I have fabricated some bulb replacement circuits using multiple super-brite
LED's designed for backlighting LCD's (for the smaller gauges only to date)
which consume a fraction of the current that the existing bulbs but produce
enough light to read by at a distance of over 3 feet (sorry no luminance
numbers to compare bulb vs. LED yet). Performance in the guages is more
uniform lighting but only slightly brighter. The gauge construction does not
lend itself to having a "modern" level of guage illumination since the only
path for light is around the perimeter of the back face and then reflected off
the back of the front face (which is below the needle and guage markings) and
the interior of the cover glass. I suspect that painting the inside of the
guage with a high gloss white or chrome paint will improve the amount of light
reflected into the viewing area but the result will still be less than
desireable. My next step is to try and mount the LED's through the back face b
ut below the front face opening (and out of the way of the guage mechanism) to
inject the most amount of light into the viewing area. The amount of work to
retrofit and the cost of the LED's, etc. in small quantities will likely turn
this into a gee-whiz project and not something that most would consider
worth-while.
Dave
----- Original Message -----
From: James_ TR6 <jattr6@hotmail.com>
Date: Friday, January 13, 2006 9:18 am
Subject: DASH Lights: LED replacements
> I have found what appear to be really good screw mounted LEDS for
> a direct
> replacment to those
> whimpy dash lights. I don't have the TR handy and was curious if
> anyone
> knows the correct
> size of bulb to use? measurements are made at the threads.
> diameter in
> mmeters.
>
> also, has anyone tried investing the money in LED bulbs?
> I found some green ones and they are wide angle....if i buy them...
> i will provide a full report! :-)
>
> thanks!
>
> james
|