carlite65

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/FORD-...1%7C240%3A1318

i purchased this kit. was not too impressed with the instructions. he mentions in his ad copy about removing paint from the backside of the cluster. but no mention in the instructions. i have also purchased a cheep used cluster to experiment on. i am determined to have blue lights in my guages. i am unable to to the upgrade due to not having the wiring harness.
comments & suggestions are welcomed please.

kingofsting

I bought the same kit. . .haven't installed it yet, but it seems fairly straightfoward. check the interior mods section for (i think) Deric's LED How-To

Cavero

Somewhere on this site there's a guy who did something similar but with white LEDs (might have been from the daytime illumination). He didn't have to remove any paint to do it. How big are these LEDs by the way? STD size you see in consumer electronics or are they tiny rectangles like they are in the instrument cluster?

Just an FYI, blue is terrible for maintaining your night vision. I hate to say it but the MyColor feature is actually pretty nice to have because you can change the colors on the fly.

Arkady001

Very true - why do you think we have red lights in all our armoured vehicles (and submarines if the movies are to be believed - but I'm Army so I wouldn't know) for use at night?

Cavero

Green is a great color for night vision too

classix_stang289

ha, it sure looks like it. red is pretty cool for night vision, i have seen a glass with a red color and it looked pretty cool but the problem is i dont remember where i seen them or i would get a set. lol

carlite65

it would seem that we have gotten completely off topic here. i was requesting info on the actual conversion not military stuff. that's nice to know but has absolutely nothing to do with my query. i now have a used cluster in hand to practice with. what i was seeking was info from those who had actually used this kit and were they satisfied with the results. i checked the mods section as suggested but it did not specifically reference the cluster led install.

Cavero

dude, you're talking about 3 posts as a side topic while we're waiting for someone who's actually done the mod, at least it keeps this thread circulating so people see it. I had a thread that no one answered for a month. And I've seen literally 20+ pages off subject in threads before but at least somone's still looking at it. Plus we were talking about good lighting colors for night vision, which is still somewhat related to your original topic.

Deric

You shouldn't have to remove paint. Only replace the green PLCC-4 LEDs with the blue ones.

See post 86 of my How-to thread in my signature on replacing the other LEDs. Faber did this on his non-my color dash. Here's a pic of his cluster board when he swapped the green and white LEDs

I haven't done the dash but I always thought it was weird ford used PLCC-4 instead of PLCC-2 LEDs for a single color.

houtex

Operating temperature:
PLCC-2: -20 to +80 (I'm thinkin' C, but what do I know?)
PLCC-4: -40 to +100

Peak and Dominant Wavelengths:
PLCC-2: 465 and 472
PLCC-4: 470 and 465 (o.0) (a slight shade difference, but close enough I bet)

Forward Voltage (if mA=20) Typ and Max
PLCC-2: 3.5 and 4.0
PLCC-4: 3.4 and 3.8 (stricter tolerance on voltage, and lower overall.)

Luminous intensity (mcd):
PLCC-2: 170
PLCC-4: 200 (Brighter for less voltage)


My source for this fine information is as follows, for the two blue ones:
http://www.etgtech.com/2006/html/plcc.htm

What this boils down to is less voltage, less swing of voltage, and brighter LEDs that can stand a better temperature swing. Sounds like a buncha win compared to whatever pitfalls there are... but I'm neither a mechanical, electrical, or design engineer, so I must be full of fail somewhere in this.

But I will say this: What *I* don't understand is why they don't have a 0 setting for the R, G, and B values for MyColor. I mean, I totally understand why 0,0,0 wouldn't be good, most likely, but certainly a 1,0,0 would be *killer* lookin'... I currently have it a 1,1,1 for a gray, of sorts, and it's most pleasing to look at for me.

The problem is if I want a *true* red, but say at the 3 level, 3,1,1 doesn't produce a darker red, it produces a weird reddish gray color. This is teh suck.

But whatterra gonna do?

carlite65

thank you deric. your info was most helpful.

07VistaBlueStang

Soooo much easier to have the MyColor option for the Interior Upgrade Package... Than you can many pretty colors, although mine is always on blue so it matches the exterior!