How to change the color of your gauge LEDs

so i found a guide on how to change the color of your gauges for any bike that uses LED gauges. this is a cheaper, DIY mod that anyone who can use a soldering iron fairly well should be able to do, and would be a lot cheaper than having someone else do it, such as www.bluegauges.com :

http://www.i-hacked.com/content/view/209/45/

if anyone does this or has done this, you should post some pictures of your gauges for us to see!

Very nice! Thanks for the article and now I have something else to add to my list!

Thanks for the link... and thanks, now you have me thinking again. The blue with red tach looks good.

i think i would do this one to mine using that guide:

http://www.bluegauges.com/images/tachcolors/f4i/600f402.jpg

Damn... I'm really thinking about trying this out. I can solder... never tried the fine detail stuff on circuit boards yet. I have tons of junk computer parts around here to practice on first. I'm thinking... I'm thinking.....

That s a nice spruse up to that dull factory look on the 600rr's.....

quote:

ORIGINAL: doncollins

Damn... I'm really thinking about trying this out. I can solder... never tried the fine detail stuff on circuit boards yet. I have tons of junk computer parts around here to practice on first. I'm thinking... I'm thinking.....

well if you have a fine point soldering gun and a steady hand, you should be able to do it. great idea to practice on some computer parts. i'd find something that works, desolder the smallest thing you can off of it, solder it back on, and see if it still works. good luck!

I tore mine out tonight.... yeah.... you have to completely desolder the screen out of it. LoL... its goin back together... WAY to many pins to mess with for my liking.

tevbax.. do you still have the gauge apart???? Post pictures if you do...

Well, upon popular request, heres what it looks like in pieces. NOTE!!!!!! The hex head bolt on the front IS FAKE!?!?!!!!!! The case comes apart from the back with regular phillips screws. If you look on both sides of the screen, the LEDS are the 3 little white pieces under the plastic. They are located on both sides of the screen. They are also located in several spots under the tach.

tevbax, sorry it didnt work out for ya, but you probably just saved a lot of people from pullin out the speedo's on their f4i's

axsys, did I over look it... what bike did he do this mod on?

Never mind... I went back and looked.... it's a 2005/2006 Kawasaki Ninja ZX-6R

yea i know its not a honda but i figured that you might be able to do it on any bike

I'm good... I've been practicing on a CD-ROM drive. I removed the LED and the eject button from the front. Put them both back on and they work fine...

I'm still trying to research the LEDs. I'd like to make sure I have the right ones here when I pull it so I don't have to do it all over again. Then I have to take it apart to see if I run into the same problem as tevbax. I'm not going to remove the LCD screen if it's soldered on. Too much risk.

quote:

ORIGINAL: doncollins

I'm good... I've been practicing on a CD-ROM drive. I removed the LED and the eject button from the front. Put them both back on and they work fine...

I'm still trying to research the LEDs. I'd like to make sure I have the right ones here when I pull it so I don't have to do it all over again. Then I have to take it apart to see if I run into the same problem as tevbax. I'm not going to remove the LCD screen if it's soldered on. Too much risk.

good ot hear your cdrom still works. the LEDs look like standard surface mounts, and the link in that tutorial looks like it has some good ones to buy. if in the end you decide its too risky to do yourself, www.bluegauges.com looks pretty good and its not too expensive to get it done ($65 for the 600RR). or you could find a really cheap speedo on ebay and try it on that, just let us know how it goes!

I will. My problem is I'm a do-it-myself kind of guy. If I can do it for $80 or buy it for $75... that's not enough savings for me to let someone else have all of my fun. The LEDs for the article might work, but he is doing all of this on a Kaw so I'm sure something is different. I need to get off my butt and remove my speedo so I can take a look at the LEDs inside. I found one speedo on eBay for buy it now $250 so that's not an option right now.

What ever I do... I'll let you know.

there another writeup on the bluegauges.com websire, found here, that shows how to do it for a gixxer. it looks like for a lot of the bikes you have to de-solder the lcd, which wouldn't be too hard with a desoldering wick or a desoldering station. but this project isnt for the first time solderer, so if you don't have experiance with those tools, you might not want to do it, or you can practice and then try on your gauge.

I'm like Don, I like to do everything myself, but when its something like gauges and I could, or probably would mess it up pretty bad. I'll send it to someone and have them do it, that way if they mess it up they have to replace it and I could be pissed off at someone besides myself.

I like what bluegauges has, I think I might send mine out next winter and get it done. I'm thinking a silver or red tach face plate with a white background until the redline. But I'm not sure what color for the speedo, I don't want blue since my bike is red, and I think I might get sick of red if I did it in that color. If anyone has had bluegauges do their gauges let us know how i turned out.

-Jesse-

I'm taking apart my 95' CBR600 F3i to part out whatever good parts I can.. well seeing how the glass on the gauges are broken, guess i can practice soldering on it(guess i cant.. no LED's, well there is one or two i think).. I'm hoping to get a 04' or 05' 600RR next and mod it up a bit, looks like one more mod to add to my list..

also, you think there is a way to change up the LED's system? http://www.eled.com/product.asp?catalog%5Fname=LEDs&category%5Fname=&product%5Fid=EAA3528EMBSGC - these are the same size but red/blue/green instead of one color.. wonder if someone knows how to put in a system like that.. =)

How about on a non digital guage set. reallllly want to do that on my 900. Ive changed the colors on my xbox to a super bright blue and would like to do that to my guages.

vermino, i dont think that would work. since its multiple colors, it has more than the normal soldering connections (4 on this one vs. 2 on a normal). it would take soem advanced soldering to get it done.

ironfox, it wouldnt matter if the guage set is digital or not. if it has leds, then you can desolder them and resolder new ones on. theis can be done with most guages, either digital or analog, if they have leds. if the guage just uses lightbulbs(which is a possibility) then you can just buy some colored rubber "boots" that slip over the light bulb to change the color(i have blue ones for my car), or you can get a replacement "bulb" that is made up of LEDs and fits into a light bulb socket, which would work better.

hope that helps!

well the problem is that the guages for the 98 - 99 900s have a button style lights where you can take out these little plugs that hold the led.

im not sure what you mean. from the diagram it looks like it just uses regular small automotive light bulbs, does it not?

cool, thats how they change leds on cellphones

could've sworn I posted a reply in here... for the gauge cluster....

how to:
http://www.600rr.net/vb/showthread.php?t=35336

and tripage at 600rr.net is doing a group buy for them... 90 a piece.