Yup, and the red is less visible to the enemy.

1 hour ago, Matthew Abate said:

 Your eyes want red.

The aviation people are still using red.  So automakers would rather be stylish at the cost of our lives? What's the deal about having blue?

 

Edited April 3, 20169 yr by TomoHawk

"Big Blue" = Ford

Oh?  The majority of Chevrolet cars are blue, or at least it used to be.

CO, good point on the emitter placement. I will look into this more. I was also planning on using the white gauge faces.

Don't let me be a party pooper though. Some of the results I've had with different designs was not what I expected, so make sure you try what you have. I was getting hot spots with the tower design, but yours are much shorter have the top emitter farther from the gauge face. That might be all that it needs to even things out. Give it a shot!

Matt, I notice the shade issues with LED's. My eyes have always disliked the bluish hue to the "white" LED's. I just have a hard time seeing with that kind of illumination. Seems like I lose contrast or something. For my dash lighting, I used all "warm white" LEDs (color temp around 3000K?) and they are much better. I tried them for the first time on the road earlier tonight and I really like the way the project turned out. I'm out of time right now, but I'll try to post details next time I'm logged in.

I also had an eighties vintage GM and all the instrumentation was amber (red/orangish). It was neat for a while, but I also drove eithgies vintage Acura/Honda and they used white. I liked the white better than the amber.

The "warm white" color is supposed to mimic natural daylight, so that's probably why it's a better color for most people.  IMHO, if you like the "hyper-white" it's because you choose to like it, and tolerate  the loss of depth-of-field, loss of contrast, and headaches, from the over-bright lighting, due to all the advertisements telling you it's "better";  younger people will do that, assuming hyper "white" is somehow better, not knowing that natural daylight is the BEST illumination. You can't knock thousands of years of evolution to natural daylight, and in this kind of situation, technology isn't in your favor (referring to hyper-white light.)  There may a situation for the white lighting, but this isn't it.

Edited April 3, 20168 yr by TomoHawk

31 minutes ago, TomoHawk said:

The "warm white" color is supposed to mimic natural daylight, so that's probably why it's a better color for most people.  IMHO, if you like the "hyper-white" it's because you choose to like it, and tolerate  the loss of depth-of-field, loss of contrast, and headaches, from the over-bright lighting, due to all the advertisements telling you it's "better";  younger people will do that, assuming hyper "white" is somehow better, not knowing that natural daylight is the BEST illumination. You can't knock thousands of years of evolution to natural daylight, and in this kind of situation, technology isn't in your favor (referring to hyper-white light.  There may a situation for the white lighting, but this isn't it.

I'm not too sure that's correct. White light is an improvement over natural sunlight in situations where crisp detail needs to be seen. As a surgeon I was delighted when a decade or so ago we started transitioning from extremely bright incandescent lighting in operating rooms and surgical head lights to white LEDs. The proven rationale behind that is that white LED lighting shows the true colors of tissue and makes all details pop, thus making our work easier. The intensity does have to be set correctly for the job at hand but the improvement is a quantum leap over the warm (yellowish) incandescent lights. Currently, performing surgery without my LED head light (because I forgot to charge the batteries) is a certain headache from the increased eye strain.

Those are also some of the reasons many manufacturers have gone with white HID and LED auto head lights and crisp white LEDs in their instrument panels when not using TFT displays. It's really not just marketing.

The white headlights blind me constantly.  Either it's because of the  color, or because the lamps are improperly used (the non-OEM HID "upgrades") or improperly aimed.  Even fog lamps are obviously badly aimed; probably because people think they are some kind of auxiliary headlamps.   I will need a new car soon, and I would pay to have the warm white lighting installed to restore the better vision, and depth-of-field.

It's something we used to talk about in photography all the time- get rid of the white fluorescent lights for the natural colored stuff. TRUE colors can only be seen with natural colored light.

If LED lighting is an advantage for you in your work, then it's one of those few situations where it does. I will keep on using my warm-white/incandescent lighting, torches, and   house lights.  Everyone in the house just can't stand the over-white stuff, and it makes the inside of  the house look awful, compared to daylight.

And I'll stick with this story.

Edited April 3, 20168 yr by TomoHawk

4 hours ago, TomoHawk said:

The aviation people are still using red.  So automakers would rather be stylish at the cost of our lives? What's the deal about having blue?

 

I do not think any lives have been lost to dash light color. All the USAF fighters I worked on had red cockpit lighting. This was to aid the

pilot's night vision outside the aircraft. On you car you have headlights at night to see where you are going. Unless you like to drive with them off.

2 hours ago, TomoHawk said:

The "warm white" color is supposed to mimic natural daylight, so that's probably why it's a better color for most people.  IMHO, if you like the "hyper-white" it's because you choose to like it, and tolerate  the loss of depth-of-field, loss of contrast, and headaches, from the over-bright lighting, due to all the advertisements telling you it's "better";  younger people will do that, assuming hyper "white" is somehow better, not knowing that natural daylight is the BEST illumination. You can't knock thousands of years of evolution to natural daylight, and in this kind of situation, technology isn't in your favor (referring to hyper-white light.)  There may a situation for the white lighting, but this isn't it.

3000K warm white is not natural daylight color. Natural daylight color is 5000-5500K. I sell it.