I think I'm onto something...your opinions please

[mytrplseven]

Think I'm onto something here. I'm tired of the crappy gauge lights on these cars. I've done the foil and new bulb route but it's still marginal. Last week I found some LED light strips that use ultraviolet (black light) LED's. Not knowing how the stock or white panel gauges would reflect the UV LED's, I had an extra gauge cluster and used that for my test rig. The picture below is the panel with 12v applied and two layers of blue painters tape over the LED's just to tone them down (temporary fix for now).

Please disregard the little flash-ups on the bottom. They don't really exist in real life but my smart phone doesn't know that and amplifies them regardless. The picture is without the bottom stock lights fired up so there will likely be some extra illumination of the white lettering/numbers, if they are included in the final installation.

Please respond with your opinions of this approach. The fix basically costs $15 in materials, a 1/4" drilled hole and a little wiring. Let me know what you guys think.

[Bukowski]

Are you SURE there's true UV light there? UV is invisible. The blue light in the pic is simply blue light. There might be some UV-A coming through which could fluoresce the orange dye on the needles, etc. ...

UV will damage things, given long time periods - the light guides, the cluster, the paints on the cluster that might look cool now but bleached later, your face, your eyes, kitty cats....

What wavelengths does the LED emit as stated on the box?

Why not get a blue (no UV) LED?

[VOTS89]

I like it, looks like a pretty good mod.

I'm assuming it can be done with white lights also? Does the dimmer switch still work.

Bruce

[djnolan]

I read once the original white bulbs are the best. Other color bulbs reduce the visibility of the gauges to the driver, and contrary to what you hear they don't improve your night vision or ability to see the road, although they may look cool.

I read this on the forum a while ago, could be all wet, who knows?

[flash968]

correct. blue is actually the wrong end of the spectrum for the human eye. if you were to use something other than white, it should be red. however, this presents its own issues as well.

any bright light pointing at you, like bright dash lights, reduces the eye's ability to discern color at night, as well as dramatically reducing peripheral vision. i posted a link to a 400+ page study on this a few years ago.

it's amazing at how often this pops up in discussion. has nobody ever driven without dash lights and noticed how much better they see at night?

[fiily]

Great idea, a write up and how you wired it is in order. A cheap fix to our gauges at night, I am all for it.

Nice Job.

[mytrplseven]

Originally Posted by VOTS89

I like it, looks like a pretty good mod.

I'm assuming it can be done with white lights also? Does the dimmer switch still work.

Bruce

Yes, dimmer still works, and they do sell the entire color spectrum of led lights. These led's were stated as "uv" and the specs for the LED's are:


NFLS-UV30X3-WHT-LC2 30 19.7in (1.64ft) 400 nm - 10 - 500 mA 6 W 3.7 W $14.95.

[mytrplseven]

Originally Posted by Bukowski

Are you SURE there's true UV light there? UV is invisible. The blue light in the pic is simply blue light. There might be some UV-A coming through which could fluoresce the orange dye on the needles, etc. ...

UV will damage things, given long time periods - the light guides, the cluster, the paints on the cluster that might look cool now but bleached later, your face, your eyes, kitty cats....

What wavelengths does the LED emit as stated on the box?

Why not get a blue (no UV) LED?

Specs on the LED strips:

NFLS-UV30X3-WHT-LC2 30 19.7in (1.64ft) 400 nm - 10 - 500 mA 6 W 3.7 W $14.95

[SloMo228]

Originally Posted by flash968

correct. blue is actually the wrong end of the spectrum for the human eye. if you were to use something other than white, it should be red. however, this presents its own issues as well.

any bright light pointing at you, like bright dash lights, reduces the eye's ability to discern color at night, as well as dramatically reducing peripheral vision. i posted a link to a 400+ page study on this a few years ago.

it's amazing at how often this pops up in discussion. has nobody ever driven without dash lights and noticed how much better they see at night?

+1

I like the dim gauge illumination. More modern cars that I've driven have way too much light coming off the gauges, dash, and stereo. Sure, it looks great but like you say, it ruins your night vision. I often turn the illumination down as far as possible on newer cars and find that I wish it could go dimmer.

Bright enough to be easily readable, but no brighter - that's my preference too.

[mytrplseven]

I'm no engineer but if you cover the little light flashes on the picture with something (the camera made them much brighter than they actually are) and then look at the overall picture, you'll get an idea of how subtle the color brightness is. I feel that this enhances your light vision and is much more soothing than white lights. I still need to find a way to cover the LED'S with something permanent (blue painters tape isn't the obvious answer) and after that, see what effect the dimmer will have on the brightness of the LED's. The specs say they operate between 9v dc and 14v dc but I put a 7.5 volt transformer on them and they still worked with only a slight perceptable decrease in brightness. That being the case, I'm feeling that the dimmer isn't a necessity and I should be able to tap into the 12 volt side of the dimmer as a 12v source, without diminishing the effectiveness of it on the rest of the car.

I guess time will tell if this causes a degredation of the colors in the panel over time. I don't plan on running the car at night for a long cumulative time so I'm not concerned. Since the LED's are only 3 watts, I don't know if it's the wattage or the UV spectrum that's a potential concern. We'll see.

I'm getting pretty stoked about how cool the lights look. There will be a detailed follow-up with photos and instructions for this modification. "News at 11".

[mytrplseven]

Originally Posted by VOTS89

I like it, looks like a pretty good mod.

I'm assuming it can be done with white lights also? Does the dimmer switch still work.

Bruce

Since these are LED's (Light Emitting Diodes), a conventional dimmer has no noticeable effect on them so It won't be used. White can be used but I don't recommend it. You'd need a separate dimmer (available through the LED supplier). I won't be using the dimmer on the car. I also haven't used the normal lights in concert with this since they weren't of much use before I started. I'll probably pull the bulbs after I test it out.

[flash968]

i guess this goes to a case of form over function. it's something that may look cool, but does not function well. bright is BAD on dash lights. they should be only bright enough to read. no more. in a perfect world, they would be off until you want to see them, but we don't have thought triggered displays yet.

[mattdavis11]

Too bright for me. Not only that, the tach is not right. It should start from the 2 O'clock position and wind downward.

[Bradical]

I totally dig it. I dont think you could make a determination of how bright or dim that appears while night driving from a picture of it set up on a gauge cluster that isnt even installed in the car.

I am totally interested, the only problem is that my 88 924S has an early-style dash, so it might require more planning.

Also, id be curious how dim you could go with a dimmer control, and what the ultimate solution for filtering the light will be opposed to painters tape...

[Bukowski]

Thanks my777, it says 400 nm, that means 400 nanometers. I suppose it's a peak at 400 nm. 400 nm is the longest wavelength of light that can be classified as UV. There must be a tail on either side of that, the longer wavelength end being the blue light we can see.

I don't know about UV-A. People play with it. You can read about it, but I think at least the needle paints will bleach, the plastic will crack...

Here's something to do - set up some fluorescent paint, put the LED light on it, see what happens over long time frames.

[mytrplseven]

Originally Posted by mattdavis11

Too bright for me. Not only that, the tach is not right. It should start from the 2 O'clock position and wind downward.

I agree with you on the tach. In actuality when you look at this display in a darkened room, It's comfortably dim so it's not distracting. Still a work in progress, I agree. This is a fun project that came out of nowhere. Also I've gotten so adept at removing the gauge cluster that it takes me about 5 minutes, including the outer bezel.

[mytrplseven]

So far I appreciate all your inputs. This is the type of open discussion that makes innovation more interesting. Hopefully, in the end, a remedy for a problem that has existed for some time, will grow out of it. Thanks

[Jfrahm]

I disagree that there is a problem, other than the flaking off of the light tunnel's silvering in the stock illumination and that is easy to fix when you replace the bulbs and perhaps change the odometer gear. I'm not into hard parking so I am not concerned about how cool my dash lights look in a McD's parking lot. The stock illumination is great and can be dimmed well for night driving, when it's more important to see deer and disabled cars and naked people freaking out on flakka. You can still see the gauges with them turned quite dim.

-Joel.

[968 GUY]

No matter what the dash lights look like, if you can see them and like them and are comfortable, then go for it.

There is no way the dash lights are going to overcome the lights of vehicles coming towards you, or the reflection of your own headlights off road signs, or even the light of your cars headlamps if you are driving down a road by yourself.

[mytrplseven]

The good thing about projects like this is the diversity of opinions and tastes. I don't lke phone dials and others do. So I'll keep on fine tuning this project until I get it right and then publish my pics, notes and findings so it'll be there for those who want to entertain this approach.