The Light up needle experiment. Not for beginer

[91hondaaccordlx]

thats pretty sick, i like the idea, red is my fav color so i would do a red one, but since my cb is auto. i wouldnt need the shift points, i would do both needles, how difficult so far has it been for you?

[Rafu]

may also do so

[blackex]

when will a full DIY be finished? looked but seems not a specific day, but an estimate would be nice.

Its taking much longer than I thought. then again this is my first time
opening cluster. I'm hoping it will be done mid march. so ready for next project. Legend rear seat any one?

[blackex]

thats pretty sick, i like the idea, red is my fav color so i would do a red one, but since my cb is auto. i wouldnt need the shift points, i would do both needles, how difficult so far has it been for you?

not hard, since I have done led tail light before. It does require alot of time
and materials. some electrical knowledge will save you alot of time. or do a short cut which I will show in DIY. but you do have to pay extra cash for your led lighting.

[akito]

wow! great idea, too bad some of us is electrically inclined and can't build no circuit board keep up the good work though!

[415cb7]

Wow, that blue LED shot looks awesome.

[Warudakumi]

Wow how did i miss this thread?

very cool, i had the same idea a while back (have a whole bag of clear needles from the jy) but havent bothered to dig into a cluster yet.

what i always expected was for the needles to be dead or out of calibration once the stock needles are pulled off (which normally keep the center post from spinning past zero by resting on that stop peg)

id be really curious to see how this works once you plug it back in. otherwise the boards and work and current prototype look good.. im curious how you held onto the gauge pin while pulling the needle off...

Hey I've been working on this project for awhile too! I pretty much put it on the side. The needles I've worked with were Eclipse, 98-02 Accord, DC2 Integra and Q45 needles. The problem I had when wiring them up is that fact that the CB needles are so sensitive and VERY easy to break. It doesn't matter how you pull the needles, taking them off the right way is like a 50/50 shot. It's not as forgiving as other Nissan,Toyota etc. needles.

The cluster where I was successful was successful in swapping the needle on the RPM and MPH gauge, I found out that the needle I replaced ended up being too heavy for the gauge needle to move. If you look at the back of the CB needle, you will see that it's kinda filled. I believe this is almost like a "weight" for the needle itself. All the needles I put in that had sucess weighed only slightly heavier than the CB7 needle. I think you need to swap in a needle that weighs equal or less than the CB7 needle to work. Have you tried actually powering the cluster to the car to see if the needles move on their own? You might end up with a dead cluster like me with glowing needles.

[ituner82]

awsom

ooooooooooooooooo snap please diy soon change to any color sweet

[Ensjesse]

Beautiful work! I can't wait to see this installed and functioning in the dash. I was thinking though that it may be more versatile for your color changing options if you were to program a simple BASIC Stamp to handle the input for the VTEC, the RPM shiftpoints and heartbeats. Couple that with the RGB leds you were talking about and this would be so sweet.

Great work.

Jesse

[92_EX_Ninja]

i was just thinking about this today when i was lookin at a spare cluster...then i found this thread! im excited to see how this turns out...i might have to make a trip to the junkyard soon lol

[AblECaIn]

Awesome stuff. I cant wait to see the how to.

[Lakersfan24]

Those gauges are sick how to do you take of the needels without damaging them, did you use some type of special tool or did you just pull them off?

[blackex]

Small update. just have some time to work on this again so far looking better than ebay EL gauge. back to stock.

and some video. all gauges work properly, just need more calebration on speedle
should be good to go.




short Vid.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qbfOaQWHTHc
what ya think

[blackex]

Those gauges are sick how to do you take of the needels without damaging them, did you use some type of special tool or did you just pull them off?

Never pull off needle. that's how i wast two clusters. I use small cutting tool to cut off plastic needle so that the metal pin stay attach with the speedle/rpm motor.

[Gtseviper]

thank you for doing this....I'm in tuned...I already have some etching solution, mad soldering skills and creating printed boards