V1 Colored Displays

[Icer1]

Not to take anything away from languy99 who makes (IMO) killer color displays but has anyone tried other ways of doing this? From what I’ve read, it seems the LED’s may be white and it’s just a red transparent coating on the back of the display that makes the lights look red…true? It appears the red coating is just scraped off and then a colored LED is put in to make the different colors...true? Has anyone tried to just scrap off the red coating and then used colored transparent paint to accomplish the same thing? I was just trying to think of a more DIY colored display that doesn’t involve replacing LED’s. Thoughts?


Edit: Wait, I'm assuming the LED's are white, if they are red this whole post could be worthless

Are they white or red?

If the LED's are red, would green paint make it look yellow?
If the LED's are red, would blue paint make it look magenta?

Just thinking out loud.

[thx1138]

Not to take anything away from languy99 who makes (IMO) killer color displays but has anyone tried other ways of doing this? ... It appears the red coating is just scraped off and then a colored LED is put in to make the different colors...true? Has anyone tried to just scrap off the red coating and then used colored transparent paint to accomplish the same thing? I was just trying to think of a more DIY colored display that doesn’t involve replacing LED’s. Thoughts?


Edit: Wait, I'm assuming the LED's are white, if they are red this whole post could be worthless

Are they white or red?

If the LED's are red, would green paint make it look yellow?
If the LED's are red, would blue paint make it look magenta?

Just thinking out loud.

The LEDs are red and the cover film is red. If you scrape the red coating off the film the display will still be red (although slightly brighter). If you scrape and paint the film with ANY color, the display will still be red (much dimmer red).

The only way to get colors in the display besides red, is to scrap the red film and replace the LED with another color.

I have thought about replacing the arrows LED (also currently red) with a white LED and color the red arrow plastic cover with blue. The result should be a purple color. It maybe too dim and affect daytime visibility.

So replace your LEDs or put Languy99 on the job.

[Icer1]

Thanx for the info, thx. I'd love to get mine done by Languy99 but I'd hate to void the warranty..... I may do it anyway down the road.

[thx1138]

If you are modfying the V1, I agree the warranty is important. If you are just changing the concealed display, I'd go ahead and getit. Its a small risk that anything would go wrong, plus the cost is small The colors really help, especially at night.

[bopbop]

That is why I got mine only the bands in color not the signal strength. Kinda hard to tell which one is which at night.

I wonder why Valentine has not come up with this or a different tone for each band.

[thx1138]

I posted this on another thread, but I thought I'd show it again....I enjoyed doing the mod myself.

[takeshi]

+1 for mod the CD and not the V1 itself.

I wonder why Valentine has not come up with this or a different tone for each band.

Spend more time with the V1 and you'll get better at distinguishing the different alerts. K and Ka are a bit similar but there's enough of a difference between X, K/Ka and Laser.

[focalcivic]

I just thought of something, say you scrape the red coating off, now it is clear, the red led is still red, what if you used a marker and colored in the clear circle say just for k band, will this do anything?

The reason I am saying this because K is almost centered so if you mark it at night it might be easer to tell the bands above and below it.

[thx1138]

I just thought of something, say you scrape the red coating off, now it is clear, the red led is still red, what if you used a marker and colored in the clear circle say just for k band, will this do anything?

The reason I am saying this because K is almost centered so if you mark it at night it might be easer to tell the bands above and below it.

Yes, this will make the red LED dimmer.....

THe only way to change the color of the V1 display is to change hte LED to another color AND to scrape the red coating off the back of the cover label.

LEDs are sort-of mono-chromatic...If they are red, they will still look red even if filtered through any other color (although it will be dimmed). Now if you change the LED to white and eliminate the red coating in the cover label, you can color the display with wahtever color you want. A white LED has a broad spectrum of colors and can be filtered to your your desired color. However it still dims the LED. Since you have to replace the LED anyway, just change it to the color you want and scrape the cover label....red, amber, yellow, green, blue and white are readily available...purple is out there too if you really want it.