Which LEDs to use??

[WeDgE]

I'm in the midst of building a custom instrument panel and changing out the LEDs in the climate control. I plan on using 5mm indicator lights in the cluster (signals - green, hi-beam - blue, tems - green, hi/low boost - red, launch control - red, 2-step - red, trac control - red, etc.) and have no idea how bright (mcd) each color should be?? I want to be able to see them in daylight, but I don't want to be blinded at night (I understand that you cannot dim LEDs with the OEM dimmer).

Also, what brightness are the climate control modders buying their LEDs in? Are they concave lensed to promote dispersion or are they the standard convex-type?

 

[Supra469]

Those are some pretty good questions...

 

[suprarx7nut]

For the 3mm Climate Control LED's I used ~4500 mcd and they are too bright. I'm not sure if you can use any inverted LED cones for those as I have only seen the standard 3mm ones. :dunno:

For the dash cluster I'd go as low as possible if the LED is going to be directly behind a reasonably translucent piece of plastic. Not sure what your custom dash entails, but it seems as though everyone has trouble getting the backlighting of the gauge faces bright enough and everything else dim enough.

You should also look into getting a PWM dimmer or making one yourself. When installed and made properly they will dim even better than the stock dimmer.

 

[mischief7m]

dont go too dim on the ones behind the dash, when i did mine (especially in my autometer gauges) it was barely visible. IIRC i got them from superbrightleds.com ironically haha. but i was very pleased when i did my climate controls. those were 3cm red convex 3200 mcd.

good luck

 

[WeDgE]

I should've specified that there will be no leds behind the cluster. My indicator lights will be visible (naked, if you will), that's why I want to make sure they won't be too bright @ night.

 

[suprarx7nut]

I should've specified that there will be no leds behind the cluster. My indicator lights will be visible (naked, if you will), that's why I want to make sure they won't be too bright @ night.

Hmm... Do you mean you will be able to see the LED's directly? aka, no diffusion material?

If so, even the dimmest LED's will blind you at night...

Not sure I understand...

 

[WeDgE]

Hmm... Do you mean you will be able to see the LED's directly? aka, no diffusion material?

If so, even the dimmest LED's will blind you at night...

Not sure I understand...

Yes, you will see the leds directly, there will be no diffusion material.

If that's the case, I guess I should order up a PWM dimmer as well.

 

[WeDgE]

Hmm... Do you mean you will be able to see the LED's directly? aka, no diffusion material?

If so, even the dimmest LED's will blind you at night...

Not sure I understand...

I will be cutting a panel out of ABS material in order to mount aftermarket gauges (none of the OEM gauges will be used). Therefore, I need to mount LEDs on the panel for signal lights, high beam, etc.

The OEM clear plastic "cover" will not be used, either.

 

[WeDgE]

Would a 1200mcd 120* viewing angle LED be easily seen in daylight and not blind me at night?

 

[WeDgE]

Anyone??

 

[suprarx7nut]

Hmm... well not sure, but I would guess that yes, those would be way too bright.

As a semi-educated guess I would say you need to try to stay under 1000, even as low as 400 mcd if you plan on your face not being lit up like a christmas tree at night.

Why no diffusion material? A simple frosted clear plastic piece will save you a lot of trouble here...

**EDIT:

I just double checked the LED's I got for my dash, and it looks like they are all ~1500 mcd for the T1 types. These were all too bright behind the CC buttons and the dash switches. I had to use a few sheets of white plastic to tone them down.

I would think you should be looking for LED's at or under 500 mcd for exposed LED's if you want to see past them at night.

 

[WeDgE]

No diffusion material b/c the installation of the LEDs doesn't really allow for it.

LEDs under 500mcd are quite dim, aren't they? I still would like to see them during the daytime.


EDIT:

I just found some "LED Lenses" from Digikey that should do the trick! They come in 6 colors including clear...this means I just need to use one kind of white LED to illuminate the lense...the trick is, how bright (mcd) should I get the white LEDs?

 

[suprarx7nut]

You can do any brightness you want if you use a pwm dimmer.