Well, major step two has been completed, installing one of the blue LEDs and testing it out! Here are a couple pics, more info below.


In the first pic, you'll see 3 of the LEDs are out, that's cuz one of the LEDs is not installed in the corner, it looks like they are in groups of 3's, like christmas lights, so if one's out, 2 others are as well.

The one blue installed is the super-bright LED, and also the most expensive at $4.60 apiece, but we had 3 of them sent to us as "samples" for free, so we're going to put all 3 in (hopefully today) and take a look, then order the rest this afternoon and maybe get them in on Friday. Everything looks good though, don't foresee any major problems.

Once we get these in, we may offer you guys to do it for you, if you send us your LED screen, we'll install all the lights and send it back. I'll post more on this later if the engineer likes that idea. We didn't try installing any of the other, cheaper blue LEDs that we got, although I might have him try putting them in and seeing how difficult they are, each one had different connectors than the factory ones, except for the expensive one that was a perfect fit, so we dont know how much extra work would go into putting them in.

More later!

 

Sweet! looks good chris. $70 bones isn't so bad to change to a nicer look.

 

I've got a blue 2004 that would look great on.

What LEDs did you use?

 

thats pretty hot man, i like it alot

 

Chris,

OUTSTANDING WORK! You guys are true pioneers on this one. I'm sending you a PM on this one.

Doug

 

You have hero status in my book. Looks great can't wait to see it finished.

 

Fantastic! Great work! The blue looks so much better.

Make sure you send pics off to Nissan!

 

OFF THE HOOK! Can you pm me with info and instuctions? also the kind of lights you used? I have interior neons under my seat (in Blue). this set up will make the max complete.

 

The LED info is listed under the "info screen replacement, episode 1" thread, including part #s... We're putting in 2 other LED blues that we purchased, just to see if there's a difference in how they look. The one that is pictured above is the expensive one, at $4.60 apiece (x 18 total).

Revolutionz, have you thought about replacing the bulbs in the front driver and passenger "feet" area, that come on when you open the front doors? They are very easy to get to, and just standard bulbs, would be simple to replace.

 

Also, I'll post pictures and instructions soon on step by step how to take apart the dash, pull out the screen, and get to the LED board.

 

I am so jealous wow thats look hot I cant wait to see the final results.

 

Looking good. I too have blue neons under the seat, and the blue will go great with the frost interior. Keep us posted.

 

what about the #'s/letters? Is it possivle to change those colors too, or just the background? Good to see the project rolling again.

 

omg that blue led puts those fugly orange led's to shame

 

Kind of hard to tell from the picture, but are the numbers "76" in the picture white, or just a real bright blue? It looks awesome either way. What wattage soldering iron did your engineer use to de/re-solder the Leds?

Thanks,

John

 

The light will change the lettering to a light blue, but will also give the screen a darker blue "glow" to it, it looks like. The LED is supposed to light up just the lettering itself, but as you can tell with the orange screen, the light spills across the whole screen a little. So to answer your question Maxima80, the blue should be lighting up the lettering itself, since thats the area that is "cutout" to let the light show through, but there still is a little blue light that spills over no matter what.

 

STEP-BY-STEP INSTRUCTIONS TO GET TO LED SCREEN
By Chris Austin

**NOTE** I claim no responsibility for any damage done to your vehicle by following these directions. If you follow these directions and modify your vehicle in any way, you are responsible for all resulting malfunctions, broken parts, or any other problems relating to the removal of installed parts.


Step 1: Remove shifter **** - Shifter **** is made of two parts, the leather handle, and the lower aluminum-looking cone-shaped piece. Grasp the cone-shaped lower piece, rotate counter-clockwise and pull down at the same time to release from shifter handle. Once this is done, there is a small gold clip holding the handle in place, remove this and handle will slide off, remove this as cone-shaped piece.

Step 2: Remove wood-colored faceplate and shifter piece - Open cupholder door. Using your fingers, press along edge of wood piece where cupholder door goes and pull up. Gentle but heavy force may be needed to pull up plate. Make sure you are slightly pushing the side of the plate inwards while you do this. Once you get the end of it released, you'll need to put the key in the ignition, turn it till the air comes on, put foot on the brake and move shifter **** into the neutral position. Lift up the whole plate to completely release. Underneath there are two connectors, one brown and one white, that you will need to disconnect before removing plate. Set aside.

Step 3: remove two lower screws that hold the dash kit in place, place them in a safe place. Use fingers on inside of lower storage area (below cassette opening) to pull out the dash kit and release from its clips. Remove lower half first, then pull out upper half. there is another connector on the back of that piece that needs to be unplugged. Set dash kit aside.

Step 4: Remove 2 screws holding in climate/audio control panel and LED screen. Holding this panel from underneath the radio controls, Pull piece outwards. The two middle air vents are also attached, and will come out as well. Lift out lower end first, then tilt upwards to release clips holding in the top edge. One connector on the back needs to be removed.

Step 5: Remove LED screen: remove 4 small gold screws on both sides of LED screen housing to separate screen from the rest of the panel.

Now you have successfully removed the LED screen. Pretty easy! To put back in, screw 4 gold screws back in, put whole panel piece back in first by inserting clips on top edge back trhough their holes, then slowly lower front edge down while making sure top edge stays flush with rest of dash. Carefully reconnect the plug, then lower all the way back flush. Screw back in the 2 screws. take Dash kit, reconnect wires, pop in the top part first back into slots, then lower part, then screw in 2 screws at bottom. Put the car back in neutral, plug in 2 connectors to shifter panel (brown and white), then slip shifter tube through the hole on the shifter panel, and carefully fit the panel back into plce, starting with the edge closest to the dash and ending with the edge closest to the armrest/cupholder. Place cone part of shifter back over steel tube, place shifter **** on and carefully slide the gold clip back through the white part of the shifter ****, it should line up with the 2 grooves on either side of the **** and the 2 grooves on steel tube. Slide cone-shaped part back up and carefully rotate over gold clip until its tight. It may take a couple tries to get this last part right.

 

What about the lights behind all the radio and hvac controls. Can they be changed to something other than orange????

 

those instructions should be posted in the 6th gen "how to"

 

couldn't tell if letters where changed in pic, but sounds great! like 98SE said, STICKY!!!

 

chrisaust, Have you tinkered with changing the shift indicator and odometer leds since your dash is half apart anyway? I bet the leds for the other components are the same as the ones in the info screen....

Also, what is the wattage of the soldering iron used?

Just to get all the required information in this thread:

_____________________________________________
From chrisaust:
http://forums.maxima.org/showthread.php?t=319165

"the LEDs were bought on mouser.com "
the one we are putting in first, which costs $4.60 per LED (x18), is on www.mouser.com

Part #: 696-SML-LX2832USCB
Manu: Lumex
2.8 x 3.2mm surface mount
______________________________________________

Also agree this thread definitely needs to be sticky...

 

Correction on part number:

696-SML-LX2832USBC

The "B" and "C" were transposed.


By the way, Chris, have you tested the display's dimming function to make sure it still works properly? I'm sure you'll have the chance once all the LEDs are in place. Can't wait to see the finished product... Great work!

 

God Bless the you guys....I have the NAVI but i still offer you guys mad props for you work. I looks hot!

 

Chris - Excellent "pioneer" work. You're brave to yank all that stuff apart like that.

Now this may be a dumb question because i know nothing about this kind of stuff (so be nice). But do LEDs come in different "intensities" like let's say light bulbs (i.e. hirher or lesser wattage)

In the pic that you've posted:



The blue led shines more brightly that the orange ones.

In this pic the blue led lights the area around the the number on the screen (as opposed to the orange ones lighting only the characters/there doesn't seem to be light spill off with the stock orange ones)



Here's the question:

Would a less intense blue LED produce less light and in turn results more consistent with the stock orange ones and just light the number/characters or graphics on the screen with less light spill off ?

Hopefully this makes "some" sense ???

Bob

 

SilverBelle, that makes perfect sense. The blues that we are going to go with are called "SuperBright" bulbs, so I believe they are much higher intensity blue than some of the others. The wattage on the bulbs is all the same, I think they have to be, but some of the bulbs are not as bright, just the way they were manufactured I believe.

As far as lighting up just the lettering and not the whole screen, I think I'm going to have to turn down the brightness of the screen itself once all the blue bulbs are in, since it does look like they'll be very bright. But maybe it will look better with the whole screen lit up like that, who knows. But yes, there are different intensity blues, and the less-bright ones are also cheaper.

XPMAX - no, haven't gotten into the LEDs inside the gauges yet, I need to go to my stereo installer, who put in my reverse gauges, and find out what I need to take apart to get to those. Depending on how many LEDs there are (I do think they are exactly the same), we might have enough left over to replace those. I don't know about all the climate control bulbs, those seem to look a little different, though I'd have to see behind it to see what they really look like. Also, don't know what the wattage of the soldiering iron was, but it was just a standard one, the engineer was having a little extra trouble cuz the tip of it I guess is fairly large in soldiering iron terms, so he wished he had a finer tip to work with, but it wasn't any special kind I don't think. I'll ask him though!

 

:'( i want to do this soooo bad...... but i can't cause it's a lease....

a standard 15, or 30 watt soldering iron from Radio shack would do the job fine

 

Nemo, mine's a lease as well Shhhh, don't tell nobody! But I really plan on keeping the car after my lease is up, so I don't mind doing all this to it. Plus, with these LEDs, as long as they are carefully taken off, they should be able to be put back on if ever needed down the line.

 

Yes, I have. Can you explain how to get to it and where can I get different color
bulbs at?

Thanks in advance for the info . You and your engineer freind should think about opening a speed shop or custom shop or somethin

 

when can we see the screen light up w/ all the LEDs in, i wanna go ahead and buy some bulbs but i wanna know wats the 2nd 2 brightest bulb?

 

Is the outer screen, the one with fingerprints on the inside, clear or tinted?
In the pictures is the display in day mode/brightest setting?
If you take more progress report pictures could you turn the headlights on for one?

On the OEM configuration you can see some orange bleed over around the segments. On the blue one it looks like white segments on a blue background. It looks nice but, any idea why?

 

We ordered the rest of the LEDs and should get them in tomorrow (friday), so hopefully I'll have pictures of the whole screen in blue by then. not sure if the screen was in the day or night setting, but when all of them are working, I'll make note of that.

REVOLUTIONZ: To get to the underside bulbs by your feet, take off the cover to the fuse box (next to the hood release), and there's one screw in there. I think the other one is underneath up against the middle dash, then the whole lower dash thing should be able to come out. the bulb is easy to get there from there. Not sure about how to get to the one underneath the glove box, I assume there's just 2 screws on that side as well.

BLUEMAXX: The outer screen (plastic part) is clear, in fact its kinda cool driving around without the screen, you can see all the wires and the steel cage bar behind. I think the reason the blue lettering actually looks white is because the screen is set on a bright setting (it was probably the day setting, since I didnt have the headlights on) so the bright blue actually looked white. Once they are all in, I'll adjust the brightness of the screen till it looks good!

 

I'm sure 15 or 30 will do the job, but you don't want to go too low, it takes too long to melt the solder and you risk damage to the board, you also don't want to go too high because you risk blowing out the led. I don't know how much that circuit board costs, and don't want to find out. Fine tip iron would be preferable, but then you probably want more wattage...

John

 

yeah... 15 or 30 watt is proballly the best... i use a 15 watt radio shack on my cell phones.... never damage boards, but do occasionally screw up the leds... but they're also 0603 smt, so they're quite the small.... those leds seem way to big to screw up by either a 15 or 30 watt

 

i would not mind seeing the finished product... are th numbers still orange... can they be changed also... sorry if that was discussed... i am at work and i do not have the time to read each post...