HVAC Fibre Optic Filament
 

I have no lights on the HVAC right now so instead of just changing the bulb I wanted to also upgrade the 22 years old FOF. A search showed a site that sells various sizes with high intensity LEDs.

These are the sizes listed but I am not sure what size I need. Anyone did this before?
Attachment 528489

TIA

Bump for this.. Hessank, I have a control head on the bench in the garage I can measure the filament on tomorrow.

Do you have a link for that site? Thanks-

Bump too. Need some of those filaments (hey I learned a new word :)).

Btw I'm guessing from memory a few years ago it should be 1.5 or 2 mm.

The Fibre Optic Store at

http://thefiberopticstore.com/FOS-mainpage.htm

That would be great Hilton, as you can see, others neet it too.

TIA

I stripped back a little of the sheath from one end.. here's what I got with my calipers:

The outer diameter is 2.8mm.

Although a little tricky to measure as its a composite of lots of fine strands and thus compresses, best I can tell, the core is 1.8mm.

The closest they ahve to that is either 1.5 or 2.0

This stuff looks like the right size - and is jacketed.

http://www.fiberopticproducts.com/Jacketed.htm

LG250-50 Cable - its 7/64ths OD (2.78mm).

Hey I think that's it. Thanks guys

I was not happy with the additioanl illumination with the LED for the HVAC I got from Hookedoncars.com, while it did an excellent job on the panel which shows temp and such the lighting was almost non existent for the slider knobs and the fan knob. Taking apart the control unit and looking at the LED bulb I noticed:

- While the LED is quite bright it does not cast much light to the sides and since that is where the fiber optic filaments for everything but the temp display area gets it light not much illumination was happenning.

- Had an extra toslink cable not being used so thought I would compare to the OEM fiber optic elements. The OEM ones are made up of a bundle of smaller ones while dvd toslinks are made up of a single element. After removing the thicker outer jacket, it fits perfectly where the OEM filaments were!

Figured I wasnt using the toslink so snipped off one of the ends. Ends up the fiber optic filament is jacketed twice, a thicker outer jacket and a thinner inner. Cutting off the outer I then did a side by side test to compare with the OEM. Result was the toslink one transmitted much more of the light and works much better for the slider buttons.

So the only issue now is the bulb itself. After taking the HVAC control unit apart to a great extent what I have planned out is to use the original bulb location for the temp display panel only and then splice in another LED or two dedicated to just the sliders and fan control knob. In my mock up they are much, MUCH brighter. Gonna go to radio shack to get a few LED's to see which works best.

Almost forgot, another item I did which greatly enhanced the light distribution was to get some of the chrome tape from the auto parts store. Cut it down into strips and then put it inside the cavity where the OEM light shines. The cavity is black from the factory so thought anything which could be done to amplify the light would be a good idea.

Instrument lighting is a common topic in the 928 world. Kind of a shame Porsche was so behind the 8-ball in this department.

Heck, the Corvette had fiber optics in the 60's:

http://www.zip-corvette.com/GroupDetails/GroupLanding1.aspx?gid={55660b24-aec5-487d-9b82-34d4c41d8735}&SearchType=_GROUP_SEARCH&GroupName=68-71%20Fiber%20Optics%20&%20Repair

OK, the toslink did not solve. hunt still on for better solution for the sliders and the knob..

Foudn this though.. anyone know the fellow who posted it?

http://members.cox.net/my_1987s4_928...luminaiton.htm

http://members.cox.net/my_1987s4_928...es/illum2a.JPG

OK, spoke to Paul at the Fiber Optics Store, very nice guy!

He suggested the below with some modificaitons which he will be doing for me:

http://thefiberopticstore.com/Projec...files/wpe1.jpg

http://thefiberopticstore.com/purcha...-Craft-LED.htm

While it is 9 volt he is going to put one together for me which will be 12 volt, superwhite LED. He was not comfortable combining cable runs so will be doing four for me. Very knowledgeable guy.


Will keep you posted on progress.

Got the fiber optic and LED's today, tested this evening and they fit excellent and 100% fix the lighting issue! Even found a very simple way to illuminate the fan control knob. Will post pics, how to, etc. this weekend.