First one
Second one
One picture is of it on and the other is off. I can take some better upclose pictures (those are from my cell). The actual thing looks a ton better than the pics, its blue when lit and the little pictures on it are completely visible (off has red in it, second has yellow in it, and the headlights have green in it). Its white when off. I thought that the el would have glown blue-green, but its more blue than anything.
-ivan c.
Nice!
Did you make that yourself or buy it?
thats what i was gonna ask....i want one toooooooo
I made it yesterday after the el arrived. The bottom layer is the el, then comes one or two layers of transparencies (for how dark or see-through i want the pictures to be), then i laminate it all with scotch self-laminating sheets. Its a b***h to cut the hole in the middle, but it looks awesome at night (or day). Im looking for laminating sheets that are matte (mine are glossy, although you cant tell) so that the sun doesnt reflect off them. The only problem is that the headlight picture on it is a little high so it doesnt line up perfect with the switch (but i can live with it). Also, im guessing its normal for there to be a high-pitched sound comming from the inverter?
-ivan
Looks good, maybe a little too bright though. Do the HVAC next... I really need to do something about mine, it just bothers me!
Its nice and bright, but not nearly as much as the pic makes you think, its just the phones crappy camera. It glows nice and blue, but not too much imo. Im going to order a bigger piece of el in a few days to work on my hvac as well.
ivan
Originally posted by eyevancsu:
Im going to order a bigger piece of el in a few days to work on my hvac as well.
ivan
If only i had the time or effort to do something like this!
Originally posted by eyevancsu:
Its nice and bright, but not nearly as much as the pic makes you think, its just the phones crappy camera. It glows nice and blue, but not too much imo. Im going to order a bigger piece of el in a few days to work on my hvac as well.
ivan
so when does the group buy start??? 
...or how about i just mail you some$$$ so you can make them for me....yes there should be a noise but you can usaully get rid of it with the adjuster for the brightness
Originally posted by tour96se:
Originally posted by eyevancsu:
Its nice and bright, but not nearly as much as the pic makes you think, its just the phones crappy camera. It glows nice and blue, but not too much imo. Im going to order a bigger piece of el in a few days to work on my hvac as well.
ivan
so when does the group buy start??? ...
I want !
I want !
I want !
I want !
I want !
I want !
I want !
Heh eyevancsu, consider making a group buy on this if you can perfect it. The headlight switch and the HVAC. You could make some serious cash on this.
Originally posted by Matt R:
Heh eyevancsu, consider making a group buy on this if you can perfect it. The headlight switch and the HVAC. You could make some serious cash on this.
I would be in for sure... UnlessThis!!!!! 
Yeah, you would have to get past any skepticism from that [censored] that robbed everyone...
I have the prototype installed in my car right now and im keeping it that way (not fixing the offset symbol), and it looks awesome combined with the blue leds in my switches (blue and red switches), and would look bada** with the gauges.
Ill work on another set tomorrow to see if i can cut it better (you cant see the nasty cutting on mine because the switch covers it), if it comes out good, ill ship it out to someone thats trusted here to check out (but i have to order a few more inverters).
If this does turn into a future gb, i have plenty of good (ongoing) feedback on ebay under eyevancsu and on head-fi.org.
-ivan c.
Originally posted by RawBurt:
Originally posted by Matt R:
Heh eyevancsu, consider making a group buy on this if you can perfect it. The headlight switch and the HVAC. You could make some serious cash on this.
I would be in for sure... UnlessThis!!!!!
Dont even let me get started on that group buy. I got screwed big time with that one. To think that he let me join the group buy a day after orders already ended and I did it just to get my money stolen.
Good job Ivan.
It's amazing how many people b!tch and complain about the lack of such parts, when it's so simple to make them.
Maybe some of the others should get inspired.
Originally posted by amarv12:
Good job Ivan.
It's amazing how many people b!tch and complain about the lack of such parts, when it's so simple to make them.
Maybe some of the others should get inspired.
give me the instructions and info and i'll make my own
Originally posted by tour96se:
give me the instructions and info and i'll make my own
Sorry, I won't spoon-feed you. He said what product he is using, "EL foil"...or "electroluminescent foil"...search the net for those terms, you will find ALL of the info you need. And, don't tell me you can't, because I know for a fact that there are several sites that have instructions on how to work with the material online.
this looks good, how much does it cost to make them ourselves, or how much will they cost if you sell them in a GB?
I found a site that had 6x17 inch sheats for $98 but I didn't look that hard either.
I have the files for the transparencies that i can give out if wanted. All that would need to be fixed is the headlight symbol and make the hole in the middle a little smaller.
The el foil i bought off ebay from a hong kong seller (the smallest i found that could be used to make 4 of these overlays) and it came with a single inverter. The inverter was for 12v and it makes a slightly loud whine, so i ordered a few 9v inverters and some lm7809 voltage regulators to bring down the voltage from the car down to 9v to make the intensity and whine go down. The prices are pretty good to buy the el and inverter (around 16 shipped if i recall correctly), the transparency was $3 from kinkos, and the self-laminating sheets were $2.5 for a package of 3 (brand scotch).
The guy i bought the el from seemed very nice and shipping was within 4 days or so (even from hong kong).
-ivan
Ivan - please start a GB! I am down.
Im still waiting on the new 9v inverters and the voltage regulators so see if that'll tone down the whine and brightness. Ill keep ya'll posted when i receive them and i take better pics with a real camera.
ivan c.
So are you going to do the HAVC too? If so I am all in too.
I havent ordered any more el since i havent found any that was the right size (all way too big). I have another headlight el ready to go (except for the inverter), so when i get the regulator and inverter ill ship it out to someone to check for quality, look, etc (to return afterwards of course, or buy it).
Im definately going to do an hvac, for myself at least. But ill have to work on the graphic as well.
Also, im going to get away from the transparencies b/c i dont get the right colors i want, so im going to order some backlight paper (seemed to be perfect for gauges since its backlight).
Ivan C.
Originally posted by eyevancsu:
I havent ordered any more el since i havent found any that was the right size (all way too big). I have another headlight el ready to go (except for the inverter), so when i get the regulator and inverter ill ship it out to someone to check for quality, look, etc (to return afterwards of course, or buy it).
Im definately going to do an hvac, for myself at least. But ill have to work on the graphic as well.
Also, im going to get away from the transparencies b/c i dont get the right colors i want, so im going to order some backlight paper (seemed to be perfect for gauges since its backlight).
Ivan C.
I guess two great minds think alike. I'm doing the same thing. Except I have the HVAC and headlight overlays done. I'm just wondering if I want to put these into production.
My Overlay Pictures
I saw the pictures a few days ago and they look awesome. Its quite hard to cut the circles for the switches over all the layers.
Good luck should you decide on a group buy.
-ivan c.
Ivan: thanks man, keep us posted.
I still havent gotten the inverters or the regulators, but im hoping that the regulators will be here tomorrow.
ivan c.
BUMP
I finally received my regulators (not inverters) in today's mail and built the circuit (a whole 3 parts). Im going to try to install it tomorrow into my existing headlight el and see if it cuts down on the whine and tones the brightness down a bit. Im hoping that the inverters come soon, since last time it took only around a week for them to arrive.
ivan c.
Well, the guy i purchased the inverters from on ebay (cooltronix) hasnt gotten back to me about status, and they havent arrived yet (been 2 weeks). Im going to give it a few more days until i find another source. I have the new powersupply wired up and ready to install but i just need the inverters to finish. We'll see how this goes this week.
-ivan
Originally posted by R_G:
Anything?
The project is off for now. The freakishly long delay with the inverters was too long, and ive started school and i still have my other "business" to run.
Sorry about this guys.
Ivan C.
Originally posted by R_G:
Originally posted by R_G:
Anything?
RG, man, I'm tellin ya; it really wouldn't be that tough to do on your own.
You can buy sheets of the EL foil then cut it to proper size, then you connect a little electrical thingie on the edge. Often the power inverters may come with the foil, but if not they are very easy to find. You would have to figure out the symbol things on your own, but I feel confident that you could find a printing place to do it, or maybe even do it on your own....I've printed out stuff on transparency sheets and put it on my indiglos...it looks fine.
I'm sure you could do it RG.
Well, doesn't sound as something hard to do, but I got other priorities now