Custom Gauge lighting, now in color! |
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Custom Gauge lighting, now in color! |
timothy_nd28 |
Jul 2 2013, 04:00 PM
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#1
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Advanced Member Group: Members Posts: 2,299 Joined: 25-September 07 From: IN Member No.: 8,154 Region Association: Upper MidWest |
First I would like to thank Kent (76-914) for introducing me to Al's wife Shirlee. She was extremely helpful and sold me all of Al's leftovers. Today, I received a huge box filled with led's, cannibalized gauge housings and a very touching note from Shirlee. I also noticed a dismantled tachometer that Al was working on. I was taken back and felt very sad seeing this tach. You could see all the tedious prep work that Al did, but sadly he wasn't able to complete his masterpiece.
I was determined this afternoon to pick-up where Al had left off, in his honor. This thread is broken up in 3 parts. The first part is intended to show everyone how Al achieved his multicolor gauges. The 2nd part is a "how to" to make your gauges into any color you wish. The last part is another "how to" but taking our gauges to a whole new level. As you will see, my design could have a back light color background in any color that you can think of. My uncle has designed a neat little circuit that works in tandem with the RGB color controller. The circuit senses the tach wire, and changes the color of the back-lighting of all gauges to yellow at a certain rpm, then red at another certain rpm. It is fully customizable as you can set the when yellow comes on, as well as the red. There is another input on this circuit board which turns all the gauges to red when triggered. I thought we could use this special input for the low fuel light, or as a fan belt warning for the 911 types. Perhaps the special input could be hacked into a radar detector, many possibilities. Yellow and redline lights again are fully adjustable via a potentiometers, also this circuit will work for any 4-6-8 cylinder engines. With my last how-to topic, I received many messages from folks that didn't feel comfortable doing this to their own gauges. I have done enough of these in which I feel comfortable. If you're one of these folks, send me a PM and I'll do this conversion for you. For me, it's a 1.5 hour process, but it may take longer for someone that has never done something like this before. I'll try to make this write up detailed as much as possible. |
no1uno |
Jul 23 2013, 07:20 PM
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#2
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Member Group: Members Posts: 206 Joined: 2-December 10 From: Melbourne, FL Member No.: 12,448 Region Association: South East States |
I'd like to see the light. Include me for an installed kit.
4cyl yes to redline at 5000 rpm and yes to yellow at 4000 Will rpm color change thresholds be adjustable ? Just in case I want to make changes in future? |
timothy_nd28 |
Jul 24 2013, 12:03 AM
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#3
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Advanced Member Group: Members Posts: 2,299 Joined: 25-September 07 From: IN Member No.: 8,154 Region Association: Upper MidWest |
I'd like to see the light. Include me for an installed kit. 4cyl yes to redline at 5000 rpm and yes to yellow at 4000 Will rpm color change thresholds be adjustable ? Just in case I want to make changes in future? Yes, the color change thresholds can be adjusted after my initial calibration. You adjust the set screws clockwise to increase the RPM threshold or counter clockwise to decrease it. The cylinder select switch was a cool idea for the folks that may do a engine swap in the near future. My uncle even added a position on the switch for someone that may want to stuff a Rolls Royce Merlin V-12 engine! We made some more progress today, all 10 boards have been soldered and ready for calibration. I'm very pleased with the results and how they turned out, but not happy that it took all day to do 10 boards. There is a learning curve with these surface mount components so hopefully it will go faster as time goes on. I should be ready within a few days to start accepting the first ten orders. |
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