MITSUBISHI ECLIPSE 3G LED RADIO CONVESION
Alright, so your bored of your stock radio color and want to do something about it, you can paint the bulbs, or color the plastic that lights up the buttons, but your a car enthusiast and you want to do it the right way.
Items you need
Single din Infinity radio from 3g Eclipse
Phillips screwdriver, 1 large 1 small
Pliers Preferably Jewelers
Nail clippers or wire cutters
Tweezers
Solder
Soldering Iron
Soldering Flux
Some intelligence
L.E.D.'s
Resistors rated for the led you are using.
You can use this site for a calculator LED calculator for single LEDs
L.E.D RESISTOR RATINGS BY COLOR
RED: 1.8-2.2v/24mA max, needs 560ohM 1/2watt resistor
ORANGE: 1.8-2.2v/24mA, needs 560ohM 1/2watt resistor
YELLOW: 1.8-2.2v/24mA, needs 560ohM 1/2watt resistor
Green: 3.0-3.4v/24mA max, needs 470ohM 1/2watt resistor
Blue: 3.0-3.4v/24mA max, needs 470ohM 1/2watt resistor
White: 3.0-3.2v/24mA max, needs 470ohM 1/2watt resistor
Warm White: 3.0-3.4v/24mA max, needs 470ohM 1/2watt resistor
Pink: 3.0-3.4v/24mA max, needs 470ohM 1/2watt resistor
First you want to remove the two screws in the bottom of the bezel (see red circles)
Then pull it away from the dash board like this.
Now reach inside from the top and push the hazard button toward you popping it out.
Disconnect the harness and set the bezel and button to the side.
Now unscrew the 4 screws that hold the radio and cubby in the dash.
Disconnect the cables to the back of the radio, when reinstalling after your one make sure you push the antenna cables in as far as you can you should use some force for this.
Once that is done there are 2 screws on each side of the radio that need to come out and once they are you can take the radio to your work area.
The radio will have 3 clips on the top, 3 on the bottom and 1 on each side of the black faceplate. pop those with a small screwdriver or tweezers and remove the face plate from the bulk of the radio.
Now it is time to remove the 5 small screws from the Printed Circuit Board (PCB), and pull the 2 knobs off the front, the volume and the channel select button.
now pull the board out and you will see 4 bulbs on black bases, remove them, now normally I would never suggest using brute force to remove components from a PCB but I did this and see no cause for not doing it. Take the pliers and grip the base of the bulb holder (black plastic) and twist them off. Once all 4 are off you can take your soldering iron and solder and add some solder to each of the 8 contact points there. (when removing the bulbs they may shatter and go flying everywhere so wear eye protection) once you add solder if you have any small wires left over from twisting off the bulb apply the soldering iron and with pliers or tweezers pull the wires out and discard them. touch up your contact points and we are now finished with prep of the PCB. Now its time to prep our LED's for placement.
An LED has a long leg (anode) and a short leg (cathode), the long leg is the + and the short leg is the - or ground. The resistors don't do not have a polarity they can be soldered with either leg it won't make a difference, but for a professional look install them with the colors going to same direction.
I experimented with 2 ways of placing the resistors to the LED's and found that placing the resistor under the LED and not next to it will work better and allow for a cleaner more fluid flow of lighting. but either way will work. I did notice that my seek and 1,2,3, buttons were dim compared to the rest once done with the conversion this is either from a short i probably knocked it off its solder base or its the resistor blocking light in that area or the LED is mounted to high from the PCB.
Once you finish prep work on your LED's, when it comes time to solder them to the PCB you will want them as close to the PCB as possible, I was actually able to get the resistor to sit on the PCB and about a mm of post to solder it was difficult but very possible. Once you solder your 4 LED's in place test fit them into the face plate housing, and once your satisfied you can begin to follow the disassembly steps in reverse to put it all back together. (I would test the radio with the connectors and power source to check for lighting before you zip it all back together. PAY ATTENTION TO POLARITY IF YOU HAVE SOMETHING BACKWARDS IT WILL NOT HURT ANYTHING, BUT CONGRATS YOU JUST CREATED A D.E.D. (DARK EMITTING DIODE, actual term lol) reverse polarity and it should be ok.
]
The end result
Enjoy your new bling. Any questions email me but put them in the forum so i don't get duplicate questions and can just respond to them once, I don't check forums everyday so email but put in forum i'll ge back at you.
Thanks,
Shon
Alright, so your bored of your stock radio color and want to do something about it, you can paint the bulbs, or color the plastic that lights up the buttons, but your a car enthusiast and you want to do it the right way.
Items you need
Single din Infinity radio from 3g Eclipse
Phillips screwdriver, 1 large 1 small
Pliers Preferably Jewelers
Nail clippers or wire cutters
Tweezers
Solder
Soldering Iron
Soldering Flux
Some intelligence
L.E.D.'s
Resistors rated for the led you are using.
You can use this site for a calculator LED calculator for single LEDs
L.E.D RESISTOR RATINGS BY COLOR
RED: 1.8-2.2v/24mA max, needs 560ohM 1/2watt resistor
ORANGE: 1.8-2.2v/24mA, needs 560ohM 1/2watt resistor
YELLOW: 1.8-2.2v/24mA, needs 560ohM 1/2watt resistor
Green: 3.0-3.4v/24mA max, needs 470ohM 1/2watt resistor
Blue: 3.0-3.4v/24mA max, needs 470ohM 1/2watt resistor
White: 3.0-3.2v/24mA max, needs 470ohM 1/2watt resistor
Warm White: 3.0-3.4v/24mA max, needs 470ohM 1/2watt resistor
Pink: 3.0-3.4v/24mA max, needs 470ohM 1/2watt resistor
First you want to remove the two screws in the bottom of the bezel (see red circles)
Then pull it away from the dash board like this.
Now reach inside from the top and push the hazard button toward you popping it out.
Disconnect the harness and set the bezel and button to the side.
Now unscrew the 4 screws that hold the radio and cubby in the dash.
Disconnect the cables to the back of the radio, when reinstalling after your one make sure you push the antenna cables in as far as you can you should use some force for this.
Once that is done there are 2 screws on each side of the radio that need to come out and once they are you can take the radio to your work area.
The radio will have 3 clips on the top, 3 on the bottom and 1 on each side of the black faceplate. pop those with a small screwdriver or tweezers and remove the face plate from the bulk of the radio.
Now it is time to remove the 5 small screws from the Printed Circuit Board (PCB), and pull the 2 knobs off the front, the volume and the channel select button.
now pull the board out and you will see 4 bulbs on black bases, remove them, now normally I would never suggest using brute force to remove components from a PCB but I did this and see no cause for not doing it. Take the pliers and grip the base of the bulb holder (black plastic) and twist them off. Once all 4 are off you can take your soldering iron and solder and add some solder to each of the 8 contact points there. (when removing the bulbs they may shatter and go flying everywhere so wear eye protection) once you add solder if you have any small wires left over from twisting off the bulb apply the soldering iron and with pliers or tweezers pull the wires out and discard them. touch up your contact points and we are now finished with prep of the PCB. Now its time to prep our LED's for placement.
An LED has a long leg (anode) and a short leg (cathode), the long leg is the + and the short leg is the - or ground. The resistors don't do not have a polarity they can be soldered with either leg it won't make a difference, but for a professional look install them with the colors going to same direction.
I experimented with 2 ways of placing the resistors to the LED's and found that placing the resistor under the LED and not next to it will work better and allow for a cleaner more fluid flow of lighting. but either way will work. I did notice that my seek and 1,2,3, buttons were dim compared to the rest once done with the conversion this is either from a short i probably knocked it off its solder base or its the resistor blocking light in that area or the LED is mounted to high from the PCB.
Once you finish prep work on your LED's, when it comes time to solder them to the PCB you will want them as close to the PCB as possible, I was actually able to get the resistor to sit on the PCB and about a mm of post to solder it was difficult but very possible. Once you solder your 4 LED's in place test fit them into the face plate housing, and once your satisfied you can begin to follow the disassembly steps in reverse to put it all back together. (I would test the radio with the connectors and power source to check for lighting before you zip it all back together. PAY ATTENTION TO POLARITY IF YOU HAVE SOMETHING BACKWARDS IT WILL NOT HURT ANYTHING, BUT CONGRATS YOU JUST CREATED A D.E.D. (DARK EMITTING DIODE, actual term lol) reverse polarity and it should be ok.
]
The end result
Enjoy your new bling. Any questions email me but put them in the forum so i don't get duplicate questions and can just respond to them once, I don't check forums everyday so email but put in forum i'll ge back at you.
Thanks,
Shon
PLEASE HELP!
