bjhines Posted February 17, 2008 Share Posted February 17, 2008 I am lightening the loads on my original 240Z harness. LED lighting is a small part of that load reduction. I have purchased a variety of automotive and individual component LED lights. I will add more pictures as I can. The original Z gauges are green so most of what I am testing is green. I am using a 25A-13.8V regulated power supply to simulate the alternator's output. -------------------------------------------------------------- Autometer gauge lights: The first comparison is related to the Autometer gauges and the 168G bulbs and color gels/covers they come with. The 168G bulbs get HOT. That is another issue I am trying to avoid. I purchased a set of 168 style LED replacement bulbs in a relatively low output version in GREEN. Here they are against a piece of white cardboard. The incandecent bulb shows a whiteish glare through the gel cover. The LED bulb is not quite as bright but it casts a pure green light over almost as wide an area without the white glare. Here is a picture of the Autometer Tachometer in the Z housing. The LED is top-right in the gauge and the 168G bulb is lower-left. The 168G bulb is slightly brighter and brings out the yellow parts of the gauge markings better than the pure green LED. This is the tach lit with both 168G bulbs: This is the tach lit with both LED bulbs: The orange needle and the yellow markings are all green and poorly lit in comparison. The white gauge markings are nearly as well lit as with the bulbs. ... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bjhines Posted February 17, 2008 Author Share Posted February 17, 2008 My judgement on this is that the pure green light of the LED does not suit this gauge's markings. 1. The needle is not well enough lit in comparison to the markings. I would prefer the needle to be brighter than the markings. 2. I am happy with the intensity of the LED light. I would not use the guages at full-168G bulb brightness. You can read by them at night. I have an idea to fix this issue by using another LED to accent the needle paint. There are "blacklight" ultraviolet emmitting LEDs in a variety of sizes. I think a very small UV LED would really make the flourescent orange needle POP. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chemicalblue Posted February 17, 2008 Share Posted February 17, 2008 What if you did a overlay where all the markings were UV responsive? Unless your partial to the green, it would most likely make all the black invisible at night. Thanks for posting pics, I have been wondering how the LEDs look in comparison. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Challenger Posted February 17, 2008 Share Posted February 17, 2008 I have to say when I was looking at buying my Z the green guages really sold it. (I was 11) I personally like both 168g bulbs together. Anyway to test this with the stock guages? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
240swapped Posted February 17, 2008 Share Posted February 17, 2008 ny chance you could take pics with various colored led bulbs? kinda thinking plain whit led's would make the gauges pop out, but i've proven to be retarded before. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bjhines Posted February 17, 2008 Author Share Posted February 17, 2008 I have a few more to try. I might get some more pics tonight. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillZ260 Posted February 17, 2008 Share Posted February 17, 2008 This is good information. THanks for takin the time! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ktm Posted February 17, 2008 Share Posted February 17, 2008 bjhines, did you happen so see my earlier write-up? http://forums.hybridz.org/showthread.php?p=810889 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bjhines Posted February 19, 2008 Author Share Posted February 19, 2008 I tried out the Ultra violet LED idea. The only one I could get locally, is mounted on a large heat-sinked chip. I got one and poked it in the housing to see how it lit the gauge. The pointer is definitely flourescent. It glows brilliantly under UV light. NONE of the other markings are flourescent. That will do the trick to get the needle to really stand out. I have run into a snag in mounting though. It seems that UV is utterly absorbed by the plastic gauge housing. It is not reflected onto the gauge face the way the visible spectrum is. I am going to have to mount the UV LED in front of the gauge face for it to work. The other problem is that the high power UV LED I have is WAYYYYYY!!!!!!!!!!!!!! too bright. The damn needle light completely blots out all of the backlighting on the numerals. Jeeeze... I am scared to look at the LED chip now that I see just how much UV that thing puts out. That thing will give you a sunburn for sure!!!! I am pretty sure they were designed for UV set plasics like teeth fillings and prototyping work. That thing is dangerous. Here is a picture of the guage lit with the super UV LED. The camera apparently CAN SEE UV light. I took this picture and it looks nothing like it does to my eyes. To me there is a hot-pink glow comming from the needle like a hot-pink flashlight. The purple glow is very dim in real life. There is no glare on the gauge face to my eyes. You might notice that the NUMBERS and RPM stand out in this pic. The hash-marks and the yellow writing are barely visible. That is not the case to my eyes. NONE of the writing on the face is the least bit flourescent to my eyes. I think the difference is that the camera sees UV light reflected from the white pigment and shows those numerals very well in the pic. Obviously the yellow paint does not relect UV as well as the white. I any case, the only thing I care to see with UV is the flourescent needle. The green backlights are lit in this picture. You can't even tell they are on. That part is true to my eyes as well. The needle glows so brightly you can barely tell the backlights are on. I ordered some low power 5mm UV leds for the job. They will get here late this week. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mario_82_ZXT Posted February 19, 2008 Share Posted February 19, 2008 What I've always wanted to try was to carefully redraw over the numbers/tick marks with UV activated paint (which I'm pretty sure it is clear until the UV hits it). That way all you would have to do is illuminate the gauge with the UV led. It would be like a "fake" reverse-glow. From what I've heard, UV light is not damaging to you when it is reflected, only when it is direct, which is maybe why it won't work through the plastic. Another thing to try is to maybe use something like a fiber optic cable to "route" the light to where it will shine on the needle (an interconnect from a fiber optic audio source, like a DVD player maybe?). Mario Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ktm Posted February 19, 2008 Share Posted February 19, 2008 Bjhines, Rustoleum makes a coating that is intended to be "reflective" to light. You spray it over the object and when a regular light shines on it, it "glows" like reflective tape, etc. I have not tried it myself though I have been tempted to give it a shot. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bjhines Posted February 19, 2008 Author Share Posted February 19, 2008 These are great ideas. I have also considered putting aluminum tape around the inside of hte gauge housing to better reflect the light from the rear. I am just afraid that the green light would be reflected differently as well and mess up the even backlighting. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chemicalblue Posted February 19, 2008 Share Posted February 19, 2008 I tried out the Ultra violet LED idea. The only one I could get locally, is mounted on a large heat-sinked chip. I got one and poked it in the housing to see how it lit the gauge. The pointer is definitely flourescent. It glows brilliantly under UV light. NONE of the other markings are flourescent. That will do the trick to get the needle to really stand out. I have run into a snag in mounting though. It seems that UV is utterly absorbed by the plastic gauge housing. It is not reflected onto the gauge face the way the visible spectrum is. I am going to have to mount the UV LED in front of the gauge face for it to work. The other problem is that the high power UV LED I have is WAYYYYYY!!!!!!!!!!!!!! too bright. The damn needle light completely blots out all of the backlighting on the numerals. Jeeeze... I am scared to look at the LED chip now that I see just how much UV that thing puts out. That thing will give you a sunburn for sure!!!! I am pretty sure they were designed for UV set plasics like teeth fillings and prototyping work. That thing is dangerous. Here is a picture of the guage lit with the super UV LED. The camera apparently CAN SEE UV light. I took this picture and it looks nothing like it does to my eyes. To me there is a hot-pink glow comming from the needle like a hot-pink flashlight. The purple glow is very dim in real life. There is no glare on the gauge face to my eyes. You might notice that the NUMBERS and RPM stand out in this pic. The hash-marks and the yellow writing are barely visible. That is not the case to my eyes. NONE of the writing on the face is the least bit flourescent to my eyes. I think the difference is that the camera sees UV light reflected from the white pigment and shows those numerals very well in the pic. Obviously the yellow paint does not relect UV as well as the white. I any case, the only thing I care to see with UV is the flourescent needle. The green backlights are lit in this picture. You can't even tell they are on. That part is true to my eyes as well. The needle glows so brightly you can barely tell the backlights are on. I ordered some low power 5mm UV leds for the job. They will get here late this week. MY EYES!!!!! I reminds me of TRON Maybe you can use some of those as a blinding anti-theft device. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ktm Posted February 20, 2008 Share Posted February 20, 2008 I have not looked into an Autometer housing, but I can tell you that the stock gauge housings are painted white on the inside to aid in illumination. Over the years the white paint tends to yellow out, reducing their albedo. I repainted mine with a bright white gloss paint. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.