neon instrument lighting

[lostforawhile]

ok here is a new idea for having the glow gauges when you want and not when you don't want to sorry about the picture quality this is from a tiny neon tube that i mounted in the light diffuser over the instruments, i cut a slot in the difuser panel directly under the neon so it would shine through. it's invisible when it's off. the trick is to install a small pc relay inline with the wires going to the diffuser illumination. when the neon is turned on the relay is energized cutting off power to the factory lights in the diffuser. the light is very well distributed the pictures just aren't very good, giving an electric blue glow to the entire instrument cluster.

[w00tw00t111]

The only reason taht I don't like it is b/c of the "un-even" light distribution. But after you get that worked out I think it would look great! :thumbs up:

[lostforawhile]

oh it's even thats my crappy camera thats all what do i expect for 15 bucks right? actually it looks a lot different then the pictures show

[lostforawhile]

OK, it really is very even lighting my cheapo camera doesn't like low lighting conditions at all. it has a nice diffused glow over the whole instrument cluster, it's only slightly brighter in the middle but of course thats what my camera picks up.

[Cheeseburger]

looks good bro!

[halxi]

I think it would look better if you took two mini neons and mounted one on each side of the diffuser plate, or even 1 larger neon tube (6" or so) and mount it above the diffuser plate. This should (in theory) still give off a decent glow, and have evently distributed light.

[lostforawhile]

there wasn't enough room everything including the neon the relay and the original bulbs all fit into that tiny diffuser above the lights. my camera only picks up the brightest spots and doesn't pick up the slightly less bright spots. in reality the instrument panel is so bright that it lights up the floor as well as the inside of the car. i've also got hidden purple lights all over inside of the car they are completly invisable until they are on.

[w00tw00t111]

I don't know if this is pretty much what you are doing but why not take 6 or 12" cold cathods from a computer and do a "heat and bend" mod to where it conformes to the curve of the guage arrangement. That way you have almost perfect light distribution.

[lostforawhile]

well the idea is to be able to switch between the factory green and the blue when i want. the blue is primarily for show. also for it to be hidden until i turn on the switch. if i can borrow a better digital sometime i'll try to get a better pic. i thought this would be an interesting idea for those of you who want to try it. it distributing light from the same place where the factory overhead gauge lights are.

[HostileJava]

I did a similar thing a while ago with my hatch.. But instead of using Neon or Cold Cathode I used a scanning led security bar and installed it directly below the diffuser. It was still hidden and the diffuser cast enough light while it was on to read the gauge, but when you turned the scanning bar on a blue light would scan back and forth across the whole cluster. I pulled it out of the hatch and installed it in the van a while ago.

[lostforawhile]

ok here is a new idea for having the glow gauges when you want and not when you don't want to sorry about the picture quality this is from a tiny neon tube that i mounted in the light diffuser over the instruments, i cut a slot in the difuser panel directly under the neon so it would shine through. it's invisible when it's off. the trick is to install a small pc relay inline with the wires going to the diffuser illumination. when the neon is turned on the relay is energized cutting off power to the factory lights in the diffuser. the light is very well distributed the pictures just aren't very good, giving an electric blue glow to the entire instrument cluster.

i thought i would post some pics of the purple lamps these are dark plexi pieces that replace the carpet by the rear speaker the purple lamps under there are invisible unless they are on. this is the aluminum grill that is under the glove box mounted in the trim cover panel. it lights up the passenger side floor.

[jigga225]

I have 2 6" tubes up in there. you can fit two mini ones.

[2ndGenGuy]

I like it. Blue lighting looks sweet. I put a replacement LED bulb in my dome light, it looks awesome too. Only problem is blue light is the hardest wavelength for your eyes to see, and it makes reading maps and other things a real pain.

[lostforawhile]

one side of my dome light is blue and my wifes side is red, thats all the bulbs we had at the time and they stayed that way. inside joke. the middle one is white.