w126 Blue LED Update - Just Finished!
 

Hello all,

I have been busy at work on my 1985 300sd. I just converted practically every interior light that comes on when you turn on the headlights to blue LED.

I will post all the pictures I took, so you can see how to do it for yourself. Feel free to post you comments, opinions, or questions.

This first group of pictures shows how I modified the rear map lights. One shot shows my new soldering station that I love. (xytronic LX-1000)

This group shows how I glued in 5mm Blue LEDs for the CCU.

If I were to do this again, I would just find blue incandescent bulbs since LEDs do not do well shining to the sides.

The start of how I modified the window switches, which ended up being the most work.

Wow! That is an excellent idea. I changed out my dash lights with some super white LEDs. The rear map lights and climate control lights would be my next conversion. Hows the light transmission in the climate control?

Blue LED installed into window switches.

Back of console panel switches, I simply glued in 3mm LEDs where the fiber optic used to go.

Circuit board in which I soldered a new (filed down) LED for the ambient temperature display.

Filed down LED for Ashtray.

Thanks!

The CCU did not turn out like I had hoped, but you can see what is pressed which is what matters. I will live with it for now. You will see more pictures (results to come)

You need to get some LEDs without lenses to prevent the problem of light from off-center.

Gear Selector - I scanned the PRND32 into my computer, converted it to straight black and white, and printed it out on nice photo paper. I then laminated the paper, and cut it to size. Next I mounted it on some plexi and mounted a LED under it, I left the boot off so that you can see the gate.

CCU - Dim, I know (EC button is pushed, making it brighter)

Ashtray, hard to see, but it lights up.

Where could I get those?

Results!
 

Day/Night photo comparison

How my car looks at night now :cool:

I got the idea to do this to my car from what Breckman99 did to his car. (see http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/diesel-discussion/122090-pictures-project-led-update.html)

I just did not want white face gauges, I did paint my needles so that they would show up better with the blue.

Notice I did the window switches, which I do not believe anyone has done yet.

What do you think?

Ouch, that blue would get annoying after a while. Awesome idea though I would have used a different color.

Well, I did the cluster first so I have been driving with it for a couple weeks now. Everyone in previous threads said they would get tired of blue as well, but I really enjoy it.

sweet.. but I think the original CCU was brighter, I'd like to do everything on mine in white LEDs some day

That's good. For some reason I have no complaints about my dash lights, they seem plenty bright enough. Maybe the previous owner replaced them all :)

Yah same here... I want to do the window switches etc in super white leds and get rid of the old orangey stuff.....

have any plans to rework the dimmer to make dim the led's wouldnt be all that hard just have to build a circuit to pulse width modulate them very neat upgrade would also be cool to put bi color led's or tri color led's and then build a circuit to blend them so you could make almost any color light

Why the rear reading lights though? They're plenty bright as they are....and who would want to read under blue light? :dizzy2: Talk about eye strain.

I think it looks cool....I like the original look though. Not a huge fan of blue....White LED's would be what I'd do it with. :D

Edit: My fiance says it looks "sweet". I agree...but I like white. ;)

Great Job! They all look stock in terms of professionalism....and you're saving like 40-50 watts of power now by using such low power LED's :D ;)

You need to find someone who sells for OEM applications. These are usually surface-mount, but I've soldered many of them to small boards by hand.

Digikey may sell them. I don't remember. But they're available and are cheaper than those with lenses. The last time I dealt with them was for a business client, and I got a whole bunch of them for free with a phone call.

No, I do not plan on trying to dim the LEDs, I don't see a reason to.

Your tricolor LED idea is interesting though... sounds cool.

Haha, I never drive anyone around... really I was just having fun. No one will be reading.

I am really enjoying all the blue, I was not a fan of the old amber... but whatever rubs your budda.

Thanks for the compliments, I did try hard to keep it all hidden until the headlights come on.

Cool thanks, Ill get researching.

Did you use super bright blue LEDs? Some of them can be pretty bright. I think they even make the 1W & 3W LEDs in blue. I've got a 1W that I use for room light when the power is out -- it's brighter than several candles (i.e. I can comfortably read by it at 5 ft). I get mine from superbrightleds.com, but lots of places sell them, maybe even Radio Shack.

I would think red would be better for night driving as it does not interfere with night vision, but still looks very good.

I had red illumination on an old Saab. It worked great at night.

Forget Radio Shack for high-brightness LEDs, or any other electronic parts these days. They aren't really in that business any more.

I did use super bright LEDs (10-12,000 MCD output)

I really like the blue, but everyone says red would be better.

I agree, I got mine on modsthatglow.com