tuan92129

All es300 needles from 97+ use electroluminescent lighting..which is a copperwire coated with phosporous, and when an electric charge is sent through, it lights up. The old needles were made using surface mounted leds..
I have no experience with soldering/electronics, but could someone look into the feasibility of retrofitting the El used in the newer lexus's into the older needles?
Here's what i found online..
http://www.coolight.com/category-s/1.htm ..so i think the 1.2 mm "angel hair" wire could fit inside the needle.

esucaris1

thanks lexcan problem solved and there was all kind of evidence that sombody was in there

Lexucan

The electroluminescent wire is a very interesting idea, but I'm not sure how easy or possible it would be insofar as incorporating the EL wires into a retrofit of the earlier generation ES gauge needles. I think the main obstacle would be the need to use an inverter to power the wires.

Websc

I have been doing a bunch or research on how to fix the instrument needles on my es300. I see that lexucan put up the "how to" and it sounds as if you have perfected the technique. Here are my questions.... How many led's did you put in. It looks like the original needles had several and lexucan just put one in the tip. How much would you charge per needle to do the job? I am still a bit gunshy about doing the job myself.

Lexucan

Not sure who you were addressing your questions to, but if it was to me....

I put one LED in each needle. Originally there was a strip of about 24 in each, but trying to replace all of them would be too complicated for a DIY project. My aim was to keep it as simple and easy as possible so that anyone could do it inexpensively, in a reasonable amount of time, and without the need for a lot of expertise to accomplish the job.

glynnkjk

Hi All, I am about to undertake this little adventure and replace all the backlights as well. I have a few simple question though.

#1--Couldn't I use just one 680 ohm resistor instead of two 330's?
#2--Has anyone tried multiple LED's? I am going to try sets of two and three. The Fairchild part is no longer available so I have opted for an Avago p/n HSMS-C150 digikey #516-1440-1-ND at .14US ea. for ten. Two for the Fuel and Temp/ three for Speed&RPM...hooked up in parallel.

Will this be a problem?????

#3--There have been a few different posts regarding certain capacitors on the circuit board that may have failed and causing the dimming and outage of the needles. There is not a concise posting regarding ES300 92-96--I have a 94---and what caps they are. Could someone tell me or direct to the caps so i can replace them while I have the instrument panel out.

Thanks to everyone for your DIY's i have already saved a lot of $$$ and headaches.

Glynn

Lexucan

The reason I used two resistors as opposed to one was as a precaution. Using two allows better heat dissipation than that of a single resistor. Also the LEDs are quite susceptible to failure from exposure to excessive heat.

I found that one LED per needle was adequate for illumination of the tip, however, there is no reason that more could not be used if you have the means to do so. It can become quite tricky to incorporate multiple LEDs in to such a small area as an instrument gauge needle. When you remove and examine your needles, you will see that the LEDs that Lexus used are specially designed and molded into one strip which is enclosed in a clear rubber-like material.
With this design they were able to produce a consistantly bright strip of light along the length of the needle. To handcraft a set of LEDs to take their place is not something I felt would be easy for me or other DIY'ers to accomplish. I have seen the results of someone's efforts to use multiple LEDs in these needles and they were less than favourable. The needles looked very "spotty" with bright spots and dark gaps all along them. Not my cup of tea.
I would be very interested in seeing the results of your work however, should you use multiple LEDs.

I have read a few posts myself about the capacitor problem but these posts pertained to the instrument cluster of the earlier generation of the LS400. It did not use the same LED illumination as the ES300. I do not recall reading any posts describing a capacitor problem on the ES300 circuit board specifically. To my knowledge, the problem of the ES300 needles burning out was due to slightly too much voltage (0.5V) going to the needles and they simply got "cooked" over time.
Maybe someone else has more info on this.

Good luck with your project!

.....and welcome to CL!

glynnkjk

1. I had considered heat being a problem. I live in a somewhat mild climate and the car is not driven that often...at least till I make all the upgrades I want. I suppose I will have to meter the instrument panel to get an educated guess on the current being put through the LED's. I was more concerned about space.

2. I looked at the spec of the Fairchild LED you used. It had a 160 degree view angle. With a 1206 package butted up to the other, there shouldn't be any spotting...I could be wrong....if you ask my wife...well thats a diff. story.
But the LED I chose actually offers 170 degrees so I will find out. I will test the needles before I go to the trouble of affixing them permanently.

3. Lastly, I will take a look a the components on the circuit board. I noticed the dimmer thumb switch is not working correctly and I may need to replace that. Seen any good DIY's for that? I might as well since I have the whole thing apart.

In case you are interested..My Lexus was my Father-In-Laws b4 he died. It is a 94 ES300 25th Anniversary addition. I've had it for 3-4 years and maybe drove it 1k miles in that time and has 113k total. My work has been replacing both door rod clips(could not open from the outside) Lexus wanted $225 ea door. Parts cost $8.20 ea and @ 45min ea. Pulled both headlight assemblies(yellowed and tarnished) and polished them.. they look 500% better. I was afraid to ask Lexus on that!!! After the dash lighting, The bucket seat are being replaced and the preamp for the stereo, My son spilled a soft drink in the passengers seat!!!!

So I'll be around and I'll try to post my pics of the needles w/multiple leds..even if I decide not to install.

Glynn

Lexucan

I'm not an engineer, but what I've learned is that general engineering practice is to derate resistors by 50%. So, since I had the room to do so, instead of using a single 680 ohm resistor, I used two 330 ohm resistors to spread the heat. It wouldn't be much heat, but by doing so, I knew the resistors will then be happier. However, if you are going to experiment with more than one LED per needle, space could become an issue.

No, I haven't seen any posts/DIYs to do with the dimmer control. Mine is working fine but I was tempted to take that module apart while it was out of the car so I could replace the rather dim red flashing security LED with a brighter (maybe blue) one. I couldn't figure out how to disassemble the module without using a hammer and chizel so I left well enough alone...
If you figure it out, let me know!

Wow, at the rate you drive her and with only 113K miles on the ODO, your ES should last you a loooong time yet!
I've never heard of a 25th Anniversary Edition. Anniversary of what? In 1994 Lexus would have only been in existance in N. America for about 4-5 years.

Great, I look forward to seeing them.

glynnkjk

It is an Anniversary Edition, but not 25th. What anniversary they were celebrating in 94 is beyond me...Maybe 5yrs??? The floor mats say Anniversary Edition as well. I will not be getting to the needles until a week or so...Time permitting I will send the usual before and during and after....pics.

Thanks for your guidance and DIY's
Glynn

glynnkjk

Today I replaced the backlighting w/some LED's i got off e-bay(10 for $5). I wanted to make some measurements on the dimmer and the needle's. I found out a few things and will post pic's when I go back in to replace the needle LED's. The dimmer adjustment does NOT have any affect on the needles voltage, just backlighting. The dimmer module is held onto the foward bezel by two screws...easy to take off. Once you have it off look at the connector in the module. There are friction clips around the top edge, except on one of the narrow sides(rectangular) it is mid way down...Start on the opposite side at the top and pry along the the seam popping them open one at a time...the plastic is really flexible and thin....the cover will flip up and off towards the clip that is in the mid section(Opposite from where you start). After I got it open, I took a pair of needle-nose pliers and grabbed the plastic connector housing and pulled strait out...the circuit board is in a groove and slides in and out--well most of the way out. It is attached to a flex-circuit the other end is on the dimmer/reostat/trimpot...but you are able to get at the Security LED and replace it with ease...I don't know what the polarity is sorry.

I found out on my Lexus that the needles are getting around 13v. Now I have not used my electronics stuff for 20 yrs. but I came to these calculations...the LED is a current driven device....and the resistor is a current limiting device in this case...the LED will drop 2-2.1v and runs between 20-25ma per factory specs leaving 11-10.9. So if we take V/I=R (13v/.02=650)...I believed you used 660 total. Thats good except Wattage is P=VI or 13*.02=.26W the 1/4 watts are low for what you have in there. This is assuming your car is running 13v like mine. If anyone out there wants to check there LED circuit go to this site: http://led.linear1.org/led.wiz
Use the voltage between the two contact on the needle for "Source Voltage" and red LED's are mostly 2 volts forward and @ 25ma and it give you the schematic and info..like:



Solution 0: 1 x 1 array uses 1 LEDs exactly
+12.9V
+ -|>|- -/\/\/\- + R = 560 ohms
The wizard says: In solution 0:

* each 560 ohm resistor dissipates 283.5 mW
* the wizard thinks 1/2W resistors are needed for your application Help
* together, all resistors dissipate 283.5 mW
* together, the diodes dissipate 47.25 mW
* total power dissipated by the array is 330.75 mW
* the array draws current of 22.5 mA from the source.


I will send pic's when I do the Led's....I'm still planning to chain them together--this time in series 3 and 4 ea. at 4 I can use a single 1/4w res.

Talk later and I'll get pic's on the dimmer mod when I go back in...

Cheers, glynn

Lexucan

So, what you are saying is that there is a less violent way to get into that module than using a hammer.....I'll have to have another look! Thanks for the info!
Regarding the dimmer adjustment - I noticed before I replaced my burnt out and/or "flickering" needles, that by dimming the cluster backlighting I could also make my flickering needles light up fully again, which would indicate that it does have an effect on the needles as well as the backlighting, but ONLY when the headlights are turned on.

Hmm....so what does a silly online LED array wizard know anyways...(j/k)
Well my 1/4 watts aren't outrageously out of spec and have been running faithfully for well over a year, so I am fairly confident they will survive for quite a while yet.
Actually, that wizard is a very handy tool to have, thanks for the headzup!

BadViper22

Mkay, so i just finished this DIY, and boy the results look nice. Cant wait to see em at night when they'll really shine. Unfortunately, i ran into MANY snags. To start it off, one of my screws fell into the steering wheel area, pretty much gone for good. When i was soldering my tach, the soldering iron bumped into the plastic cylinder guide, ack!!! So i had to rebore that with the soldering iron. The temp gauge isn't the same weight as it was before so its reading my car is running hotter than it really is. My speedometer is showing 5 mph slower than what im actually going, i dont know why and when im at a dead stop its below 0... And when pulling out the gas gauge the cylindrical plastic guide broke into like 5 pieces, all of which had to be superglued together, and then rebored with the soldering iron. This job took a very long time, mostly because i had a crappy walmart soldering iron. But i recommend this to anyone who's needles couldn't get any worse.

And im not complaining hur, im just showing you some of the things that could go wrong for you, and defenantly did for me, hahaha!

glynnkjk

I was thinking about that a couple of nights ago when one of my needles were flickering. I thought....If they are flickering, they are not dead???? Perhaps they are not getting enough Juice!!!!! The factory original needles had and array of led's and resistors(this is only a guess). If the led's eat 2V each and there are six of them per chain at 12V there is zero voltage left for the resistor, so the current would drop and that could cause the outages. If an led went out...it would be OUT and the flickering is in segments like 1/4 or 1/3 of the needle.

I can make needles using a 2mm grid pc board, 0805 led's (which happen to be 2mm long) and Surface mount resistor arrays 8pin 4res (2mm wide) 5 led's butted up together one end to power one to one resistor. each set of 5=1 res 120 ohms. Resistor array one side is bussed to ground and the other each pin connected to a string of 5 led's. All would be @ 2mm wide and as long as I need them. All this thought...I hope it works!!!!!!

Ariyanna

Make sure to post pictures of your process and success