Re: "by the dashboard light..."

[Robert Houk - WorkGroup Server Firmware <Robert.Houk@East.Sun.COM>]

   > LED's for dash lighting...anyone considered this?  Would give a very pure
   > "red" look(ie, more like the newer cars) than the bulbs w/red filters(a la
   > 5k/200.)  I guess there's a fair amount of testing involved to find a LED
   > with the equivalent brightness.
   > 
   ... well, IME those little incandescent bulbs put out quite a bit more
   light.  I tried LEDs in the memory seat switch on the 5kCSQA a while back
   and was seriously disappointed.  That said, there are quite a few new
   high-output LEDs that might do the trick ... and inside the dash you
   probably have room for the larger packages.  Around here they have been
   going absolutely nuts with LEDs ... a good many traffic signals have had the
   incandescent red signals replaced with groups of LEDs (which BTW are almost
   impossible to discern if they are on or off when the sun is direclty shining
   on them ): ... and I've noticed the tail lights on busses seem to have
   changed to LEDs as well.

   I bought an "orange" high-output LED from Radio Schlock a while back.  It
   was nowhere near orange to me, but it was a shade of red that might look
   better in a dash than the normal LED red color ...

One thing to bear in mind with LEDs is that they are VERY directional --
they are "spotlights" rather than "floodlights" (like regular little dinky
incandescent bulbs). Unless you have some sort of light pipes/diffusors,
you could well end up with several little round red spots of illumination
in an otherwise dark dash.

					-RDH