Poldragonet overhead backlighting

[Air Canada]

hi..

Just wondering before I go aheadand make the purchase...

Does anyone know if the Poldragonet overhead panel is backlightable..

On their site is says possiblity ...

My hands are either on poldragonet or opencockpits panels.. pol is alot cheaper and comes with everything for a great price.. I understand their support is very poor, but thats ok.

but the only thing stopping me was the backlighting.. I like to have the backlighting so that the legend txt at night can been seen..

So, if anyone has their overhead panel, please tell me about their backlighting..

thanks.

[bussgarfield]

Hi.
I have opencockpit panels for my overhead and they have all been fitted to a sturdy wooden frame. The panels are superb quality and can be back lit. My aim is to back light the whole OH by way of 12v bulbs in holders run from a spare computer power unit (CPU). They will be mounted on a board which will be covered in aluminium foil to reflect all the light downwards to the panels. The heat generated by the bulbs will be dispersed by way of spare computer fans also running from the CPU.
Everything is still very much in the construction stage at the moment but all panels are fitted in place and the soldering has begun.
You are on the right track however and it is always advisable to plan and ask questions before going ahead with any future purchase.

I am sure others here will have an alternative solution to backlighting but the 12v bulbs is the way I have decided to go.

Hope this may be of some help.

Gary

[smekke b737ng]

Hi Bus,
I use Leds of 3 mm for backlights. But, I make my panels by my self (if got a friend who has a laser). This leds I bought in china via e-bay. Very cheap, about 80$ for 1000 leds incl. 1000 resistor when using 12v, incl. shipment to Europe.
Big advantages, cheap, no heat, no need of big power supplies and easy to dim.
I have a electronic diagram ( very easy)how you have to make a dimmer. Because he dims using pulses, the electronic component doesn’t warm up. So you can put up to 250 leds on one dimmer.

[jongas]

I have this and yes it is backlightable.

In my opinion it is much better quality than the OC version for which I have had panels to compare.

Jon

[mpl330]

Hi AirCanada,
I have a Poldragnot OH and have it backlit - I used cold cathode tubes. The OH is an older model but I recently got the aft oh and it looks as thought it will work in the same way...
Cheers
Mike

[Air Canada]

hi guys and thank you all for your wonderful suggestions ...

I do own poldragonet's TQ and the MIP for opencockpits.. I liked the way th legends can be readable when they are backlit on the OC's MIP ... As for the pol TQ the backlighting was ok too but it didn't have that much backlighting to do a real comparison.. Thats why I wanted some feed backs on the backlighting..

for 500, you can't go wrong for a complete overhead ..

but it's good to know that the pol overhead can be backlight as that was my only concern before makign the purchase..

If mpl330 and jongas have any pic's of their overhead backlight, could you please send me a pic so that I can just visually see the backlighting and how it looks. That is if you have the time or have some pic's stored away..

thanks guys again your your inputs on these products. now i cna wisely make my purchases..

AC

[jongas]

For some reason I don't have any pics of my overhead backlighted - I photos of everything else on my laptop

I will put that right and take some soon for you - and also update the gallery here with my v2.0 build !!!

Jon

[mpl330]

I'll see if I have any photos too - unfortunately I cant take any new ones at the moment as I am going through a rebuild at the moment