Kph to Mph backlight style dial faces

[Hacksawbob]

Just seen this thread i'd like to put myself down for a Diesel set with rev counter please.

[hakuna matata]

i,d like to put my name down for a set please, mines a 2.1 petrol with a rev counter..

thanks,, neil

[v-lux]

Ive received everything i need for the tests other than the different colour needle paints now.
I figured i would try a transparent/blueish white glow first, and then try the red / red glow after. i'll take pics of both then people can see what they prefer.

Once they arrive, I'll get it rigged up.

[v-lux]

Right,

Ive done the first test. The results are varied, however it does work which is the main thing.

I fitted a UV LED into a standard bulb holder so it could fit to the dash in the normal way.
Removed the needle and coloured it using a permanent orange highlighter pen (still not received paint yet and couldnt wait)
Fitted it all back up and the photo below is the result. Sorry for the bad quality pic, its just quite hard to get a good pic, whilst cruising along.



The problems are:
- The LED's ive got dont have a very wide beam, which i was hoping wouldn't be a problem as they are reflected inside the bulb fitting however, i think i need to get some brighter LED's as once the light is diffused it doesn't spread across the whole gauge face well enough, resulting in about 2/3's of the face being lit in UV but not the bottom 1/3. Hence i had to take the pic at speed.

I think that once ive got the proper paint (more pigment) it will be brighter still, but the spread of light is the main issue.

I'll get some different LED's (see if i can get wide angle ones if such a thing exists) and see what happens with those.

[v-lux]

Oh, by the way, i only coloured the tip of the needle so it would show the difference between the UV and Non UV.

Just had a look at the pic this morning and thought i should point it out.

[silverbullet]

Looks pretty good even by that pic, Al Anything will be better than the candles that VW originally fitted...
PS how does driving at speed make the illumination better? Relativistic velocities in a T3 you must be running far too much boost

[v-lux]

Relativistic velocities in a T3

You should've seen it man, i was MASSIVE...

In all seriousness though, what i should have said is: I had to drive at a speed where the needle would be situated in the strongest patch of UV to get the better glow.

Since then ive been fiddling more, and through a combination of sticking some tin foil inside the bulb holder and positioning the holder differently than standard i've achieved a fairly uniform spread of UV light across the whole gauge face. The needle works brilliantly now! (i'll get a pic online sometime tomorrow)

I think i have also found a supplier of wide beam UV led's that are already mounted in the correct fitting bulb holder - Result!!
So im going to order some of those and give them a try, if nothing else they will save the hassle of having to modify existing ones.

[StuM]

Sounds very promising. Thanks for your efforts on this

[Iceworx]

These look great, looking forward to seeing the end result.

Did you manage to get the MPH ones?

[t3panel]

Looking Good! Keep up the good work, and keep those pics coming!

[v-lux]

Developments have been come to a temporary halt for the moment as I'm away working, but I'll get it moving again very soon. Should have saved enough cash to put the order in for the gauges fairly soon too, so hopefully they will be available sometime in the next couple of months..

Watch this space....

[v-lux]

Developments have been come to a temporary halt for the moment as I'm away working, but I'll get it moving again very soon. Should have saved enough cash to put the order in for the gauges fairly soon too, so hopefully they will be available sometime in the next couple of months..

I've been running the set up in the pics for quite a while now and can report that it's a great improvement over the standard lighting even with the current UV LEDs, looking forward to trying out with the wider beam ones. I've had nothing go wrong with it either, so it seems reliable.

Watch this space....

[v-lux]

I placed an order for the higher power, wide beam UV LED's yesterday, so hopefully they should arrive sometime over the next week or so.

As soon as they arrive i'll run a quick test to see how they perform. As long as they do the job then i'll place the order for the gauge faces.

Shouldnt be too long now......

[v-lux]

Right, I'm still waiting for the LEDs to arrive from the US, so might need to chase them up, mind you they could arrive any day now, upon checking the stated delivery times it says it might take as long as 4weeks!

So hopefully they will arrive very soon.

I have the different colours of paint ready and waiting for testing and now I've done a bit more work I can afford to place the order for the faces, so will most likely place the order this weekend when I might have a chance to sort the artwork.

I'll post up again as soon as the LEDs arrive!

[syncropatrick]

Al, count me in for an MPH set please. I've come round to the imperial way!