Soooo... I will NEVER be doing that again!!!
#1
Soooo... I will NEVER be doing that again!!!
I told my girl that I had seen something about changing the color of the LEDs in a speedo cluster. So.. she wanted it pink. I went ahead and ordered the little LEDs.
When the stupid little lights were shipped to me. I took one look and said to myself. "I should take this to a TV repair shop or something and let them do it."
Then, I decided to read the directions. The directions made it seem easy enough. So... I took a little bit of my abundance of ego, and decided that I could do it!!!!
So... I took off the cluster,then dismantling it. I thought.. well... it looks as easy as the directions said. I pulled the needle and the removed the RPM face plate... "all is going well".
At this point... I should have taken a second to google search the experiences with the R6 clusters.
As I tug, pull and pry on the LCD screen. I am thinking "I am doing it wrong". So I bust out the butter knife, to get under the edge and trying to convence it up. As the directions supplied, show a guy pulling it off with his fingers and saying "be careful not to break it."
Then I get it about half way up and notice they are not pins that can be pulled out like the directions implies. I thought there might be some sort of male female connection in the middle but I was sadly mistaken. Looking at the bottom of the screen... I see these little prongs. "Oh... maybe that is where they come apart."
Prying and pulling at them. I remove 15 breaking 4 or them in the process. "You have got to be ****ing KIDDING!"
After having destroyed the LCD screen. I went downstairs to the garage and got another cluster. This time I desoldered the damn thing and put it aside. Mind you... there are 28 pins in the back of this screen... so I sat there for almost an hour taking the damn thing off.
Then I remove all of the LEDs only to find out that they are polar specific. So... Which way did they go!?!? Lucky I had the other one to look at. As I melted one of the LEDs, (thank god there were extras) I though to myself... "This shit sucks!"
After about the 6th LED I started to get the hang of it and it moved along quickly. but not before I wasn't paying attention and melted one of the buttons with the iron.
Anyways, I get them all in and put the screen back on. Another hour of lining up 28 ****ing tiny ass pins to slide them back into the board. I finally get it back in and pull the switch from the other cluster to replace it. Time to go down to plug it in to see how it looks.
I turn the bike on and everything works... except now the very last number on the trip and ODO is constantly an 8 and the lights aren't that bright. Then my girl looks over and says "They are pink!.. ish purple"
So... just to recap
3.5 hours of work
I burned myself 5 times with the iron
I burned my girl 2 times
I destroyed 2 guage clusters to make 1
The LEDs were not that bright
I have 1 of the numbers that are always on
and they are not really "pink" they are Pinkish purple.
In conclusion... I will NEVER be doing this again!
When the stupid little lights were shipped to me. I took one look and said to myself. "I should take this to a TV repair shop or something and let them do it."
Then, I decided to read the directions. The directions made it seem easy enough. So... I took a little bit of my abundance of ego, and decided that I could do it!!!!
So... I took off the cluster,then dismantling it. I thought.. well... it looks as easy as the directions said. I pulled the needle and the removed the RPM face plate... "all is going well".
At this point... I should have taken a second to google search the experiences with the R6 clusters.
As I tug, pull and pry on the LCD screen. I am thinking "I am doing it wrong". So I bust out the butter knife, to get under the edge and trying to convence it up. As the directions supplied, show a guy pulling it off with his fingers and saying "be careful not to break it."
Then I get it about half way up and notice they are not pins that can be pulled out like the directions implies. I thought there might be some sort of male female connection in the middle but I was sadly mistaken. Looking at the bottom of the screen... I see these little prongs. "Oh... maybe that is where they come apart."
Prying and pulling at them. I remove 15 breaking 4 or them in the process. "You have got to be ****ing KIDDING!"
After having destroyed the LCD screen. I went downstairs to the garage and got another cluster. This time I desoldered the damn thing and put it aside. Mind you... there are 28 pins in the back of this screen... so I sat there for almost an hour taking the damn thing off.
Then I remove all of the LEDs only to find out that they are polar specific. So... Which way did they go!?!? Lucky I had the other one to look at. As I melted one of the LEDs, (thank god there were extras) I though to myself... "This shit sucks!"
After about the 6th LED I started to get the hang of it and it moved along quickly. but not before I wasn't paying attention and melted one of the buttons with the iron.
Anyways, I get them all in and put the screen back on. Another hour of lining up 28 ****ing tiny ass pins to slide them back into the board. I finally get it back in and pull the switch from the other cluster to replace it. Time to go down to plug it in to see how it looks.
I turn the bike on and everything works... except now the very last number on the trip and ODO is constantly an 8 and the lights aren't that bright. Then my girl looks over and says "They are pink!.. ish purple"
So... just to recap
3.5 hours of work
I burned myself 5 times with the iron
I burned my girl 2 times
I destroyed 2 guage clusters to make 1
The LEDs were not that bright
I have 1 of the numbers that are always on
and they are not really "pink" they are Pinkish purple.
In conclusion... I will NEVER be doing this again!
#4
Re: Soooo... I will NEVER be doing that again!!!
#7
Re: Soooo... I will NEVER be doing that again!!!
As an FYI, the longer wire leads on the LED designate the direction. (I think longer is the + side). Forget which, been a bit since i've messed w/ it. Hook them up to a battery. One lead should be slightly longer than the other.
Also, you can mess up the LED's (change the color) by too much current. Find out their rating and how much you're putting through them.
Also, you can mess up the LED's (change the color) by too much current. Find out their rating and how much you're putting through them.
#8
Re: Soooo... I will NEVER be doing that again!!!
As an FYI, the longer wire leads on the LED designate the direction. (I think longer is the + side). Forget which, been a bit since i've messed w/ it. Hook them up to a battery. One lead should be slightly longer than the other.
Also, you can mess up the LED's (change the color) by too much current. Find out their rating and how much you're putting through them.
Also, you can mess up the LED's (change the color) by too much current. Find out their rating and how much you're putting through them.
#9
Re: Soooo... I will NEVER be doing that again!!!
Here is a picture of my cluster... stock color
Here is the womans color now. It looks great on the time display... no issues
On the milage... the end is always displaying a backwards "h" at the end. but the number still works... so it just adds to the number
This is the trip setting... there are 2 trips and on each one... it displays km/h and it is not supposed too... on the left side... at the bottom... you can see the 2 lines on the bottom of the first 2 numbers are slightly there... so its like a halo, and the backards "h" is still displayed in these too.
Here is the womans color now. It looks great on the time display... no issues
On the milage... the end is always displaying a backwards "h" at the end. but the number still works... so it just adds to the number
This is the trip setting... there are 2 trips and on each one... it displays km/h and it is not supposed too... on the left side... at the bottom... you can see the 2 lines on the bottom of the first 2 numbers are slightly there... so its like a halo, and the backards "h" is still displayed in these too.
#10
beautiful struggle
Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: Atlanta/NoVa
Posts: 2,872
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Re: Soooo... I will NEVER be doing that again!!!
That sounds like hell. I suck at electrical so I don't even bother. Well look at pics later, work blocks em -__-