I bought these LEDs and it sucked to find out that there were hotspots! I thought that it wouldnt' happen but it did, i used 1-LED 194 bulbs. Can any1 tell me exactly where to find the blue LEDs that I can use for my gauges withouth there being any hotspots and where the light is evenly distributed? Even LEDs off ebay would do, as long as I can see a pic of the LEDs I would need to get that won't result in hotspots on my dash Thanks!

 

i heard of you lightly sand the top of the LED, it can actually help disperse the light kinda like a regular bulb

 

Really? Hmmm....well the LEDs I bought are the same shape as a normal 194 bulb, just amybe a little bit longer, do you think that sanding the top end of the glass/bulb would help disperse the light?

 

worth a shot. LED's tend to focus the light forward and not to the sides like regualr filament bulbs do.

it cant hurt anything

 

figure out what part of the bulb is causing your hotspots, then just diffuse that area somehow. glue/flourocent light covers etc.. that should help reduce your hotspots.. If 194s give u hotspots, then the regular LEDS will only be worse because they tend to focus light around a 15 degree area... so I'd say try to diffuse the light from ur 194s..

 

No, its my LEDs that are cauinsg the hotspots, not the regular 194 bulbs....as of this moment I am trying to figure out how i can "diffuse" teh light of the LED to disperse throughout the whole gauge instead of shine straight forward to one spot, which is making those nasty hot spots....i'm trying to sand it but its still glass so the light sort of still shines through...any other ideas on how to get the LED light to diffuse? Thanks

 

D1NOnly34


I have SE gauges and I am using Autodynamic 1-LED bulbs. The LED shape has an inverted cone edge, looks like this:



You can see from the LED pic above that they don't look like standard 194, the inverted cone helps disperse the light and prevent hot spots. I have no hot spots on my meter, I do wish it were brighter though. Here's a crappy pic, I have a better one I can send by e-mail (if you want it, PM me your e-mail address) or search for the pics multiplexor posted: