I decided to start a progress thread to the light show I'm progressively adding to my truck.

I was already planning on implementing an Arduino board behind the dash in my truck and adding RGB LED bulbs and strips throughout the interior and exterior of my truck, but I have everything written on paper and virtually no coding written yet. While at the same time, I've been following a lot of how to threads on this forum getting some ideas for placement and mods, one of them including LED bulb upgrades to the dash. Unfortunately, regardless of how many times I mentioned I had the newer style of dash, I was recommend wrong and purchased 196 bulbs which are incompatible with my dash.

Older pic when I first bought the truck, with what my dash looks like stock:


The 5 SMD setup was too big to fit into the socket, and the plug itself would not fit into the black bulb adapter:


So I found I needed 1 SMD bulbs instead, so it would physically fit into that black socket that holds the bulb, and it would also fit into the instrument cluster board. Then I hit another snag in the road...

The tach has a dead bulb out, but the working one spreads out evenly halfway through the gauge:


When I installed a 1 SMD compatible-fitting bulb, I was with this result:


It was only brighter in a single, individual spot! It wasn't evenly spreading the light, and in my opinion, isn't worth replacing the old bulbs if I'm going to have weird bright spots in strategic spots.

So now, my original Arduino project has come back into play, starting off in a location I wasn't expecting to work on: The instrument panel!

First things first, start removing every single screw to get down to just the cluster itself



It obviously needed to be cleaned anyway.

Quick shot of the backside:


5 bulbs to cover the illumination, 6 bulbs are individual indicators (turn signals, high beam, battery, cruise control, airbag)

With the gauges now out, I used 400 grit + water to gently sand off the tint from the rear of the gauge plates:



Yes, yaegarbomb was necessary to keep me up that night


When using water and a very fine grit sand paper, it was necessary to constantly dap with a paper towel to remove the dirty water full of tint and glob that was being removed from behind the digits



Quite frankly, the difference is night and day on tint removal alone!


With a higher transluency, having diffused RGB LEDs will not have "bright spots" located everywhere, and shine through better. Ford, interestingly enough, made thicker layers of tint directly infront of bulb placement, but also didn't make the red as a tint to be removed. However, removing the thick layers made the red indicators much more visible


A quick shot of the bulbs I'll be using connected to a breadboard, this was just a sample to confirm my electrical setup. Now, these lights will NOT come on with the headlights engaged, they will turn on with the vehicle and off with it. I will be covering the contacts on the instrument cluster to prevent shorting out the bulbs I'm using, and it will be controlled by the Arduino. 20 bulbs total


Now, I'm not quite sure why Ford decided to make some gauges white and others black, but left the trim itself black. If I'm going to be using custom colored lights on the digits, it should be more visible with a white trim. Here's a quick progress pic of me using the same 400 grit sandpaper (this time not wet, but washed off when done sanding down) to give the dash texture to catch to the paint


Two coats later, looking good!



I bought paint from Michael's (which was cheaper than Home Depot or Lowes), which made great contact on the gently texture sanded trim. I did get a small runny spot (and I'm not telling you where if you can't see it ). 2 coats and 2 hours later, got it reassembled and looks awesome!


A quick shot of everything assembled in the truck




That's all I have for now! As mentioned before, the programming for the RGB LEDs has not been created yet, and a wiring scheme to mount the board strategically in the truck has not been established. I've come across bad luck from the truck's previous owner not performing ANY maintenance to it, so now I'm taking it to a shop to have replaced:
clutch, slave cylinder, flywheel, entire front end suspension, water pump, thermostat and flushing, new belts, etc.

Quite a lot of work, I'm comfortable working with electronics and lighting, not so much mechanical work as such. So with that being said, hopefully I'll have a new update in a couple weeks once I pick my truck back up.

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Nice writeup, can't wait to see what you do with the arduino... i've been wanting to mess around with some controllers like that myself.

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Subbed. Excited to see how it comes out!

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The last of my parts arrived at my house yesterday (for the repairs, not this project), so I'll be delivering them to the mechanic this weekend.

I gotta check my piggy bank and see what extra cash I have collected and hit up a junkyard while I'm on that side of the county. I'd like to get a spare instrument cluster and steal white needles from an older Ranger/B-truck and take an identical cluster to mine to use the back plate to mount the LEDs. That way, when I get my truck back, it'll be a simple swap; pull my current one out, swap the back plate with the modded one, and drop it back in.

Stock, the cluster uses 5 bulbs for illumination which evenly glowed with Ford's strategy of painting thicker tint directly over the bulbs. The tint is now removed, which makes bright spots with the (current) stock bulbs; I'll be using 20 diffused RGB LEDs, strategically placing them behind the gauge digits, to make an even glow and be significantly brighter.

I need to figure out a way to make a single potentiometer work with 3 channels (red, green, blue) to be able to adjust the brightness. As of right now, the cluster isn't lighting up with the headlights turning on, it's when the arduino powers on. I'm planning on wiring that into the 12V line to the stereo. I'm avoiding using the headlights to power the board on mainly due to the expansion I've planned for the arduino itself. I'm using a Mega board, because the original idea is to outline a lot of both the interior and exterior of the truck with lights, and I'd like interior glow regardless of headlight power state.

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Wow, it's been so long since I posted an update to this thread, I have an "old thread warning." Whoops!

Sorry guys! It's been a long road of constantly performing regular repairs to keep my Ranger on the road.... I haven't had the spare money to drop on parts to continue on this project.

That being said, it's time for a miniature update, and to now post on this regularly! I hit up the local salvage yard and found a 2007 2wd Ranger with front end damage (rest in peace, old friend) with an identical cluster as mine. It is different in the fact that it has black gauges rather than the white ones mine has, but that's fine. In fact, in case any one else reads up on this and would be interested in their cluster having the same final result as mine, I have spare parts for you! I may even accept a commission

I ripped out the secondary cluster, brought it home, cleaned it, and immediately gutted it. What's nice about these particular Ranger clusters: there's several layers to the cluster itself, which in between 2 layers is a beautiful gap full of a LOT of space for the bulbs!

Pic of the beautiful space:


In the above picture, you can see a layer of clear plastic with red markings. The marks are where the digits correspond on each gauge. Below the clear plastic is empty useful space. My only idea that Ford left this space here; the stock bulbs illuminate in all directions, and having a white angled reflector will help guide the glow outward to the dials. Below that layer of white plastic is where the circuit board would be located, and then another layer of white plastic that acts as the rear backing for protection.

My original idea was to have individual bulbs underneath every red mark... but then I realized that every individual bulb would require wires per RGB LED bulb. I have 25 marks, and even daisy chaining them would (in the end) have 100+ wires tangling around everywhere. So instead, I've ordered a strand of RGB LEDs to use in place. In the end, that should be only 3 wires running to the Arduino Micro board used for this individual segment of the project, and one wired outward to supply power (on only the lights alone).



The picture above actually has 2 different Arduinos. On the left is the "Mega", and the right side is a "Micro." My original idea changed a bit; I'll be using the Micro specifically and only for the instrument cluster. At the end of this LED adventure, the Mega will be mounted underneath the radio and controlling all of the LEDs on the interior and exterior, minus the instrument cluster. I may change my mind again later on down the road... but for now, I'd rather the cluster be separate from the main light show.

If you've read down this far, you're friggin awesome. Just saying. Also, if you're electrical savvy, is anyone aware of wire(s) going into/behind the cluster that is a 12V and/or a 5V line that I can tap into? I need 12V+ to power the LED lights, and a 5V+ line to power the Micro. I'd prefer to not run a new line directly from the battery, and (admittedly) I'm not comfortable busting into the fuse box and making a new line.

Here's some awesome links relevant to the project!

The Arduino micro: http://www.arduino.cc/en/Main/arduinoBoardMicro
The LED lights in the cluster: https://www.adafruit.com/products/346

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My LED strip arrived in the mail yesterday, and to be incredibly honest, I was upset with what I saw. I knew the strip was "waterproof", but the picture on the website shows the light strip tied in a knot, giving me the idea that it would make a nice flat circle to be under each gauge's digits. Well, they're not that flexible... in fact, they won't do that type of flex at all.

I'm not about to give up that easily though.



Each 3 LED strip can be divided, and just loosely placing it on top of the clear piece,


With the strips going under the clear plastic, I used the red marker on the white piece to show where the LED bulbs will be shining, then put the clear plastic on again to see if it will all line up and make sense.



And sure enough, it lines up nicely!



Now this leaves me with: what's the most efficient way to connect them all back together?



For those who are not completely computer savvy, that's an IDE cable. Older PCs (let's say older than 2003) used this type of ribbon cable to transfer data between hard drive to motherboard, or from the CD drive to motherboard. I've got a boat load of these particular cables (as a computer tech, you never know when you'll need one ), so sacrificing one or two is no problem at all.



Not only can I custom cut these cables down to size, they will make this entire thing so much more neatly oraganized!

You know what isn't fun though? Trying to wirestrip 26(ish) gauge wires.



It can be done, with sharp fingernails or a 22 AWG wire stripper, and a whole lot of patience.

Sadly, my soldering iron has way too dull of a tip for me to try and solder these wires to the strips, so I'll do my soldering tomorrow at work with a nice, adjustable temperature iron with a sharp tip.

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Does the micro not accept 12v for power? You could use a voltage regulator for your 5v but you'll need a diode and capacitor to arrest any spikes in the system.

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