Hunter Posted September 28, 2008 Share Posted September 28, 2008 No problems Stevo. I would still be interested at how bright those needles glow with an insect light or other black light source. Either way the gauges look good and the needle looks to have sufficient illumination for night driving. LEDS are availible in 370nm as stated in the wikipedia article they must just be special order, from where who knows. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stevo_gj Posted October 8, 2008 Author Share Posted October 8, 2008 Well hunter I tested the system with the gauges off and just the LED on, and what do you know it hardly glows at all. Its more just lit up by the purple light. I need to get my hands on either some UV bulbs that fit into these sockets, or some UV LEDs that light up around the 370nm wavelength. So far no one I've called has them in stock so I'm a bit flummoxed. Edit went to Farnell AU website https://au.farnell.com/ Found a UV LED that is at 370nm wavelength. 20 a pop I bought one to test and if it fixes my problem I'll probably just settle with this expensive solution. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hunter Posted October 8, 2008 Share Posted October 8, 2008 Yeah sounds good stevo... Maybe you should drive it into a nightclub and see if the needles glow then? Does anyone have a UV light you can lend? I would watch it with those UV light bulbs they heat up lots. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RBZ 260 Posted October 9, 2008 Share Posted October 9, 2008 just got to catch up on all this. few things ppl wasting time on but hope i can give few pointers. 1. To get the super bright glow as per new needles simple NO. why: the new needles are transparent plastic usualy clear (some coloured red orange etc...) with bottom of the needle painted as a reflective base usualy bright red colour. they use a hevily engineered light pipe arangement to reflect light to the base of the needle so the needle will glow. also the bulbs are strategicaly position to take max advantage of this. also on new type facias they have "tinting" at the back of them to match the brightness accross the gauge so that the number show same glow and not some brighter and some dull due to proximity of the globes. now its cheaper using EL. like what most latest cars use. to do the same on old z gauge is hard. cause the solid brass needles.possibly can find some neeldes ie on top of my head from ef el au falcon as they have small diameter needle hole and make them fit. but obviously u loose the original look. 2. u getting good results with setup you got. just needs small improvments.im using similar technique on mine. few tips to improve the output of the uv led. back housing of the gauges u will notice they are painted white. but due to 30yrs of age they kinda gone beige or even rusted on spots. 1. u can re paint it in bright white. but that involves removing the gauges completely. option 2 is get ur hands on some white vinyl sticker sheet. just go to ur sticker shop and ask for offcuts. and cut it to shape and stick in on the inside of the cups. also u will notice at the back of the lens its white (prob yellow) carefully touch it up with white paint. as this is used to reflect the light from the cup back onto the face of the guages (this could also improve for the people wanting slightly brighter light output on stock gauges as this is the reason they are not as bright) doing this will increase the brightness of the backlight inside the cup. do not use mirror chrome as this doesnt reflect as well as white but more into a spot. (ie headlight are done for this reason) hence the reason manufacturers even today use white to reflect the light inside gauge clusters. also try fit 2 or more led onto same bayonet at different angles. this will increase the light output ie clustered set. issue of LEDs is not wavelnght or brightness but angle of visable light. leds have very tight angles which emit almost like spot light. which is what you dont want. u want wide angle for even dispersion of light. i can see through the pics that u got a uv bright spot on side of guage.. also prob lightly sand the lens of the led so its fogy. this will further widen the angle. i think if u do the above it will improve at least 20-50% depending how u end up doing it. and adjusting it. dont waste money on expensive LEDs. they are brighter but angle is prob around 10deg or less. long read but hope i gave more insight. as for led getting hot expecialy uv if thats what is reffered to is not true. Most leds run very cool . only run hot if u exceed their operating current. but if u do they prob die straight after few seconds. the new lux stars run hot and need a heatsink arangment to keep them operating corectly. just remembered something else. u prob dont need the glow paint. just repaint the needles in the bright gloss white and let the leds do the work. another change ill prob do is instead of UV just use White leds or even blue/green to match the EL colour. if your EL colour is adjustable between green and blue. than u can fine tune. that way even your odo number will light up sam ecolour as the speedo numbers. just my prefferance and idea thrown out there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hunter Posted October 9, 2008 Share Posted October 9, 2008 All those things will improve the brightness or dispersion onto the needle. But I think the light the UV LED is giving off is of the wrong wavelength. It needs to be 370nm as the paint is rated for 370nm UV light, not the 395nm the LEDS are currently giving off. If the UV paint on the needle is activated properly, it should give off a vibrant fluorescent glow. The fluroescent glow is not dependent on the LEDS brightness. rbz 260 The heat issue I was talking about would arise from INCANDESCENT LIGHT BULBS. As these are usually just painted with a special paint that traps the coloured spectrum of light in the bulb and only lets the UV fraction out. I like the point about white vs chrome paint, diffussion vs reflection. Stevo you should have bought the white face dial then you would have no trouble seeing the needle. LOL. I know this is not the look you want though. P.S. A true UV light is invisible to the naked eye it is just out of our optical range. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RBZ 260 Posted October 9, 2008 Share Posted October 9, 2008 Stevo you should have bought the white face dial then you would have no trouble seeing the needle. LOL. I know this is not the look you want though. P.S. A true UV light is invisible to the naked eye it is just out of our optical range. LOL true for the above. but he will have to paint the needles black or red so he can see them in daylight as for true UV i know that LOL. the wavelenght stuff is true as well. but instead of buying expensive leds i would just use the above technique to get the desired result. or even easier replace it with normal globes with maybe BLUE "condoms" (trasnaparent silicone boot that goes over the bulb go to wreckers and pinch of nissan 1992 and above cars Dash Baclight Globes, gives white light not yellow from globes.) but prior remove the green plastic from original. u can get also red green or blue boots from Repco Supercheap sprints etc.... in Narva accessories side. brighten up the white paint inside the cups. and job is done on cheap u will have one bright needle/gauges no point reinventing the wheel. nissan/datsun spent a fair bit of $$ sorting the backlight. just time and use deteriated it.all we have to do is bring it as it was back in 1970s and it will work great as it did then. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hunter Posted October 11, 2008 Share Posted October 11, 2008 Check out these lights. The needle colour has been changed to. http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Datsun-240Z-260Z-280Z-BLUE-or-RED-Dash-Gauge-Bulb-Set_W0QQitemZ200261041614QQcmdZViewItem?hash=item200261041614&_trkparms=72%3A727%7C39%3A1%7C65%3A12%7C240%3A1318&_trksid=p4506.c0.m245 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stevo_gj Posted October 11, 2008 Author Share Posted October 11, 2008 Awesome! Just what I'm looking for Hunter. Even though I have black gauges I'm sure these will look good. Asking the seller if he'll ship to Aus Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NZeder Posted October 11, 2008 Share Posted October 11, 2008 Funny how he can take a in focus picture during the day but at night with the lights on - it is all out of focus - would be good to see them all in focus..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hunter Posted October 11, 2008 Share Posted October 11, 2008 NZEDER The joys of long exposure and no tripod. Stevo, ask him about those needles too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stevo_gj Posted October 12, 2008 Author Share Posted October 12, 2008 Well I won the blue bulbs, costing me about $20 landed. I'll let you know how it looks when I've had some time to install them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mtopxsecret6 Posted November 12, 2008 Share Posted November 12, 2008 these look pretty good. i think the black guages suit the car more than the white ones. where did you get the guages from? i might put them in mine. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stevo_gj Posted November 13, 2008 Author Share Posted November 13, 2008 http://www.viczcar.com/forum/index.php/topic,2900.0.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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