Climate colour change
From Wiki
Equipment required:
- Fine tipped soldering iron with stand
- High flux solder - bought from modelling shop
- Glass paint - bought from arts and craft shop
- Fine tipped paint brush
- Clear coloured plastic
- Small pair of wire cutters
- Small pair of pliers/tweezers
- Various Philips screwdrivers
- LEDs: Maplin - I used 3mm Super bright red LEDs Product Link
1. Take off the central console from the Celica, disconnecting all cables in the process. To do this, see this guide.
2. Place the whole console face down on a towel to prevent scratching.
3. Remove the 4 screws from the back of the a/c unit
4. Remove the plastic casing and disconnect the cable
5. Once this has been done carefully separate the two cases (unclipping the catches) of the a/c unit to reveal both boards. The board with the a/c buttons is all we are interested in so you can ignore the rear board that is seen above.
6. Carefully unscrew the central screw which is holding the board in place.
7. Now carefully turn the unit over and gently pull off the temperature control knob to reveal the nut below. Unscrew this nut and softly prise the circuit board away from the display unit.
8. You should now see the 9 LED's and rubber mattering, which can now be removed.
9. It's probably safer if you remove the 4 bulbs (with green condoms) which back light up the whole board.
10. It's easy to now see which LED lights up which section, but here is the list in case anyone gets confused.
- LED 1 = Re-circulate
- LED 2 = Auto
- LED 3 = A/C
- LED 4 = Heated rear window
- LED 5 = Feet
- LED 6 = Window/Feet
- LED 7 = Window
- LED 8 = Face/Legs
- LED 9 = Face
At the base of each LED 'leg' there is a label marked A and K.
A = Anion, which represents the positive terminal
K = Cation, which represents the negative terminal
11. Using a fine tipped soldering iron heat the front and rear soldering point to remove the chopped off legs of the LED. Do this for all 9 LED's so you are left with an empty board.
12.Pick up a brand new LED, and you can see that one leg is shorter than the other. The general norm for these LED's is that the shorter leg is the negatively changed side so its wise to mark this side at the base of the LED with a marker pen so you remember which side it which when soldering them to the board.
13. Each LED has a broad section on each 'leg' about 5mm from the head of the LED. Using a pair of wire cutters,cut a straight line across the legs about 2/3mm below the broadened areas.
14. Now solder the LED into one of the 9 areas on the board, using fresh solder if required to seal the LED onto the board. Remember to solder the LED from positive to negative and negative to positive
15. Each LED needs to stand about 10mm high. This a fiddly and time consuming process, but I found it easier to heat up the solder the back of the board and gently push the LED legs through.
16. Now just ensure that the connections are sealed properly, using fresh solder if necessary. It’s probably best to put the board back together and go and test whether the LED is working by plugging it back to the car. This will save a lot of time if you haven't soldered the LED as directed.
17. Repeat this to do all 9 LED's
18. Replace the rubber matting and redo all the screws and nuts etc and check that all the LED’s are working by plugging back into the car.
19. With all LED's now completed you need to alter the background lighting of the board to the colour you want. I am personally using clear blue plastic in front of the main display and board clock. I have also painted the clear plastic inside the controls (like a spider web) to the colour I wanted and removed the green coloured bulb condoms.
