Panel Lighting

[zudpl]

Hi All,
I have steam Altimeter,Vsi and ASI, and I need to have them illuminated for night flying. The instruments do not have any internal lighting and so I was thinking if anybody has already come up with a solution for lighting instruments. I was thinking of buying some clear perspex cut to fit in between the panel and the instrument face and driling a small hole into the perspex to fit a very bright LED, thus lighing the perspex and in turn lighting the instrument face????? Do you think this would work?
Thanks Guys

[Brendan]

Hey

What a great idea, let us know if this works.
I need to do this myself, but dont know if it will work on a LCD display

Safe Landings
Brendan
ZS-VSN

[Morph]

Interesting apart from the fact that you cannot fly a microlight at night.

I think LED's are going to be a problem. You want a soft, brightness adjustable light. Anything too bright will blind you in the cockpit preventing you seeing out.

Why not a small light in a telescopic neck that can throw light towards the dash. This light will have to use incadecent bulbs and you would have to have a reostat so you can turn the brightness down. Use a soft Orange or even red light. My car has red and it is very comfortable at night.

[Tailspin]

you can also use a low intensity LED to light up the panel from a distance like above or below, but you should use red pref as it does not blind your night vision.

Who said we fly at night ? ?

As you can see there is plenty of light even though the sun is a bit on the pale side

[zudpl]

Just an Update,


However there is a comercial product available called nulites http://www.nulite.net/physical.htm , but about 50 US Dorrar a Pop. Available Locally via Placo who are the Local agents for Aircraft Spruce.

[zudpl]

OK, have some up with a really cool lighting solution that can be retrofitted to all Standard size and custom guages on panels with 12v dc power. I'll keep you all posted as it comes along.

[Trikenut]

Cool, i think that this could be used by all the pilots ou there who have steam driven instruments.

[AndyG]

Cool, i think that this could be used by all the pilots ou there who have steam driven instruments.

Why???

[Trikenut]

I dunno, I just think that the pilots of Cessnas etc. will be able use these when they fly at night.
The Light Aircraft I've flown in don't have built in panels.
Also, if you are preflighting in the dark and want to see your engine instruments.

[AndyG]

Just thought that this is for microlights and that we don't fly at night. Would be nice on an early morning pre flight

[Gyronaut]

Interesting apart from the fact that you cannot fly a microlight at night.

Wanna bet? Perhaps you mean 'may not' Morphmeister?

[Morph]

Wanna bet? Perhaps you mean 'may not' Morphmeister?

so right

[zudpl]

Yup, I agree it's a nice to have, Sure Microlights don't fly at night, PPL's in 3 axis experimentals with the right rating do? Either way, early morning, late afternoon it's a bonus.Combine it with a reasonable price and ease of installation. I am assembling all the goodies this weekend to test on my guages, will post some pics of the results.

[zudpl]

Notes: The picture was taken in a dark room at night. With no flash on at 1/20 000 of a second. So, I'm happy with the clarity or quality of the light. Now I want to position the source further back and try different color light like Red . So far so good.