibr
we have one at work and I'd be willing to swap out the LEDs for you if you run into trouble.

i dont want to swap all the resistors, i want to make this as pain less as possible lol ill prolly get red than. i dont have any blue on my bike n e ways its just my fav color.. if i do run into problems how much is it goin cost me to have you swap em out? and do u kno a site when i can find some of thos LEDs? ive been lookin and i cant seem to find the ones that are on there.. thx alot guys -Larry

[ZX-12R]

If you can measure the general dimensions of the LEDs with a pair of calipers, I can help you find the appropriate replacement LEDs through Digikey.

[mikem317]

I hope this pans out. I want to see the final result!

[SmokennFasTT]

Originally posted by mikem317
I hope this pans out. I want to see the final result!

me2 lol

[Half Squid]

Do you mean like mine??
Here is my advice, do what I did, bike the bike that already had it done!

[SmokennFasTT]

Originally posted by Half Squid
Do you mean like mine??
Here is my advice, do what I did, bike the bike that already had it done!

you suck.... your the whole reason im doing this because i saw how sick yours looked and i was envious of your speedo lol.. your think the blue looks good on the red bike?

[SmokennFasTT]

and your about to have 6000 posts

[jwm2k3]

Smokenn, once you have this done, Id like to try to my 2003 RC...keep me in the loop.

[union]

Blue looks good. Wonder if you could do white.

[SmokennFasTT]

Originally posted by jwm2k3
Smokenn, once you have this done, Id like to try to my 2003 RC...keep me in the loop.

will do and ill tell u how much of a pain it is and if its worth it lol

[SmokennFasTT]

does anyone kno a place around here that sells surface mount LEDs?? i dont want to want to get them online... help someone lol

[ZX-12R]

Originally posted by SmokennFasTT
does anyone kno a place around here that sells surface mount LEDs?? i dont want to want to get them online... help someone lol

You are SOL on that one. Try and find an electronics store first let alone one that sells surface mount stuff. They are very few and far between in this day and age.

Why don't you want to order online? Digikey is a fantastic company to deal with. Ask any electronics dork out there including myself and they will tell you the same!

What color have you decided on? Red should be pretty much a drop in replacement. If you want blue or white it will take a hair more work but is certainly not that difficult relative to just switching to red.

[ZX-12R]

Hey Mike (Squid), is the backlight on your RC LED based or did the guy use electroluminescent film?

[SmokennFasTT]

hey bill you got AIM or MSN?

[SmokennFasTT]

i dident want to order online cuz i dident want to wait lol.. i would like a RGB that would b kinda cool no? i really dident want red but it would match my bike.. i love blue.. and white would b cool.. im not sure, i dont want to have problems with it i just want it to work good and last..

i got the measurments im MM's bill will that help?