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LED swap! color change green to blue (in progress)

Discussion in 'Prius c Accessories and Modifications' started by SquallLHeart, Mar 21, 2012.

  1. Flying White Dutchman

    Flying White Dutchman Senior Member

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    can you not use a colored filter for the radio leds.
    because they are so many?
    some sort of color bleu that wil filter out the green and give a nice bleu finisch.
    maybe just light bleu plastic transparent sheet
     
  2. SquallLHeart

    SquallLHeart The Techie Guy

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    with a colored filter, it depends not only on the filter itself, but what color the source of light is... it'll look weird with a blue filter over green leds.
     
  3. Flying White Dutchman

    Flying White Dutchman Senior Member

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    yes i now thats wy i told you "maybe"
    you have to check and google for color mixing.
     
  4. KK6PD

    KK6PD _ . _ . / _ _ . _

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    Think of the color filter that you want to use as a Band Pass Filter, meaning it will only pass frequencies that are in between the upper and lower limits of the filter.
    For a Blue filter to work effectively, the source illumination has to be white. The blue component would come through fine, but it would block the other colors.
    Now in your case, trying to shove a green light, which has very little to no blue content, it would just not work! It would look crappy. As hard as it is, changing the LEDs is the only way to achieve the spectacular color results you see in the photos!
     
  5. Ashley7

    Ashley7 Active Member

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    Ah, the blue looks awesome! If you were closer (and I had a spare chunk of change), I might ask you to mod mine the same way. Can't wait to see what the radio looks like. The green was the only thing I didn't like when I saw the interior for the first time. A simple color change would have made it look so much less cheap, IMO.
     
  6. krneidigh

    krneidigh Junior Member

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    How about the power button? Or that just a bad idea to take that apart?
     
  7. SquallLHeart

    SquallLHeart The Techie Guy

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    i have a package two.. so i don't have a power button..

    but from what i can see.. they aren't difficult to take apart.. i'd be able to change it for someone if they wanted to.
     
  8. krneidigh

    krneidigh Junior Member

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    Congrats on the work. I just pull my stereo, navigation, apart those are some tiny LEDs. Any tips on changing them? I work on copiers, we pretty much just replace the boards, but I have some soldering experience.
     
  9. SquallLHeart

    SquallLHeart The Techie Guy

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    i have a soldering iron that has a pencil tip which is suitable for me to solder such tiny LEDs.. also really good tweezers...

    other than that.. it's just some skill, and a lot of patience.
     
  10. gas sipper

    gas sipper Junior Member

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    was it hard to change the colors from blue to green? did u have to actually use a soldering gun?
     
  11. SquallLHeart

    SquallLHeart The Techie Guy

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    you mean from green to blue..

    and i don't use a soldering gun.. i use a soldering iron... and yes.. you have to use a soldering iron.

    was it easy? for me it was... i can't speak for anyone else.
     
  12. Flipnotiq

    Flipnotiq Junior Member

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    This is sexy. I don't get why Toyota hasn't upgraded their ugly green color to blue. Sigh I really wanna do this, but theres no way I'm taking my car apart! Looks great though! Awesome job!
     
  13. ftl

    ftl Explicator

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    I haven't had to drive my Three at night until this week, and I only just realized that my steering wheel controls don't have any illumination. Where did you get the lighted controls you used?
     
  14. SquallLHeart

    SquallLHeart The Techie Guy

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    um... the controls on my car light up like that from the factory.. i didn't get anything special... it was just green beforehand.. and i changed them to blue..

    so.. you're apparently really special if your controls don't light up..
     
  15. ftl

    ftl Explicator

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    My mother always told me I was special, but I never really believed her until now...

    Seriously, is this perhaps a difference between the One/Two and Three/Four? All my other control lights are the same as yours, but according to the specs in the brochure the two lower trims don't have the Touch Tracer display or voice recognition (voice is triggered by the button which would be in the blank spot above the phone controls in your photos).

    [​IMG]

    The touch tracer display comes on at the lightest touch of any of the steering wheel controls, showing which button you're touching; it needs a harder press of a button to actually change the setting.

    [​IMG]

    Presumably the idea is that you don't have to look down at the steering wheel to see which button you're pressing, so perhaps Toyota thought you then wouldn't need the illumination to find the right button at night.

    Could someone else with a Three or Four check if their steering wheel buttons light up, please.
     
  16. SquallLHeart

    SquallLHeart The Techie Guy

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    that is interesting... i've driven 3's and 4's before and do know about the touch tracer... but.. i guess i never really noticed whether or not they actually do light up..

    as far as i saw from taking apart mine, that the circuit boards are pretty much the same... there was the area on the circuit board for the button for the voice recognition on mine.. but obviously not put in... so if yours indeed doesn't come lit up from the factory... i wonder if just by installing the leds on the board in its respectful places... if the car's illumination circuit is wired up to get them to light up..

    it'd be cool if so.
     
  17. ftl

    ftl Explicator

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    Yeah, I really like the way those blue LEDs look on your wheel!

    How easy is it to pop the boards out of there?
     
  18. SquallLHeart

    SquallLHeart The Techie Guy

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    the airbag is extremely easy to pop off. there are instructions elsewhere on the forums (look up JDM steering wheel swap or something in the GenIII forums) it's like two clip syou just push in for the airbag to pop off..

    then you can access and remove the steering wheel controls.. which then you just need a small screwdriver to open them up. barely took me a few minutes to get it all apart.
     
  19. ftl

    ftl Explicator

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  20. SquallLHeart

    SquallLHeart The Techie Guy

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    it's just two clips that you need to depress to pop it off and out of the way.

    i've dealt with taking apart steering wheels before.. and unless you're disconnecting the airbag itself... (which i didn't)... i didn't bother disconnecting the battery. it's not as difficult as people think.. it only takes a few seconds (really..) to pop it off and out of the way.

    then a screwdriver to unscrew the screws for the steering wheel controls.. and just take those out.