First I would like to thank Kent (76-914) for introducing me to Al's wife Shirlee. She was extremely helpful and sold me all of Al's leftovers. Today, I received a huge box filled with led's, cannibalized gauge housings and a very touching note from Shirlee. I also noticed a dismantled tachometer that Al was working on. I was taken back and felt very sad seeing this tach. You could see all the tedious prep work that Al did, but sadly he wasn't able to complete his masterpiece.
I was determined this afternoon to pick-up where Al had left off, in his honor. This thread is broken up in 3 parts. The first part is intended to show everyone how Al achieved his multicolor gauges. The 2nd part is a "how to" to make your gauges into any color you wish. The last part is another "how to" but taking our gauges to a whole new level. As you will see, my design could have a back light color background in any color that you can think of. My uncle has designed a neat little circuit that works in tandem with the RGB color controller. The circuit senses the tach wire, and changes the color of the back-lighting of all gauges to yellow at a certain rpm, then red at another certain rpm. It is fully customizable as you can set the when yellow comes on, as well as the red. There is another input on this circuit board which turns all the gauges to red when triggered. I thought we could use this special input for the low fuel light, or as a fan belt warning for the 911 types. Perhaps the special input could be hacked into a radar detector, many possibilities. Yellow and redline lights again are fully adjustable via a potentiometers, also this circuit will work for any 4-6-8 cylinder engines.
With my last how-to topic, I received many messages from folks that didn't feel comfortable doing this to their own gauges. I have done enough of these in which I feel comfortable. If you're one of these folks, send me a PM and I'll do this conversion for you. For me, it's a 1.5 hour process, but it may take longer for someone that has never done something like this before. I'll try to make this write up detailed as much as possible.
Here is Al's unfinished gauge, most likely a 75-76 era tachometer
Keep in mind, this is what we are after
I applied power to this gauge, and here was the results
As you can see, this partial led strip is white. I'm not sure what Al was trying to do, but for his signature multicolor gauge, this is the wrong color.
1st step, reinstall the tach faceplate and make pencil marks inside the can at the RPM's you want. I chose 0 to 4.2 to be blue, 4.2 to redline to be white, then redline to around 7 to be red. The pencil line inside the gauge can is helpful with the mock up.
Here is a picture of the style flexible LED strip Al used. I was happy to see that he used the same style side emitting led as I did, but his is not waterproof. I'm not a huge fan with this idea, due to the possibility of something shorting to ground. Our car catches fire readily enough, I hate to add to the list of potential fire starting causes. This is why I use waterproof led flex strips.
Next, we need to build a continuous strip with different colors. This led strip is made to be cut every 3 led's. This will require you to solder this flexible circuit boards together.
Be sure to use heat shrink around these soldered connections!
Now with your strip soldered together, this is a good time to test your creation
I have spoken my piece about using non waterproof led strips, so this is what I did to fix the problem. Obtain some foamy double sided tape and go ahead and line the inner gauge can. You want this foam tape to be about 1" back from the front of the can. This foam keeps the raw circuit tracks from shorting out to the gauge can. It also has another benefit, it lifts the flex strip from the can about 1/8". This is good, because mounting the flex strip right on the can and being so forward causes stray light to hit your eye or your passenger.
Al did a nice job creating a new hole and grommet for the wires. This is not a bad thing, as it keeps the wire from chafing.
Now, just reassemble. Refer to my other topic and pay attention to step 2 if you need guidance.
not bad
just as a reference
Hopefully I didn't do Al any injustice with my amature attempt. RIP Al
Now onto true multicolor gauges! This part explains how to install RGB led's into your gauges, which enables you to choose any color via a push of a button.
Refer to my last topic "gauge lighting" to assist with disassemble with the gauge cans.
Thanks to Garold, he was brave enough to let me experiment on his gauge cluster.
However, these are in pretty bad shape, but good enough for the proof of concept.
First, remove the gauge bezel ring. Refer to my last topic
Next, obtain these led's, they are readily available on eBay. (RGB 5050 waterproof SMD flexible LED strips, 60 led per meter)
These led's are kinda cool, as they have red,green,blue all built into one single led. However, they don't sell them as side emitting like the style we used on the previous builds. Since they are not side emitting, we will need to do more then one loop inside the gauge can. I have found that 2 loops gives plenty of light.
We will need to cut to length and solder on 18" or so of flat rgb cable. Then we need to peel back the silicone waterproofing material to expose the solder pads on the flexible circuit board.
be sure to use heat shrink over your solder connections!
Now, go ahead and peel the sticky tape and install inside the gauge can. I like them towards the back of the can, to limit stray annoying light.
So far so good, repeat this for the remainder of your gauges.
Go ahead and test these lights before putting the gauge back together.
Let us now turn our attention to the controller. I have found a good cheap Chinese RGB controller that will work with our car. Readily available on eBay for 10 bucks, and the best part, it has memory. It would really suck to turn on the headlight switch and have your gauges go into some disco mode! You pick the color that you like best, and it retains that same color the next time you pull the headlight switch. Here's the controller:
Here is a small sample of colors you can choose from. The pictures don't do these any justice, they look awesome in person. You can make any color, if you don't like any of the presets, you can manually adjust the red, blue and green to find the color you like best. They even have pink for the unicorn lovers
Set the color, and throw the remote into the glovebox and forget about it.
For the purist, I think this color matches are original incandescent lamps.
Totally up to you. Now if you are happy with this, you can call it quits here. The next step is modifying the RGB controller to sense the tachometer pulses and change the background color to yellow or red at certain rpms. This mod if my most favorite part, and I'm quite excited about it. As mentioned before, there will be a special input for low fuel that turn the gauges red when you are low on fuel. Question is, how many of you guys are interested in this idea? I need to know how many circuit boards to make.
Here is the board artwork for the circuitboard which sets the color to yellow at a set speed and red at another set speed. Also red when the tank empty sensor is engauged.
Nice job
This part II thread should also be in the Classics forum!
Wow. I guess to be an electronics whiz you need to have really good eyesight, huh? And soldering skills. Very cool. Really like the results. If I could see better I'd be tempted to try that myself.
No eyesight needed, I'm trying to make this as a kit for everyone. This should install into our car without the need of cutting any wires and under one hour. I will also perform this work to your gauge cluster as a service. I just need to know if you guys are interested with this. I need to place an order soon for these circuit boards to be made. It changes the price on my end for ordering one board versus 100 boards.
Here is the RGB controller box with its board pulled out slightly. The LED Overspeed Control Module will mount inside of this RGB controller box, so no extra wiring or connectors or boxes. There will be two holes added for the speed setting adjustments and two wires though a grommet hole for the tach and tank connections.
Tim, this is cool as Fuchs man. Al would be proud and I think you've got a great thing going. Keep up the great work dude.
Simply amazing! A cool simple add on to the 40 year old car.
I'm a +1 for a programed board and a kit. I've already bought the basic white light, but the idea to change the color is simple. AND I like the tach and empty tank lighting idea. Can we do one more circuit for an 'overweight' warning on the passenger seat?
Thanks!
Unfortunately my gauges are all non-stock or I'd be in this for two. Damn.
Here's what inspired my thinking.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k2K2c3QQgSA
Pretty close to my design, minus the music. However my design first changes to yellow then to red. Also my design changes the color of all the gauges instead the videos one gauge
It should be noted that the yellow light before redline is optional. It can be adjusted so that you can just have red at the redline rpms. We tried to design this circuit board to pacify anyone.
I'm interested....
I'd be in for a set.
SirAndy, you do so much for this site. I would be happy to donate one to you for free
Thx Buddy, Al has got to be smiling. He loved doing this and now you have improved upon a valuable service to our community. Very nice work.
That or he's gonna come haunt me for giving up all of his trade secrets!
Those look very, very good. Great workmanship
Ok, I have been going over prices for this. As of right now, I can put a kit together for 95 dollars (all 3 gauges). If you want me to do the labor part, I will charge 100 dollars to install. I will honor this price for the first 10 customers, just to protect me from losing my ass if it goes that way! Again, it's somewhat hard to pinpoint a final cost due to cost of components and assembly. Most everything on the circuit board are SMT (surface mount) components, which is a PITA to solder by hand. So I will need to invest in a infrared reflow oven to help streamline assembly or outsource to a company that does this.
I believe in this as it has a cool factor to it. It also solves the original problem of our gauges being too dim. Kinda a win-win, and cheap (for the first 10 customers)!
I'm in for this!!!!!!!!!!! (you doing the install)
Sean
I'm in for a kit and your labor service!
I'm in for an installed kit.
I'm in for the kit & your install services
Thanks
David
I'm in for a kit! This should work with my gauges I believe, which are standard except the tach is appropriate for a /6.
Tangent: got two oil gauges and volt gauge separated out. They're brighter (well, except oil temp) than the ones on the main dash so they're not too bad, but I'd like to brighten up the oil temp seeing as it's sort of important. Think I might try to salvage lights from the other gauges.
Great! This circuit is very diverse as it was designed for our 4 cylinder or 6 or even a 8 cylinder engines. In addition, this will work with the older 200 volt tach signal, 80's style 12 volt tach signal and the the modern 5 volt tach signal. So, I think we have all cars covered with this design.
The 'do it yourself' kit....are all the pieces soldered or is that part 'do it yourself' too?
I'd like to do my own gauges, so I'm interested in having just the kit.
Love the kit. It would be nice to have the new lights and color option, will seem wrong to put into a SIX, but it's mine and I'll do with it what I want. I'm debating the changing of the lights to warn of high rpm's just because I wouldn't want to see it change often if I am reving the motor. I'm holding off my decision on that one. The low gas light....would it be able to change then entire color AND light the low light warning? or will the low gas light not operate with this change?
It would be mighty cruel of me to give you a board with a bag full of parts. These parts are miniature components that will need to be soldered with great accuracy. It was my intention to assemble the board and sell it as a working controller. You would be responsible for calibrating the circuit, so you'll need a function generator or adjust the pots with the engine running. There is some cool free apps for your phone that may work as a function generator.
For the purist, my mod to the gauges will not require any cutting into the cars wiring harness. This will be a pretty clean install for the most part. We still need to figure out where to mount the controller, but there seems to plenty of room under the dash behind the gauges.
I should be clearer. If you want the kit and for me to do the labor, I will do the calibration for you. When this gets rolling, all that I need is your gauges and what RPMs you wish the lights to turn on and off at. When I mail your gauges back to you, all you need to worry about is just reinstalling back into the car.
Count me in for a kit. Does it include the LED strips or do we need to source those elsewhere?
Yep, the DIY kit will have enough led strip to do the 3 gauges and the flat ribbon cable needed to solder to the led strips.
Some progress today, the circuit boards have arrived!
Our new board was designed to sit ontop the Chinese RGB controller circuit board and fit within the aluminum housing
The wires will all be internal, except for the tank empty wire and tach, this will make for a very clean install
The business end. This is where you can adjust the RPM yellow or red indication lights or turn them off. The rotary switch is for 4, 6, 8 or 12 cylinder engines.
Exciting stuff, within a few days I'll have the first circuit all soldered up When this is done and the proof of concept does indeed work, I'll post a video of these gauges in action.
Do you have a time turn around on your work on a set of gauges?
I figure you will be busy during the winter months (no one driving 914's); however, if turn around is about a week. I'm thinking your experience and knowledge would be highly beneficial.
Turn around time will be one day. I'd hate to keep any 914 from being able to drive during this beautiful weather.
Put me down for one set including your labor. Can you repaint the needles while you have the gauges opened up?
Put me down for a kit. DIY, Let me know when you want the paypal, check, whatever. thanks, mark
Got the prototype circuit board soldered up today. So far so good, it functions as designed on paper. Hopefully I will have this installed in my 914 tomorrow!
I think when I get everything situated, I'll accept paypal to help streamline the whole process.
I have the redline red light to activate around 5500 rpm. What is a good rpm for the yellow light to come on?
What's a good shift point? Mom's 64 Lemans had a moveable yellow pointer on the tach that she set at the "best" shift point.
I am usually getting ready to shift at 5,000. Then you aren't past the HP peak when you actually get the clutch in.
Both lights are adjustable. I'll adjust the controller to whatever RPM you wish. Currently, I have the prototype board set to switch to yellow at 4000 rpm then to red at 5400 rpm. I'm thinking that yellow may be set too low and might be annoying when driving around. I'm thinking 4600 or 4800 rpm might be the answer, if it is indeed annoying, I can adjust the yellow to never come on, just the red light at 5400 rpm. When you install this controller to your car, you can change the settings easily.
Wow, Tim ... I just saw this particular thread and your progress has has grown exponentially in a relatively short time
I'm planning to get your 'first generation' gauges installed in the 'BB' later this week
I just wanted more illumination for my old eyes, but being able to fine-tune the tach's red-line color change, as well as low fuel, hi temps, or other critical notifications is a really cool idea.
I've got a feeling that you're gonna be selling a lot of these ... and yes, I believe AL would be quite proud of your continued development efforts.
Very cool
Can you do the small center console gauges as well? If so I'm in too, I've has LED bulbs in mine for years and they really kind of suck, especially compared to this!
This is going to be really cool. I will definitely want it when they are done.
I haven't opened up the smaller console gauges before, but I don't see why not.
This is very impressive. Looking forward to this upgrade.
David
Amazing, fantastic work!
Would be interested in buying a set. I have the 914-6 gauge cluster - which includes a separate fuel gauge (center 'console' mounted).
Undecided yet on whether DIY/M or sending my gauges to you - won't be able to take apart my car for another month at least. (And I've got this thread bookmarked now..)
Speaking of fuel gauge: I thought mine was std Porsche, but it has no 'low fuel' light as has been mentioned here... Would anyone know if the low-fuel light version is a direct drop-in replacement? Will post pics later showing what I have.
Thanks again for sharing your outstanding work!!!
Quick question about the gauge color change. Just to be sure, it only works when the lights are on, right? It's not something that will light up at the shift point when the lights are not on?
I am just trying to be clear on what to expect. I am not looking for a full time shift light myself.
I want mine to come on when I get a bright idea
Okay, I recorded some video last night. I'm at a loss on how to record these in the dark, the cameras I use just sucks. These really look better in person. Hopefully the first 10 people buying this will have better luck recording and posting the results on here.
I was hoping to shoot some real footage with this installed in my 914, but my engine at that rpm sounds really really horrible and ready to explode. I think my advance isn't working correctly. However, they do work in my car. I have the yellow warn light activate around 4k and the redline redlight on at 5400.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Byh23MwiMLY
Please put me down for a DIY. I'll need enough LED strips for 5 gauge 911 setup. Thnx!
Research and development phase is just about over. Now it's time to produce these controllers in quantity. For the first 10 sales, I would like to sell these to the folks that wanted me to provide the labor. I hate to sell a DIY kit right now, and have you guys ask a question that I couldn't answer. For doing the first 10 myself, will help me gain valuable information of what to do and what not to do. After the first 10 have shipped, I will start selling the DIY kits. For the guys that already posted their commitment of me doing the labor, could you edit your post and add what RPM you want your red-line at? Also, if you want the yellow warn light enabled? If so, what rpm would you like that to be at? And most importantly, how many cylinders you have. I would like to have everything adjusted before mailing the gauges back to you.
Right now I'm just doing the first 10 members that committed to a kit and labor. I will honor the price of 95 for the kit and 100 for labor for these people. After the first 10 gauges have been successfully re-installed back into your car, I will start selling the DIY kits. I still have some openings for the first 10. PM me if you want to be added or deleted from this list. I'll need to do a price assessment after the first 10 have been sold, just to make sure this service makes sense and I'm not losing money! I'm thinking that I will be ready next week to accept your gauges. I will have everything ready and prepped to achieve a one day turn around.
Kit and Labor
(Members)............(Cylinders).............(Redline (yes/no) RPM?)...............(Yellow warn (yes/no) RPM?)
ThePaintedMan
monkeyboy _______4_______________yes @ 5000____________________yes @ 4000
mrholland2________4_______________yes @ 5000____________________yes @ 4200
914socal
Harpo____________4_______________yes @ 5000____________________no
lonewolfe
eric9144
SirAndy___________6_______________yes@ 6800____________________yes @ 6000
Kits only
Mr.242
StratPlayer
mepstein__________6______________yes @ 6850_________________________?
Madswede
poorsche914
Gary
Hi,
I'm in the process of a major car project so do not wait on me to install.
mrholland 2----4 cyl-----redline-5000rpm-------yellow-4200 rpm.
Let me know thru PM the send and pay details.
Sean
I am in... How do we send you our gauges, and your money?
I really like option 2. That's awesome.
Can you change the speedo gearing to match a tire change?
Kit and Labor
(Members)............(Cylinders).............(Redline (yes/no) RPM?)...............(Yellow warn (yes/no) RPM?)
4 cylinder - Redline (yes) 5000 - Yellow no
Thanks
David
Sorry Tim, got your message but it got crazy at work in the afternoon. Count me in bud! Your work is second to none, and as I've said before, Al would be very impressed and proud.
I need two more volunteers for the kit+labor to complete my list of the first ten.
Those are cool, just might keep them! I see no problem stuffing the RGB LEDs inside those 2 extra gauges. The RGB controller is rated for 12amps, so we should be good there too
Kit and Labor (*)= first 10 orders with price @ 95.00 kit & 100 labor
(Members)............(Cylinders).............(Redline (yes/no) RPM?)...............(Yellow warn (yes/no) RPM?)
*ThePaintedMan_____4______________ yes @ 5000____________________yes @ 4000
*monkeyboy _______4_______________yes @ 5000____________________yes @ 4000
*mrholland2________4_______________yes @ 5000____________________yes @ 4200
*914socal__________4_______________yes @ 5000____________________yes @ 4200
*lonewolfe
*no1uno____________4______________yes@ 5000___________________yes @ 4000
*SirAndy___________ 6_______________yes@ 6800____________________yes @ 6000
*Jakeodoule_________4_______________yes@ 5000____________________yes @ 4200
*balljoint____________4_______________yes@ 4914___________________yes @ 4000
..................................................................................
no1uno____________4_______________yes@ 5000___________________yes @ 4000
Rdauenhauer _______4_______________yes @ 5000____________________yes @ 4000
eric9144__________4
mikeyb33__(Aug/Sept)
Harpo_____________4_______________yes @ 5000____________________no
Kits only
Mr.242
StratPlayer
mepstein__________6______________yes @ 6850_________________________?
Madswede
poorsche914
Gary
I'd like to see the light. Include me for an installed kit.
4cyl yes to redline at 5000 rpm and yes to yellow at 4000
Will rpm color change thresholds be adjustable ? Just in case I want to make changes in future?
The tach in my 914 has a little orange mark around 5800 rpms.
I guess that would be a bad place to run my bone stock 1.8 up to in order to see the red light come on?
4 cylinder, yes to redline light at 4,914 rpms (or 5000 if thats just easier) yes to yellow warning light at 4000 rpms.
Very excited about this. And please add my bill to SirAndy's.
If anyone can replicate this for me, I would so give them a free kit & labor!
Here's the remote that comes with the controller. You can select the pre-chosen colors, or you can custom make your own color by adjusting the levels in each color.
We added a feature to the controller today. Instead of the instant color change at the set RPM threshholds, it is more of a color fade/melt. I think this looks much better, and the circuit seems to be much more responsive, especially when you blip the throttle.
Alrighty, I'm ready for the lucky first 10 members to mail me their gauges. It will give me something to do this weekend. I'll PM each of you with my shipping info.
One last question for my first 10 group buyers. Does any one have a 5volt driven tach or a tach driven by a computer? I made a assumption that everyone is still using the original ignition system that uses a ignition coil and points or a pointless module. For the 5volt tachs, I'll need to change the value of R1 from 100k to 10k
My car is all stock.
I have an ignition system on my car, but I am running a tach converter so it works with the stock tach.
Mine is all stock.
Stock
Put me down for the full meal deal ...Kit and Labor
(Member)............(Cylinders).............(Redline (yes/no) RPM?)...............(Yellow warn (yes/no) RPM?)
Rdauenhauer _______4_______________yes @ 5500____________________yes @ 4500
Outstanding work Tim! I am sure Al would be very excited to see you carry this concept on into the future.
At some point I am going to have to have this! I would love to see a video of these in action. Any possibility of extending this to the center console gauges?
Yes, go ahead and send them to me as well.
Had some extra time this weekend. I soldered up 20 sets of the RGB led flex strips with 2' of wire
I have an opening in the first ten. Anyone that wants to be added to this list, PM me.
Kit and Labor (*)= first 10 orders with price @ 95.00 kit & 100 labor
(Members)............(Cylinders).............(Redline (yes/no) RPM?)...............(Yellow warn (yes/no) RPM?)
*ThePaintedMan_____4______________ yes @ 4800____________________yes @ 4000
*monkeyboy _______4_______________yes @ 5000____________________yes @ 4000
*mrholland2________4_______________yes @ 5000____________________yes @ 4200
*914socal__________4_______________yes @ 5000____________________yes @ 4200
*lonewolfe
*no1uno____________4______________yes@ 5000___________________yes @ 4000
*SirAndy___________ 6_______________yes@ 6800____________________yes @ 6000
*Jakeodoule_________4_______________yes@ 5000____________________yes @ 4200
*balljoint____________4_______________yes@ 4914___________________yes @ 4000
*Rdauenhauer _______4_______________yes @ 5000____________________yes @ 4000
..................................................................................
eric9144__________4
mikeyb33__(Aug/Sept)
Harpo_____________4_______________yes @ 5000____________________no
Kits only
Mr.242
StratPlayer
mepstein__________6______________yes @ 6850_________________________?
Madswede
poorsche914
Gary
Here's a question: Which is preferred - glass face or plastic?
Glass is better IMHO, plastic tends to get scratched easily. I have the local glass guy cutting me 10 lenses. Hopefully they will be ready in a few days.
I won't be doing my lights until this winter. I'm in a holding pattern. I just might send them off to you to ensure it's done correctly and the calibration on the 'redline' settings.
Still want this done and Nice work on this!!!
Local glass guy cut all 20 tach lenses 3/16" too big Hopefully he will have them back to me in a few days.
I had a chance to meet Tim at the 914 meeting at Garolds in Portage Indiana today. Tim had his LED gauges setup on display. This setup is really impressive. Well worth the cost IMHO
Thanks, it was great meeting all of you today!
Guys, many of you have received or will be receiving shortly the gauges you sent me for this mod.
I have failed you with providing instructions on how to install this back into your car. I will make a video showing instructions very very soon. Till then, the controller has a green connector that has 6 connection points. The power side of the connector, marked + and - . The negative ties to the brown daisy chained wire. The positive ties to the black and blue striped gauge light wires. This will enable the controller to turn on when you pull the headlight switch. It is important that the rheostat on the headlight switch is turned clockwise max, for full voltage to the controller. Supplied in the kits, I have a length of wire with 2 conductors. Use this to tie into the car's wiring harness. I have also supplied some wire crimp connectors, to splice into the car's wiring harness, without actually cutting the wire.
The other 4 terminals on the green connector is for the LED's. Each gauge will have a ribbon cable (blue,green,red,black). The blue wire from the gauges goes to the B terminal on the RGB controller. The green and red wires goes to the G and R terminal on the RGB controller. The black wire from the gauges goes to the V+ terminal.
Now, on the other side of the controller, you will have 2 color wires black and purple. The black wire needs to tie into the fuel reserve lamp which happens to be black on the car's wiring harness. The purple wire is for tach sense, which will tie into the car's tach wire (black and purple stripe).
The fuel reserve lamp must be incandescent. If you are using a LED light for the fuel reserve, it will be slightly illuminated.
Also, the remote that comes with the kit. You must remove the battery saver plastic film, for the remote to actually work.
I have found a good place to mount the RGB controller. Behind the gauges, you will see a mount that supports the steering wheel shaft. There is a cavity that this RGB controller will slide into. I have supplied cable zip ties to secure the this controller in that area. Totally up to you on where you mount this. I'm sure that I'm forgetting things, but I'll get a video up soon showing a step by step procedure.
It should be also noted that if your child or co-pilot is in possession of the remote control while night driving, that I shall not be held responsible for epileptic seizures due to someone pushing the disco mode button!
My first 10 orders are now complete. The assembly went flawlessly with the exception of SirAndy's type I clock.
The style type I clock seems to have issues with removing the clock hands, which is needed to gain access behind the face dial.
I have gone thru the numbers with this kit, and I'm somewhat upside down with the current pricing. Assembling each controller from start to finish is just over 3 hours each, and the parts needed to do an install is over 100 dollars on my end. Sadly, I will need to increase the price with this kit for it to make sense of me doing it.
New kit price: $200.00
This kit will include a (calibrated to your requested RPMS) RGB controller, remote control, 3 strips of RGB led's precut and flat ribbon cable.
If you want me to do the labor, I will sell the kit for $200.00 dollars and charge $100 for labor. Grand total of me doing everything is $300.00
If you choose to have me do everything, I will paint the needles and replace the fuel reserve gel on the combo gauge. I will also replace your plastic lenses with glass for an extra 10 dollars each.
Even with the increase I still want these! Hopefully once I get all of my current projects in the car I can send them to you. But I am hoping to bribe a bit first.
Just got mine! They look fantastic!
It has been great and enjoyable to drive at night. The reserve warning saved my ass last night! I left work and the lights staring freaking out on me and then going solid red as gas bounced around the tank. I thought for a moment the control box was going bad. I get on the freeway and it flickers and then goes solid red. Then the bulb in my head went off and I look at the needle on empty. Pulled over and got gas and the dash flickering went away, the reserve warning did what it was suppose to. My brain just took a second to catch up. They are great. The only problem i have is that when i put the stock light for the high beams i think the LED over power from seeing the high beam light on tach. Something to look into. I am interested in your tach conversion as well because you did see the issue mine was having.
Still dying to get this upgrade. But have to finish the mechanical first!
Ok after talking with Tim and getting the OK from the wife, I am pulling the trigger on these. Sending the gauges out today. If you are holding back on these talk to Tim and express your interest. We may be able to twist his arm into doing a discount group buy. I have discussed the components with him and this is quality stuff that you won't get from a made in China source.
I am really impressed with these and I should have them in my car for Okteenerfest if anyone wants to see them in action!
I may also have a second set that may be a demo for everyone to see outside the car.
OK lights installed. Driving at night is amazing. Went to a neighborhood gathering where there were a number of younger guys with various sport cars from Fiat X-19s to BMW M3s. It was really cool to find all of them gathered around my car wanting to see the gauges.
Better yet is the wife is content to ride in the car and play with the remote making colors. Wins on the cool factor hands down and keeps my wife from commenting on my driving. Oh and you can actually see the gauges. Well worth the investment. Will post some pictures tomorrow.
Great job Tim!
That is so cool! I gotta have it.
Thank you, I'm glad you like them.
I just restored and modded Chris Foley's gauges for the Northeast 914 Rally & Barbeque giveaway.
I neglected to take some before pictures, but I'm happy with the way these turned out.
Just noticed the mileage on the speedo
Wow!
This was the first time I saw this thread. Read from post #1 on... when I read the original price I actually thought "I hope he charges more for these".
I think it is an excellent product and now well worth the increase to $300!
I applaud your innovation! Good work!
Hopefully I will send my gauges to you someday.
Here's a video showing a demo with the remote
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AXjKZ15-qTM
DISCO!!
Disco? When your wife is constantly changes the colors as you are driving it can certainly seem that way!
But still one of the coolest things I have done to my car.
Tim, have you thought about doing this with the center console gauges?
I love what you have done! I want them in my new project when it's finished. How much for dash, center console and two strips a few feet long for under dash lighting to replace the interior light?
I won a set at the New England Classic at Tangerine Racing.
Tim, you DA man
Congrats
You won't be disappointed. They work awesome and Tim's service is second to none.
Very quick turnaround, and he did all sorts of little tricks to mine as experiments that made them even nicer.
Any other takers?
Yes let me get mine out of the car then will send them off to you.
Lawrence
Finals are done, and the semester is over with!
Now that I have some down time, I had a chance to build some more controllers.
Being that I'm in the Christmas spirit I decided to drop the prices for a winter sale.
100 dollars for the controller and 100 dollars labor. Supplies are limited so first come first serve.
Also, I'm willing to upgrade your tachometer with a modern motor as an extra service or install my RGB LED's into you center console gauges.
Thanks a bunch, Tim.
And Merry Christmas
Hey guys, I need to update a small technical problem with the LED's that I spec'd out. The RGB's green led is way brighter than the the red and blue led. This is what you get when choosing Chinese products!
The fix, add a 1 watt 100 ohm resistor at the green connector in series to the green wire. This will tone down the green and make all 3 colors more balanced. Some may have noticed that my custom controller flips to a greenish yellow color at 4k then to red at 5k rpm. This 100 ohm resistor will rectify the problem and make the greenish yellow to a more pronounced yellow.
Free bump for a great product and awesome guy. I FINALLY got around to displaying Tim's awesome work where it is needed most... on the track! I still need to take pictures so you can see everything more clearly, but this is a good example of how the gauges work.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KlTXGqoECuM
You'll notice at around the 0:26 mark how the gauges switch from blue to red as I approach redline. Unfortunately I didn't have enough time to test this motor before the race, and it turns out the powerband really stops right before the 5K shift-light point, so for the most part the guages really didn't change color much. Tim can change that point for you before you order the gauges though so eventually I'll have to have him knock it back a few hundred RPMS. Either way, a great product and it was nice being able to see the gauges at night in some of the darkest places around Sebring. Thanks Tim!
Those look great! Maybe Tim can adjust them to keep those other cars from passing you.
Ouch.
Tim's lights have saved me from a few nighttime speeding tickets. I already have to convert mph to kph while I'm driving. The well lit dash lets me see exactly what I am doing.
And it powers the solar calculator nicely.
Curious if this guy Tim is still around and still doing gauges
Timmothy is still around. He’s super busy but if he can make you a set of gauges, it’s worth the wait.
The guy is an electrical genius and a perfectionist. He took my old dusty gauges and made them purty, and I didn't even ask him to. Thanks again Tim.
The guy is a dirt bag and does mediocre work.
Something about a old car with fancy guagues just doesnt sit right with me
I mean if you want em to look like autometer
Then buy those?
Imho the old crusty bouncey smuged foggy guagues are part of the charm of these cars .
Shout out to the cheap sob
If i re-did mine id go with a avaiation type theme
Like ww1 stuff . But im sure that would get expensive
They're still the old original style gauges, Timothy just adds decent LED lighting to them - much appreciated by those of us with aging eyeballs ...
I'll post a pic tonight when it's dark but Tim fixed my lights by making them work, fixed the tach and speedo, added BRIGHT lighting and they look new again. Best buy on the car.
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Good DIY Thread... very helpful
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