Topic: Gauge project

[b82ta]

I'm not quite sure what will fit better, I'm hoping I can just use a standard one.... But we'll see.

[b82ta]

Alright well because I was an idiot and drank a cup of coffee at midnight... I can't sleep so here is a quick rendering of an idea I had for the LED indicator lights in the gauges. There are holes for 3mm leds in the bottom of the black rectangle, these leds direct light up through a clear acrylic piece, the side faces of which will be painted to prevent light transfer other than straight up.  These rectangular strips will fit into cut outs on the bottom of two sandwiched 1/16 in acrylic plates.  The top piece will not have the cut outs so that I retain a clean, smooth face.  The reason I need the remote mounting of the LEDs is I want to minimize the chance of shadows on the backlighting.  I probably could keep them slightly closer, but I'll have to experiment.  Thoughts? Suggestions?

[JohnCurW]

Why don't you just cut some openings in the gauge backing to let light shine through, put a thin clear peice of acrilic behind that and backlight each with LEDs.  Sorry, no fancy solidworks/pro-E drawings to contribute.  By the way, I'm incredibly impressed with your gauges, I'm planning on doing some custom gauges myself next year (once I get a project bike) but I'll be going in a drastically different direction.

[RustyOlive]

Alright well because I was an idiot and drank a cup of coffee at midnight... I can't sleep so here is a quick rendering of an idea I had for the LED indicator lights in the gauges. There are holes for 3mm leds in the bottom of the black rectangle, these leds direct light up through a clear acrylic piece, the side faces of which will be painted to prevent light transfer other than straight up.  These rectangular strips will fit into cut outs on the bottom of two sandwiched 1/16 in acrylic plates.  The top piece will not have the cut outs so that I retain a clean, smooth face.  The reason I need the remote mounting of the LEDs is I want to minimize the chance of shadows on the backlighting.  I probably could keep them slightly closer, but I'll have to experiment.  Thoughts? Suggestions?

Hi.. I have been following your thread for a few days now.. I really like what you have done so far. Your ideas are well thought.. I think you are on the right path with the LED's.. however.. one thing that came to mind when the LED question first came up was.. what about Fibre optic's. just thinking.. If your concern was to tuck the LED bulbs out of the way.
With flexible fibre optic lines.. or a thin acrylic lines, the led cluster could be put anywhere deep in the gauge bucket. Out of any other intrusions.. possibly coat the lines in a silver or chrome like paint to help keep the lights intensity to the gauge face..
I work in TV/film productions.. we have used a similar idea on a set a few years ago where set real-estate was hard to find.. some set fixtures were light off site and fibre optic lines run into walls and pillars.. looked amazing!

just a thought.. but I'm sure you got it all figured out too.. =)
good job man!
can't wait to see the final results..

p.s.. i know it's been asked already.. but not sure if answered... are you making more faces for sale?


   

[b82ta]

Actually, I may be able to get some fiber optics from a friend... Thanks for mentioning it!  I don't know why I didn't think of it before... I'll talk to him later this week and see if I can get my hands on some.

John- the only concern I had with doing the lights that way was the potential for it to cross over into the adjacent light.  I thought by using separate pieces of acrylic, each for its own light, I could minimize it.

[Laminar]

Subscribing.

[Industrial Cafe]

i forgot about this thread.

[b82ta]

Sorry its been so long for updates with this.... School has been keeping me pretty well tied down, but I have the laser cut documents ready to go and will be cutting a set of blanks this Friday.  I will most likely have a set of opaque and a set of transparent faces.  These are just cut to the stock size, both 750 and 550. Both will be cut from 1/16 in. acrylic. This allows placing the gauge face in between the pair of acrylic faces. We'll see how they turn out, I should have some extras especially if I'm able to cut some out of the black.  I also might try white acrylic and see if its translucent enough to do the glow through like I've been working with using clear.  I'm guessing that it would work better as a background for doing a white faced gauge as a glow through.

What kind of interest is there for blanks? Either clear or opaque?

[bistromath]

About your LED idea:

You won't have to paint the sides of the acrylic light channel, and you won't have to use fiber optics. Acrylic will work just fine as a light pipe for this application, especially considering it's a straight shot. Total internal reflection will keep most all the light inside. Use a water clear cyanacrylate glue (super glue) to connect both with no air gap to ensure the light transmits effectively.

[b82ta]

Excellent, Thanks for the info!  I'm hoping to get the LED stuff put together over spring break.

[Laminar]

Sorry its been so long for updates with this.... School has been keeping me pretty well tied down, but I have the laser cut documents ready to go and will be cutting a set of blanks this Friday.

Where's the machine you're using (what building)? I'm looking back now and realizing all of the equipment I had at my disposal while in school, and I never took advantage of any of it.

[b82ta]

In the college of design, up in the print lab.  Pretty neat tool, can do acrylic, basswood, chipboard, cardboard, and a whole slew of other things if you go in when the right person is workin    I've also thought about making some sort of etched wood gauge, but idk if it would really look all that nice, on the right bike maybe.  We do get a lot of fun toys to play around with here, so I'm trying to take advantage of it while I can!

[lrutt]

Some day I'd like to get a wild hair and see if the guts from both a tach and speedo (even one of the teeny after market ones) could be fit in a single shell like the old school bikes were. Speedo sweeps across the top with the tacho on the bottom. Would take some work but that would be sweet. Too many other projects on the table right now to mess with but that's one I've entertained for a long time. Those aftermarket small units aren't that expensive to butcher up.

[Laminar]

Some day I'd like to get a wild hair and see if the guts from both a tach and speedo (even one of the teeny after market ones) could be fit in a single shell like the old school bikes were. Speedo sweeps across the top with the tacho on the bottom. Would take some work but that would be sweet. Too many other projects on the table right now to mess with but that's one I've entertained for a long time. Those aftermarket small units aren't that expensive to butcher up.

An electronic tach would be easy to do, and with a little work and ingenuity you could manage an electronic speedo, too. It would make packaging significantly easier.

[b82ta]

Alright well, I got some of the gauge face blanks, I would have had all of them, but I entered the wrong measurement for the distance between the mounting holes on the 550 gauges, so... I have some 750 blanks, if people are interested.... The 550's I will be recutting after break.

until then I'm left with a set of small coasters, or maybe some safer smooth throwing stars. Open to other uses for the mis cut gauge faces... i've got about 20 discs... haha

I also cut the components I need for the LED indicators and it looks like it should work out just as planned so look for some updates on that over the next week or so...

[RustyOlive]

coasters are a good idea.. could etch the old honda emblem into then... lol

[b82ta]

I cant really easily do anything with them now, short of putting stickers or painting something on them, etching would be tough, I don't know if I could get the laser cutter lined up well enough to hit the disc in the right spot.  ugh, Wish I wouldn't have messed 'em up....  They are fun to throw, but I don't think the people in studio that I hit with them really appreciated it.  Go figure.. 

[rebabal]

very impressive

[Industrial Cafe]

I like the fiber optic idea
you can get good fiber optic line, cheap, from just about anywhere.
  there's a jack for it on the back of most of the stereo equipment in your livingroom.

 {Digital Optical Out}

[b82ta]

I'm gonna give the acrylic light pipes a try first, if they fail then I'll get my hands on some fiber optics...I'm excited to get started on this project. 

[RustyOlive]

na dude.. just get some of that glass etching cream..make a stencil.. and way ya go.. =) lol

http://shop.ebay.ca/i.html?_nkw=glass+etching+cream&_armrs=1&_dmd=2&_from=&_ipg=

[b82ta]

Does that stuff work on acrylic? I could always cheat and use the 'frosted glass' spray on the bottom. that might actually be kinda cool... hmmmm

[RustyOlive]

i haven't tried it myself.. but for what i understand.. it will, just don't leave it on as long as you would for glass..

[b82ta]

For all of you following along, here's a teaser/test of the LED setup outside the gauge housing.  Next thing is to try to stuff all the wiring inside the tach...

[Industrial Cafe]