Anyone else not satisfied with red interior lights...

[Acree]

Originally Posted by mangostick

So any more movement on this DIY or should I just yank my HVAC controls and sort it out myself? Everything else is red, that orange island in my console is driving me nuts.

After reading through the whole thread it seems to me that Acree has been a bit elitist about his skills here assuming no one else is capable of doing what he does. Its fine to have an ego man but you're not the only guy here that has the skill set necessary to do this. Get off the high horse and write up the diy, Or put up some prices to start doing it yourself and earning some $$ for your talent. Otherwise quit dangling the carrot in front of the donkey.

I definitely never meant to tantalize and dissatisfy your donkey. Please forgive the elitist attitude. I've been doing this type of work, admittedly at a low volume, for 8 years now. I've completed conversions for G35, FX35, 350Z, Evo 8/9, Evo X and a couple of other platforms. I will be completing my first GTR next weekend. I have a BSEE and have worked on military avionics and chassis wiring at a leading defense contractor. Time and time again I've seen people come in to threads and want a DIY. The simple fact is a conversion like this involves many relatively physically and electrically sensitive components which are very easy to damage and costly to replace. Of course, there are a few components in the interior that are nothing more LED swaps. Desolder the old LED, solder in the new one, and done. But in reality, it's really not that simple. There are many things that need to be done to ensure the existing contacts are never damaged, the existing contacts are ready to receive the new LEDs, and that the swap will last the life of the car. That's just a single LED swap without regards for resistor values, voltage regulators, color spectrum of the LED, package sizes, ensuring color matching between LED packages, accounting for the material composition of the component and it's effects on color and brightness, etc. Then there are times where the stock component has been designed with a filament bulb instead of an LED. The way that LEDs emit light is drastically different from incandescent, so you have a laundry list of considerations for brightness, hot spots, coloring, electrical, packaging, etc. The heated seat buttons, a couple of the switches, and the manual A/C controls all have to have LEDs retrofitted into the existing component. The gauge faces and gauge cluster substrate have to drastically altered to get perfectly even lighting and multiple colors like what I have in my avatar.

A true DIY for this car would be a 14 hour long video of me completing a single conversion. Even if I supplied all of the parts, there is literally zero chance of someone with little to no experience in these matters completing a full conversion with the exact same results without breaking a contact, having an LED short out after a week, or even ruining a board. There is just too much going on at this level to fully enable an inexperienced person to achieve the same results without risk on my part, and theirs. That's not even considering that there are some of these things that one could consider "trade secrets."

All of that being said, I look to become a sponsor here in the near future. Very shortly I will be offering this as a service through shipping where people can send me their parts and I will ship them back, or even a core swap program. This will work for everything but the gauge cluster. With the mileage being stored in the cluster, this requires downtime on the part of the customer. For some, this is not an option. Changing the mileage in the cluster requires very expensive ($4000+) equipment and opens the door for all kinds of potential legal issues. I have a different project I am currently working on for this platform that will be released in the next couple of weeks that should blow away every other option for this car. Once that is completed, I will be focusing on conversions.

-Acree

[MiniGuy]

Looks awesome. Great work!

[Mrqb22]

Bright blood red. However I have zero experience it even think about attempting to do something like this. Anywys looks great man good job

[Gopherboy6956]

Glad to see someone do this to the BRZ. Now that i know it's possible.. off to work. I did the same thing to my RSX-S.

Even though my BRZ is (will be, March 26th arrival date) WRB, i might still go to green. A Sin? maybe. But i love green.

[lionbacker54]

Originally Posted by Longhorn248

More pics on page 2.

Looks great!

[joergasm]

What size led/diode did you guys use for your conversions? How many did you need for full interior(windows, trac control, a/c, etc) and where did you order your's from? Going to change all of mine. Also what did you use to make sure red line light didn't bleed.

Thanks!

Sent from my SGH-I317M using Xparent Skyblue Tapatalk 2

[adprokid]

Not bad, it reminds me of Golf's IV cluster

[BRZPDX]

damn someone do this for me lol!

[ronnBOi720]

Originally Posted by Longhorn248

Unfortunately using longer exposure times with the camera the color is coming out a bit more turquoise than it looks in reality. I'm not sure if this has to do with the wavelengths of the LEDs and what the camera sensor is picking up, but they definitely have more of a blue tint to them in person (much closer to the teaser pic in the first post.

hey they look amazing! no im just wondering how they would look like being the same shade of red.

what kind of bulb did u use?

there a DIY?

[ronnBOi720]

Originally Posted by Andrew@Autolux

There are numerous reasons why your color choice is a bad idea. I highly recommend against ever changing the color of any warning indicators. And the font isn't the same color.

It also appears you weren't able to figure out how to use a white LED for the temperature knob and keep the indicator blue.

I might be willing to release a full DIY kit for this with parts and instructions for those of you who are interested.

-Acree

hey man i love your work! its amazing! are you still up for that DIY? i know this post was dated pretty much a year ago but i would still like to know how everything went. i would love to custom mine into a red maybe? i love the blue though.

id just like to know how everything is done

[SirBrass]

Originally Posted by Acree

I definitely never meant to tantalize and dissatisfy your donkey. Please forgive the elitist attitude. I've been doing this type of work, admittedly at a low volume, for 8 years now. I've completed conversions for G35, FX35, 350Z, Evo 8/9, Evo X and a couple of other platforms. I will be completing my first GTR next weekend. I have a BSEE and have worked on military avionics and chassis wiring at a leading defense contractor. Time and time again I've seen people come in to threads and want a DIY. The simple fact is a conversion like this involves many relatively physically and electrically sensitive components which are very easy to damage and costly to replace. Of course, there are a few components in the interior that are nothing more LED swaps. Desolder the old LED, solder in the new one, and done. But in reality, it's really not that simple. There are many things that need to be done to ensure the existing contacts are never damaged, the existing contacts are ready to receive the new LEDs, and that the swap will last the life of the car. That's just a single LED swap without regards for resistor values, voltage regulators, color spectrum of the LED, package sizes, ensuring color matching between LED packages, accounting for the material composition of the component and it's effects on color and brightness, etc. Then there are times where the stock component has been designed with a filament bulb instead of an LED. The way that LEDs emit light is drastically different from incandescent, so you have a laundry list of considerations for brightness, hot spots, coloring, electrical, packaging, etc. The heated seat buttons, a couple of the switches, and the manual A/C controls all have to have LEDs retrofitted into the existing component. The gauge faces and gauge cluster substrate have to drastically altered to get perfectly even lighting and multiple colors like what I have in my avatar.

A true DIY for this car would be a 14 hour long video of me completing a single conversion. Even if I supplied all of the parts, there is literally zero chance of someone with little to no experience in these matters completing a full conversion with the exact same results without breaking a contact, having an LED short out after a week, or even ruining a board. There is just too much going on at this level to fully enable an inexperienced person to achieve the same results without risk on my part, and theirs. That's not even considering that there are some of these things that one could consider "trade secrets."

All of that being said, I look to become a sponsor here in the near future. Very shortly I will be offering this as a service through shipping where people can send me their parts and I will ship them back, or even a core swap program. This will work for everything but the gauge cluster. With the mileage being stored in the cluster, this requires downtime on the part of the customer. For some, this is not an option. Changing the mileage in the cluster requires very expensive ($4000+) equipment and opens the door for all kinds of potential legal issues. I have a different project I am currently working on for this platform that will be released in the next couple of weeks that should blow away every other option for this car. Once that is completed, I will be focusing on conversions.

-Acree

Fair enough. So, now that it's almost a year since this post... how much?, core swap?, and take my money!

[soundman98]

Originally Posted by Acree

I definitely never meant to tantalize and dissatisfy your donkey. Please forgive the elitist attitude. I've been doing this type of work, admittedly at a low volume, for 8 years now. I've completed conversions for G35, FX35, 350Z, Evo 8/9, Evo X and a couple of other platforms. I will be completing my first GTR next weekend. I have a BSEE and have worked on military avionics and chassis wiring at a leading defense contractor. Time and time again I've seen people come in to threads and want a DIY. The simple fact is a conversion like this involves many relatively physically and electrically sensitive components which are very easy to damage and costly to replace. Of course, there are a few components in the interior that are nothing more LED swaps. Desolder the old LED, solder in the new one, and done. But in reality, it's really not that simple. There are many things that need to be done to ensure the existing contacts are never damaged, the existing contacts are ready to receive the new LEDs, and that the swap will last the life of the car. That's just a single LED swap without regards for resistor values, voltage regulators, color spectrum of the LED, package sizes, ensuring color matching between LED packages, accounting for the material composition of the component and it's effects on color and brightness, etc. Then there are times where the stock component has been designed with a filament bulb instead of an LED. The way that LEDs emit light is drastically different from incandescent, so you have a laundry list of considerations for brightness, hot spots, coloring, electrical, packaging, etc. The heated seat buttons, a couple of the switches, and the manual A/C controls all have to have LEDs retrofitted into the existing component. The gauge faces and gauge cluster substrate have to drastically altered to get perfectly even lighting and multiple colors like what I have in my avatar.

A true DIY for this car would be a 14 hour long video of me completing a single conversion. Even if I supplied all of the parts, there is literally zero chance of someone with little to no experience in these matters completing a full conversion with the exact same results without breaking a contact, having an LED short out after a week, or even ruining a board. There is just too much going on at this level to fully enable an inexperienced person to achieve the same results without risk on my part, and theirs. That's not even considering that there are some of these things that one could consider "trade secrets."

All of that being said, I look to become a sponsor here in the near future. Very shortly I will be offering this as a service through shipping where people can send me their parts and I will ship them back, or even a core swap program. This will work for everything but the gauge cluster. With the mileage being stored in the cluster, this requires downtime on the part of the customer. For some, this is not an option. Changing the mileage in the cluster requires very expensive ($4000+) equipment and opens the door for all kinds of potential legal issues. I have a different project I am currently working on for this platform that will be released in the next couple of weeks that should blow away every other option for this car. Once that is completed, I will be focusing on conversions.

-Acree

so does that mean you create your own circuit boards and diffuser panels to properly control the light?