Speedhut Gauges

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did you adjust the brightness on the Edit: should be a brightness knob in the harness. Maybe connected to the invert box?
 
I snapped some pics of mine in the dark while they are lit.

Sorry they are upside down and my netbook is too limited to do photo editing. I guess i held my phone the wrong way lol
 

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magnumdust said:
did you adjust the brightness on the Edit: should be a brightness knob in the harness. Maybe connected to the invert box?
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Yes it has an inverter with a brightness control knob. I've turned it up all the way that that's the way it is in the pictures. I figured the numbers would be at least as bright as the needles would. Maybe I'm just being picky about it, but even my wife commented on how dim they are.
 
hmm that sucks then. I wonder if you got a bad batch or if the red numbers don't light up as well.
 
clinteg said:
I got my wiring to the point of testing the lighting. Unfortunately I was very disappointed with the light intensity of the face lighting. The LED read out is bright, the needles are bright, but the back lighting just isn't up to snuff. I'm going to call speed hut Monday cause I'm not really pleased with this at all. Anyone else have this issue? They look OK in the pictures but sitting in the car with no lights in the garage, they should be putting out a more intense light IMO.



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I have the same problem with my red speedo. I ordered mine custom (Red face, white numbers during the day, red numbers at night). I figured the reason they don't offer my combo is that it doesn't look all that good.

Based on the pics I've seen, the other colors are WAY more intense. Mine also has the LEDs for turn signals and high beam, and as it shows in the above pic, even when they're unlit, they have a pale light that shines through. The odometer is really bright, and it overpowers the red. The high beam LED does, too.

Basically, all of the ancillary lights are brighter than the pointer and numbers, which is the opposite from what I'd like.

Not too thrilled with how they look, compared to my Autometer Cobalt, which had very intense, vivid lighting.
 
I had the same issue with my Speedhut gauges. Dim Lighting. The Inverter was defective and not putting out the full 200VAC called for. One quick call to Speedhut and they sent me out a replacement right away. Great customer service and the new inverter worked great. Super bright even in daylight. Love them.

If you have a Voltmeter, Check the output (VAC) of the inverter with the pot turned up all the way. It should be about 200VAC if I remember correctly. Less than that then call them.

You don't really know how good a vendor is until you have a problem and see how they respond to it. Speedhut was all A`s in my book.
 

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vynn3 said:
I have the same problem with my red speedo. I ordered mine custom (Red face, white numbers during the day, red numbers at night). I figured the reason they don't offer my combo is that it doesn't look all that good.

Based on the pics I've seen, the other colors are WAY more intense. Mine also has the LEDs for turn signals and high beam, and as it shows in the above pic, even when they're unlit, they have a pale light that shines through. The odometer is really bright, and it overpowers the red. The high beam LED does, too.

Basically, all of the ancillary lights are brighter than the pointer and numbers, which is the opposite from what I'd like.

Not too thrilled with how they look, compared to my Autometer Cobalt, which had very intense, vivid lighting.
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That sucks to hear but at least you're having the same issue. I placed a call to them and they did say that the red requires a film that will darken the light output, whereas the white or blue doesn't have the dark film and they are inherently brighter. The guy on the phone claimed to have red in his car and he did say that they were not extremely bright. He can't even tell they're on in the daylight. But he says they shouldn't be "dim" or hard to read. IMO, it's not that I can't read them, I just think that they don't look like the high dollar gauges that they are. So I sent the pictures in to see what they have to say about it. I really thought I wanted red, but with these the way they are, I'm re-thinking white backlighting should have been the way to go had I known these would look like this.
 
I wonder what there return policy is if you are totally unhappy with them such as the red face issue. Just thinking they may give you a exchange or a partial. You never know I guess. I ordered the white during the day and blue at night. I was debating about those red ones at night though. After reading this glad I didnt.
 
Here is what SpeedHut has said in reply:

"Clinton,
Thank you for sending the pictures. With the color options you have selected (white numbers that glow red) that is the normal glow brightness. When the red is trying to pass through the white it looses a little bit of it brightness. We value you as a customer and are willing to change the color options for you at no additional cost if you would like. We would need to get the gauges back in order to do this. Let us know what you would like to do."

So with that being on the table to get these redone at no cost, it looks like I'm going to be sending these back in to get white glowing numbers instead (which is originally what I was going to order). I'd like to keep the red but you see how they look and I'm not really digging it. So kuddos to SpeedHut for keeping the customer happy.
 
That is great news Clinteg! Glad you got in contact with them and they are more than willing to make you happy. That is what customer services is about!
 
straightlinespeed said:
That lower pic with the gauges installed in the dash. Is that a Redline dash or something along that??
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I wish they had this redline area available when I bought mine, mainly for the tacho. I am also waiting to install mine and dieing to see what they look like in the car at night. I went for the red needle and light blue numbers at night.
 
Got my gauges, and test fitted into the bezel. I cant wait to get these wired up and see them. Mine will be blue at night. I know they are kinda boring to look at but I didnt want anything blingy. I do have to say that they appear to be very well built and looked great in the packaging when they arrived.

Im debating about painting the aluminum just for glare purposes, but I like the contrasting look it has right now. Do you guys think the sun will pose much of a glare on this section of the dash?

View attachment IMG_20140427_190256_410.jpg
 
straightlinespeed said:
Got my gauges, and test fitted into the bezel. I cant wait to get these wired up and see them. Mine will be blue at night. I know they are kinda boring to look at but I didnt want anything blingy. I do have to say that they appear to be very well built and looked great in the packaging when they arrived.

Im debating about painting the aluminum just for glare purposes, but I like the contrasting look it has right now. Do you guys think the sun will pose much of a glare on this section of the dash?

View attachment 1714717210
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I would, or if possible wire brush it to dull the shine. Someone with better know-how might be able to tell you if wire brushing is an option.
 
if you use a fine brass brush, you may be able to get a neat looking, slightly patina finish on your aluminum backpanel

did you adapt a factory panel?




straightlinespeed said:
Got my gauges, and test fitted into the bezel. I cant wait to get these wired up and see them. Mine will be blue at night. I know they are kinda boring to look at but I didnt want anything blingy. I do have to say that they appear to be very well built and looked great in the packaging when they arrived.

Im debating about painting the aluminum just for glare purposes, but I like the contrasting look it has right now. Do you guys think the sun will pose much of a glare on this section of the dash?

View attachment 1714717210
Click to expand...
 
magnumdust said:
I would, or if possible wire brush it to dull the shine. Someone with better know-how might be able to tell you if wire brushing is an option.
Click to expand...

I put it in the car tonight to mock it up and I can see it being a real PITA with a glare, I'll look into scuffing it somehow.

Rice Nuker said:
if you use a fine brass brush, you may be able to get a neat looking, slightly patina finish on your aluminum backpanel

did you adapt a factory panel?
Click to expand...


That is a good idea, I'll try different things on a scrap piece before I do it on this actual panel.

Yes I used a factory bezel. basically cutting everything off the back and the lip around the front. Not much left of these things after you do that.
 
Got the gauages back and hooked up. Here's a little demonstration for you.

SpeedHut Guages: [ame]http://youtu.be/jvMLkxnGuYk[/ame]
 
Thanks for the video! That is a nice looking set of gauges! I have my dash and 5 ignition wires left to terminate. Today was so nice out that I ended up working in the yard the entire day and the car just sat.. Tomorrow is suppose to rain so I'll work on wiring the car then. Again thanks for that video!
 
Speed hut has some nice guages. Nice seeing, something other than Auto Meter all the time.
 
Im getting ready to wire in the gauges and I was looking at the diagram Speedhut sent with.

They ask you to connect the inverter they send with the gauges to the dash lights. I think its odd that you would wire them into the headlight switch so that they can be dimmed from either the headlight dial or the dial connected to the inverter. So Im curious those of you that bought these, did you just connect to the park lights or did you go to the dash light terminal?

Also I find it odd that they have the pointer light separate from the dial light. Seems like they could had saved a extra wire connection if they would had run the pointer light thru the inverter also. Other than that Im very please with them so far!
 
Yeah not sure on that one. May make a call to speedhut and ask them. You might be able to just use your switch unless there's somethig special about Speedhut's inverter. I didn't have a dimmer on my headlight switch so I had to use the inverter.
 
bringing an old one up.

does anyone have problems with the inverters? I have the gauges wire up correctly. Since 3-4 years. All fine, but every year an inverter is shot. No clue why. Speedhut has aindeed a great service. They have sent already 2 times replacements for nada. To Germany! Now it happened again.

how sensitive are those inverters? Maybe the need a buffer or protection? Everything works great, just this damn inverter.....:(
 
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