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Digital Clock. Green to blue or red ?

Posted: March 14th, 2006, 3:24 pm
by Micv
I am changing my instrument cluster lights from green to red. I just can't find a way to change colour of the clock. I've seen posts sugesting removing a coloured film and changing it to a blue or red one. I disasembled the instrument cluster today, and found a green coloured piece of plastic infront of the clock, but even with this piece of plastic removed the clock was still green. Is there a film even closer to the display ? Is there a better soloution ?

Posted: March 14th, 2006, 3:57 pm
by shawno
Hey yea im pretty sure theres something that makes is green. did u take apart the clock houseing and inspected it. and if all fails try get red plastic like the lenses that u put over strobe light to change the color.

Posted: March 14th, 2006, 4:02 pm
by Nd4SpdSe
I don't believe it's a film at all, it's a set of green LED lights like the large majority of LED clocks

Posted: March 14th, 2006, 4:06 pm
by Micv
Nd4SpdSe wrote:I don't believe it's a film at all, it's a set of green LED lights like the large majority of LED clocks
Hmm, it looks like it. But there must be someone who has attempted this before. People with indiglo gauges must have the same problem...

@shawno. I didn't take the clock housing appart, I just tried it without the obvious green plastic lens.

Posted: March 14th, 2006, 4:28 pm
by Nd4SpdSe
Micv wrote:
Nd4SpdSe wrote:I don't believe it's a film at all, it's a set of green LED lights like the large majority of LED clocks
Hmm, it looks like it. But there must be someone who has attempted this before. People with indiglo gauges must have the same problem...
It's not a problem, and my guages are blue, so it doesn't bother me. The only thing that I've done is that I've played with the LED read-out on an old broken cable box when i was a kid, I applied different voltages to the LED's they went from red(default) to yellow to green, but after a dozen seconds, they'd burn out and make this horrible smell. A regular LED light, chaning the voltage just changes the brightness.

Posted: March 14th, 2006, 4:34 pm
by Micv
Nd4SpdSe wrote:
Micv wrote:
Nd4SpdSe wrote:I don't believe it's a film at all, it's a set of green LED lights like the large majority of LED clocks
Hmm, it looks like it. But there must be someone who has attempted this before. People with indiglo gauges must have the same problem...
It's not a problem, and my guages are blue, so it doesn't bother me. The only thing that I've done is that I've played with the LED read-out on an old broken cable box when i was a kid, I applied different voltages to the LED's they went from red(default) to yellow to green, but after a dozen seconds, they'd burn out and make this horrible smell. A regular LED light, chaning the voltage just changes the brightness.
It doesn't bother you that your gauges are blue and your clock is green ?
It bothers me like h.... :D

Posted: March 14th, 2006, 5:57 pm
by ariesdude
You need to take the clock out and solder in some new led displays like the ones from this catalog -
http://dkc3.digikey.com/PDF/T061/1754.pdf
They come in all color, size, shapes and what not...

I dont know the specific schematics of the the leds used in our clock - but it should be easy to find out once you get the clock out - it might be plug n play (because the led displays were standardized long time ago) - but if mazda used some non standard japanese version you still might be able to rewire it.

Overall, its possible and fairly easy to do if you have some basic electrical/electronics knowledge - after you get the clock out of the panel of course.

Posted: March 15th, 2006, 4:28 pm
by DJsMX-3
DONT order LED displays like ariesdude suggested...

The clock in the MX uses a FL display and theyre not interchangable with LED displays..

If youre going to use LED displays in the clock, get a clock LED controller for it of off ebay or something and then completely eliminate the original clock and controller.

Posted: March 15th, 2006, 10:40 pm
by den