has anyone seen this bulb for sale before?

[johnwc723]

hi, im thinking of putting blue LEDs instead of the green ones behind the text, i need something to base the wiring from for them tho, has anyone seen this style bulb for sale so i could buy them and modify them?

http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid103/pff7ead4fa12169308a1d27f75af1e2c1/f9a77e4f.jpg

http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid103/pd2759c4f67c7bd7e07ecaed3dc22174b/f9a77e4b.jpg

[Mac]

Yep in the junkyard.

[johnwc723]

hmm, i knew that :) it may come down to that tho

[Blkblurr]

What is the bulb out of?

[johnwc723]

this bulb is out of a cruise control switch, i think every thing that is green in the car has that kinda bulb in it

[Blkblurr]

What do you want to do. Put a blue LED in it's place?

[johnwc723]

definetly, i could replace all those and i would have an entirley NON-stock blue text on everything in my car's dasboard, it would go nicely with blue gauges

i even took apart the clock to see what makes that thing light up, i think its some sort of Cathode Tube, it looks gas charged, i never knew a clock could be so complex..!

[soljaboy2000]

look on ebay....they have led bulbs of every size and color imaginable......even the one right there you have

[johnwc723]

yeah iknow i would run a seach on it, but wtf is it called? lol

[soljaboy2000]

something like these:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=33713&item=2458458846

http://i17.ebayimg.com/03/i/00/90/94/df_1.JPG

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2458850973&category=28646

http://www.aceparts.com/images/b720s.jpg

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=6755&item=2459451165#ebayphotohosting

http://i22.ebayimg.com/02/i/01/21/ba/6e_1.JPG

[Defiant[YD]]

um.... guys, u do know it's not the color or the bulbs in the cluster that makes it look green on the numbers right?
it's the actual face itself that has green linings/or something on it's back.
i've taken it out b4, the bulbs are just plain normal light bulbs, but it's the stuff on the back of ur gauge face that makes it green. and i don't think it's possible to change that.

[soljaboy2000]

I know that......but the other lights like the gas, batt, oil. etc has a green plastic too. I removed that and also the one on top that illuminates the whole guage cluster so now all my lights are white at night....It's so bright that you cant see the green backlighted spedo numbers and stuff. But its cool that way cuz people think its aftermarket or something :D:D

[smufguy]

:rolleyes: i wonder if any kinda strong paint dissolver would clean up the rear of the gauge faces. I would love to do it too. But i just cant find a stong enough solvent and those paints look bad ass to be taken off. I wish they just had those stupid condoms and stopped there, instead of painting the rear of the gauges.

[Blkblurr]

Hey Soljaboy2000. Have you used these to replace the real small bulbs?

[johnwc723]

dude i know that there is green facing on them, however i already testted it with an led, the blue led light is so bright it just looks like blue going through there even though there is a green coating over it!

yeah i saw those bubls you posted earlier on ebay, the bottoms are cylindrical tho :( i might buy a few and see if they can be modded to work somehow tho

[soljaboy2000]

Hey Soljaboy2000. Have you used these to replace the real small bulbs?
No, its too big but i was going to soldier a wire lead but I thought it would be too much trouble and plus the original white bulbs looks cool at night :D

[Blkblurr]

If you want to make one yourself, use a 5 mm blue led with the max viewing angle like about 45 deg. Get the brightest ones (higher mcd #) and use a 675 ohm 1/4 watt resistor to limit the curent thru the LED to 15 ma. It may be difficult to solder the LED without burning it due to the short wire leads you will need to fit the base of the bulb size. The 675 ohm resistor will work for white or blue LED's at any brightness but not red yellow or green. Here is a good source for LED's http://www.superbrightleds.com/
Let me know if you have any questions

[soljaboy2000]

nah its not hard, i soldered leds before with no probs, but imma leave the stock bulbs and i just came up with new idea the other day about putting a cold cathode up there

[BITESIZE]

Those light emmitting diodes would be sweet!

[Blkblurr]

It's hard not to destroy the LED when the leads are short because of heat transfer.

[johnwc723]

thanks for the suggestions guys, i have already hardcore researched it, i have been looking for wide angle (more than 70) small leds to no avail, i know from the V1-v2=IR equation that i will have to use a resistor i have done them before, hopefully a 5mm will fit, i was looking for 3mm, i just hope the "hot spot" extends over all the text!!

as to saying that you have had leds burn out? wow i have never had that happen and i have wired a total of 10 leds in my car (on seprate occations) never had the problem.. dont use some rediclousy hot fat ass soldering iron if you are, i use a little 15w radio shack one and VERY SKINNY solder

well ill give this a try guys, im gonna see if i can find really small 470ohm resistors to fit in there

by the way since oyu all seem interested in leds take a look at my over head light here (excuse the duct tape for the cold cathode inverter), its a homemade led breadboard!

http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid103/p503b018a969e7a3937eae9375a6aefb8/f9a9d8e0.jpg

[johnwc723]

i just realized this too, if i turn the rehostat dimmer thing all the way down it really only supplies 3V to the bulbs, within the acceptable LED range, as long as i have my inverted dials (when i get them) onto a constant 12V powersource i shouldt have a problem with doing no resistors at all (just if i turn up the dimmer i screw my self over!)

[soljaboy2000]

i just realized this too, if i turn the rehostat dimmer thing all the way down it really only supplies 3V to the bulbs, within the acceptable LED range, as long as i have my inverted dials (when i get them) onto a constant 12V powersource i shouldt have a problem with doing no resistors at all (just if i turn up the dimmer i screw my self over!)
pretty interesting imma try use that application for something now

[Blkblurr]

Hey Johnwc723. I have used a trick to make LED's disperse light much better so that the hot spot is not so apparant. In your application I think this would work. Use fine sand paper to rough up the entire outside of the LED. This will cause the light from the LED to radiate more like a filiment bulb. I have done this many times and it works well. I have not burned one up since I was a teen but I don't know what skills people have with soldering so I always include the caution. 475 ohm resistor is going to give you 21 mils current flow which is slightly beyond the LED's continuos duty. If you limit them to 15 mils they will last for 100,000 hours and not be any dimmer. Just some suggestions. Hope they help.
:cheers:

[johnwc723]

cool thanks man, yeah i was thiking of giving them the "sandpaper treatment!" good idea now i must deinfetly try it, yeah ill figure out the resistance values once i get the led that im gonna use, prolly some cheaper ones as i got some 6000MCD ones for my overhead but i dont think i need that behind the text!

hopefully i can find a "headlight activated" 12V non regulated powersrouce for my my gauges so i can just turn down the dimmer all the way and not have to worry about resistors (there is quite limited space in there!)

[johnwc723]

heh also as for burning them up, yeah i have never burned one up except i wired up one the wrong way once... they are "DIODES" but not really with a maximum reverse curret of 5V lol

[Blkblurr]

Still need to limit the current. All white led's have a voltage requirement of 3.4 v approx. all blues are about the same. Once they start conducting, the current gate opens. I took a UV led and put 3 v battery source across it so that I could measure the current flow through it without a resistor. It measured 88 mils. which is way too much. You can hook four in series and use one resistor for the entire group. Probably about 100 ohm would work. I have done this before on a project I did for my S2000. Have you measured the voltage to the bulb. I suspect it is driven by a series of pulses and the frequency changes to dim the lights. I don't have an o scope so I haven't looked at it yet.

[johnwc723]

yeah dude i measured the voltage at the light it was like 3.somethin, well ill give that a try with just using the dimmer switch (and the dimmer switch is just a variable load resistor i think cause the voltage does change) im gonna order 20 leds off ebay and thats more than i need so its okay if i blow one or two in experimentation

[Blkblurr]

Let me know how it turns out. I want to replace all my in dash bulbs with LED's

[johnwc723]

sure, hopefulyl ill have those leds by mid week next week and ill begin to put them into my dash, just wondering do you have the same type of bulb in yours or is it different? (you would think that maybe SOMEONE would make bulbs like that if they were standard, that were blue, but they maybe rediclously expensive!) im probably gonna leave the "on lights" stock tho, like the light that lighuts up when the heat is on and the button is pushed. actually whats interesting is i think that those lights, well at least on the Cruise Control are actually little leds... the old school ones of course, i wonder why they would use LED on one and incadescent on the other

[Blkblurr]

I'm sure I have the same one's as to why on the leds? I don't know unless that part of the car was a purchased item from an outside source to honda. Hard to tell.