Kevin XA Posted July 26 Report Share Posted July 26 The boxster 986 has to my opinion a horrible yellow color, so while reprogamming the unit I changed out the LED's and the current limiting resistors. parts you need: - 10x 220 Ohm 1/8W resistors, preferrably SMD 1206 although normal ones also work, I used those since they we're lingering around. - 4x 270 Ohm 1/8W resistors - 2x 470 Ohm 1/8W resistors - soldering iron, preferrably the heat blower type - Blue 3528 20mA LEDs somewhere around 50pcs so just order a strip of 100 and you're good. - solder, preferrably tin-lead, I used 60/40 other ones with more tin and silver will work but are also mora a pain in the ar*e... - soldering fluid, I use S39 for everything. - tweezers because the parts are small. Changing the resistors is a necessary evil since every color of LED has its own threshold and forward voltage (VT = starting and VF = operating voltage of a LED), the original yellow ones had a VT of 1,739V which is in the lines of 2,2VF for a yellow LED. Since I wanted blue 3528 20mA LED's which has an operating VF of 3,0-3,2V, the resistors had to be changed accordingly to end up to the same current (20mA) for normal operation. If you want another color of LED you'll need to adapt accoringly. although most LED's like yellow, red and orange have the same threshold Voltage so you don't need to change the resistors. The threshold Voltage of white, pink, purple and blue are also mostly close to eachother so just change them to these values. green depends on the LED you pick, if its VF is around 2.2V like yellow so you don't need to change the resistors. If somewhere around 3.0-3.6VF and its the same as blue so you'll have to change to the same values as the blue ones. So first things first you'll need to remove the cluster from your car, there are a lot of how to's out thers so I'm going to skip that one. Presuming you have your cluster now warm and cozy on your bureau, start removing the two upper screws on the back, the daycounter zeroing and the clock buttons (just pull them straight out) and remove the retaining clips on the two side taps. - Now you can take the cluster apart, remove the white centerpiece as a whole and drop the outer shell somwhere safe. [img]https://i.imgur.com/yiiImVM.jpeg[/img] - Next remove the 4 screws retaining the mainboard and loosen the flexcable (topside of pic) from the mainboard to the gauges. (red circles) - On the back of the mainboard you'll find 10x 358 Ohm resistors for the LED's underneath the center display. replace those with 220 Ohm ones by soldering. - While on the back of the mainboard, carefully loosen the white clips retaining the mainscreen. when it's loose you can unclip the matrix cable of the screen. - turn the mainboard around and remove the mainscreen you've unclipped. Underneath you'll see 30 LED's. They are in series per 3 LEDs with one resistor on the other side. Desolder all of them. The cathodes (negative) are all pointing south on the board, Keep in mind that direction is important with a LED. After removing the old ones replace them with the new ones. It is a bit finnicky, for me it was a revelation when I put a small drop of solder on one of the two pads per LED and solder it stuck to this side first, then finish the other side. CONGRATS! you just finished the firts half To continue our journey we go forward to the gauges. - Flip over and make a picture of the exact gauge pointer stand after you pushed them carefully back to starting point, you'll notice when the pointer won't move further. - Remove the pointers by pulling them straight up, if you need tools make a small cover for the plate wit toiletpaper or something like it to not damage it. Though I didn't need it. - Flip over to the back again and remove the screws on the back of the gauge board. - the two small screens on de side gauges are retained with 4 small retainers/tabs each, unclip those. (black tabs on the picture) - Flip back to the front, between the center gauge (RPM) and the side gauge (TEMP&FUEL or SPEEDOMETER) there's a plastic white retaining clip, carefully push it in while separating the the white plastic front with the face plates from the gauge board. The board is a bit flexible between the side gauge and the maingauge don't flex it to much, it will break. - Replace the two resistor sets left and right with the 270 Ohm resistors (original 375 Ohm), these are for the leds behind the side gauges. - Replace the center resistances (original 633 Ohm) with 470 Ohm. - Flip the gauge board around again, as you can see on the white plastic there are 4 LED's per gauge spread in half a circle for the speedometer and the RPMmeter, the Fuel and temp gauge has a block of 4 LED's at 2 o' clock. 12 in total. desolder those and replace with the new LED's - The two small sidescreens also have a block of 4 LED's underneath them. desolder and replace these too. Small fact, by now you have desoldered and soldered 50LED's and 16 resistors☠️ Now, put everything back together et Voila, you have the most beautiful gauge cluster ever seen in a Boxster! here's my result: 3 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
map Posted July 27 Report Share Posted July 27 🤓 Some smart electronictricky there. What about the various bits of orange/yellow interior night-time illumination? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kevin XA Posted July 27 Author Report Share Posted July 27 9 hours ago, map said: 🤓 Some smart electronictricky there. What about the various bits of orange/yellow interior night-time illumination? Same same, although it's possible they didn't use SMD LED's and only single LED's in stead of series coupled so the resistors has to be recalculated Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EXY Posted July 28 Report Share Posted July 28 On 7/26/2024 at 11:54 PM, Kevin XA said: That looks much more modern 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kevin XA Posted July 30 Author Report Share Posted July 30 (edited) On 7/28/2024 at 7:35 PM, EXY said: That looks much more modern Definetly does! Also fits way better with a blue car with a blue interior 😆 Edited July 30 by Kevin XA added photo 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kevin XA Posted July 30 Author Report Share Posted July 30 How do you edit the title btw? I tried just after posting but it gave an error. The typo is making me insane 🤦🏾♂️ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
red rocket Posted July 30 Report Share Posted July 30 38 minutes ago, Kevin XA said: How do you edit the title btw? I tried just after posting but it gave an error. The typo is making me insane 🤦🏾♂️ Probably one for @Araf Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EXY Posted July 30 Report Share Posted July 30 4 hours ago, Kevin XA said: How do you edit the title btw? I tried just after posting but it gave an error. The typo is making me insane 🤦🏾♂️ I believe if you become a contributor you get extra time for editing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Araf Posted July 30 Report Share Posted July 30 5 hours ago, Kevin XA said: How do you edit the title btw? I tried just after posting but it gave an error. The typo is making me insane 🤦🏾♂️ Done for you. Happy to help when necessary. Just @ and then add my name will alert me to the thread. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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