Little mod for ddi dials

[waynos 0]

Those who have ddi will kno its a right pain in the arse to see the dial needles at night

 

i got bored so decided to modify mine to allow me to see my needles. I did consider using needles from a mk4 golf as these are clear and can be light with an led. However it just seemed like to much work so heres what i did.....

 

took the guages apart and "modified" the casing

 

other half

 

masked the needles up and sprayed them flourescent orange (colour sounds bad but it actually looks pretty good)

 

bought a 12 volt uv black light off ebay and stripped it so i had just the bulb and wiring.Heres the bulb

 

This was a very good fit in the casing and didnt require glue to hold the bulb in

Heres the finished article (my ddi rev face is a bit dimmer than the rest, dont know why - bought it secondhand but i think i can get a replacement)

 

 

 

 

 

The result i think is amazing. You cant see any light from the black light so the needles just appear to be glowing. I can now see what speed im going at night!

 

let me know what you think

[g60greeny 0]

looks bang on that mate

[junkie 0]

Good stuff, i have painted mine orange too but not for that reason, so they match my Audi 80 early gauges for oil temp battery and oil pressure

[Supercharged 2]

Superb!

[KipVR 1]

Good efffort Waynos, looks really good.

[waynos 0]

cheers guys, will try to get some better pics tomorrow.im really happy with it!

[The_Dude 0]

that's really cool! you got any more pics of the bulb wired up?

[KADVR6 0]

that looks superb 8) couple of questions though, what exact type of spray did you use?? and did you power the uv from off the headlight switch??

 

karl

[waynos 0]

flourescent spray paint.halfords sell it, just tapped into the grey wire with blue trace on the headlight wiring. corradude will get some more pics up tomorrow for you fella

[dirtytorque 0]

i can tell your cars working now.

:)

[waynos 0]

hehe your bang on mate, let the fiddling commence!

[VWRETROMAN 0]

These dials looks boss mate i'm not up to speed with DDI dials where you get them and how much they cost, plus are they a direct replacement for stock dials?

 

ta

[Andy665 0]

You need to do a guide on this - NOW :D

[The_Dude 0]

These dials looks boss mate i'm not up to speed with DDI dials where you get them and how much they cost, plus are they a direct replacement for stock dials?

 

ta

 

DDI = Dub Design Industries, they are a Canadian modding company. Can't remember how much they are, about 60 quid I think. And yes they are a direct replacement for stock dials, half hour job.

[waynos 0]

yep direct replacment! only the 16v isnt catered for.Going to get some more pics in a little while

[waynos 0]

more pics as promised

 

heres the bulb fitted to the cluster - well one end of it

 

insulated this just to be safe!

 

the wire taped down to the cluster

 

the tiny power inverter used to power the bulb (i put it in a large bottle top so the circuit wouldnt short out on anything behind the dash , deliberatly left the top open so it doesnt overheat)

 

all assembled

 

fitted into the car with the invertor leads taped to the dash just in front of the cluster

 

where the live wire was spliced into the headlight loom

 

better pics of each gauge, light up and with the clock / mfa connected also

 

 

[waynos 0]

sorry for the quality of the photos , i cant get my head around the auto focus on my phone!

[G60_Marc 0]

I did this to my ddi dials a few months ago and can vouch that the results are great.

 

 

For my mod i used a cold cathode uv tube that is used for pc case lighting. The tube is really thin, is encased in a hard plastic case and has a cable on one end of it that goes to a 12v invertor (supplied in the kit). The tube is available in exactly the right length to fit inside the space where the 3 original dash bulbs fit and the lamp life is rated at 15,000 hours. The paint i used for the needles was some flourescent orange plasticote.

[steveo29 0]

you can also get u.v leds ...might be easier to use ?

[G60_Marc 0]

I tried 3 hi output UV LEDs on my first attempt and the result was terrible. They simply don't flood the area with enough light.

[DEL VR6 0]

i need to do this to finish my dashbaord off.

 

its half modded and half screwed back not tight enough cos i thought i'd get around to finishing it!

[G60_Marc 0]

Also a quick note,

 

I have the power supply for my cold cathode tube wired up to a double throw switch so that i can switch between the UV tube being dimmed along with the DDi dials or on at full power all of the time (only when the head/side lights are on).

 

This is a nice effect as it allows me to dim down the DDi's (which are sometimes a bit to bright for me at night) and not the UV. this way the the needles really stand out once the DDi's are dimmed and gives a nice UV purple sheen to the whole dial area when the DDi's are totally dimmed down :D

[poll250 0]

Good bit of thread resurrection!

 

Got myself a set of dials and going to have a go at them tonight, I just wondered if this is the right kind of thing to get to light the needles:

http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?Mod ... 7#features

 

I've got late needles I think so don't need to paint them. I was looking for a UV blacklight tube but Maplins dont seem to have them :(

 

Edit: found this: http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=44224 in photos looks like 2 tubes, will investigate on the way home!

[The_Dude 0]

Good bit of thread resurrection!

 

Got myself a set of dials and going to have a go at them tonight, I just wondered if this is the right kind of thing to get to light the needles:

http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?Mod ... 7#features

 

I've got late needles I think so don't need to paint them. I was looking for a UV blacklight tube but Maplins dont seem to have them :(

 

Edit: found this: http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=44224 in photos looks like 2 tubes, will investigate on the way home!

 

You know that second one is 2 foot long? You might struggle to get it into the clocks. :wink:

[poll250 0]

Haha yeah, I noticed that but it looks like it's two tubes in one of the photos, so I thought it might be 2 12 inch tubes = perfect! They've got it in stock locally so I'll check it out.

 

Thanks tho!

Andy