If you're not familiar with the technology, it's Electroluminescent Lighting (EL for short). I'm using a white EL sheet with color filters. With color filters I can reproduce the blue color of my Alpine Head unit and the blue side controls from my other post, but I am not happy with the brightness. It looks GREAT at night and even during an overcast day, but the blue really has a hard time in broad daylight. I'm going to talk to the guy that I bought the EL sheet from about making it brighter. If he has no solution, I'm going to try an LED array instead.

-art

 

Wow that is truly amazing! All I can say is that I want in on the groupbuy when you have one!

 

DJ that is way to cool, that to me is exactly the color that is on my 7995. If and when you ever sell this stuff give me a ring.

 

DJ,

Where did you end up picking up the large sheet, and what was the final cost of it? I didn't spend a LOT of time looking, but I came across some 4"x6" sheets for $30, and two would be more than enough to fit the dash.

You may be disappointed with the max brightness of EL sheets, at least the inexpensive ones. The really bright ones are quite expensive, and lose their brightness within a few 1000 hours.

 

Depends what sort of EL you buy and also how you drive it. I know that the EL for automotive applications is different from what they use in cellphones PDAs etc. in that it is brighter but more grainy, which is fine as you view it from so much further away than you would a handheld device.

Unfortunately blue is a bad choice. The brightest phosphors are green, added to which your eye is most reactive to green. You lose two ways going with blue.

DJ - what circuit are you using to drive the EL panel?

potfish

 

Possibly a dumb question... Can you replace the dash bulbs with piaa bulbs to make it brighter?

 

Sorry. Unless I can find a way to make this thing a bit brighter, I wouldn't think of marketing it.

 

I have a 7995 too. The color is similar, but not perfect. I know exactly what I need to get it perfect, but I haven't had time to track down the part yet.

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by MacGyver
[B]DJ,

Where did you end up picking up the large sheet, and what was the final cost of it?

 

I"m using the grainy automotive EL sheet. I did notice the graininess when I was working with the EL, but you can't see the grainyness at all from normal distance when driving.

I tapped into the stock bulb power, so the brightness controls work with the EL sheet just like they did with the OEM dash.