The benefits of inserting a circular polarizing filter between the display and the color filter (and by itself) were minimal in virtually any situation.

I had hoped that it would reduce reflected light going into the display enough to make a worthwhile improvement in daylight viewing, but no such luck. It did increase contrast, but reduced brightness....back to the drawing board.

hmm interesting idea.. have you tried getting a blue-filter and putting it over your empeg by any chance? Assuming you have a blue display this might block most light from reaching the display without reducing much brightness. I doubt it would make much difference though but it's a thought.

have you tried getting a blue-filter and putting it over your empeg by any chance?

Yes, the blue filter is a better match for the display and lets more light thru, but I wanted to match the amber factory displays. With moderate to bright sunlight, I doubt there would be much practical benefit to the blue filter over the amber one (or even no filter at all...just the circular polarizer).

the laws of optics always seem to force trade-offs I guess. Polarizers are great but you can't make one without losing light, same thing with filters. The best solution might be to put a hood above the empeg and behind it, in between your seats to block the sunlight instead of trying to compensate for it.

Exactly. And the the light from the vfd is cut right away with the amber screen, so it is a impossible battle to win with filters.

Sean

The best solution might be to put a hood...

The car already has a very effective electric hood (the convertable top ) that works quite well at this, but here in California, I drive around with it down most of the time.

Seriously, the Empeg is mounted low in the console so an additional "shade" would not be practical. I did consider this and was hoping the 3M louvered filter would help more than it did.

Guess the Empeg EL panel is no match for a photon war with the sun.

This may have been noted before, but you are going about it the wrong way. All you are doing is stopping down the light emitted by the EMPEG unit.

The idea is great, but your approach is flawed.

Sorry , I don't want to seem negative. Let me follow up with some suggestions. You want to be able to see the screen, so you either have to stop down the ambient light (i.e. sun) or at least suns rays that hit the unit or your eyes. You can also step up the brightness in the unit so that it shows in the light.

One option is to look for a replacement for the facia , or even let the display out bare.

Although a circular polarizer (like just about any non-transparent filter) reduces emitted light from the display, my hopes were that the amount of reflected light (i.e. sun light) that it blocked would make up for this. It does help a little, but not enough to avoid washout in anything more than modest sunlight.

Circular polarizers can be very effective in improving the contrast and reflected light (mostly from overhead room lights) in CRT displays.

Circular Polarizers are often use to reduce reflection like you said, but it does so in a pattern to disrupt interference patterns of light, not block or filter it.

I just came up with a great idea for a filter.

WINDOW TINT. Here's what you do.

1. Put the darkest tint you can find on your windows.
2. Roll the windows up.
3. (for convertibles) put the top up.

Voila! a visible screen!!