Hello again and welcome to another part of the ongoing 'Purple Project'.

Today I will be showing you how to recolor both an after market stereo and the factory stereo back lighting.

First I'll show you the after market stereo, an Alpine iDA-X100M in this case.

The ease of doing this stereo lies in the fact that you only have to disassemble the removable face plate and modify it. The rest of the stereo remains stock.

Onward! First, here is the stereo as I received it.


Next the stereo and the faceplate separated.


Front and back of the faceplate. You will have to remove the four screws at the corners. (I recommend a #1 or #0 Phillips precision screwdriver)


Next is removing the 'Enter' button in the center of the dial. If you pull down on the double action ring there is a slot. Use a 1/8" flat head precision screwdriver to pry up on the center button. It will take a bit of force, but do be careful not to damage the ring. I used a small bit of foam to help in that area.


Removing the dual action ring is a little tricky as you have to release the small clips around the inner ring perimeter. Sorry, pictures I had were completely blurry and useless. You can maybe see them in the previous picture at the bottom. Less force than the center button to be sure.

Here is the faceplate apart. You can see lots of surface mount devices.


Here are both the red and blue LEDs lit so you can find them. CRAP they are tiny!


Here I have the board clamped in to my 'third hand' and you can see the switches (Largest SMD devices) and next to them there are actually TWO sizes of LED SMD devices. The red ones are all the same size, so I chose to replace those.


Keep in mind, these are 603 SMD LED devices and are only 0.8mm by 1.6mm in size! I have had lots of experience soldering SMDs and other larger components over the years. If you have no soldering experience, I suggest you find someone who has and make them do this.

Here is a close up of a 603 SMD LED (From a reseller website)


This site ... NiktroniX ... has pretty much any SMD LED size you may need from 603, 805, 1206 and regular package LEDs.

No further pictures on this as I could not get the camera to focus that small. I was using a 3x head mounted magnifier, a 15 watt soldering iron with a 0.5mm chisel tip and 0.022" rosen core solder. The solder was a bit big, so I applied to the iron and just let the tip transfer.

Another thing was that the SMD LEDs come on a piece of what looks like old 8mm film, they are VERY small and easy to loose, so I ordered five extras. (Didn't loose any! YAY!)

Removing the old ones is pretty easy, but takes some patience. Grip the old LED with a pair of precision tweezers or needle nose pliers (when I say precision, I'm NOT kidding). While holding the device, touch the soldering tip to one end and lift or tilt the device away from the pad on that side. Repeat this step for the other side until the device comes loose.

Cleaning the pad is as easy as cleaning the tip of your iron and wiping the excess solder off the pad with the tip of your iron.

I pre-tinned each end of the SMD LEDs prior to setting it on the cleaned pads of the old location, this insured that the only solder there was from the pad and the tinning.

Always verify your LED orientation against the board marking first. If you do NOT have a mark on the board, you should verify the orientation of the old device vs. the new device. A 740 Ohm resistor and 12VDC is enough to do this.

Clip the resistor into one end of your 12VDC and touch the end of it to one side of the LED, then touch the other side of your 12VDC to the other side of the LED, if it lights, then the polarity is correct. Just compare the mark on the old part to the new part. If they are the same, then just duplicate the orientation. If you get any backwards, they will not be damaged, but you WILL have to remove and turn it around.

Setting the new LED in place with precision tweezers and just touching one end for 1/4 of a second is enough to tack it in place. You should wait 15 or 20 seconds for the heat to dissipate, then do the other side.

Next... On to the factory stereo. This one is only PLCC-2 1210 package LEDs, just more of them.

Oh yeah... RESULTS! The first picture is a bit blue due to my camera not being able to see UV. So, I made a slight adjustment on the second one to reflect closer to real life.