33 replies to this topic

[daggles]

How easy is it to change the LED's. I saw a post on here which involved soldering and such but I'm too much of a to attempt any of that stuff myself.

You do need a certain amount of bravado to take a stack apart as they a pain to get repaired if you bust anything, but they are easy enough to get apart.

The face on mine was plastic not glass (mabe all the VX ones are?) so it wasn't as scary a job as in this description. The only fiddly bit is getting the pointers off the spindles, I used a couple of bent bits of steel strip, a bit like thin tyre levers to get behind them.

I'd just find someone else who is good at soldering to do that bit for you if you aren't that confident.

Great opportunity to print yourself a more interesting dash card like I did even if you are keeping the standard dials layout. You don't have to try too hard to beat this for interest..

[Dominique]

Oh and I moved the shift light to the top of the binnacle so it shows up in the screen as a head-up (brilliant).

I'd like to add a shiftlight as well. I've seen them before on other VX220's, fixed somehow on the top of the dash. (looking very 'after market' like)
I thought of placing it between the two main dials thou not to sure how. I will surely mean suggery on the unit

Could you possibly post a detail pic of how your solution looks like? Prefferably an action shot but be careful with too long reving the engine .


btw. Awesome what you've done on those long winter nights!! definitely like the blue leds!!

[daggles]

I got this sequential light for a snip on eBay, ok I know it looks a bit noddy but I can't remember the last time I looked down at the tacho when I was leathering it.



But if you fancy something less obtrusive, this is where I moved the original shift light to on the back of the pod



and this is how it looks in the screen when it comes on. It works really well even in bright sunlight.

[trfcboy]

Would there be a chance to buy one of these ?

[Dominique]

Looks great, thanx for posting! And as you said, it's good visable in daylight as well. I like the stealth modifications, your shiftlight as hud is what comes closest so far My NA doesn't have a standard one, so I'll need to find one on the www I guess. (suggestions welcome) Not sure if I'm going to install a sequential one or a single light. I don't want to cut up the complete pod. maybe an other option: The Atom dash illuminates white as standard, and becomes red when you need to shift. Do you think it's possible to modify the vx dash similarly?

[daggles]

There is a tacho signal on the main connector that will drive most third party shift lights so the eBay world is your oyster. The head-up option works so well that if I to fit had any sort of light again including sequential I'd point it up at the screen. Actually the angle required is quite low, I reckon around 30 - 45 degrees from the horizontal so you could mount a variety of solutions without hacking into the pod. Never seen a Atom so no idea how it looks / works..

[Dominique]

Thanx for explaining.


Here's an example of the atom dash.



All white in the dash (rev. and speedo) gets normally white illuminated when ignition is on. When reving above a sertain point all white gets red illuminated, probably some sort of duo colour led type?! looks great.

This one has additional shift leds in the steering wheel. Never saw these ones as aftermarket thou.

In the end, when using your car on the track, you pay most attention of what you see thrue the windscreen and hardly look at your dash (or steerwheel on the Atom)
I'd say your option is best.

[Nomoreskirts]

random question- if i wanted to put in a switch that would allow me to turn all the lights on the stack off, how tricky would this be?

as i dont know what feed or fuse the stack is on, if i could avoid taking it apart that would be great, but a small push button on the side, like the other dimming switch would be pretty neat.

i hate driving with lights blazing in my face when driving at night, its so lovely to drive with nothing on when i am not in a built up area.

That is my favourite quote 'it's so lovely to drive with nothing on when I am not in a built up area'
Apologies Dave, just made me giggle - I know, I am childish and smutty

[sharpz1984]

I've been asked where I got this dash from a few times so I thought I'd repost this from another (unrelated) thread..



It's a long story but the rev counter in my stack croaked. After a lot of agro trying to get if fixed (without success) I tried a more creative route...

I took the board off the back of the stack and made some spacers to mount it 2 inches further back. Then I got a cheapy rev counter from ebay, hooked it up to the input plug on the stack and it worked fine. So rather than just put it all together in standard format I made a new dash layout. The speedo and rev counter needles are shortened by about 15mm and the diameter of the faces are smaller. This leaves enough room for an extra dial and an extra LCD temp guage for later use with a chargecooler. The small knob on the lower right selects any one of 3 thermocouple inputs to the temp guage. I needed to add extension cables for the speedo stepper motor, lighting LEDS and original LCD display.

The new background card I knocked up in Adobe Illustrator, printed it on card and gave it a coat of sticky backed plastic. Got a piece of acrylic sheet and sprayed a new mask on it. This is a closer view of the design with mask (its offset cos you look at it at an angle)..



I changed the lights to blue for good measure and bobs your uncle. Oh and I moved the shift light to the top of the binnacle so it shows up in the screen as a head-up (brilliant).

Yes I did do it in the winter when the nights are long an cold and a VX is just for looking at in the garage.

 

Wow… Thats NICE!

[GiGo]

OK I know I've just dug up this old thread but....

 

 

To all having an issue with a ABS light or an EM Light, wouldn't be an idea to make a new 'dash card' with the ABS or EML covered/blanked off so the MOT guy doesn't even need to know it lights up and not goes off?

 

OK might not get away with it for the EML but the ABS and any other's wouldn't be a problem, would it, ABS isn't need by law and if the light isn't there then the MOT'er wouldn't know?

[smiley]

Dont these warning lights have to go on at startup and then off to prove they work? Could work untill you hit a smartass mot guy.

[GiGo]

Dont these warning lights have to go on at startup and then off to prove they work? Could work untill you hit a smartass mot guy.

You are right, but ABS is not a legal requirement and doesn't have to be fitted, but if fitted, it has to work!

[Jason]

They will look under the front bonnet and see the abs module atttached to the servo.

[slindborg]

Or just do the brake test and find its there.... Far easier to bridge the abs light to other things or make up a magical cheater unit to turn on the abs and srs lights for the right times. Daggles was a right laugh at meets