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Thank you Andy^^ Would love to have the ODO zeroed out but Borland has been MIA for some time. Carl back at it...LED's locked & loaded...Ed's Protizmo dimmer next in line T
Hi Tony - FWIW and if possible, I'd try the pod computer display brightness to see if you're happy in day light before buttoning things up. Especially with whatever sunglasses you normally wear. I converted all the pod lights to LED using Ed's recommended bulbs about 6 years ago and as extremely happy as I am with everything, the computer display is the one thing I find lacking during daytime driving. Really hard to read on a sunny day; albeit, they're great during night driving. Anywho, personally I'll be converting those 4 bulbs back to incandescent next time the pod is out. xxx ooo xxx / Bruce
Hi Tony - FWIW and if possible, I'd try the pod computer display brightness to see if you're happy in day light before buttoning things up.Especially with whatever sunglasses you normally wear. I converted all the pod lights to LED using Ed's recommended bulbs about 6 years ago and as extremely happy as I am with everything, the computer display is the one thing I find lacking during daytime driving. Really hard to read on a sunny day; albeit, they're great during night driving. Anywho, personally I'll be converting those 4 bulbs back to incandescent next time the pod is out. xxx ooo xxx / Bruce
Hmmm...ordered both the natural and warm LED's to try out along with the Protizmo dimmer and will soon see how it looks both day & night. Like you said...we can always throw the 4 incandecents back in if that works best..thanks for the tip. T
Tony,
Agree w Bruce. No need for LED's in the digital part of the dash. The stock bulbs already have an "LED" look to them.
Replace the rest w the LEDs as it will give you a better illumination and get away from that dingy yellow stock look.
One of the first things i did in the GTS along w the pod switches, AC head unit, clock, etc...
Can you explain in detail the issues you had with readability in daylight?
I am trying to picture what changes might occur visibility wise with LED versus incandescent bulb in the "info screens", but since them being a type of dot matrix display that is backlit I guess I don't understand what the readability issue would be with sunglasses.
Is it purely a brightness problem? There shouldn't be any polarization problem by changing the backlight source.
Hi Carl - I honestly don't know why I find it harder to read with the LED bulbs. I have a modern Volvo S60 with backlit display and I'm pretty confident it would have LED bulbs - and I have no problem reading that at all. But with the Porsche, it just doesn't seem bright or bold enough to read on sunny days. Here in the States I really don't depend on those screens, but when I lived in Europe I always had my speed displayed in kmh due to all the speed camera traps. During the day I found it pretty difficult to read. With my Oakley's on it was worse. If my windows were tinted, it would probably be much better.
It's easy to test the LED bulbs in their sockets with a 9v battery and take the console outside, but without info being displayed I don't think you will be able to make a good assessment.
My only $.02, is make sure you're happy before you finally button everything up. Personally I'll be switching those 4 bulbs back to incandescent. And I don't take that lightly as I have converted every bulb (inside and out) to LED.
Hi Carl - I honestly don't know why I find it harder to read with the LED bulbs. I have a modern Volvo S60 with backlit display and I'm pretty confident it would have LED bulbs - and I have no problem reading that at all. But with the Porsche, it just doesn't seem bright or bold enough to read on sunny days. Here in the States I really don't depend on those screens, but when I lived in Europe I always had my speed displayed in kmh due to all the speed camera traps. During the day I found it pretty difficult to read. With my Oakley's on it was worse. If my windows were tinted, it would probably be much better.
It's easy to test the LED bulbs in their sockets with a 9v battery and take the console outside, but without info being displayed I don't think you will be able to make a good assessment.
My only $.02, is make sure you're happy before you finally button everything up. Personally I'll be switching those 4 bulbs back to incandescent. And I don't take that lightly as I have converted every bulb (inside and out) to LED.
Thanks for the insight and suggestions.The bulb you linked to is the main backlight bulbs for the dials, I am using the same in both clusters, just different color temperature. In my experience they are extremely bright (see picture below) so I wonder if something in your dimming circuit is not right?
The info screens are "polarized" and will appear dim or dark you tilt your head 45 degrees left when wearing sunglasses (nature of 2 polarizing filters at work, one in the sun glasses and one in the display). I tried two different pairs of Maui Jims today and the info screens are fully readable. Perhaps the Oakley's are polarized differently?
In the picture below the left cluster has all LEDs (warm white), and the cluster to the right has LEDs for backlighting (natural white) but incandescent bulbs for the info screens to demonstrate the difference between LED and incandescent. The camera amplifies the difference, in real life it is very hard to tell them apart.
Hi Carl - I'm sorry, I copied the wrong URL for the info display bulbs. They're B8 bulbs, 4 amber and 4 red. https://www.superbrightleds.com/more...l-led-car/223/ Do you know what kelvin your bulbs are? Maybe I ordered 2900K and I should have got 5900K or something.
Hi Carl - I'm sorry, I copied the wrong URL for the info display bulbs. They're B8 bulbs, 4 amber and 4 red. https://www.superbrightleds.com/more...l-led-car/223/ Do you know what kelvin your bulbs are? Maybe I ordered 2900K and I should have got 5900K or something.
Good morning,
The main (194xxHP) 4 "big" LEDs are 3000K(WW) on the left and 4100K(NW) on the right cluster.
The info screen backlighting are B8.4xHP (x=color)
Here's the "shopping list" for my last order (some spares included):
Last edited by FLYVMO; 02-14-2019 at 07:16 AM.
Reason: missing characters
Carl,
When I did the swap over, I did the backlight only. It's been almost 10yrs so I'd have to try and dig up bulb info, But it looks like you have a good handle on all that.
I never had a problem w the info display at the bottom, so I just replaced w the stock type bulbs since I was in there already. it was always easy to read for me and looked good.
It was the actual gauge back lighting that I had an issue with. I had already done the 79 yrs before with LEDs and it always looked better than the "yellowish" lighting on the GTS.
Think i used a "cool white" code on the bulbs and that did the trick. (looked like your pick above) I never did the dimmer pod that Ed Scherrer did, as I thought the illumination was "just right".
I used #74 bulbs in the pod switches. In the 79 they were plug and play. In the GTS I actually had to file the male part of the bulbs a bit to fit them into the receptacles.
(Guess they must have changed the pod switches (slightly) at some point? I also did the HVAC head unit and clock which came out good as well.
The products on the market now are much better and easier to get. 10 yrs ago not so much, so had to experiment a bit. And 15 years ago when i did the 79, it took me a while to figure that stuff out.
The work you've done on the car is outstanding man!! Keep up the great work!
I hope what you're doing inspires others that have 89 and up clusters to do this. They don't know what they're missing!!
02-09-2019, 10:58 PM
Would love to have the ODO zeroed out but Borland has been MIA for some time. Carl back at it...LED's locked & loaded...Ed's Protizmo dimmer next in line 
