Stereo lighting change (different than HVAC/dash lighting change)

I've already done the dash light conversion, looks great with ultrabright blue LED's by the way. Now I've been eyeing my stereo (it's been getting pretty nervous) does anybody out there repair the gut's of stereo's enough to tell me how the stock Infinity (2G one peice with tape radio and CD + changer controls) system display and writing/symbols is backlit? Does it use LED's or incandecents? Those of you that want to reply with "just buy another stereo thats blue"...don't. I'm not asking whether I should put another stereo in, I'm asking how hard it would be to change the one I've got. I build all of the little boards that run your Pocketlogger cables for a job so I'm not afraid of a little soldering, "I love the smell of solder paste in the morning"

I just don't want to pull my stereo, take it apart find the lighting source yadda, yadda, just to find out that it can't (or shouldn't) be done.

Thanks in advance for your replies

the display if i remember correctly is an amber lcd display. you could change the bulbs/covers/shading if you _really_ wanted. the work involved in doing this, unelss you owned an electronic shop or something would not really be worth it. you can find a good blue head unit, with a nice red mix to match the red from the hvac. sony makes a good match, especially if you have reverse indiglo gauges or the audi red/white combo gauges. those are nice. it would be better to find a head unit that matches rather than alter the current one.

if you do end up taking it all apart, and changing it out, it probably won't go back together right. there's usually a lot crammed into a head unit, and stuff never quite goes back right for me no matter how hard i try.

hope this helps ..

First off, the price for this information will be that you take pictures of the procedure as you do it, and that you email them to me so I can do an official writeup. email me at pious@houston.rr.com (my name is Patrick). Also anyone who reads this and uses the information (I have tons) must agree to collaberate with me and others who do these mods. I hate it when people take the info I give them...improve on it, and come back saying they will charge everyone for their services if someone wants it done. With that said, here goes:

I've done this on another radio for much the same reason that you are willing to mess with this one. You will need super wide angle blue LEDs that run about 10 dollars a piece. Ask yourself is it worth it? You may need 7. I'm going to open up the infinity head unit somewhere down the line, so you can wait on my lazy azz to get around to it or just go for it. The LCD looks backlit and I'm willing to bet that there are incandescent lights behind the buttons that have a orange bulb rubber diffuser. The bulbs are closest to the 3mm bulbs found in the link I will post below. They will most likely be diffused by a clear plexi lens right behind the black ABS face. The LCD will probably have a bulb off to the side of the LCD.

You can either use a wide angle white NICHIA LED and slip a blue/violet piece of acetate paper behind the Liquid Crystal element or you can attempt to replace the bulb with a blue one. That will require some experimenting to get it right. Without adequate diffussion, all LEDs will betray a hotspot in shallow surfaces.

You will need:
a) Good products
- L121CB1K-3.5VF (3mm) Wide angle Blue
LED for the radio button backlighting.
They can be had at: http://www.netdisty.net/ds/L121CB/
- Try these for backlighting the LCD:
RAB362B2K (Sideways illumination)
http://www.netdisty.net/ds/rab362/
or
FiberOptic Sheets (These are cool):
http://www.lumitex.com/lcd_backlighting.html
or just get the LED that lights up the optical sheet:
Nichia model #NSPBF50S Don't go by the mcd reading
because the wider the angle, the lower the mcd rating
will be despite the amount of light it's putting out:
https://trorderonline.thomasregiste...D=17700&ItemID=3611817&Navigation=DetailsNav.tpl&BuyerSelection=ItemDetails.tpl
b) Good reverse engineering skills

- First, have your code handy. Start by taking off the face. These things are usually screwed on with overlapping tabs on the unit's side. Remove all the knobs that are on the front (should be 4). Look for 4 tiny screws and several black snaps that are part of the face (all 4 sides should have a couple). Don't worry, it shouldn't fight you too badly. If the face isn't attached to the board, you should see the bulbs. You are going to have to remove one or crush it so that you can hook it all back up and test the voltage supplied to the lamps when it's on. I usually determine the power connectors so that I can do this at my bench using a drycell battery to test the results.

- Once you have verified the line voltage on the board (it my be 12v, but you must verify this) you can now calculate the resistor size.
http://linear1.org/ckts/led.php (you'll owe me feed back for all these free links!)

Thecribbens said:

Patrick first off let me start by saying :hail: :rockon: :beer:

Now after saying that, this is just the info I was looking for, you obviously "love the smell of solder paste in the morning" as well. I will absolutely take pics of the conversion as well as provide you with a step by step description that you can edit and use (as long as you don't mind giving me a tiny bit of credit on your vfaq). I'm in Phoenix and my E-mail's Thecribbens@aol.com (all I ask is that you don't sell it to spammers).

Thanks for not telling me to buy another stereo, I like the one I have and that just wouldn't be nearly as fun.

Click to expand...

No prob.
You're email is safe, and I'll definitely give you credit for what you pioneer. I have tons of links that can primer people on LED tech, but it's taken a while and some people take the handouts for granted so I'm sometimes hesitant to do them.

If you feel the $6 LEDs are too expensive or they won't sell to you in low qty, you can always "white it out." That's what I did to one radio by taking off the little condom diffusers they use on the bulbs. I'll check back here later.

Most likely I won't be pioneering anything, all I wanted was for you to say "these pistures came from Chris DeVere from ClubDSM_SW"

I don't mind paying 6 bucks apiece for them as long as it's only7 or so. As you probably got from my post in the "dash Lighting change" topic I wasn't sure whether everybody would want to pay 6-8 bucks for 15 of them and was giving them options for less expensive LED's.

Where the hell do you get those little condom "diffusers", I've looked in a dozen or so catalogs and haven't been able to find a source for them once. I'm sure (since most automotive interior lights have them on them) that someone out there makes them and sells them. Car companies aen't usually too keen on making their own parts of this nature.

Any information on LED's would be fantastic and I promise I won't try to make money from your information at least until I get out of school for electronics engineering (what I do when I'm not making Pocketlogger boards for Mike) at that point any information on electronics will be fair game in whatever career path I head towards. :scholar:

Thecribbens said:

Most likely I won't be pioneering anything, all I wanted was for you to say "these pictures came from Chris DeVere from ClubDSM_SW"

Where the hell do you get those little condom "diffusers", I've looked in a dozen or so catalogs and haven't been able to find a source for them once. I'm sure (since most automotive interior lights have them on them) that someone out there makes them and sells them. Car companies aen't usually too keen on making their own parts of this nature.

Click to expand...

cool..I won't appropriate any pictures from you.
I'm not sure it's worth it to mess with those rubber caps. If you put a light blue one on, you usually get green....a dark blue get's you a really dark output. EL (electro-luminecent), neon, and LED make up the most usefull source of blue. LEDs don't require a transformer, so the wiring is simpler.
Here is a source for mini-lamps used in the automobile industry:
http://www.jkllamps.com/minilamps.html