Digital displays...

[Poseur]

Okay, so I made a smoked plexiglass "face" for my din pocket under my deck. Found a cool little Digital voltimiter to go behind it, It's pretty cool. can't see anything until it comes on. Of course now, I've decided that this being the coolest thing ever, I need to find more. For now I've got a $15 autoparts store thermometer with an outside pickup mounted in my bumper. This is just on top of the "face" Ideally I'd LOVE to have a similar readout as the voltage meter for outside temp, and perhaps a clock amongst other things (got to fill that extra din opening somehow) The thermometer I've got is backlit, but not switchable to "always on" I've got an old one (same model) from my other car that I've torn apart to try to find a way to make the EL come on with, and likely be powered by my dashlights, but keep the unit itself powered by it's own battery. But this was to no avail (for the record, EL strips are fascinating, though)

Anyway, back to my point, does anyone know of any similar digital readouts available for anything, really. I kinda like the look of it, and it'd be sweet if I oculd get it uniform across the whole panel. I'm pretty sure I've only seen red lights for this type of thing, but blue would be okay as well, actually might be a good means to differentiate if I ran diff colors. I thought if I could get a couple of remote thermometers, it'd be cool to put one on my sub amp, if not one for each. The outside thermom bit is always nice to have, especially with all of the runs up to the pass for snowboarding I make.

 

[Poseur]

Wow, that looked good...

It's really not quite THAT smooth. but I'm sure you can see what I mean about that digital readout thing being cool. Here's a pic with a flash that better shows the reality of the setup. Nothing superclean, but it's functional, and not horrendous. The Plexi section is actually not THAT ugly. For one, in any light you can see the readout of the voltage very easily. The front of the surface is clear and shiny-smooth. I sanded the back, and smeared some dark ink over it to "tint" it all black (Adds some depth, and dims down the bright display as well as hides the wires and whatever else lurking inside) Anyway, I think the course fuzzy look is coming from the flash picking up the sanded rear-surface of the plexi. I'd originally intended to put a blue light behind it all. it kinda had a cool look, especially with the "matted" look the sanding gave the plexi, it sorta distributed a blue glow across it all, but after having to put the thermometer in front, and finding out that of the 728 possible colors on my deck, matching the exact shade of blue wasn't happening, I gave up on this idea for now.

 

[ELEmental59437]

Very good use of that otherwise dead space. I am blank on other displays at the moment... sorry..

 

[Poseur]

I'm trying to get a better representation of what it looks like. If it were just the plexi panel, it would look pretty nice IMHO. I'd love to be able to possibly flush-mount the thermometer setup, or optimally mount it behind the plexi as well, but I don't want to mess with that until I can make the backlight constant, (for now I have to push the button on the right side and it stays on for like 5sec) or atleast find some other way to keep it constantly illuminated sothat it'd show through the panel.

 

[323CiP5]

compass???

 

[ELEmental59437]

I'm trying to get a better representation of what it looks like. If it were just the plexi panel, it would look pretty nice IMHO. I'd love to be able to possibly flush-mount the thermometer setup, or optimally mount it behind the plexi as well, but I don't want to mess with that until I can make the backlight constant, (for now I have to push the button on the right side and it stays on for like 5sec) or atleast find some other way to keep it constantly illuminated sothat it'd show through the panel.

Take it apart and check the voltage going through the LED's or whatever is lighting it up when its on.. then find a constant source at that voltage and tap into that.

 

[Poseur]

Compass would be fine as well, I'd just need to find something. Perhaps I could go pillage a junkyard for things out of stock lux cars or something, but I'd imagine finding all the associated sensors, etc would be a PITA.

As for the illumination, I've been that far, it's an EL strip (think indiglo) running off of 1.5v. it's got a small capacitor and when you push the light button, it unloads that charge. Mostly, I'm a bit lazy to make that work since the unit is constrcted to be one stand-alone piece and the caseing is a structural part of it all holding everything in alignment and such. It gets a bit tricky to keep everyhting lined up alright and sandwiched properly. I guess I COULD do it, but I think I'd MUCH prefer some similar dispays to my voltage meter if anything exists. Actually, hey I could pillage something from an alarm clock. Perhaps I could use tha brains of this thing and couple it with a different display, but that'd likely be a dead-end. Really I guess it's just a matter of making it all work. A bit more than I'm knowledgeable about, though.

 

[zcast]

there are tons available, just need to know what Input you want (12 DC) or whatever. Search for Panel Meters on Ebay and whatnot. I just bought a couple off a guy for 9.95 each. They are normally $120.00. The ones I got are a little bigger than the one in your pic, but not by much. Also, mine can be reverse lit so as to be just black w/ Orange LED or backlit Orange w/ Black LED. But anyway, what you are looking for is a Panel Meter and you can find it online and in Electronics catalogues like Newark Electronics.

zcast

 

[Dexter]

you can also find 7 segments like your voltmeter in various colors at digikey. i used a dual digit blue for one of my projects, it was 9 dollars.

 

[Poseur]

Thanks guys, but...

Yea, kinda over my head. Plus sofar what I've found looks pretty spendy and that's just for the display itself, right? How would I go about finding the input for making one show temperature or whatnot? Kinda starting to think it's at the point of not worth it. I just picked up the voltage display at the ghetto stereo shop forlike $15. all I had to do was connect it to a relay powered off of my dist block.

 

[zcast]

here's the thing.....a panel meter can read almost anything you send it. If it's voltage, usally, the meter is default set to that (u don't need anything...just switch a jumper on the mtere to set you decimal point). If its something like temperature, you just need to make sure the temp sensor you use sends out the same voltage as the meter input. that's all

 

[Poseur]

So I could get temp sensors through the same channels (newark, digikey, etc) then I presume?

I'd really like to be able to do an outside temp sensor in my bumper and run it to a similar "panel meter" display. But most seem to run 5v, right? I'm vaguely aware of resistors and such, but It seems to me I'd be much better if I could get everything to be stup around 14v or whatever. and then there's the issue of cost. I really don't want to spend $100 on this stuff, just thought it might be a fun way to start dabbling in electronics. I found a couple "hobby kits" for making thermometers and such with the right displays from radio-shack style places but they seem bulky and kinda juvinile. Plus no ability to attach a remote-sensor. Might get one for a clock, though. Ack, anyway, thankyou again, I've atleast found the right places to be looking now. Just a matter of motivating myself to jump into another project.

 

[Dexter]

for the temp sensors, you can get some of the "Compunurse" displays they make for computers. i dont know if thats what they still call them, back when i was into modding thats what they were called.


http://www.directron.com/compunurse.html

 

[Poseur]

Dex, you're the man. How's the Carputer project coming BTW?

Okay, so I may be getting dorky now, but this's given me an entirely different idea. I should supposedly be able to use a computer temp/fanspeed controller. Hook it up to my amps, and use it to run cooling fans, right? has anyone used one of these devices for a computer? would it be flexible enough to be functional for this purpose? It is designed to run stand-alone and not be plugged into a motherboard, etc, right? Many look to be 12v compatible, and Well, I don't know. To be honest, it's nothing I'd really need, but it'd be a pretty damn cool and different chi chi, and it'll help fill up that extra dead-space below my deck. I've already got some computer cooling fans for my amps (not that I need them in the winter, so they're not in)

http://www.directron.com/uca3fatr2.html

This one's for a 3.5" bay, will work for 2 sensors/fans, so like 4x1" worth of space, PLUS it looks cool. My concern is that the longest sensor cables seem to be 15" at the most, and I'd need at least 4' to reach my under-seat amps. are they just a biwire setup that could be spliced?

 

[Poseur]

Y'know I'm thinking I COULD possibly just use one of these units (4 zone style) and do both amps with fans as well as using the other 2 for ambient temp and outside temp if I could get a temp sensor long enough to reach to the bumper.

http://www.directron.com/fan7byone.html

Plus this one looks really cool... damn I'm a poser...