M42club.com - Home of the BMW E30/E36 318i/iS
DISCUSSION => Interior => Topic started by: bmwman91 on December 01, 2008, 10:32:19 AM
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So, as anyone with an aftermarket head unit knows, the lighting is usually green & blue, or something horrible like that. Well, horrible in that BMW lighting is orange & the head unit stands out a lot with green buttons & such. I got tired of that, and being that my office has a pretty extensive electronics reworking lab, I decided to use some time after-hours to play around.
First, some details.
- The official color specification for control panel backlighting in BMW's is 605nm orange. Knowing this makes the selection of lighting components a lot easier.
- In the case of my Pioneer DEH-P3700 head unit, the LED's used inside were of the 0603 (1208 metric) surface-mount type. Pretty common stuff, and Digi-Key had some for me at $0.045 each (in a quantity of 100).
- In the end, I opted to backlight the LCD screen with 615nm red (has a slight hint of orange to it), and the buttons with 605nm orange. I tried 605nm for the LCD initially, but it was far too much orange and didn't look right.
- None of the pictures of the thing installed in the car look quite right...the stock stuff has light passing through orange filters, and the radio unit doesn't, the light from the LED's comes right through. To the human eye, it looks just fine, but the LED's come off as too yellow on camera. So, pictures that make it look really yellow in-car are not correct...it matches perfectly in-person.
Enough talk, picture time.
The very first time through with this, I pulled off a large incandescent bulb and replaced it with a T1 sized 605nm LED. It didn't really work though (details further on). I had to make my own resistor array dealy to limit current to the LED, and had to stack a bunch in parallel as they could only handle ~0.06W each. I didn't want to let the smoke out of them...
(http://bmw.e30tuner.com/images/my318is/mod/facelights/bmw001.jpg)
From a little further out. These are 0603-sized resistors (1208 metric...1.2mm x 0.8mm).
(http://bmw.e30tuner.com/images/my318is/mod/facelights/bmw002.jpg)
Next I began swapping the SMD LED's. The trick is having 2 soldering irons. Removing the original ones requires an iron in each hand, and picking the old one up with them as you can melt both solder joints. Clean the pads with some solder wick & contact cleaner, then put a little fresh solder on ONE pad. With tweezers & one iron, place the new LED & get it positioned properly, melting it onto the one pad. Once good, add some solder to the 2nd pad.
(http://bmw.e30tuner.com/images/my318is/mod/facelights/bmw003.jpg)
All of them swapped & being tested.
(http://bmw.e30tuner.com/images/my318is/mod/facelights/bmw004.jpg)
It turned out that all of the lights were too bright (except for the big one...it only emits useful light up to 60 degrees off-ax-s, and the light diffuser in the faceplate was more like 90 degrees off axis). So, I traced out the connections on the PCB & started swapping the other current limiting resistors.
(http://bmw.e30tuner.com/images/my318is/mod/facelights/bmw005.jpg)
I also decided to try something else where the big LED was. According to the data sheets, the little SMD ones actually put out more light than the big one. They also have a useful viewing angle of 160 degrees, instead of just 60. This would prove to work far better with the light diffuser part. There's the advantage of incandescent bulbs right there...they are almost omni-directional.
(http://bmw.e30tuner.com/images/my318is/mod/facelights/bmw006.jpg)
More fun swapping resistors. Still too bright.
(http://bmw.e30tuner.com/images/my318is/mod/facelights/bmw007.jpg)
A quick test. Hmm, that LCD screen just isn't right.
(http://bmw.e30tuner.com/images/my318is/mod/facelights/bmw008.jpg)
The LCD screen was originally backlit with some non-standard white LED's. Well, some of my orange ones turned on their side would have to suffice (I broke the original ones when removing them anyway...so I HAD to make it work lol).
(http://bmw.e30tuner.com/images/my318is/mod/facelights/bmw009.jpg)
Much better! That's a lot of orange, though. Notice that the orange in this shot actually looks about right. In-person it looks the same.
(http://bmw.e30tuner.com/images/my318is/mod/facelights/bmw010.jpg)
Here's the rework station I was using. 4 Metcal irons...if only I had 4 hands. Soldering with both hands is fun stuff.
(http://bmw.e30tuner.com/images/my318is/mod/facelights/bmw011.jpg)
Here's one of those bad looking pictures I mentioned at the beginning. I swear, in person it looks superb. It is a white balance issue with the camera...the LED's require one setting to look right, and the others a different one. Imagine the HU, but colored as in 2 shots above. It has to do with the orange filters on the rest of the console & the lack of orange filters on the HU. You'll just have to take my word for it, it matches.
(http://bmw.e30tuner.com/images/my318is/mod/facelights/bmw012.jpg)
Here's a final one. I spent a good 4 hours one night messing with the resistors more. The lights were just too damn bright. The LED's I used were about 3300% more efficient than the ones I pulled off, so I had to drop the running current from ~20mA to ~0.6mA. I also put some 615nm LED's in for the backlight on the LCD screen. It helped match things up to the OBC a little better. Actually, this is probably a better one to compare the lab-shot to. The WB was poopy on the one above, and the rest of the lighting looks pink. I am putting the lab-shot below (again) for better comparison. Keep in mind, the LCD screen lights were later swapped to be more red.
(I PS'ed this one a little. This is about as close as I could get it to looking like it does in person. Still, things are too yellow in this pic...oh well.)
(http://bmw.e30tuner.com/images/my318is/mod/facelights/bmw013.jpg)
(http://bmw.e30tuner.com/images/my318is/mod/facelights/bmw010.jpg)
Speaking of the OBC...I did my 13 button OBC swap this past weekend. I also did some...over-the-top custom backlighting work on it lol. Hell, I only used 15 of the 100 LED's I ordered on the radio.......that'll be a new thread.
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Sounds awesome, but I'm not seeing any pictures. I just reconfigured my firefox settings so maybe its just me?
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Sounds awesome, but I'm not seeing any pictures. I just reconfigured my firefox settings so maybe its just me?
Yeah, I think it is just you. The pics work at my office and at home. Weird.....maybe my site's DNS/IP/something is blocked for you or something (bmw.e30tuner.com)
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Now THAT is some serious modding.
Much respect - now can you do that for my Blaupunkt head unit?
(http://www.buyincardigital.com/acatalog/buyincardigital_blaupunkt_travelpilot_efreestyler_tn.jpg)
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Now THAT is some serious modding.
Much respect - now can you do that for my Blaupunkt head unit?
(http://www.buyincardigital.com/acatalog/buyincardigital_blaupunkt_travelpilot_efreestyler_tn.jpg)
Haha, I don't know if my eyes & back can take any more of that! I had to spend a good 20 minutes stretching out to get the kink out of my back after that project!
Soldering the little guys really isn't all that hard. A little practice is all anyone needs. Just note which way the original LED's are facing before removing them so you'll know how to put the new ones in! They only work in "one direction!"
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I saw this thread after a Google search and had to register to say what an awesome job you did on the faceplate LED swap.
Great work!
I'd like to mod my Pioneer DEH-P700BT faceplate the same way...that neon blue is grating on my senses and nerves. Is there any chance you have the part numbers for the LEDs and resistors you used so I know what to order?
Thanks, and again, nice job on the swap!
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Well, the resistors are items that we have laying around in one lab, so I "borrowed" some of those. The total series resistance for each set of 3 LED's was ~12000 Ohms to get the desired brightness. It really depends on how the faceplate is wired, though. I am not sure if others will be the same.
The orange LED's I used to backlight the buttons (605nm) can be found at the following link:
http://search.digikey.com/scripts/DkSearch/dksus.dll?Detail&name=475-2486-1-ND
I used slightly more reddish (615nm) lights for the LCD display:
http://search.digikey.com/scripts/DkSearch/dksus.dll?Detail&name=475-2712-1-ND
I am not sure how much you know about working with LED's and stuff, but if you want to dial the brightness properly you should look at having ~.7mA run through the button backlights, and maybe ~5mA through the ones backlighting the screen. It took a lot of trial & error, and I also was able to find the lighting connections & hook it to a power supply in the lab for easier testing.
You should crack yours open & get some calipers on the LED's though. There are a few different sizes of surface-mount ones out there, and they might be different than mine.
Good luck!
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Awesome, thanks for the info!
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Look really good. I've got little knowledge of electrical equipment. But I'm really impressed by your commitment to detail.
Great Work
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I just had to post...these things are rare...
Although I did this mod months ago, my GF finally noticed haha. Well, it was more of, "Hey, your radio looks different. Did you spend MORE money on this damn car?" So, if the GF can notice, the difference has to be real!
Also, looking at the pics of the working product, it looks terrible lol. Seriously, in-person the color matches 110%, but the camera just does not pick that up since the light sources are of fundamentally different natures. Oh well, you'll just have to take my word for it then! Any Bay Area meets coming up?
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Nice job but if it were me i would have changed the whole dash so everything lights up blue
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Hey i was wondering if you could guide me in geting all the light bulbs on my HVAC to work... i would like my fog button/hot/cold/fan speed/ etc.. to light up.. how many bulbs are there..and what not.
my switches dont light up like all of yours do!
(http://bmw.e30tuner.com/images/my318is/mod/facelights/bmw012.jpg)
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One bulb does all of the HVAC stuff (except the AC switch, that has its own bulbs). It is behind & under the fan speed dial. Chances are that it is just burned out. You can replace it without pulling anything, actually. You can either feel around up in there since there is a big gap above the ash tray, or get a small mirror & flashlight. The bulb is in a black plastic holder, and it just slides into a sleeve in the dash. Pull it out & replace it!
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hI I am new to this site...I have a 97 318is with the original Pioneer Cassette/Radio still installed...I need to upgrade the head-unit but do not want to have lots of flashing lights and beeps etc from a new unit....Any recommendations , taking into account the BMW's orange illumination..Do Alpine do a head-unit with orange illumination or Pioneer...Any suggestions or recommendations would be greatly appreciated.......
Thanks..........
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Wow, I need to replace those bulbs too, Great writeup thanks!
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So, as anyone with an aftermarket head unit knows, the lighting is usually green & blue, or something horrible like that. Well, horrible in that BMW lighting is orange & the head unit stands out a lot with green buttons & such. I got tired of that, and being that my office has a pretty extensive electronics reworking lab, I decided to use some time after-hours to play around.
First, some details.
- The official color specification for control panel backlighting in BMW's is 605nm orange. Knowing this makes the selection of lighting components a lot easier.
- In the case of my Pioneer DEH-P3700 head unit, the LED's used inside were of the 0603 (1208 metric) surface-mount type. Pretty common stuff, and Digi-Key had some for me at $0.045 each (in a quantity of 100).
- In the end, I opted to backlight the LCD screen with 615nm red (has a slight hint of orange to it), and the buttons with 605nm orange. I tried 605nm for the LCD initially, but it was far too much orange and didn't look right.
- None of the pictures of the thing installed in the car look quite right...the stock stuff has light passing through orange filters, and the radio unit doesn't, the light from the LED's comes right through. To the human eye, it looks just fine, but the LED's come off as too yellow on camera. So, pictures that make it look really yellow in-car are not correct...it matches perfectly in-person.
Enough talk, picture time.
The very first time through with this, I pulled off a large incandescent bulb and replaced it with a T1 sized 605nm LED. It didn't really work though (details further on). I had to make my own resistor array dealy to limit current to the LED, and had to stack a bunch in parallel as they could only handle ~0.06W each. I didn't want to let the smoke out of them...
(http://bmw.e30tuner.com/images/my318is/mod/facelights/bmw001.jpg)
From a little further out. These are 0603-sized resistors (1208 metric...1.2mm x 0.8mm).
(http://bmw.e30tuner.com/images/my318is/mod/facelights/bmw002.jpg)
Next I began swapping the SMD LED's. The trick is having 2 soldering irons. Removing the original ones requires an iron in each hand, and picking the old one up with them as you can melt both solder joints. Clean the pads with some solder wick & contact cleaner, then put a little fresh solder on ONE pad. With tweezers & one iron, place the new LED & get it positioned properly, melting it onto the one pad. Once good, add some solder to the 2nd pad.
(http://bmw.e30tuner.com/images/my318is/mod/facelights/bmw003.jpg)
All of them swapped & being tested.
(http://bmw.e30tuner.com/images/my318is/mod/facelights/bmw004.jpg)
It turned out that all of the lights were too bright (except for the big one...it only emits useful light up to 60 degrees off-ax-s, and the light diffuser in the faceplate was more like 90 degrees off axis). So, I traced out the connections on the PCB & started swapping the other current limiting resistors.
(http://bmw.e30tuner.com/images/my318is/mod/facelights/bmw005.jpg)
I also decided to try something else where the big LED was. According to the data sheets, the little SMD ones actually put out more light than the big one. They also have a useful viewing angle of 160 degrees, instead of just 60. This would prove to work far better with the light diffuser part. There's the advantage of incandescent bulbs right there...they are almost omni-directional.
(http://bmw.e30tuner.com/images/my318is/mod/facelights/bmw006.jpg)
More fun swapping resistors. Still too bright.
(http://bmw.e30tuner.com/images/my318is/mod/facelights/bmw007.jpg)
A quick test. Hmm, that LCD screen just isn't right.
(http://bmw.e30tuner.com/images/my318is/mod/facelights/bmw008.jpg)
The LCD screen was originally backlit with some non-standard white LED's. Well, some of my orange ones turned on their side would have to suffice (I broke the original ones when removing them anyway...so I HAD to make it work lol).
(http://bmw.e30tuner.com/images/my318is/mod/facelights/bmw009.jpg)
Much better! That's a lot of orange, though. Notice that the orange in this shot actually looks about right. In-person it looks the same.
(http://bmw.e30tuner.com/images/my318is/mod/facelights/bmw010.jpg)
Here's the rework station I was using. 4 Metcal irons...if only I had 4 hands. Soldering with both hands is fun stuff.
(http://bmw.e30tuner.com/images/my318is/mod/facelights/bmw011.jpg)
Here's one of those bad looking pictures I mentioned at the beginning. I swear, in person it looks superb. It is a white balance issue with the camera...the LED's require one setting to look right, and the others a different one. Imagine the HU, but colored as in 2 shots above. It has to do with the orange filters on the rest of the console & the lack of orange filters on the HU. You'll just have to take my word for it, it matches.
(http://bmw.e30tuner.com/images/my318is/mod/facelights/bmw012.jpg)
Here's a final one. I spent a good 4 hours one night messing with the resistors more. The lights were just too damn bright. The LED's I used were about 3300% more efficient than the ones I pulled off, so I had to drop the running current from ~20mA to ~0.6mA. I also put some 615nm LED's in for the backlight on the LCD screen. It helped match things up to the OBC a little better. Actually, this is probably a better one to compare the lab-shot to. The WB was poopy on the one above, and the rest of the lighting looks pink. I am putting the lab-shot below (again) for better comparison. Keep in mind, the LCD screen lights were later swapped to be more red.
(I PS'ed this one a little. This is about as close as I could get it to looking like it does in person. Still, things are too yellow in this pic...oh well.)
(http://bmw.e30tuner.com/images/my318is/mod/facelights/bmw013.jpg)
(http://bmw.e30tuner.com/images/my318is/mod/facelights/bmw010.jpg)
Speaking of the OBC...I did my 13 button OBC swap this past weekend. I also did some...over-the-top custom backlighting work on it lol. Hell, I only used 15 of the 100 LED's I ordered on the radio.......that'll be a new thread.
How did you get light in your headlight switches where fog light also is to the left of your wheel?
I have an E30 too, but no light in the fog or headlight switch, only normal intruments have lights in my car
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There's a little bulb in an orange plastic socket that lights them up. You can pull it from behind the headlght switch if you drop the knee bolster. Mine was burned out and hanging loose when I bought the car. I repalced it & plugged it back in, works like a charm.
It's just a little harness, slightly above & between the fog light & headlight harnesses. The bulbs are replaceable...just tug it straight out of the socket, take it to Advance Auto or Pep Boys for the match. Buy a few spares for when the HVAC lights or the ash trays lights burn out.
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There's a little bulb in an orange plastic socket that lights them up. You can pull it from behind the headlght switch if you drop the knee bolster. Mine was burned out and hanging loose when I bought the car. I repalced it & plugged it back in, works like a charm.
It's just a little harness, slightly above & between the fog light & headlight harnesses. The bulbs are replaceable...just tug it straight out of the socket, take it to Advance Auto or Pep Boys for the match. Buy a few spares for when the HVAC lights or the ash trays lights burn out.
Thank you so much, I got that changed too now.
But do you know what makes the speaker balance switch light up, I can't find and bulb anywhere for it, it's the switch that has 2 speakers on it, here a link for the whole dash, the top picture 7,it's the one to the left from the red triangle button:
http://home.comcast.net/~cdeegan9/dashboard/dashboard_4.html
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There's a little bulb in an orange plastic socket that lights them up. You can pull it from behind the headlght switch if you drop the knee bolster. Mine was burned out and hanging loose when I bought the car. I repalced it & plugged it back in, works like a charm.
It's just a little harness, slightly above & between the fog light & headlight harnesses. The bulbs are replaceable...just tug it straight out of the socket, take it to Advance Auto or Pep Boys for the match. Buy a few spares for when the HVAC lights or the ash trays lights burn out.
Like if you look here the person has light in the speaker balance switch:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/halfbyte/3661140995/in/photostream/
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whoah seems like a lot of work. kenwood came out with a headunit that variable colors to choose from and there orange match the oem color of the bmw light inside. it was pretty cool