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Electroluminescent lighting / Panelescent lighting dashboard
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wizard
Posted 2008-11-29 10:22 AM (#153789)
Subject: Electroluminescent lighting / Panelescent lighting dashboard



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Location: Southern Sweden - Sturkö island		What is electroluminescent lighting? How can speedometer and gauges shine without lights, tubes or gas? The answer lies in ceramic technology. The board of a gauge is constructed of laminated layers of material that starts glowing when they are fed with a high volt alternating current. As a result, the needles and board of a gauge are a light source in itself.

A typical gauge or indicator consisting of several layers;

One layer of vitreous enamel coated steel is the gauge base.
One layer of solid ceramics is applied over that.
One layer containing electroluminescent phosphorus in ceramic base.
One transparent electrically conductive layer applied over that.
Last a layer of glassy coating is added for the final touch.
This is called an electroluminescent light (EL)

Power;

The speedometer, gauges and needles are driven by a power source, known as oscillator or power pack, which converts 12 volts DC to 200-300 volts alternating current of 250 cycles per second.

This amazing system used in 1960, 1961 and 1962 Chrysler,
in the 1960s, 1961, 1962 and 1963 Imperial, as well as in 1966 and 1967 Dodge Charger.

At Chrysler, and Imperial is the power source mounted in the dashboard on the driver's side against the inner cowl.

On the Dodge Charger it’s mounted on the dashboard behind the glovebox.

In Chrysler ’60-’62, the AstraDome contains many EL- lamps;
1 The EL on the speedometer board
2 The upper EL for the odometer
3 The lower El for the odometer
4 The speedometer EL needle

5 The EL on the ammeter board
6 The ammeter EL needle

7 The EL on the oil-gauge board
8 The oil-gauge EL needle

9 The EL on the tank-meter board
10 The tank-meter EL needle

11 The EL on the temp-meter board
12 The temp-meter EL needle

Then there’s EL lamps in the radio and it’s dial needle and in the clock and its 3 hands.

The use of EL lamps had many benefits, the cool glowing and glarefree light was much appreciated then and even today many people look at the floating dash in almost disbelieving their eyes.

The EL-lamps are almost indestructible and will keep on shining more than the estimated 10.000 hours when they where constructed.


General trouble shooting;

Problem: Dash is totally black – nothing lights up at all
Cause: The rheostat on the light switch is corroded – bad contact
Solution: Demount and clean the light switch rheostat

Cause: There’s one EL-lamp shorted out (if one shorts, all go black)
Solution: Disconnect one EL-lamp at the time until some of them lights up (disconnect the white cables)

Problem: The dash lights up, but fades to black or almost black
Cause: The Power Pack (oscillator) is faulty
Solution: Change and/or renovate the oscillator

Problem: The needle of a gauge does not light up
Cause: The linz wire that connects the needle to the feed cable is broken or oxidised (the current flows on the outside of the linz wire and can be obstructed by too much oxide)
Solution: Clean the connection point and solder the linz wire back in place.

If you need further help, PM me.





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NewportBob
Posted 2008-12-18 2:17 PM (#155950 - in reply to #153789)
Subject: Re: Electroluminescent lighting / Panelescent lighting dashboard



Regular

Posts: 97
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Location: Sioux Center, IA		Wow! I wish all this info had been gathered when I was working over mine!

If you want to dig further, I found this discussion helpful:

http://www.imperialclub.com/Repair/Electrical/EL.htm

Bob
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JimK
Posted 2008-12-18 4:40 PM (#155959 - in reply to #153789)
Subject: RE: Electroluminescent lighting / Panelescent lighting dashboard



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Location: Detroit MI area		A write up/photos on the differences between the '60, 61 and 62 dashboards, astradomes and gauges.

http://www.chrysler300club.com/rcmstuff/dash/dash.html

Jim Krausmann
Detroit
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wizard
Posted 2009-10-27 2:00 PM (#194079 - in reply to #153789)
Subject: Re: Electroluminescent lighting / Panelescent lighting dashboard



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Location: Southern Sweden - Sturkö island		Bump



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wizard
Posted 2009-10-27 3:28 PM (#194094 - in reply to #153789)
Subject: Re: Electroluminescent lighting / Panelescent lighting dashboard



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Location: Southern Sweden - Sturkö island		Kilometer trick on a miles speedometer

While repairing and testing my spare AstraDome which I will mount in the car this winter, I came to think about one speedo EL-lamp with cracked paint, so I made some tests with that one first. Then I masked carefully and cut away the paint for to make some graduations longer for the most common speed limits here in Sweden. This way I have a clear indication even under night driving.



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wizard
Posted 2009-10-28 4:18 AM (#194212 - in reply to #194094)
Subject: Re: Electroluminescent lighting / Panelescent lighting dashboard



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Location: Southern Sweden - Sturkö island		AstraDome removal

The shop manual procedure is to actually demount the glass together with the gauge clusters, while the speedometer remains mounted. This actually works, but there's a lot of tension from the surrounding bezel - it's best to loosen the screws that holds the bezel (bummer screws - they are not studs, so they turn around - but doable)



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skylineeeeee
Posted 2015-12-07 2:30 PM (#497209 - in reply to #153789)
Subject: Re: Electroluminescent lighting / Panelescent lighting dashboard



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Posts: 24

I've just bought an Astradome on ebay because even if I have no cars for now I like it so much that wanted to have one at home.
I would like it to turn on, but for now I have no power pack with me but considering how simple is the circuit I would like to build one by myself. the only trouble is that I have no data about the transformer.
this is the electric diagram i've found
http://www.imperialclub.com/Repair/Electrical/powersupply.jpg
but have no idea how to associate the "readings from T-1" to a set of valid datas for a transformer.
if you have any good ideas, you are welcome!

Edited by skylineeeeee 2015-12-07 2:31 PM
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hemidenis
Posted 2016-03-24 7:06 PM (#507851 - in reply to #153789)
Subject: Re: Electroluminescent lighting / Panelescent lighting dashboard



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Location: Northen Virginia		Those T1 values are the the impedance of the transformer, just to test if yours is working properly. Are you trying to build your own power pack?
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Mr Bob
Posted 2016-03-26 12:06 PM (#507974 - in reply to #507851)
Subject: Re: Electroluminescent lighting / Panelescent lighting dashboard


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Posts: 9

Location: Bellingham, WA		There is a guy selling newly made EL powerpacks on eBay for about $79.
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wizard
Posted 2016-03-26 2:16 PM (#507988 - in reply to #153789)
Subject: Re: Electroluminescent lighting / Panelescent lighting dashboard



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Location: Southern Sweden - Sturkö island		Yes, but those ones have too high output and they sound like a pig in bondage. I don't know for sure, but I Think the EL-lamps will be damaged by too high voltage over time.

As I remember, one of those put out Close to 500VAC and that's roundabout the double needed.
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NicksGarage
Posted 2016-03-26 11:20 PM (#508009 - in reply to #153789)
Subject: RE: Electroluminescent lighting / Panelescent lighting dashboard



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Location: Ramona, CA		Got my dash lighting working today. Turns out the oscillator wasn't plugged in. The reostat only works in one place so I'll try changing the headlight switch tomorrow. I've got some sort of short somewhere. If the fuse for the cigarette lighter (in the console) is connected, the ignition stays on all the time. Even with that unplugged, the left park light doesn't work and if the headlight switch is in the park mode, the left turn indicator in the dash stays on and the turn signal goes really slow on that side. In off or headlight mode it blinks the normal speed. And now the dome lights and map light don't work. The turn signals and gauges intermittently don't work as well. Fuel gauge definitely has a problem.

The battle continues.





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wizard
Posted 2016-03-27 3:20 AM (#508013 - in reply to #153789)
Subject: Re: Electroluminescent lighting / Panelescent lighting dashboard



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Location: Southern Sweden - Sturkö island		Nick, don't waste too much time on the light switch - the rheostat controls the 12VDC feed to the oscillator, but the range is very narrow even if the rheostat works as it should. Pratically, you can chose between full light and almost full light and black.

Check that the correct bulbs are mounted in the flashers - many times we ceard of single filament bulbs instead of the dual filaments that should be mounted.

The single filament bulb will backfeed the parking lights or vice versa with the flashers

Edited by wizard 2016-03-27 3:25 AM
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NicksGarage
Posted 2016-03-27 10:29 AM (#508026 - in reply to #153789)
Subject: RE: Electroluminescent lighting / Panelescent lighting dashboard



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Location: Ramona, CA		I did have the wrong dual filament bulbs in the front so I changed them but that didn't make a difference. The sockets were crusty so it took a bit of work to clean them up and get the new bulbs in. Used dielectric grease on the new ones. I'll track it down I'm sure. Do you know what the big light green wire with the inline fuse goes to? It hooks to one of the circuit breakers on the left side. Had to replace that cable and fuse holder but not sure what it powers.





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di_ch_NY56
Posted 2016-03-27 12:38 PM (#508035 - in reply to #153789)
Subject: RE: Electroluminescent lighting / Panelescent lighting dashboard



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Location: ZH, Switzerland

Hi Wizard

 

At the gauge cluster of my Letter only the tip of the needle for the fuel level gauge doesn't light up. At daytime (the cluster is laying in my living room) the tip of this neelde doesn't look dirty. Any idea?

I'll appreciate your answer very much. Thank you.

 

Happy Motoring!

 

Dieter

 

BTW: your decribtion is wonderful. thank you.

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wizard
Posted 2016-03-27 1:21 PM (#508039 - in reply to #153789)
Subject: Re: Electroluminescent lighting / Panelescent lighting dashboard



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Location: Southern Sweden - Sturkö island		@ Nick, that's the wire/fuse for the rear ash tray if I remember correctly.

@ Dieter, the ceramic layer has most probably a crack and thereby the tip doen't light up. I have a spare speedometer needle with this problem.
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NicksGarage
Posted 2016-03-27 2:16 PM (#508043 - in reply to #508039)
Subject: Re: Electroluminescent lighting / Panelescent lighting dashboard



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Location: Ramona, CA
wizard - 2016-03-27 10:21 AM

@ Nick, that's the wire/fuse for the rear ash tray if I remember correctly.



I'll check that out. Thought that was hooked up to the console wiring. Fortunately I had a good wire and fuse holder from my parts car to replace it with.
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NicksGarage
Posted 2016-03-27 5:42 PM (#508055 - in reply to #153789)
Subject: RE: Electroluminescent lighting / Panelescent lighting dashboard



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Location: Ramona, CA		Well I thought I may have found the problem but wasn't it. Search continues.





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plumfloored
Posted 2016-09-09 2:08 AM (#520832 - in reply to #153789)
Subject: Re: Electroluminescent lighting / Panelescent lighting dashboard


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Location: Avondale, AZ		Incredible write up.
Thanks wizard.
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