yeah im interested how that would actually work. Do they change colour like on a timer...or are they switched, like press a switch its blue, then again its red (you know what i mean ) 124+ colours is just toooo much choice

 

I don't know I'd guess its a **** that you can turn. I'm lloking to do minimal reasearch right now but I didn't know if anyone with more exp. knew. If I figure it out and have a working model I'll post how I did it, I have some ideas based on previous knowledge and experiances outside of automotive LEDs.

 

You'd want the RGB LEDs which actally has 4 solder points I believe. This allows you to control 3 colors with 1 LED, but is a wiring nightmare espcially to try to mount in the original tach.

 

Haha yeah, it doesn't quite look right

Thanks They do look really cool at night. My gauges really comes out at night, like in pitch black. It's pretty easy to do actually once you get over the fact that you're messing with tiny little circuits lol and can possibly screw up tach forever!

I saw all the lights mods in your gallery, they look darn cool! I'm curious about the pink ones, I haven't seen any pink SMD LEDs, just wondering if you're using a pink diffuser to create pink

 

You can have loads of different colour smd`s. I have PINK ones right here

 

In case anyone was wondering, here's how the Ocean Line gauges look in the dark. I wired up the gauges yesterday after swapping out the red tinted bulbs for clear ones with orange bulb covers, all sourced from egauges.com.

 

Does anyone have a picture of what a MCS would look like with one boost gauge simply placed on the dash somewhere (you know Apexi style)?

Thanks

Mike

 

..and speedo of course?

I have read this thread several times and there a million options.
I would wager that [ like me!] what most mini owners want is a simple mounting scheme to hang two gauges on either side of the factory Tach.

first priority: the gauges have to be useful [ accurate, responsive.]

second priority: the gauges have to look GOOD both in daylight and at night. They should match/compliment the amber-on-black look of the factory gauges at night and not look too cheesy.

autometer seems to be a common favorite. I read different things about the accuracy of the autometer gauges... can they generally be trusted? Second, the night illumination seems reversed [?] versus the factory tach.

IMHO the official MINI gauges leave something to be desired regarding appearance, and boost+voltage is not the optimal combination for me. More converned about boost + oil temp.

comments/ advice ? Anyone?

regards,

robs silver mini

 

I have had very good results with Auto Meter gauges in the many cars I have installed them in. The Ultra-Lite series (the ones you see most commonly installed in MINIs) are more than reasonably accurate (especially the 270degree 'full sweep' electric gauges) and their daytime look compliments the stock gauges pretty well. Disadvantages are the light illumination is 'peripheral' (old-school, around-the-edge), reflective lighting, where the MINI instruments are 'transmittive' (through-the-face). This tends to upset the look somewhat at night. Also, there is no lighting directly available from Auto Meter to make these gauges illuminate true orange. I used Stewart-Warner LED retrofit 'bulbs' in orange for mine. This helps the color, but not the scheme.

Auto Meter recently released an Ultra-Lite II series which mostly resemble the original Ultra-Lite set, but have been redesigned with transmittive LED faces and red illuminated pointers. Unfortunately, the gauges light up white, rather than orange, and it would take some serious rework to replace the LEDs to match. The illumination, however, is extremely crisp and readable at night.

Auto Meter has also a very expensive lineup called Nexus which do not match the MINI scheme (these are dark-faced gauges, with the zero-point at 6 o'clock), but offer a selectable color scheme via remote control (!).

Stewart-Warner makes a "Performance" series of gauges that closely match the pebbled gray of the MINI gauge faces with orange pointers. These gauges however also use the peripheral lighting setup but look decent with the orange LED lighting.

DFI has a line that closely match the MINI scheme color-wise and with illuminated pointers, but these have 6 o'clock zero points and larger diameter cases.

 

you are right on as usual !

 

I've been looking at the Ocean Line gauges at egauges as well. Do you have the part numbers for the clear bulbs and orange covers?

 

here is my boost gauge...oh yeah boost gauge

 

Groovy...

Now you just need the suede covered wheel and you'll have a formula car quality setup!

That actually looks very similar to the unit that is available through pi Research systems. http://www.piresearch.com/



Hopefully it was less expensive!

 

I think I got the Type "D" 1.2W bulbs and the corresponding orange covers. Let me check my invoice tonight.

 

here's mine, just finished a few days ago. autometer ultralights.

 

Confirmed - the Ocean Line gauges use the Type "D" bulb for illumination.

Note that you have to purchase the warning lights separately.

 

Great, thanks for the info.

 

New today!

VR intercooler in/out/differential gauge:



From left to right...volt, nitrous pressure, EGT:



Of course...you know this HAS to be next

 

dats pretty sick Sid

 

Just incase you didn't see this thread...

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...046#post996046

 

Here's my guage install. Gauges are Autometer Pro-Comp Marine. They're slightly bigger than what I've seen in other installs and they are the only ones that I could find with a silver face, red needle and chrome bezel to match the rest of chromeline interior. The guy at egauges.com also said that marine gauges are a bit more well made than others to hold up to salt air and constant ocean movement, which I guess makes sense. The mount is a sort of hybrid of an Alta mount (which was too small to hold these particular gauges) and the Auto Meter mounting cups. Solid mount and fits into the rest of interior nicely. All in all I think they came out pretty good.

 

gallery

 

Those look great! Can you post some close-ups of you mounts?

 

Yes, did you have to custom make the mounts or did they come with the gauges? I have the chrome package in my Mini Cabrio and these would be PERFECT.

 

Originally I was going to use the Alta bracket but once I got all the parts together for the install I realized that the gauges wouldn't fit. Seeing as how I was running out of quality vacation time to do the project I decided to cut the rings off of the Alta bracket and attach the Auto Meter mounting cups to either side. May have been able to fabricate a cheaper bracket but it would have taken a lot more time and wouldn't have bolted up as clean. Besides, I had already scratched the Alta bracket enough trying to get the gauges to fit so that it wasn't returnable. Still the job was a lot less than the Mini OEM ones, or the Promini setup and I think they look better. From the back it really looks just like the Alta mount ('cause it is!) with the cups attached. Doing it this way allowed me to use the larger gauges that I really wanted and have it still bolt up easy with no dash clearance problems. They're still not backlit like most Autometer gauges but I drive during the day mostly and during the daytime they look spot on.

Not to build up egauges.com, but they have a cool system where you can choose the attributes that you want for the gauge (color, bezel, lighting, etc.) and they narrow down the choices. There was only one gauge with a silver face and chrome bezel, unfortunately it wasn't back lit but you can't tell until night time and even then it's not so bad. I just put the little orange condoms on the bulbs.