Illuminated Panel

I have used the search, not really finding anything concrete.

Has anyone tried/have any comments on an illuminated panel? What I am thinking of is a plexi panel where the entire panel is used as a light block. You have LED's on the periphery embedded into the edge. All cutouts made for the components to be mounted. Entire panel painted black, then a laser burns off the paint for the labels. Now when lights are on at night, the lebels are nicely backlit.

Most military electronics use this, it looks great (to me), and I am sure is very expensive if contracted through an aerospace company. I have found local trophy type places with CNC lasers for etching wood and they say it would work to burn off the paint, so fairly cheap.

Anyone done this or have any thoughts? I have seen these where the paint wears off after many years, so it might have to be replaced, but those were high wear areas like stick grips.

The old "Heavy Glider" had panels just as you described, and I played around trying to duplicate that look a number of times over the decades with varying results. Never tired with with modern LED lighting - that mike it better. The problem I always found was that in the real vehicles, it was great (they weren't used that much), but the simulators got so much use, there were always scratches, and the light would shine through them - not so pretty at night.

Experiment though - you might come up with something that looks really cool! Build a test panel (segment) and see how it looks.

Paul

Illuminated panel

Saw this at Oshkosh about 7 or 8 years ago. A gentlemen had a small booth and was selling this very same idea except he used a laminate over the plex. I may have photos and information and will look in the next couple of days. I never throw ant thing away from Oshkosh, might come in handy someday.

I believe that you are thinking of the following: search Google for "backlit membrane graphics short run". You are looking for someone who does this digitally, because there is (usually) no setup charge as long as you provide ready-to-go artwork.

Try these guys. Use white for the base coat on plex and you can back light them with LED's. Boeing etc. use EL panels. Very $$$$

If you're a cheapskate - and lets face it, we're building RV's not buying Bonanza's - you could do what I did for my caution panel on a bigger scale.

On your favourite graphics program, design the panel you want, then run down to your local office supplies store and have them print 3 or 4 copies on overhead transparencies. Line them up, glue them together then glue them to a sheet of plexiglas.

The reason for the multiple copies is the brighter your backlighting, the more chance there is of the light leeching through the black ink. IIRC, I used 3 layers for my annunciation panel.

Talk about cheap

I have posted pics and a video to my build's facebook page, take a look and see what you think.

https://www.facebook.com/nicksrv14

I basically took a leftover piece of 1/4" plexi from box store, notched out a spot to fit two LED's, put two 3V batteries together, voila.

NOT professional, just a test. I masked edges with Gorilla tape and painted the face with black acrylic.

I think it is a great start. If I were to polish the part of the plexi that the light goes into, and make the lettering more uniformly opaque, I think we have a winner. I will keep playing with this idea.

Some links here on illuminating wording, as well as instruments...

http://sptpanel.com/rv6a1.htm

http://sptpanel.com/fiberlite_labels.htm

The first link is Paul Rosales RV-6A

Overlay

We had those in one of the helicopters I flew, was green for use with NVG's when installed instruments were not NVG compatible. It certainly is a valid solution, I just never preferred flying with them. I like the label idea though, much simpler than mine...we will see where this leads. I can get cheap EL strips too...hmmm

I have two 2 1/4" Nulite's that I didn't use, opting for post lighting instead. If anyone is interested in these, please let me know. First come, first served.