Mega Bright Blue AC Console mod
Thread Starter
Driver School Candidate
Joined: Dec 2006
Posts: 39
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From: Taiwan
** 100% Complete now! Mega Bright Blue AC Console mod
** UPDATE: Pix have changed. This is the complete interior revamped in blue. Posted at the end of this thread.
First off, I wanna thank rocker28 for the inspiration on this mod... his messing around with the colors and bulbs inspired me to do the same.
The other day I put in a new kenwood screen (ddx-7019) and the buttons are all blue... it started annoying me that the console above it was green... so I decided to give it a go and change all that.
Oh I should mention I wanted to do the same with the clock but the clock's multisegment panel was custom made for our cars and can't be ordered in any other color from what I've been told. So nothing done to the clock.
Ok, so after taking apart the AC it looked like this :
The lighting comes in two varieties... one is an LED and the other is a bulb. They look like this:
THE BULBS
I didn't want to just change the covers on the bulbs because I wanted an exact color match so I created my own by using the existing bulb housing. I found the smallest LEDs i could possibly find, but they came on a 110V circuit board, so I unsoldered them one by one and used them as parts. I tested the LEDs and they seemed to be designed to run at 3V, while the original bulbs were 12V feed, so after some examination I found that a 1.5Kohm resistor kept the LEDs voltage at exactly 2.96V. I soldered the resistor and LED together in a way that it would fit back into the original housing and could be screwed directly back into the board... here are my finished led-bulbs:
As a teaser, this is what they look like when u feed them 12V:
THE LEDS
Problem here was that the stock LEDs seem to be designed to run at 3V (just like my mini LEDs...) but the only blue LEDs in that size manufactured are designed for 4V... and at 3V they barely light up. So, I decided to use my tiny LEDs and make my own replacement LEDs too. Here is one of mine in contrast to the original:
The finished board looks like this (hard to tell, but the little white squares are my LEDs mounted and soldered in place):
I guess the rest speaks for itself:
All I can say is... these are almost TOO bright. When you don't have your headlights on, they are at max brightness and man are they ever bright. Its already possibly too bright when the headlights are on and they are dimmed. But anyways, I'm happy!! Oh, and the floor glow is something I installed yesterday completely unrelated, you may think it's ricey but I like it ...
[edit] just noticed the pix above weren't fully illuminated cuz i didnt have the headlights on.. new pix have been posted instead
First off, I wanna thank rocker28 for the inspiration on this mod... his messing around with the colors and bulbs inspired me to do the same.
The other day I put in a new kenwood screen (ddx-7019) and the buttons are all blue... it started annoying me that the console above it was green... so I decided to give it a go and change all that.
Oh I should mention I wanted to do the same with the clock but the clock's multisegment panel was custom made for our cars and can't be ordered in any other color from what I've been told. So nothing done to the clock.
Ok, so after taking apart the AC it looked like this :
The lighting comes in two varieties... one is an LED and the other is a bulb. They look like this:
THE BULBS
I didn't want to just change the covers on the bulbs because I wanted an exact color match so I created my own by using the existing bulb housing. I found the smallest LEDs i could possibly find, but they came on a 110V circuit board, so I unsoldered them one by one and used them as parts. I tested the LEDs and they seemed to be designed to run at 3V, while the original bulbs were 12V feed, so after some examination I found that a 1.5Kohm resistor kept the LEDs voltage at exactly 2.96V. I soldered the resistor and LED together in a way that it would fit back into the original housing and could be screwed directly back into the board... here are my finished led-bulbs:
As a teaser, this is what they look like when u feed them 12V:
THE LEDS
Problem here was that the stock LEDs seem to be designed to run at 3V (just like my mini LEDs...) but the only blue LEDs in that size manufactured are designed for 4V... and at 3V they barely light up. So, I decided to use my tiny LEDs and make my own replacement LEDs too. Here is one of mine in contrast to the original:
The finished board looks like this (hard to tell, but the little white squares are my LEDs mounted and soldered in place):
I guess the rest speaks for itself:
All I can say is... these are almost TOO bright. When you don't have your headlights on, they are at max brightness and man are they ever bright. Its already possibly too bright when the headlights are on and they are dimmed. But anyways, I'm happy!! Oh, and the floor glow is something I installed yesterday completely unrelated, you may think it's ricey but I like it ...
[edit] just noticed the pix above weren't fully illuminated cuz i didnt have the headlights on.. new pix have been posted instead
Last edited by jxd; Apr 14, 2007 at 06:14 AM. Reason: The mod was not complete before, now it is
Thread Starter
Driver School Candidate
Joined: Dec 2006
Posts: 39
Likes: 0
From: Taiwan
Sorry guys I didn't turn the headlights on so it wasn't fully illuminated, replaced a couple pix to show full effect properly
JEFFTSAI: I live in KaoHsiung, Taiwan. Actually I'm not taiwanese, I'm french E.U. and canadian, but I love it here I do speak/read/write tho so that helps a lot.
JEFFTSAI: I live in KaoHsiung, Taiwan. Actually I'm not taiwanese, I'm french E.U. and canadian, but I love it here
I do speak/read/write tho so that helps a lot.
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Nice mod jxd! Also, separate topic...how do you like that deck? I was thinking of installing the same one. Can you give me some pros and cons of this deck? You can PM me if you don't want to cover this on this thread. Thanks.
Thread Starter
Driver School Candidate
Joined: Dec 2006
Posts: 39
Likes: 0
From: Taiwan
pros and cons of deck
ROCK-A-LEX: The Kenwood DDX-7019 is my first touchscreen deck. I previously had an electronic flip-out screen + panasonic MP3 deck and 12 disc changer. I LOVE this deck.
PROs: The deck being touchscreen rocks. It has an input to detect when the car is in reverse and automatically brings my reverse camera online for me. With the optional BT100 bluetooth module, I also send and receive calls handsfree and it auto-mutes the music and stuff. Plays DVDs, and extremely useful is the USB hookup -- all my music is on USB now that I lost my 12-disc changer. USB doesnt skip when the sub pounds like the changer did. It allows you to set your own wallpaper in the background, which is very important to me, but might not be to you. Also, it displays the MP3 ID3v2 cover art when playing songs, which I like a lot. Also, I can watch a movie up front while the people in the backseats are listening to the radio or vice versa using dual zone controls. Not that I watch movies while driving but, I like listening while my gf watches on roadtrips to the beach n stuff.
BAD: The deck only has one video input. I did not mind because my DTV-B digital tv tuner is hooked up to it and that has 2 other inputs, one of which my GPS system is attached to. The screen looks perfectly fine to me, but my old screen was higher resolution - this thing is something like 800x234? not as high res as many other options I think. I find it is also not that flexible, like, the operating system works just fine but you cant modify it much, not all that customizable. It's a simple OS and it does the job fine. Also, my phone doesnt upload its phonebook to the system, and I havent figured out how to program the phonebook!! So for now, I was only able to program the 3 rapid dial buttons. Kinda sucks to have handsfree built in but only 3 #s to dial ?? The phones apparently are not all compatible, I'm lucky mine even works I guess?
Overall, Very happy. It has replaced my previous system quite well - maybe I should think of all the weight I saved getting rid of my 12-disc changer + VCD chip modification? LOL. If there's any specific questions/issues u had I'd be happy to answer them for u
PROs: The deck being touchscreen rocks. It has an input to detect when the car is in reverse and automatically brings my reverse camera online for me. With the optional BT100 bluetooth module, I also send and receive calls handsfree and it auto-mutes the music and stuff. Plays DVDs, and extremely useful is the USB hookup -- all my music is on USB now that I lost my 12-disc changer. USB doesnt skip when the sub pounds like the changer did. It allows you to set your own wallpaper in the background, which is very important to me, but might not be to you. Also, it displays the MP3 ID3v2 cover art when playing songs, which I like a lot. Also, I can watch a movie up front while the people in the backseats are listening to the radio or vice versa using dual zone controls. Not that I watch movies while driving but, I like listening while my gf watches on roadtrips to the beach n stuff.
BAD: The deck only has one video input. I did not mind because my DTV-B digital tv tuner is hooked up to it and that has 2 other inputs, one of which my GPS system is attached to. The screen looks perfectly fine to me, but my old screen was higher resolution - this thing is something like 800x234? not as high res as many other options I think. I find it is also not that flexible, like, the operating system works just fine but you cant modify it much, not all that customizable. It's a simple OS and it does the job fine. Also, my phone doesnt upload its phonebook to the system, and I havent figured out how to program the phonebook!! So for now, I was only able to program the 3 rapid dial buttons. Kinda sucks to have handsfree built in but only 3 #s to dial ?? The phones apparently are not all compatible, I'm lucky mine even works I guess?
Overall, Very happy. It has replaced my previous system quite well - maybe I should think of all the weight I saved getting rid of my 12-disc changer + VCD chip modification? LOL. If there's any specific questions/issues u had I'd be happy to answer them for u
Thread Starter
Driver School Candidate
Joined: Dec 2006
Posts: 39
Likes: 0
From: Taiwan
thanks
thanks for the positive feedback and the welcome to the board... I've been reading this board for quite a while. My first post had some pix of the DIY chrome grill after I did my grill. I haven't done much to the engine/exterior yet, it's illegal in taiwan to have any mods at all but I'm really tempted to eventually go turbo again. My car in canada is a 1.6L delsol turbo at 300hp and i miss the turbo feel and sound really badly. Even without the power:weight tho, this car is definitely pimp
