Backlighting a Simworld overhead panel

[tiburon]

So I received this beautiful Simworld Overhead panel (a present from my company) and I was wondering, does anyone have experience in backlighting this panel ? I'm not sure what the best way is, a general sort of lighting or individual lighting for every panel ? I hope you can give me some ideas !

Martin

[fordgt40]

Martin

Here is one way

http://www.737ng.co.uk/djb/Overhead%20Article.pdf

David

[tiburon]

Thanks David, great document, looks like a lot of work though.

[fordgt40]

No gain without pain Welcome to this mad hobby

[tiburon]

How true. One more question, if you don't mind : did you use the orange led strip or is that just the photo ?

[fordgt40]

Martin

I used orange led strips. I probably had too much light but it is better that way as you can then use dimmers. If you have insufficient light to begin with then that is a big problem! I find that orange/amber backlighting is better, as white is not used on the 737 to the best of my knowledge. Also, yellow tends to be "washed out" - hence the use of orange

David

[Flight_Master]

Martin,

I had the same debate as you before and here is my observation. As you may not know when Simworld released their first panels they used slightly different technology in making panels. I believe there were made out of some white translucent plastic painted gray and laser engraved. I have my MIP made out of these panels and I used 6v incandescent light bulb (grain of wheat) to illuminate. The effect was spectacular. Bright and uniform color. It just felt like real panels. At the time when I bought MCP panel from them, they switch to different technology using clear plexi painted white and then gray and laser engraved to reveal the white lettering. No doubt that the new technology makes the panels look nicer and more real. Although the older panels were excellent too. But now it is much harder to illuminate these panels with incandescent bulb. Somehow the white paint does not allow the light to transmit in great percentage to be acceptable and it is not uniform as it used to be in the old panels. I don't know if something changed since I bought the MCP more than year ago but I'll be writing to Simworld to ask for solution. I'm in the market of OVH right now and if Simworld can provide solution to illumination problem they will have my business again as their panel quality, cost and customer service is excellent.

Peter

[tiburon]

Thanks Peter. Yes the quality is fantastic. Will you post their answer ?

[fordgt40]

Martin

The method of using clear acrylic overlayed with white and then grey paint is the preferred way and gives a better look when unlit. However, they are generally used with small incandescent bulbs which are inset into the acrylic, ie you have to remove any paint backing. As a result the "light" bounces around inside the clear acrylic, being trapped by the outer white paint

David

[tiburon]

I tried the orange strip on some Open Cockpits panels (which are white acrylic) with a 12V / 4A laptop adapter I had lying around but the lighting was rather dim. Maybe it will be brighter with the clear acrylic panels. I've asked a pilot friend what the actual backlight color is. Haven't got an answer yet.