Display Tech...

[Jeremy Fleming]

On 04-Sep-97, Tom Cloud wrote:
>>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
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Tom,

I realize that this is probably not terribly useful, but I bought one
one of the American Science & Surplus "160mph speedometer" for $3.75.
It seems like you could make a gauge face and use it to display 'bout
anything.  Three wire hookup- probably frequency modulated.

Kind of big, but it's so cheap!  (I haven't fooled with it since it
arrived, don't even know if the thing works).  Anyway, that's one
idea for an analog movement.

Jeremy

jeremy at dtc.net
jeremy at newertech.com