Sold on LEDs

[Captain Obvious]

2 hours ago, 240260280 said:

I guess I am old school.  I just like to only see the markings on the instrument illuminated, not the face or the enclosure.

Me too. I didn't want halos around the gauges.  I just wanted even brightness and maybe just a little brighter than stock. I reloaded a couple (crappy camera) pics of mine:

Obey the speedo with no dead spot!!

[Captain Obvious]

narth327, I'm not sure I ever posted these, but I messed with those light strips a couple years ago as well. I'm not sure my retinas will ever recover! 

[240260280]

ouch!

[240260280]

I also find that green radioactive glow of the painted markings soothing for some strange reason.

[SteveJ]

18 minutes ago, 240260280 said:

I also find that green radioactive glow of the painted markings soothing for some strange reason.

I think this would appeal to both you and the Captain. https://www.superbrightleds.com/moreinfo/flexible-led-strip-lights/led-strip-lights-12v-led-tape-light-with-lc2-connector-114-lumens-per-ft/1464/#/tab/Photos&Videos. This seems to be not as bright.

[Captain Obvious]

1 hour ago, 240260280 said:

I also find that green radioactive glow of the painted markings soothing for some strange reason.

Probably reminds you of sunset on your distant home planet.    

[Captain Obvious]

32 minutes ago, SteveJ said:

I think this would appeal to both you and the Captain

Yikes! Those are twice as bright as what I already tried!!

Steve... You know you want the headlights facing FORWARD, not towards the driver, right?     

[narth327]

15 hours ago, Captain Obvious said:

narth327, I'm not sure I ever posted these, but I messed with those light strips a couple years ago as well. I'm not sure my retinas will ever recover! 

 

thats why i have my leds in the back, they glow and backlight the gauges evenly with no hot spots.  they are not blinding at all, i have a led dimmer that works properly, so i can set it as dim or bright as i want.

[Captain Obvious]

Yeah, my test was just proof of concept to evaluate the evenness of the lighting. My conclusion was that if you could control the brightness down to a reasonable level, the light dispersion was very good. That's about as far as I went with it. I'm running a PWM dimmer as well, but it drops out at about 5-10% and even at that low percentage brightness, many LEDs are brighter than I want to run my dash lights.

I have considered changing the map light over to a strip inside however. I think that would work really well. I'm currently running something from SBL in there and I'm pleased with it, but if I ever go back in, I may change it over to a portion of that light strip.

[rcb280z]

1 hour ago, Captain Obvious said:

I have considered changing the map light over to a strip inside

I did just that CO and I like it. Would like to do something with the dome light.

 

[Captain Obvious]

That looks nice. Unlike the dash lights, the map light and dome lights are locations where "more is better". IMHO.

I replaced my dome light with a multi-emitter LED festoon. I'm sure I posted pics some time ago, but since photobucket SUCKS, I'm assuming all those links are dead. Anyway, it's not like the sun, but way brighter than stock. Good enough for now.

[rcb280z]

1 hour ago, Captain Obvious said:

multi-emitter LED festoon.

Thats what I used. Could be just a little brighter IMO.