OK, decided to do a poll to see what colors you think you would buy as a primary color.

I think a set of five(5) or three(3) buttons and one knob for one price is a good way to go. Reply to this post with your list of what you would lke to see in the kits.

: trying to fix the poll
- l0ser

For the kit I would like to see the follwoing colors:

Red
Blue
Grey - Lt
Amber
Clear

Sean in NC

I vote for a 5 color kit.

Red
Blue
Amber
Smoke - Light
Clear

Ya'll forgetting Green!

Smoke, Red, Blue, Yellow, Green

I wonder if we can get clear though. Perhaps if all the plastic is clear with dye added to make the color, we can just have the caster bang out some plain sets. I'll put that on my list of questions for casters.

Surely the difference between Smoke Lt and Smoke Dk is the intensity of the LED, and aquamarine and teal are effectively the same colour. Yellow and Amber are going to look very similar and clear is unlikely to work.
I assume that the greys and white are intended to be (virtually?) opaque. I can't see translucency working in those colours without the result being similar to a smoked button.

Really all I want is blue, but if I had to get a full set which is fine Red Blue Green and what ever else gets thrown in. Some UV ones would be cool but I wont hold my breathe on them.

hi.

I'm not sure what you mean with "5(3) buttons and 1 knob". Hopefully, you don't mean 5(3) different colors for the buttons but only one color for the knob. That would probably look silly in most combinations. Please include a full set of 4 buttons and 1 knob for each color.
For the colors to be ordered most likely, I would guess at
- green
- blue
- red
- amber
- smoke
I would tend to a pretty dark smoke one myself, but others may have different tastes.

cu,
sven

For some reason this poll has been ended, I will find out if it can be reactivated...

Sean in NC

yes, please find out about the clear or cloudy buttons.

I want to install blue LED's and lightly coat the clear buttons with a silver paint (made specially for plastic) so that the buttons look normal in day light but still be able to show light through the button at night.

Hmmm ... for my current car I'm trying to match the colour of the needles on the dash. The neon orange lens goes well with the rest of it. So, at the moment I'd be interested in (in order of preference)

Red
Orange
Smoke
Green
Blue

I guess that tries to cover any future lens combinations I might use. I'm not happy with my current car choice and might have to go for something completely different.

I'd want a set in each color made.

Also, I'd LOVE to have some chrome buttons, if possible at all. Woudl that be an option? If thwy were actually metal, it would be great. But plastic or any other material which somehow has a chrome look would be great.

I'm honestly thinking that clear buttons should be on the list. I have it on my list to ask casters, "Do we get the colors by adding dye to clear plastic? If so, can we run off a bunch of clear sets?"

That way maybe people could modify them (like you and Skunk mentioned) to get those cool effects or colors of their choice. Maybe people could color the "back" surfaces which don't come in contact with their fingers. Then maybe the light could shine through this exterior color and maybe push it throught buttons.

Blue
Green
Red
Smoke
Amber

In order of preference

Me, I'm thinking of trying to paint the buttons black. Masking off < or > to look more like the rest of the buttons/controls.

If you do, I recommend this product.

I've successfully used the Silver paint on my buttons with great results! I've had my all buttons painted for about five months now and have not encountered any wear, chips, scuffs or fading of the paint. This paint penetrates the plastic so there is no added thickness to the buttons once painted.

It's great for those who would like a change in color of their fascia too.

That's actually a good idea, too. The four buttons are basically the only gray things in my dash. If black, they'd be still better.
On the other hand, I'd like to keep a set of original buttons unchanged, so hopefully I'll be able to order some buttons from theones about to be produced and panint those...
I guess the silver paint does not look "chrome", does it? I mean, close enouth to other real chrome components in the interior?

Quote:
I guess the silver paint does not look "chrome", does it? I mean, close enouth to other real chrome components in the interior?

Well it's a bit hard to tell from this photo even with the references.
The Silver is pretty reflective and looks somewhat white when photographed.
On top of the empeg I placed a chrome item and a Logitech black/silver mouse.
The Silver paint is a slightly brighter paint than that of the silver color on the mouse and i think it'd be safe to say that it closely comes to a brushed aluminum color.

hmm poll is still R.I.P
I'd like

Clear
Blue
Smoke
Red
Green

Thanks for the feedback. What kind of blue are you trying to match? Darkstorm deep blue? Filener's light blue? A specific lense brand and color will really help.

I am only days away from sending out my pile of button and color swatch samples. The colors will be based on Filener's flat smoke, flat red, flat green, raised amber, and the original dark blue from the factory rainbow set (comprable to Darkstorm's deep blue). Clear may happen also, if I can convince the molder to run them at no additional "color charge", because that would be just silly.

Thanks for the input.

I'm not sure if it's been discussed in any of the recent threads, but the VFD colo(u)r has a large effect on the color through the lense. So a clear lense is green, and so on... Colors matched to the lenses won't really match, so to speak.

Matthew

It is actually exceptionally hard to get an exact match between the VFD and the white LEDs. You are better off trying to match the raw color of the lens so that everything looks uniform when "off". A bit of planned contrast when the unit is powered is (in my opinion) more desirable than something that _almost_ matches, but not quite.

Matthew, thanks for the note. I've been considering this dilemma since I first read about it during Stu's process, I believe. To my eye, both Brian's and Stu's buttons match the lenses perfectly when lit and unlit.

The only color difference I see in theirs when lit is the button *intensity*. To my eye, the white button LEDs make the buttons look like the lens color, just more powerful. I hope that contrast is acceptable, and if not, comments are very welcome.

So, I plan to match unlit material color to start. When I get a sample of colored buttons, I'll try them and see how they match the lenses. I will then note any difference in base color and have the molders adjust their process to fix it. Hopefully by a second itteration, the base color will match and only the known intensity difference will remain.

Smoke is the exception. To me, smoke lenses have always looked green, but Stu's smoke buttons are a nice gray. It seems like alot of people like smoke lenses but I've never seen a complaint that they are greenish. So, I'll try to produce grey buttons, because I guess that's the intended color. If people want "greyed VFD green" for smoke, let me know.

The VFD is greenish. If the lens doesn't change the color of the VFD, as the smoke won't -- it just makes it slightly dimmer -- it will appear the same color as the VFD, which, again, is greenish.

I've always wondered if some outside-the-box thinker could make a smoke lense that actually *was* a color (instead of a gray shade) which could negate the VFD green and make the text look smoked. (hm... but then the lense would look like that anti-green color) Wait, who used the Filener rainbow gel kit to make white text? I have to try that combo...

Like this?

The problem with that is that you lose a lot of visibility. Because you are filtering the VFD down to a white / smoke, it becomes much harder to read in bright conditions.

I'd agree, but he said that it was the most visible thing he'd seen for daytime use:

Quote:
Plus, during the day it is the most readable color I've ever had.