Display Tech...

[Tom Cloud]

>I, too, saw the cool fluorescent displays in Summit - what impressed me was
>the A/F ratio meter that was audacious enough to give a numerical stoich
>value.  
>
>Other interesting display technologies exist, too.   A nice summary of
>several different styles is located at:
>
>http://www.ieeinc.com/rghtdis.htm
>
>I mean, how cool would it be to have a DC-plasma display in your dash?
>
>
>Paul Witek

here's what I wanted (including the digital readout of A:F ratios  8^)

 - autodimming with change in ambient photon intensity/clusters

 - ability to "cascade" the dimming function so all could be
   controlled by one unit ... so they'd all track (but each
   unit should have the autodim independently so they can be
   used alone)

 - a programmable over/under alarm/indicator

 - the alarm function should have a signal on the connector of
   the gauge (like the auto-dim function) that allows an alarm
   console or whatever to collect all alarms and do whatever  8^)

 - should have a easily readable display in bright or dim light

 - should not be "harsh" like the LED displays

 - the electroluminescent backlights look very nice, IMHO

Designing the above isn't difficult -- it's the danged display
and backlighting itself that seems to be the booger (a long,
stringy one at that  ;-)

The other factor is should it be digital or analog ??  Analog
displays give the best indication of ROC (rate-of-change) and
direction, whereas digital gives the most accurate (?? depends)
data -- certainly the most resolution.

Digital displays are the easiest and the cheapest -- good analog
meter movements sell for $50 and up and then you gotta add the
electronics.  Analog bar-graph displays leave my cold .....  not
enough resolution and I've never seen any with "tick" marks
and scale markings that come close to what you get with a "real"
meter.

Tom Cloud

       All generalizations are false (there are NO absolutes)