Kph to Mph backlight style dial faces

[v-lux]

Just to let you all know, parcel farce have cocked up the delivery in spectacular style so I won't be able to get my hands on them until mid January once I've finished work.

I'm going to try and get someone to collect for me and post a single unit to me as soon as the post service resumes after xmas so that I can get some decent pics of the faces/dimmer/wiring etc for you all to peruse.
Sorry for the hold up....

[clift_d]

Are the odometer windows on these dials labelled up for distances in miles rather than kilometres? I'm looking for a way to get MPH on the dial in my LHD Westfalia without changing the whole speedo unit, but my odometer will still be reading in kilometres.

[v-lux]

Hi, yes they are labelled as miles as I wanted them to look exactly like a stock MPH speedo face.

But obviously the odo / trip will still read in KM's if you have a kmh speedo originally.

[v-lux]

Hi,
I've finally finished work for a bit and can start getting back on this.

I'm currently sourcing packaging and will be making up the kits as soon as it arrives. In the mean time here's a pic of the actual items on the kitchen table.



I'm very impressed with how they have turned out, they really do look just like the stock items. I'm going to install this set into my van at some point today so should have some pictures of it installed and working for you in the next 24hrs.

[CovKid]

They look excellent v-lux. Please put me on your list.

[v-lux]

I'm still not 100% sure about the red needle thing. But i'm going to paint mine with red when i install these so that people can see what it will look like.
Mine are currently painted with white so i'll take some pics of it with white needles first, then disassemble and paint them red for a comparison.

The white needle paint looks completely stock in daylight, but when the lights are on it gives a slight blue tint to the needle which may not perfectly match the backlighting.

The red needle paint will probably produce the most consistent results under daylight and UV, but obviously will not look stock.

I'm trying to standardise the kit (just to make my life a bit easier really, less permutations the better) but i may give an option of white or red which people will be able to specify upon purchase.

I have also decided to include a bright white LED for the center bulb in the dash binnacle as part of the kit. I just wouldn't feel right sending out the kits without it upgrading the entire binnacle lighting. Unfortunately this might create a another delay of about 5 days or so before the kits are ready to ship but i think it'll be worth it.

I'll put up some pics of these bulbs etc in a while too.

[v-lux]

Just remembered someone wanted pics of the wiring. So here it is...



The black cube on the right is the inverter that changes the voltage for the electroluminescent films.
The small plugs are the connectors that attach to the gauge faces
The smaller black cube is the Hue and Brightness controller, which on the reverse has a self adhesive pad for mounting in your preferred location.
The red and black wires are power and earth.

[scottbott]

looks very impressive,pity I do not have a tacho fitted

[v-lux]

Here's some pics of the new gauges installed. I'll take some more once the sun has gone down, it really needs to be properly dark to get the full effect of the set up.

Installed, lights turned off


Lights on, hue switch set on low.


Lights on, hue switch set on high


As it turns out, there is a very slight blue colouring to the characters when switched on, so the white needle paint may match up perfectly. I'll see how it looks later and report back with some photo's.

Got an email from my LED distributor earlier and they have sent the white light LED's so they should arrive fairly soon. Packaging was all ordered yesterday also, so i'm hoping to be able to start taking orders and shipping sometime next week.

[v-lux]

Here's a pic of them at night with white painted needles.

You can see the colour difference (blue tint) i was talking about on the needles, however it is accentuated somewhat in the photos. It's not quite as obvious as that in real life.



I found my tripod today, so i'll try and get some better quality pics in the next couple of days. Iphone really struggles to get anything like a decent image of them.

[trentjim]

looks really good...
Big thumbs up for seeing this through to completion.
James

[slowcoach]

That really does look very good. well done v-lux

my dash pod is bruised and battered, i dont think i want to take it apart for fear of breaking it forever i did buy new dash bulbs (http://www.m-99.co.uk/Car_Neon_LED_Ligh ... bulbs.html) but they were not a straight fit, at least to my holders.

again, nice work!

[v-lux]

Hi Slowcoach,

To be honest my dash pod is a bit brittle/fragile. As long as you're careful and methodical its pretty easy to take to bits and put back together. The two hardest bits are getting the needles off from the Speedo and Tacho and putting the screws back in that hold the binnacle to the dash, ive lost count how many times ive dropped them.

For reference - the dash bulb holder type needed for a T25/T3 dash is a B8.3D.
Like these: http://www.autobulbsdirect.co.uk/R509TB ... Bulbs.html

[slowcoach]

yeah, i had the binnacle part way off last night to squeeze in a new headlight switch, and on each corner of the binnacle where the screws go through, its cracked or snapped off. there are large washers on there now to clamp things down. i don't have a tach, but i wish i did. my speedo is in KPH, and itd be nice to get that over to mph someday, but im sort of used to it now.

thanks for the bulb link!

[v-lux]

Here's a couple of shots i took earlier, they're better quality but still its not a totally accurate representation. The green and orange parts of the rev counter don't appear as bright as that and the characters glow a touch more than they seem to in the image.



This shot i turned up the brightness on the gauge faces to full, unfortunately the focus favoured with all the sctratches on the clear plastic in the binnacle. But you get the idea.