Where to get lectern/DJ light for dash?

[belfert]

I've seen in some bus pictures a little flexible neck light like a DJ might use or a might be on a lectern/podium.

Any ideas where to get one?  I am hoping this would work to light my dash at night as several gauges have no working lights.

Brian Elfert

[BusCrazyTom]

Hi,

You should be able to get them from any upscale music supply retailer. They are made by Littelite and can be had that run on 12-24vdc.

Tom

[Busted Knuckle]

Brian my Setra had one from the factory, and I've seen them that plug into a cigarette lighter at auto parts places! But if it was me I'd pull the dash panel and fix the bad bulbs or bad grounds on the guages where you can see them good all the time, not just when you have the flex light on! (lights like that sometime get pretty annoying at night in a bus as there is sooo much glass to reflect off from and back to you at the weirdest angles & times!  BK  

[JackConrad]

If you go this route, use a red bulb, similar to the cockpit of an airplane, it cuts down on the glare off the glass and does not affect your night vision.  We added red LEDs to the overhang above our instrument panel and usually use these instead of the lights in the gauges, We have sparate switches and have found much less glare with the red LEDs.  Jack

[Busted Knuckle]

Nice idea Jack! I like it and may steal it ! BK 

[eglluvr]

Right before I left my last floating unit, we were shifting from "Rig for Red" to blue lights.  Supposedly it had to do with the receptors in the eye, and providing better night vision with less fatigue.  I would caution about having any "Blue" shoing visible from the cab in certain states though, as Blue flashing is federally reserved for Law enforcement only.

Jim

[belfert]

Brian my Setra had one from the factory, and I've seen them that plug into a cigarette lighter at auto parts places! But if it was me I'd pull the dash panel and fix the bad bulbs or bad grounds on the guages where you can see them good all the time, not just when you have the flex light on! (lights like that sometime get pretty annoying at night in a bus as there is sooo much glass to reflect off from and back to you at the weirdest angles & times!  BK  

I am thinking the light would get me through this first big trip.  My electrician friend fixed three of the gauge lights, but the most critical in my mind is the temp gauge.  Most of the problem is bad grounding all over the dash, but one bulb needs replacement.  (I already bought a bulb.)

I need to find the dash grounding studs as one has to be loose or something.  MCI now employs two of the Dina engineers who designed the Dina Viaggio 1000, but even their descriptions of the locations of the five grounding studs has not helped me find them.  The engineers are cool and even overnighted me for free a full set of electrical schematics when it turns out the schematics the parts dept sells are for a newer coach than mine.  (I didn't request the overnight and didn't expect it.)

I'm very tempted to rewire the dash from scratch next summer to fix all the problems, but I would probably end up either with a non-functional coach or a never ending project.

Brian Elfert

[H3Jim]

I found one that will be usnig for the passenger, on a flexible gooseneck.  Low voltage so I  can hook it direcdtly to my DC suppy.

Lowes had it.

[WEC4104]

The gooseneck lamps are also regularly used in police cars, so either a local store or on-line site that sells to police units would be another source.

As far as dash gauge color goes, this has been a debate for years. The human eye has different sensitivity to colors at low lighting levels. Has to do with the different receptors in the back of the eye (retina's rods and cones). Briefly stated, at low light leves, the eye is more sensitive to blue-greens, so gauges lit with these colors are easier to see. The downside is that looking at the blue-green also affects the sensitivity of your eyes more, so that when you look back out at the dark road, your eyes have to re-adjust more. With red light, your night vision is far less affected.

I happen to prefer the red gauges in my old BMW.  But I think the green are fine as long as folks adjust the intensity to what they need, instead of full blast.   Certainly the red lighting is more important in boats and aircraft where you are more dependent on the outside lighting mother nature provides, instead of high intensity headlights.

Wayne

[JackConrad]

Briefly stated, at low light leves, the eye is more sensitive to blue-greens, so gauges lit with these colors are easier to see. The downside is that looking at the blue-green also affects the sensitivity of your eyes more, so that when you look back out at the dark road, your eyes have to re-adjust more. With red light, your night vision is far less affected.

That is interesting. My GPS has a night mode with a black background and the streets in green (looks like a radar screen).  I thought it was just the black background , I guess it is also the green used for the streets.  Jack

[belfert]

I found one that will be usnig for the passenger, on a flexible gooseneck.  Low voltage so I  can hook it direcdtly to my DC suppy.

Lowes had it.

Any ideas where in Lowes to look for this?  Is it on Lowes.com?

I really should try to fix the dash lights I guess.  The only one that isn't lit that I really need is the temp gauge.

Brian Elfert

[H3Jim]

Brian, I just looked in the lighting section when I was wandering around there looking for bus stuff.  Sorry, other than that I can't remember anything else.

[WEC4104]

Jack:

Yep.  Also, at low light levels the color will affect the ability to discern fine detail. Other things being equal, the blue/greenish colors will let your eye resolve a smaller text font size, than would a color toward the red end of the spectrum.

The way the eye is affected by different colors also explains a little about the newer high intensity discharge lighting (aka: Xenon).  The light from these lights tend to be a blueish white, which is where you have the greatest night vision sensitivity (so drivers "see" better).  For the driver of the Xenon equiped car, who enjoys a constant level of this lighting, this works great. To the opposing driver, who sees the Xenon lighting briefly, then not at all, the night vision recovery period is longer. This is what some people call "dazzling".  To compensate, the HID lighting has sharper beam cut offs to limit the amount of light thrown at opposing drivers.  Even so, depending on the roads hills and curves, you can still get a nasty shot from HIDs.    

Sorry, didn't mean to hijack the thread...

[chargePlus]

You can also try the battery powered grill lights. They usually have them in the BBQ grill section. I suspect that they could easily be wired to run off 12V. Most are white lights, but with a little red tail-light tape from any autoparts store they become red.

At Lowes: http://tinyurl.com/z2yqo

- John