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Thread: NB Red Instrumentation Lighting

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    Ninja Messiah kung fu jesus's Avatar
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    NB Red Instrumentation Lighting

    Looking to gather some information...

    I have an NB1 with the factory green lighting. I prefer red lighting for my own preference and benefit. Do the NB2s have factory red lighting? What would I need to go full-red? HVAC, centerstack and auxiliary switches, etc? Do I need the lights or the panels themselves?

    Thanks for looking!

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    2,000 rpm - light wheelspin, no bog here! turboedpickup's Avatar
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    NB1 here. NB2 has amber lighting. I bought a cluster just for the metal ring surround and swapped the bulbs over. If you get the amber bulbs from revlimiter, they're more orange-orange whereas the NB2 bulbs are more red-orange (just clarifying that they're not red).

    If I'm not mistaken, for the HVAC and all that other stuff, it's the bulbs that need replacing...BUT - it's a bit more involved getting to them vs the gauge cluster bulbs.

    Edit: more info...

    https://forum.miata.net/vb/showthread.php?t=536965

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    kung fu jesus (02-14-2018)

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    Ninja Messiah kung fu jesus's Avatar
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    EXCELLENT! Thanks! I will plan to source an NB2 instrument cluster with the satin silver rings, the HVAC panel and an orange cigarette lighter surround.

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    6,000 rpm - mere mortals would shift HarryB's Avatar
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    Have been trying to get rid of amber on mine for ages; I want a warm white in everything. NB2 HVAC panel has an orange overlay (I believe NB1 ones are clear?), so do the gauge faces. NB2 switches are clear, orange bulb condoms make up for amber/orange lighting. ODO screen has an orange overlay too; had installed a red led behind mine, so the screen lights up in a rich red colour (photos in my build thread).

    I imagine that using red LEDs behind NB2 HVAC and gauges will give a nice red colour. Switches can be done too, either with red LEDs or with red bulb condoms.
    Last edited by HarryB; 02-15-2018 at 03:57 AM.

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    Ninja Messiah kung fu jesus's Avatar
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    Oh! I thought the HVAC on the NB1 was green? I wasn't sure from the link turboed posted.

    I intend to do Revlimiter "FC" gauges, white LED back lighting, hope to match the red fields of the gauges on the centerstack and switches reasonably close.


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    1,000 rpm - releasing the clutch NicolasN's Avatar
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    After i installed the rev limiter faces i wanted all the interior light go down the LED way!
    Suddenly i realized that the Hvaac panel didnt turn to white,i thinnk that amber is on the faces !
    Cheers

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    Ninja Messiah kung fu jesus's Avatar
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    Amber is easier to make red than green. I dislike the green.

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    Ninja Messiah kung fu jesus's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by NicolasN View Post
    After i installed the rev limiter faces i wanted all the interior light go down the LED way
    Do you mean the way LEDs dim in adjustment versus incandescent bulbs?

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    1,000 rpm - releasing the clutch NicolasN's Avatar
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    No acctualy i removed the oem bulbs from hvaac pabel with led ones and i wss expection white colour but i was wrong cause the faces have amber overlay. As a result i still have amber colour on my hvaac

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    2,000 rpm - light wheelspin, no bog here! turboedpickup's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by kung fu jesus View Post
    Amber is easier to make red than green. I dislike the green.
    Agreed. My HVAC is green and it IS annoying. But it's last on my list of things to change .

    Also went with revlimiters zen gauges.

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    All good info! Thanks so much! I found an NB2 cluster with satin silver rings and an HVAC in satin silver too. I think I’m going to try to see this through.

    In my NA, I found a British company (Lockwood?) that sells red OE gauges and HVAC panels. I made all the lighting red, except the CC and dimmer switch. I liked it very much. I want to do something special for the NB.

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    Individual-1 ☚ ☻ ☛ Agent☣Orange's Avatar
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    Man, I had a great writeup years ago but it was wiped out by Photobucket. I’m going to get my backup drive out and look up my old picts. I eventually went all LED in mine but due to the nature of the bulbs, I wasn’t able to attain uniform brightness and mitigate hotspots.


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    Ninja Messiah kung fu jesus's Avatar
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    I saw some input you had on another forum, yeah the photos were wiped out, but it was great info! There's a lot of disjointed info out there among all the sites.

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    Ninja Messiah kung fu jesus's Avatar
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    I received a cluster from an ‘04 with the satin silver rings, white faces, amber lighting. I wanted to be honest because the odo for the new unit has about 98k fewer miles on it than mine. I swapped the odometers. I looked up how to do it, very easy, but I still wasn’t sure what color the odo would be when I swapped them. I took them apart to show the differences.

    Keep in mind, my odo is from a ‘99.



    With the odometer assembly out, it disassembles very easily with a small Phillips screwdriver and a tiny flat electronics screwdriver. Remove the black cover from the front of the odo display (not shown below) with the flat screwdriver. Along the bottom edge of the odo display there are two small reliefs, one on either side of the display’s pins, that I used alternately to gently pry the it from the circuit board. The display is LCD (glass), so be aware it is fragile. ;)

    After the display is out there are two Phillips screws holding the circuit board to the white enclosure. Removing those, the circuit board lifts out. The trip meter button remains.

    Here are the pieces of the odo:



    The key differences are that the ‘99 has a translucent diffuser in the enclosure.



    The ‘04 (with amber lit gauges) has a purple-ish red diffuser that the light shines through.



    The ‘99 odo has a light with a green condom on it. The ‘04 has an orange/amber condom on it.

    I used all the ‘99 odo components and installed it into the ‘04 cluster, using the amber-condom’d bulb to light it, instead of the green one.



    I also made a jumper to operate the high beam indicator.



    It didn’t work, but I’ll readdress it later, I likely didn’t do it right or the bulb isn’t seated properly (I pulled it from it’s socket to look inside).

    So, if you have an NB2 with amber lighting, and you want to changer the color, take note of the colored diffuser on the odo. I don’t know if the colored diffuser can be removed or changed.

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    6,000 rpm - mere mortals would shift HarryB's Avatar
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    I had the same "issue" with mine as posted a few posts back. Tried to do it white as the rest of the interior lighting by using a white LED. Color turned out to be...something. Swapped to red LED instead just for the screen, came out perfect, matching the red used by Adam (Revlimiter) in the red zone of my tach perfectly. Was not aware that the NB one is clear though, was always under the impression it was green.

    P.S. Try a red LED for the odo screen, you are going to love it.

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