Arduino LED Light Show WIP



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. 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 itselfIt 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 nightWhen 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 digitsQuite 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 visibleA 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 totalNow, 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 paintTwo 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 truckThat'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.

2004 Ranger Edge 4.0L SOHC

SuperCab, 4x4, 5 speed manual

Alpine CDE-HD137BT, 4x Kenwood KFC-C6894PS, 2x 12" Sony Xplod (lol) with Kicker DX1000.1

Smoked OEM headlights, 6000K HID, 6000K LED fog, Spec-D Taillights + Smoked Anzo 3rd brake light, blacked out with VHT Niteshade

and other mods Arduino Light Show Project Log __________________