Heads Up

Hey Everybody- I just wanted to talk a bit about the heads-up display and see if anyone else is having the problems I am experiencing. First, I have spent nearly 2 weeks designing an enclosure and I finally came up with one which looks very much OEM, it’s more of a platform rather then an enclosure. I will post pictures as soon as I can.

Mounting the control unit was a little more of an issue then I thought. I will be tracking my car at least 2 or 3 more times this year. With that said I didn’t want to use double sided tape or Velcro to mount the unit. I needed it to be solid and not have any possibility of falling onto my feet while driving hard. With that said I was able to use strapping iron and attach the unit to a blank threaded screw hole along side my evaporator assembly. Unfortunately, I can’t get to the unit to adjust the dimmer or peak mode unless I get out of the car and reach under the dash. If I decide to keep the heads-up installed I may relocate the unit.

Well, like I said, if I decide to keep the heads-up. The reason for that statement is after all the hard work of making this thing look perfect I am a little disappointed in the performance.

First off, the reflective rectangle which has to go on the windshield stinks (I’ll try to keep this PG) Yeah, it’s not that big, however, when you look at it from outside the car it looks like I have a 3 x 3 piece of Reynolds Wrap tin foil stuck to my window!! Ditch the film, now the display doubles!

Next, if you are using manual dimming, which I think all of us are (so far) and you set it to max brightness. Doing this makes the display ungodly distracting at night, it reflects all over the place. The green blob of light bounces off the windshield and illuminates my instrument cluster hood, this in turn lights the windshield up. So I have a very bright display surrounded by radiant green light coming off my cluster hood. If I back the dimmer down it looks great, but during the day it’s invisible. In other words, the only way you can see it during the day is on “max bright”. To tell you the truth, even when it’s on max bright it’s difficult to see during the day. OK, I know I can use the auto dimmer, but that thing sticks out of a weird plug on the bottom of the display. So if you made a trick custom cover, now you have to figure out a way to get that dimmer sensor out of the bottom and still look good.

One last thing that we all probably over-looked, when we are driving we are looking far down the road, not directly in front of the car. If you want to look at the head-up display you must shift your eyes and drastically refocus, especially since the display is small. I’m finding it’s actually easier to look at the very big and clear factory gauges rather than trying to find the small heads-up display. I mean sure, if you making a custom ride and are looking for a trick set-up this thing is cool. For me however, I’m trying to keep this car very light and track worthy (no deep dish chrome wheels fro me). I thought this would help me on the track, now I’m thinking probably not.

I guess in closing, my biggest concerns are:
I have to take off the film, it looks horrible
I can’t see the display during the day unless it’s on max bright
If the display is on max bright during the night it becomes very distracting
The dimmer sensor looks like it was designed after the fact


Please give me some feedback guys.....tell me what you think

Thanks
-John
 
Sorry to hear you are not happy with it. Not trynna get into it, just giving you some feedback.

I have to take off the film, it looks horrible
Yes, I would recommend using the film. Do I wish that it was there? No. But its really not that bad.

I can’t see the display during the day unless it’s on max bright If the display is on max bright during the night it becomes very distracting
Use the auto dimmer

The dimmer sensor looks like it was designed after the fact
Heres a pic of mine:

dimmer.JPG


I am very happy with the unit. Yes the film is something that I can do with out, but if it comes down to seeing a blurry display in double vs a small area on the winshield when looking at it from outside, I'll take the film. Give the auto dimmer a try for the day/night issue. I have mine (display) mounted on the left lower part of my winshield, clearly in viewing area. Before mounting, we tried numerous locations, and this was the best suited for easy viewing and outside winshield effect and then mounted it from there. You can also angle it upwards more to reflect higher, but I think would only accentuate your issue with the foil as it would be even more visible from the outside because it would be more in the middle of your winshield. Post pics when you get a chance. PM me if if there is anything I can help you with.
 
Well I have to say, your guy did a great job with the auto dimmer, because this is the second time I am seeing your picture and it's the second time I can't find your sensor:) If you can, please circle it.

In your second picture...that's exactly what my tin foil looks like:D:D Actually mine is a little lower, just a tad

Thanks,
-John
 
Oh crap!! That's why I couldn't see it. You took it out of the sensor enclosure, very cool!!
 
jadkar said:
Well I have to say, your guy did a great job with the auto dimmer, because this is the second time I am seeing your picture and it's the second time I can't find your sensor:) If you can, please circle it.

:D :D :D

oh man, was that funny. I was thinking the same thing. I had no idea where the sensor was. I just figured it was somewhere around that purple blurb.


I agree on most of what you said John. Ditch the film IMO. I didn't like it that much from my inside view, but from the outside... :eek: :eek: :eek: Definately not the look I'm going for.

I think manual dimmer on MAX bright day and night is the best without the film. I drove around with this thing flying all over my dash for 3 days (Day and night) and constantly shifted the angle of the unit under different lighting conditions.

I rested on mounting the unit at a slightly reduced angle. From my angle, you don't really see the "x1000 rpm" wording and this reduces the brightness just a bit. I think this 'reduction in brightness' has a different affect than using the 'dim' control. It just loses some of the intensity that it beams onto the windshield and I don't notice any doubling from my normal seated position.

No complaints from me about lighting up my dash. I did notice that when I had the unit tilted back so that it was truly at the brightest display (and the x1000 rpm was visible on my window) the green illumination coming from the display was noticable over the guage hump.

John, try putting something under the side with the 2 lights to elevate it just slightly and drive with it day and night. tell me what you think.

I wasn't happy with the auto dim because my windows are tinted 5%. My cabin is fairly dark and I found that the dimmer didn't brighten it up enough during normal daylight conditions. Only if the sun was really coming in through the front windshield.
 
OK, I still don't have pictures for you guys. I just finished some adjustments and honestly, I'm too lazy to whip out the camera and post pictures.

However, for now I think I'm going to keep the film because I trimmed the hell out of it. It's really small now. Basically it's set up just for me (wearing a helmet). If I move my seat around any more then I have it when I track the car the display is off the film. This should be fine for my purpose, and it's much less visible outside the car. I also installed the auto dimmer, I took it out of the big holder it came in. This allowed me to hide it much better like Chuck did for Don. I have to say, at night with the auto dimmer I am happy. It dims it enough so it's not lighting up my entire interior, because it's less bright it's also not a distraction on the windscreen. When I pulled into my bright garage I actually saw the display adjust, it got brighter. Very cool, but I still don't think I will see it in the daylight, I will have to check it out tomorrow.

Does anyone know the difference between the 3 levels of brightness in the auto mode?? I have in on level 3 right now.

Oh, one more thing, someone mentioned that their speed was off slightly. Mine is as well, I have the pulse set on 4 and my it’s 3 mph off. I don't know which one is correct, the gauge or the heads-up.
 
Here are some pictures. I think it came out fairly well, Don's is still the way to go, his came out the best, but for the price it better:D:D

Don- my display is 3mph faster then my gauge, I have 18s and 17s. Is this on par with what you have? Which one do you think is correct, the display or the factory gauge? Plus, even if we have different wheels they're both getting the reading (pulse) from the same source so shouldn't the mph be the same on both devices?


img_0016.jpg
You can see how small I made the tint
img_0026.jpg

img_0027.jpg

img_0029.jpg

I fit the display on the tint so precisely that you can tell in this photo it doesn't line up because I was shifted too far to the left
 
Ugh, that film would drive me silly. What do they put in cars that have it installed from the manufacturer? I had HUD in a vette I owned and don't remember seeing anything on the windshield at all.
 
I'm not sure about the vette. But I know for a fact the early Pontiacs with HUD had a rectangular piece of film on the windshield as well.
 
This is the vette one. I think GM pretty much perfected this, no film and very clear in the bright sun!!
 

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Bingo!! I got it! The reason why you don't see a piece of film on the new GM cars with heads up display is the film is built into the ENTIRE windshield.

I found this article from DuPont, who supplies the special windshields for the Delphi Delco HUDs used in GM vehicles.

Here are some quotes:

"Delphi Delco Electronic Systems of Kokomo, Indiana (USA) is the world's leading supplier of automotive Heads-Up Display (HUD) units which depend on a wedge-shaped PVB interlayer in the car's windscreen for optimal visibility."

"Delphi Delco Optics Engineer, Scott Spink, explained: "In the Heads-Up Displays, the image that the driver sees is reflected off the inner and outer surfaces of the windshield. The inner surface produces the primary image seen from the driver's position while the outer surface produces a second, dimmer image. In a conventional, non-wedged windshield, these images appear slightly separated due to refraction through the glass layers and this separation is known as 'ghost'. Thanks to wedged PVB, we can align the two images into one, eliminating 'ghosting'. DuPont supplies the wedged PVB for our most popular HUD systems."


Wow!! That last paragraph basically sums up our problems

here is the link to the whole article, good reading.......
http://www.dupont.com/safetyglass/lgn/stories/1004.html
 
just an idea

What about you guys built a up right plastic in the middle of the car, I believed that way, you are keeping your sight more "normal" and that, won't have an ugly film...

I think I'm not too clear on this, but take a look of those fighter planes and you will know what I mean...
 
jadkar said:
Bingo!! I got it! The reason why you don't see a piece of film on the new GM cars with heads up display is the film is built into the ENTIRE windshield.

I found this article from DuPont, who supplies the special windshields for the Delphi Delco HUDs used in GM vehicles.

Here are some quotes:

"Delphi Delco Electronic Systems of Kokomo, Indiana (USA) is the world's leading supplier of automotive Heads-Up Display (HUD) units which depend on a wedge-shaped PVB interlayer in the car's windscreen for optimal visibility."

"Delphi Delco Optics Engineer, Scott Spink, explained: "In the Heads-Up Displays, the image that the driver sees is reflected off the inner and outer surfaces of the windshield. The inner surface produces the primary image seen from the driver's position while the outer surface produces a second, dimmer image. In a conventional, non-wedged windshield, these images appear slightly separated due to refraction through the glass layers and this separation is known as 'ghost'. Thanks to wedged PVB, we can align the two images into one, eliminating 'ghosting'. DuPont supplies the wedged PVB for our most popular HUD systems."


Wow!! That last paragraph basically sums up our problems

here is the link to the whole article, good reading.......
http://www.dupont.com/safetyglass/lgn/stories/1004.html

Hopefully this will help solve the problem and make it more visually appealing.
 
Im in lets make it happen!!!

1. Speedracer
2. Bilulan
3. NSX01
4. jadkar
5. Juejaimon
6. S D NSX
7.awsomr1
8. Prova4re
9. pixelhaus
10. Project13nsx
11. b.gill
12. Kswift
 
kswift said:
Im in lets make it happen!!!

1. Speedracer
2. Bilulan
3. NSX01
4. jadkar
5. Juejaimon
6. S D NSX
7.awsomr1
8. Prova4re
9. pixelhaus
10. Project13nsx
11. b.gill
12. Kswift

Hey Kswift, you might want to check out the newest thing for our cars and see if we can get a group buy started. It's called a Smartenna and is really cool!:biggrin: :biggrin: :wink:
 
OMG!!!!


My NSX is on the West coast right now!! Holy "thread grave diggn"
 
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