button color change on alpine iva w200

Has anyone attempted to change the color of the buttons on the IVA-W200? I'd like to change them from blue to green to match the rest of my interior. I'm not afraid to open it up and do some soldering if needed, and will probably attempt it anyway if no has done it. I'd just like to know beforehand if its a mistake to even try. Thanks!

its a mistake to even try.

Any particular reason you say that? I'm a former cell phone repair tech, so I'm pretty familiar with opening up electronic devices and working on circuit boards.

If you've got the experience, and like getting your hands dirty, go for it... You absolutely WILL void your warranty, but if you're willing to accept that risk, do whatever blows your dress up.

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It all reminds me of something that Molière once said to Guy de Maupassant at a café in Vienna: "That's nice. You should write it down."

No warranty left on it, I've had it well over a year. I just like to have as much info as possible before starting a project like this to know if I'm wasting my time and money.

I'm thinking that's going to depend completely on your skills, and the ability to get the desired color (and color (and brightness) MATCHED) LEDs.

Sure, it CAN be done, but is it really worth it? Are the LEDs in the unit SMD or discrete? If SMD, can you GET the desired color in the necessary case? I really think it's probably not worth it.

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It all reminds me of something that Molière once said to Guy de Maupassant at a café in Vienna: "That's nice. You should write it down."

it should be pretty straightforward and easy if you've worked inside cell phones.  It's pretty common in the Scion customizing world, but it's usually done to the stock radio.  Hand-soldering 0603 or 0805 SMD LED's isn't easy, but it's not impossible.  If they are larger like 1206 or PLCC, nothing to it.

Well, I dug in and got the unit disassembled so I could find out what is needed. Here's a pic showing the offenders...


I'm going to get some translucent paint tomorrow and paint the backside of the button yellow. The buttons have a diffuser on the back to spread the light from the LED. Since yellow and blue make green, it should give me the color I want without worrying about tracking down the right LED specs, having to order them, and then attempting to solder them in. I'm not worried about the shade being absolutely perfect, hopefully it'll be close though.

Since LEDs make single lines of light, at a given frequency, if you filter out that single line, you'll get NO light out. With the exception of white LEDs, which actually are blue, painted with a phosphor, you can't put a different colored lens over it, and get light on the other side. I expect that your painting scheme is not going to work.

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It all reminds me of something that Molière once said to Guy de Maupassant at a café in Vienna: "That's nice. You should write it down."

I happened to have some standard LED's around, so I tested it last night using one of them. No matter what color filter I used, it still looked blue. I think I might just change the rest of my truck's lighting to blue to match the radio, it'll be easier (although more time consuming) and I do like the blue better.

Well if I'm not 2 late I've heard la jolla audio in cali. Are pro's at changing the led colors on alpine give them a call maybe they can give u a hand.

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WELL?