You guys thinking of lighting up your windscreen?
07-11-2004, 08:38 AM
#163
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Troubles with posting the pictures 
. The install was completed Friday night and everything works great (thanks again to Austins2k2003 for helping with the install).
. The install was completed Friday night and everything works great (thanks again to Austins2k2003 for helping with the install).
07-11-2004, 09:09 AM
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Sorry, pictures came out fuzzy (I will take new pics once I get the footwell LEDS installed).
During the install, I accidently cut all the way through the Windscreen gasket. So I had to order a new one from Nissan, should be here on Tuesday. I will remount the LEDS, when the new gasket comes in (and take new pics). Thanks again to Bryan for help with the install, and thanks to Dan, Mike and Preston for the great products and installation directions.
During the install, I accidently cut all the way through the Windscreen gasket. So I had to order a new one from Nissan, should be here on Tuesday. I will remount the LEDS, when the new gasket comes in (and take new pics). Thanks again to Bryan for help with the install, and thanks to Dan, Mike and Preston for the great products and installation directions.
Last edited by iu350Zatx; 07-11-2004 at 09:20 AM.
07-11-2004, 10:00 AM
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See if you can face the car into darkness when you take the pics...that way, you don't wash out the color with the running lights/sidemarkers.
Also, when you go to remount the LEDs, try separating them a bit more (another couple of inches should do it), but angle them in towards the Z by 10-15 degrees. This should help alleviate the hot spots.
Also, when you go to remount the LEDs, try separating them a bit more (another couple of inches should do it), but angle them in towards the Z by 10-15 degrees. This should help alleviate the hot spots.
07-11-2004, 11:26 AM
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Hi all - well having done two of these windscreen installs on two different kinds of cars I Am becoming an expert! Some thoughts for future designs:
1) Mac those wires on the Z screen that connect to the power, brake, and reverse...dude if you could make those a lower gauge (22 even) it would help trememdously. We had trouble stripping the wires with my wire stripper which only goes to 22 gauge! I had to strip them with my teeth and really shortened the ground by failed attempts
2) This may raise the cost but the S windscreen generation 1 seems brighter to me than the Z screen. My S screen has 4 leds; the Z only has two and I think one more led would help though it may be more illuminated when we get the leds spaced out more and angled.
3) The instructions didn't clearly indicate which wires connecto to which for the brake and reverse and we connected them in the reverse of what they really should have been - we connected green to green and blue to blue (lavendar) it is in fact the reverse.
Just my thoughts based on the two kits I've worked with.
1) Mac those wires on the Z screen that connect to the power, brake, and reverse...dude if you could make those a lower gauge (22 even) it would help trememdously. We had trouble stripping the wires with my wire stripper which only goes to 22 gauge! I had to strip them with my teeth and really shortened the ground by failed attempts
2) This may raise the cost but the S windscreen generation 1 seems brighter to me than the Z screen. My S screen has 4 leds; the Z only has two and I think one more led would help though it may be more illuminated when we get the leds spaced out more and angled.
3) The instructions didn't clearly indicate which wires connecto to which for the brake and reverse and we connected them in the reverse of what they really should have been - we connected green to green and blue to blue (lavendar) it is in fact the reverse.
Just my thoughts based on the two kits I've worked with.
07-11-2004, 11:48 AM
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The image below illustrates the current placement of Mike's two LEDs. This is indicated by the red circles.
The red lines indicate where the placement would be if there were 3 LEDs (think arrowhead at the top end of the lines).
The red lines indicate where the placement would be if there were 3 LEDs (think arrowhead at the top end of the lines).
07-11-2004, 08:31 PM
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Bryan, Are you saying the colors listed for the Z are backwards, or the colors listed for my control box input wire are backwards. Let me know and I'll fix the instructions.
As for increasing the number of LEDs, they must go in pairs for several reasons (which I won't get into here). There is a possibility of using two LED strings, but I don't see the need for it so far. If you ever get the chance, take a look at the digital edition of the S's windscreen...it uses the same number and type of LEDs I use for the Z setup, and it's significantly brighter than the older, 4 LED analog version I originally used for the S (your version). The windscreen needs to be quite clear for the LEDs to work...any tint to the screen, even when barely perceptible, has a significant impact on the quality of the LED light shining through.
Mike, What type of screen did you have installed? The red seems OK, but the green looks too low in brightness...it may just be your camera's sensitivity to green, or the sidemarker's reflection off of the garage door may be washing out the camera's ability to acurately depict the brightness. If your screen has any tinting to it at all, the brightness will be significantly less than what's possible. Compare your brightness to Bryan's screen...if his looks brighter, I would suspect your screen has tint in it.
As for increasing the number of LEDs, they must go in pairs for several reasons (which I won't get into here). There is a possibility of using two LED strings, but I don't see the need for it so far. If you ever get the chance, take a look at the digital edition of the S's windscreen...it uses the same number and type of LEDs I use for the Z setup, and it's significantly brighter than the older, 4 LED analog version I originally used for the S (your version). The windscreen needs to be quite clear for the LEDs to work...any tint to the screen, even when barely perceptible, has a significant impact on the quality of the LED light shining through.
Mike, What type of screen did you have installed? The red seems OK, but the green looks too low in brightness...it may just be your camera's sensitivity to green, or the sidemarker's reflection off of the garage door may be washing out the camera's ability to acurately depict the brightness. If your screen has any tinting to it at all, the brightness will be significantly less than what's possible. Compare your brightness to Bryan's screen...if his looks brighter, I would suspect your screen has tint in it.
07-11-2004, 08:41 PM
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Bryan, I forgot to mention....don't forget, these are essentially prototypes, which means not all of the components are going to be exactly what's needed in a production kit. For example, phone/CAT-5 cabling is perfect for this type of work...the guage is heavy enough for the minimal currents used, and is readily purchased just about anywhere. The guage of cabling eventually used in the production units will probably change from what the prototypes are currently using.
You have to admit, the connectors on this version are several steps higher in usability than the phone jack for the screen connection and the hardwired power/input cable from the original analog version. The old-style trimpots that required a screwdriver for adjustment were replaced with a 5-way hatswitch, which itself was eventually replaced with individual switches.
Improvements are always being made
You have to admit, the connectors on this version are several steps higher in usability than the phone jack for the screen connection and the hardwired power/input cable from the original analog version. The old-style trimpots that required a screwdriver for adjustment were replaced with a 5-way hatswitch, which itself was eventually replaced with individual switches.
Improvements are always being made
07-12-2004, 03:49 AM
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Dan:
What you've stated here makes perfect sense to me and I knew I read somewhere that the digital LEDS are twice as bright as the original ones; I didn't tune my screen to green for comparison with Mike's but the brightness may be a factor of misplacement. I doubt that Mike's screen is tinted at all as I saw the original Z screen and the new one and the new one is much much clearer despite the original only having a slight tint to it.
Now as for the cabling Mike told me the information is split between the operating instructions and the install instructions. Nowhere that we could find does the install instructions explicitely state what wires in the car to make the connection to (that we could find). It does state the parking light wire explicly, but it just says match the colors for the other ones, which is inaccurate. The color combo should be Blue (screen) to Light green (car) and green (screen) to lavedar/blue stripe (car).
The connectors on this version are DEFINATELY much better than the ones on the original S windscreen; no doubt about that in fact I think had I had this connector type on my originaly screen I'd have not had to send it back to you because of that one bad joint way back when! Mike and I both just had a tough time stirpping the small wires to make the connections. Once they were stripped it wasn't to bad to solder em up to the wires on the car but I could see others who haven't done an install like this having some problems!
All in all a great product. I'm sure once Mike and I get some changes in place it'll look brighter. Mike did the mounting of the LEDS cause I didn't want to cut a part of HIS car
As always Dan top-notch customer service!
What you've stated here makes perfect sense to me and I knew I read somewhere that the digital LEDS are twice as bright as the original ones; I didn't tune my screen to green for comparison with Mike's but the brightness may be a factor of misplacement. I doubt that Mike's screen is tinted at all as I saw the original Z screen and the new one and the new one is much much clearer despite the original only having a slight tint to it.
Now as for the cabling Mike told me the information is split between the operating instructions and the install instructions. Nowhere that we could find does the install instructions explicitely state what wires in the car to make the connection to (that we could find). It does state the parking light wire explicly, but it just says match the colors for the other ones, which is inaccurate. The color combo should be Blue (screen) to Light green (car) and green (screen) to lavedar/blue stripe (car).
The connectors on this version are DEFINATELY much better than the ones on the original S windscreen; no doubt about that in fact I think had I had this connector type on my originaly screen I'd have not had to send it back to you because of that one bad joint way back when! Mike and I both just had a tough time stirpping the small wires to make the connections. Once they were stripped it wasn't to bad to solder em up to the wires on the car but I could see others who haven't done an install like this having some problems!
All in all a great product. I'm sure once Mike and I get some changes in place it'll look brighter. Mike did the mounting of the LEDS cause I didn't want to cut a part of HIS car
As always Dan top-notch customer service!
Originally posted by MacGyver
Bryan, I forgot to mention....don't forget, these are essentially prototypes, which means not all of the components are going to be exactly what's needed in a production kit. For example, phone/CAT-5 cabling is perfect for this type of work...the guage is heavy enough for the minimal currents used, and is readily purchased just about anywhere. The guage of cabling eventually used in the production units will probably change from what the prototypes are currently using.
You have to admit, the connectors on this version are several steps higher in usability than the phone jack for the screen connection and the hardwired power/input cable from the original analog version. The old-style trimpots that required a screwdriver for adjustment were replaced with a 5-way hatswitch, which itself was eventually replaced with individual switches.
Improvements are always being made
Bryan, I forgot to mention....don't forget, these are essentially prototypes, which means not all of the components are going to be exactly what's needed in a production kit. For example, phone/CAT-5 cabling is perfect for this type of work...the guage is heavy enough for the minimal currents used, and is readily purchased just about anywhere. The guage of cabling eventually used in the production units will probably change from what the prototypes are currently using.
You have to admit, the connectors on this version are several steps higher in usability than the phone jack for the screen connection and the hardwired power/input cable from the original analog version. The old-style trimpots that required a screwdriver for adjustment were replaced with a 5-way hatswitch, which itself was eventually replaced with individual switches.
Improvements are always being made
