How -To: Change lights in stock radio

Jenni · Post by **Jenni** » Tue Feb 02, 2010 2:05 pm

the radio

remove the 4 screws (TORX)

remove the volume, balance and treble knobs

flip up the front panel

remove the connectors

remove the screws

don't loose one of the inner parts

pay attention the polarisation!!!

if you wanna have red light you can stop here and just remove the blue caps and install red rubber caps therefor!!

and thats it - bulbs removed, LEDs in. you can see my soldering needle. don't try to make that with a big fat soldering gun

install a 300 Ohm resistor here

isolate it!

and then you can reassemble everything!

and there it is. open:

and closed

bstc00 · Post by **bstc00** » Tue Feb 02, 2010 2:17 pm

Nice write up. what kind of leds did you use?

acr · Post by **acr** » Tue Feb 02, 2010 3:40 pm

Wow that looks awesome, nice job.

Ntyvirus1 · Post by **Ntyvirus1** » Tue Feb 02, 2010 3:44 pm

if u need another how to wiggy has one in his lighting how to

wiggyx · Post by **wiggyx** » Tue Feb 02, 2010 4:08 pm

This is the "proper" way to do this mod, especially for blue. You don't need to do all this for red, orange, yellow, or green, but if you're doing purple, pink, or blue, then this is the way to go

Carsten, give us the details on the LEDs you used please!

Jenni · Post by **Jenni** » Wed Feb 03, 2010 5:03 pm

thank you wiggyx for your statement!

Those are the same bright blue 3mm leds that i use for every other modificattion...

btw: 480 Ohm is maybe to much for the resistor. it could be also half that much, like 250 Ohm....

mikeb818 · Post by **mikeb818** » Thu Feb 04, 2010 12:36 am

wow that was great. if you just take off the caps they be white im assuming??

LI NEON 72 · Post by **LI NEON 72** » Sun Mar 28, 2010 7:12 pm

What do you do for orange then? Has anyone used that color?

OB · Post by OB » Sun Mar 28, 2010 8:31 pm

wiggyx wrote:This is the "proper" way to do this mod, especially for blue. You don't need to do all this for red, orange, yellow, or green, but if you're doing purple, pink, or blue, then this is the way to go

Carsten, give us the details on the LEDs you used please!

^^^

RayWolf · Post by **RayWolf** » Sun Apr 11, 2010 10:26 pm

if you want orange its what the lights put out with out the caps on. (no other mods other than removing the caps)
idk how to get the display color changed to other colors.

Jenni · Post by **Jenni** » Mon Apr 12, 2010 2:30 am

display color cannot be changed, it is a vacuum display.
You can maybe use celophane to change the light.

NGCnoproblem · Post by **NGCnoproblem** » Mon Jun 18, 2012 5:42 pm

Alright I'm having some problems with this mod. Last night I did everything but tsb out of time to do the resistor. I knew i did it right cus all of the leds lit up nice and bright. So today I put on the resistor 330 ohm 1/4 watt 5% tolerance. And its on the correct wire. Wen I hooked it back up the middle lower led and the one to the right of it didn't work also some leds were really dim. So I wanted to double check the resistance wasnt to much so I disconnected the resistor then jumped a wore from the board to the wire. Two leds burned out and one more won't light up. But the rest are nice and bright. What did I do wrong?

Jenni · Post by **Jenni** » Tue Jun 19, 2012 3:21 am

hmmmm. good question but hard to answer w/o seeing it. Hmmmm.... i have almost no idea in the moment. They burnt because 12V was too much.
I think 330 Ohm is too high. Maybe 250 should be fine.

NGCnoproblem · Post by **NGCnoproblem** » Tue Jun 19, 2012 3:22 am

Do u think cheap eBay leds might b part of the problem

Jenni · Post by **Jenni** » Tue Jun 19, 2012 4:34 am

no. i also use

NGCnoproblem · Post by **NGCnoproblem** » Tue Jun 19, 2012 12:00 pm

Would not using a resistor burn them out instantly

Jenni · Post by **Jenni** » Thu Jun 21, 2012 11:03 am

maybe you had luck. normally they would burn in no time w/o resistor

NGCnoproblem · Post by **NGCnoproblem** » Thu Jun 21, 2012 12:26 pm

Ok. Are these leds in series or parallel? Because some were dim with the resistor on.

Jenni · Post by **Jenni** » Fri Jun 22, 2012 1:13 pm

normally parallel. else 12V bulbs wouldn't make sense

NGCnoproblem · Post by **NGCnoproblem** » Fri Jun 22, 2012 1:46 pm

Well after messing around it appears they are in series-parallel cus after a fixed a burnt led other leds lit back up

Jenni · Post by **Jenni** » Sat Jun 23, 2012 9:28 am

weird

NGCnoproblem · Post by **NGCnoproblem** » Sat Jun 23, 2012 11:44 am

Ya lol. I finally got it all workin. The eBay leds I got were the problem. I got some superbrights instead