Didn't wanna keep posting on Lukes build thread so thought I'd post here for peeps toughts..

A few people going blue on the dash boards, I was thinking White dials, and then getting some needles of a non vRS so they light up a custom colour correctly, green? Might sound boring but I kinda like it.. Sort of a custom OEM+ Skoda theme. Plus, still ties in with all the buttons so allot less work on that side of things.

Quick Photoshop I did.. VERY rough.

Yes!! I think that looks much better than blue tbh.

If you're feeling especially brave, you could try to get the needles to go red if you redline or go over 70 say.

Looks ace !! do a how too

Sent "while licking my bathroom tiles" using Tapatalk !!

i reckon that looks awesome

im going for this, i will try do a write up will be done in a few weeks hopefully

Ooo.. More love than I was expecting, lol!

I just realised, as well.. It's Almost Silver, Green & Red... Even more vRS'ish than the stock clocks, lol!

Scott, I like that, but it aint something I'd do.. bit to washed out for my taste, but pretty slick looking.

The only issue I can think of when only changing the LED's in the pod is they always seem to be brighter than stock items, meaning that your pod would be out of sync with the rest of the dash when it came to dimming, and you'd end up having it right down to make the pod correct, but at the cost of almost turning off all the rest.. Hmm.. Maybe you can get less efficient LED's for a conversion retaining the normal dash lights.

Yes!! I think that looks much better than blue tbh.

If you're feeling especially brave, you could try to get the needles to go red if you redline or go over 70 say.

And just as you were clipping it back togther and screwing it back in, they'd announce on the radio that NSL had finally been rasied to 80... DOH!

You mean like the new Skoda's have? My new vRS is great with white dials, so much better than green and blue imo

Are the new'ens green needles on white dials then? That's explain why it feels a bit Skoda'ish even though it's a mod. And I guess that really would make it count almost as OEM+ then

White and green looks awesome!

I like green in general, shame the OEM looks a little tired and old, otherwise it wouldn't need touching

Didn't wanna keep posting on Lukes build thread so thought I'd post here for peeps toughts..

A few people going blue on the dash boards, I was thinking White dials, and then getting some needles of a non vRS so they light up a custom colour correctly, green? Might sound boring but I kinda like it.. Sort of a custom OEM+ Skoda theme. Plus, still ties in with all the buttons so allot less work on that side of things.

Quick Photoshop I did.. VERY rough.

Looks awesome mate would love to see this done, dont forget if your tearing apart your dash nick the chrome shiny centre bits for needles from a a lupo and some nice speedo surrounds in chrome, might as well

White lights and white needles in new vRS iirc... forget now lol

I've got either white dials, red needles in the Mazda, or all red.

White is much too bright for night use IMO, and red is just boring. That said, the white is very nice, and I'd expect if fitted as a full time solution wouldn't be too bad when dim-able (the RX-8 is white with lights off, or red with them on).

Having blue in the Polo, I would say I prefer white tbh. The blue is quite tiring after a while.

White and green looked pretty good though.

That looks siiiiiick! Hummmmmm, iv never done anything like this before but I'm sure I could borrow a soldering iron lol

That does look very nice.

Just a note if you attempt this the ASR and heated window switches come with a 12v green led as standard. the replacements are 3-5v or there abouts so a resistor will need to be soldered in. Not much space so they need to be fairly small

That does look very nice.

Just a note if you attempt this the ASR and heated window switches come with a 12v green led as standard. the replacements are 3-5v or there abouts so a resistor will need to be soldered in. Not much space so they need to be fairly small

Good note in general, but not applicable if doing what's in my photoshop as they remain green! Woo!

I had another thought this morning on if this'll work.. The white needles from a standard pod might not work.. I'm not sure of their construction but I believe the red needles are clear plastic with the top face painted red as they're designed to illuminate.. However, the white needles don't independently light up, do they? There's certainly no LEDs in position on the pictures Devontopia posted on Lukes build thread... Which makes me wonder if the white needles are a solid white, non light refracting, plastic?

But wait, don't despair!.... It'd most likely be very easy to get the red finish off of the red needles and replace with a suitable white finish...

Sam.. You know what I'm thinking, don't you??

...... Outta interest, how much is a set of clocks? And is it a big job to get them re-coded (a used pod) for your car if you fuber the original? I'm just trying to get an idea of cost should the absolute worse happen..

............. I've just had another thought, as well.. You could theoretically re use some of the greens you take off the dial for the needle colour change! That's gonna give you perfect consistency with the rest of the dash.. Just need to make sure the whites aren't to bright.. wonder if there's enough room to bodge some teey tiny resistors in as well to ensure a nice even glow.. I'm thinking about this to much now, aren't I..... Oh, Hang on, I guess you could always just coat them in something to reduce their output... like some clear varnish with a drop of black paint added or the like.. so some laminx might work? The depends on how hot they get, of course.. but I reckon you'd be ok. EDIT: Just read that Karl mentioned both these techniques on Lukes thread.. so that's good.. but also Bad, as it means I wanna do this.. and it's quite cheap.. which is the worsted part of it all because I means I could afford to do it! CAK!.. assuming I don't break it.

Sam.. You know what I'm thinking, don't you??

It should work

It still hasn't arrived... which has given me time to think, and I've come across something else that should achieve the same results but will mean...

1) It will be easier to do in the first place.

2) It will be easier to remove if I don't like it.

3) Should be more durable.

4) Can be used elsewhere if I have any spare.

I'm going to order it after pay day.

Actually, I've just ordered it now, it's not expensive

Edited 4 November, 201114 yr by softscoop

It should work

It still hasn't arrived... which has given me time to think, and I've come across something else that should achieve the same results but will mean...

1) It will be easier to do in the first place.

2) It will be easier to remove if I don't like it.

3) Should be more durable.

4) Can be used elsewhere if I have any spare.

I'm going to order it after pay day.

Actually, I've just ordered it now, it's not expensive

Hmmmm... If it's what I think it is then that's a good shout..

I just found this pic on eBay (link might not work)

Shows that the white neeles can throw light.. Woo!

The only issue I can think of when only changing the LED's in the pod is they always seem to be brighter than stock items, meaning that your pod would be out of sync with the rest of the dash when it came to dimming, and you'd end up having it right down to make the pod correct, but at the cost of almost turning off all the rest.. Hmm.. Maybe you can get less efficient LED's for a conversion retaining the normal dash lights.

If the LEDs you use are too bright then all that is needed is a higher value resistor for each group, to match the brightness to the other switches and dials

Hey stop nicking my pictures and photo shopping them LOL

Only joking carry on. They look good though and have given me some more ideas

Anyway seeing that there is renewed interest in this type of mod, I have had a look around the old PC and found some photos

I've put coloured circles around the LEDs to explain what they do :-

Ten Red ones are for the Speedo and Rev counter

Four Light Blue ones are for the Temp and Fuel Gauges

Six Dark Blue ones are for the two digital readouts (don't need to replace all six because they Will be too bright)

Six Yellow ones are for the Needles

As you can see there are twenty LEDs to be replaced with out the needles, but you could put any colour LEDs that you like. You could mix and match ie dials blue, digital readouts red.

From the size of the 5p coin you can see that the are very small and they are difficult to solder, I suggest that you cover up with a piece of paper all areas that you are not working on. you don't want any solder splashes shorting the board out.

Also found this photo showing how to dim the LEDs with some tinted film.

I have a digital tuning box which I normally leave off only switching on when needed but the switch does not have the facility to light up when on.

so I came up with this idea

Still working on that one because its OK in the day but it looks like this at night

The combination of the extra red LEDs and the blue make it look funky to me, some might like it but I don't and I am trying to figure a way of switch the blue off when the tuning box is on !

Anyway I have ordered some new LEDs and some Needles and will be pulling the dash apart in the near future and I will post up some better instructions.

If you are going to do this mod ask away and I'll try and answer your questions

Karl

korban that onee above looks awesome! mad disco style. wouldnt personally run it but it is funky!

so why is a resistor needed in the door led and not the other dash buttons? and what would happen if i didnt solder a resistor to the window switches?

Hey stop nicking my pictures and photo shopping them LOL

Only joking carry on. They look good though and have given me some more ideas

Anyway seeing that there is renewed interest in this type of mod, I have had a look around the old PC and found some photos

I've put coloured circles around the LEDs to explain what they do :-

Ten Red ones are for the Speedo and Rev counter

Four Light Blue ones are for the Temp and Fuel Gauges

Six Dark Blue ones are for the two digital readouts (don't need to replace all six because they Will be too bright)

Six Yellow ones are for the Needles

As you can see there are twenty LEDs to be replaced with out the needles, but you could put any colour LEDs that you like. You could mix and match ie dials blue, digital readouts red.

From the size of the 5p coin you can see that the are very small and they are difficult to solder, I suggest that you cover up with a piece of paper all areas that you are not working on. you don't want any solder splashes shorting the board out.

Also found this photo showing how to dim the LEDs with some tinted film.

I have a digital tuning box which I normally leave off only switching on when needed but the switch does not have the facility to light up when on.

so I came up with this idea

Still working on that one because its OK in the day but it looks like this at night

The combination of the extra red LEDs and the blue make it look funky to me, some might like it but I don't and I am trying to figure a way of switch the blue off when the tuning box is on !

Anyway I have ordered some new LEDs and some Needles and will be pulling the dash apart in the near future and I will post up some better instructions.

If you are going to do this mod ask away and I'll try and answer your questions

Karl

Wicked! Top job! Thanks Karl

p.s. The blue + red puts me in mind of tie die t-shirts and lava lamps

This is cluster from my fabia.

korban that onee above looks awesome! mad disco style. wouldnt personally run it but it is funky!

so why is a resistor needed in the door led and not the other dash buttons? and what would happen if i didnt solder a resistor to the window switches?

Thanks Scott defiantly funky that's why I am trying to get rid of it

As Dark_Hero said Resistors are only needed on the ARS and Heated Rear Screen switches the Window switches are SMD which don't need a resistor. If you omitted the resistor the LED would burn out

Wicked! Top job! Thanks Karl

p.s. The blue + red puts me in mind of tie die t-shirts and lava lamps

Thanks Rob, yeah now that you mention it, it does look lake a lava lamp

This is cluster from my fabia.

Nice looking dash mate, just shows that you don't have to have it all one colour

Welcome to the forum by the way

Karl