Here are two images showing different surface preps: leftmost is printed "as is", middle one sanded, rightmost epoxy-coated. Second image: same cases but painted in matte black. Second image rightmost one (epoxyed and painted) looks best to me. Will go with that.
Agreed, second image last sample looks really good. You are moving well.
(12-10-2018, 05:36 PM)Csory_imp Wrote: [ -> ]Rboe: sure, will put’em under the “homemade for sale” (or whatever is appropriate) thread, but if and only I’m 110% happy with the end result. Right now working on the housing - tested a bunch of iterations with surface finish. The winner process is 160-grit sanded, epoxyed, then spray painted with acrylic in matte black. Base material is 3d printed black ABS, 100 micron layer height. Will have to try cutting the front glass with a diamond disc. Obtained a few sheet of laminated antireflex glass (basically cellphone screen protector) but they are quite thin (0.3mm or less than 1/64”). Will post images once managed to cut’em and not break’em 
Look for "perspex" plastic. It's tough, cheap and supplied cut to size.
Parts arrived - it was time to see if the housing fits! There were a few gotchas (there are always a few gotchas...) Found that epoxy resin can be peeled off with a knife relatively easily - will try sanding, acetone bath and then spray acrylic for the housing. Also, trimpots are too fiddly to calibrate voltage measurement - will go with software calibration instead. This will be burned in once the panel is complete to match the exact characteristics of that given set of parts. Power consumption is between 10 and 30mAmps (depending on screen brightness), not that bad at all. The pictures below show how cramped this thing is. Will have to re-arrange parts to have access to the MCU for post-soldering reprogramming though... Also added a movie, just to show off
Really nice prototyping art Csory. Yeah, 10's of milliamps while riding is nothing - certainly a lot less than a signal light bulb. Cooling over long period of time could be an issue, particularly on profuse humid daze.
Are you going to put a red filter over the display digits?
Crisp video.
GoldOxide: I reluctantly admit that the antireflex glass front pane (that I was so proud of...) is somewhat an eyesore. It is so transparent that the instrument looks a bit "naked" with it. Will try a few more options: a.) use black faced 7-segment display, b.) add a translucent (frosted) layer between the glass and the LEDs, or c.) use the standard deep red acrylic filter. The red filter idea seemed a bit out-of-style (with the rest of the instrument panel), but will have to reconsider...
If practical, consider amber LEDs and really get night traffic gawking at the flashing InfoDash at red lights.
The back seat cager kids love that stuff as they press their greasy nose against the door window.
When this exited project will be road ready and with what monitoring options ???
