Scoobys 827 Sterling aka "Project Galactic Dawn"

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Re: Scoobys 827 Sterling aka "Project Galactic Dawn"

Post by scoobyh123 » Tue Aug 14, 2018 9:09 am

Thanks Adrian - the V6 badge is there for a reason though! Normally i'm similar to yourself and wouldn't want any badges other than the original but i fitted the V6 badges a few weeks after getting the car because i got so pi55ed off with people thinking it was a 2.0 litre!

As such the badge has been on there 10+ years and has become part of the car and also the character of the car. Even now i get people thinking it's a 2.0 as they think it's the same 2.0 V6 as the 75! :roll:

Eventually i'll sort the paintwork out and then it should look as nice on the outside as it does everywhere else! :wink: :D
Cheers,
Dave

'02 Honda CR-V SE Executive
'99 Jag S Type 3.0 V6 SE


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'94 827 Sterling saloon
'88 Volvo 760 V6 Estate
'95 827 Coupé LPG gone but not forgotten!

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Re: Scoobys 827 Sterling aka "Project Galactic Dawn"

Post by scoobyh123 » Tue Aug 14, 2018 9:31 am

mercedade wrote:
Tue Aug 14, 2018 8:53 am
The biggest problem with LED lights is when the design of the lighting unit depends on refraction. For example, my rear indicators are long, with the bulb sitting towards the top of the unit. Using LEDs, the bottom half of the lens remains unlit, leaving a large shadow. Revert back to a halogen bulb and it's lit from top to bottom.
What car is that on and what sort of LED bulbs are you using? If you can add pictures that may explain the problem.

You can see in the video above how well the LED bulb fills the rear indicators on mine, better in fact than the filament bulb, likewise with the stop/tail lights :

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First pic is the filament bulbs, second is the LEDs with the brake lights on, third pic is tail lights only so a direct comparison to the first. A real "side by side" comparison is here, filament lamps on the left, LEDs on the right :

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A lot of it is down to the LED design and brightness. That is of course on my Coupé which i no longer have but you can see the difference! My Sterling has the same LEDs and the same outer stop/tail conversion rather than just being the stop light.

Also note the slight "pink" of the filament bulbs as they are transmitting white light through a red lens whereas the LEDs are red from the off so only transmit "useful" light.

Halogen bulbs are generally only used in headlamps because they generate a lot more heat, this is why the headlamp reflectors tend to tarnish so much because of the heat. I know you can get other bulbs that are halogen but to be fair, they don't brighten the lights that much in comparison to the extra heat they produce. :wink: :D
Cheers,
Dave

'02 Honda CR-V SE Executive
'99 Jag S Type 3.0 V6 SE


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'94 827 Sterling saloon
'88 Volvo 760 V6 Estate
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Re: Scoobys 827 Sterling aka "Project Galactic Dawn"

Post by Manalishi » Mon Sep 03, 2018 9:24 am

So Dave, do you have any time for your own beast? Any recent progress?
Henrik
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Re: Scoobys 827 Sterling aka "Project Galactic Dawn"

Post by scoobyh123 » Mon Sep 03, 2018 10:09 am

To be honest Henrik, it's more or less up together now on the improvements except for installing the LPG system and the rear camera for the dash-cam/reversing camera. The other minor problem that needs sorting is the clutch bearing on the A/C compressor, it sounds like Concorde taking off when i use the A/C at the moment!

However i did update the blue LED bulbs in the instruments, Climate Pack and radio - i can actually see the displays now!

This was the radio at night - readable, just!

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After updating the LED in reasonably bright sunlight :

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The problem was i used cheap LEDs in the first place and for some reason, the plastic body of the LED tarnished over time, rendering them barely capable of light transmission - the LEDs themselves were still working but there was little or no output!

The climate pack was the same, almost unreadable, even at night!

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That's reasonably bright sunlight and as you can see, is readable!

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A few shots there of it all back together at night. Looks quite bright there because of the phone camera, in reality it's not quite so bright, just a pleasant glow all round.

Still a few things to do like the extra boot lamp but the biggest problem i have at the moment is trying to decide where/how to mount the rear camera. :shock: :wink: :D
Cheers,
Dave

'02 Honda CR-V SE Executive
'99 Jag S Type 3.0 V6 SE


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'94 827 Sterling saloon
'88 Volvo 760 V6 Estate
'95 827 Coupé LPG gone but not forgotten!

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Re: Scoobys 827 Sterling aka "Project Galactic Dawn"

Post by Manalishi » Mon Sep 03, 2018 10:20 am

But you like the blue? I swapped for blue in a previous car but it felt too cold. I really like the amber, but the nicest glow Ive seen was the red in my fathers old Audi 100 1987.

About the climate pack, do you know if its possible to get it to shine bright when the lights are switchen on? Its always been a niggle that the display dims as I turn the lights on! Any ideas?
Henrik
Rover 820 Vitesse Coupe 180bhp -93 (Italy)
Rover 827 Vitesse manual (non cat) -89 (Spain)
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Re: Scoobys 827 Sterling aka "Project Galactic Dawn"

Post by scoobyh123 » Mon Sep 03, 2018 11:06 am

I know what you mean about blue in some cars giving a cold "feel" - i tried blue in my previous Volvo 740 but switched to green.

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When i got my 760, i went for green from the off :

Image

I do like the blue though and in the Rover, it doesn't look or feel cold. Kind of reminds me of twilight after a hot summers day so is like a warm, comforting glow - if that makes sense?

Red hurts my eyes at night though, i also had an Audi 100 CD5E (1986 so a year older than your dads) so know what you mean about the red glow. I found that hurt my eyes at night as well. It wasn't until a few years later when i started doing marine electrics as well and went on board a ship at night, walked onto the bridge and it was in darkness except for a single red light that i realised why i hadn't liked driving the Audi at night! Then the penny dropped - it's something in the red light that my eyes don't like! Apparently they used a red light as it helped them stay awake!

It is certainly possible to convert yours to red if you like. Using LEDs would get round the problem of the display dimming too much on the climate pack as they won't dim as much, even on the dimmest setting as filament bulbs do.
Also, the bulbs in your climate pack will be 25 years old or thereabouts so will have blackened over the years. To make matters worse, Rover use an amber filter which needs a certain light level to penetrate - with a dim bulb because it's gone black, it won't do it!
In the radio and instrument pack, they use a silicon condom over the bulbs to get the different colours, except for the anti-shadow lighting above the instruments. That is done with a piece of translucent amber acrylic, screen printed with a weird set of lines to prevent shadows from the needles on the gauges. I got round this by using reflective (chrome) film on the inside of the housing to spread the light. Then used blue 12v LEDs in the bulbholders.
If you went for red, because red and amber are so close on the colour spectrum, you could get away with simply changing for LEDs - maybe you might need to add the reflective film on the inside of the housing in front of the instruments just to spread the light from the LEDs because they are more directional than filament bulbs.

In the climate pack, the LEDs that provide the button back lighting are normal LEDs (no internal resistor) but are soldered in and are a straight swap. Likewise with most of the LEDs in the radio, the two bulbs (one for the display, the other sits between the two knobs behind the faceplate) need the 12v LEDs although with mine, i used a resistor and LED for the knobs, had to make it very small to fit though!

If it's any help, i could do the groundwork, convert a climate pack to red LEDs, sort a set of parts for the instruments etc so it would be pretty much "plug'n'play" for you. Drop me a PM if that idea appeals. :wink: :D
Cheers,
Dave

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'99 Jag S Type 3.0 V6 SE


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'88 Volvo 760 V6 Estate
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Re: Scoobys 827 Sterling aka "Project Galactic Dawn"

Post by Marc-827-Vitesse » Tue Aug 20, 2019 12:40 pm

Nice work,

I did not expect that blue lighting would suit the interior of the 800 but it does. I do also like the cup holders. Tasteful upgrade. ;)
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Re: Scoobys 827 Sterling aka "Project Galactic Dawn"

Post by scoobyh123 » Tue Aug 20, 2019 1:25 pm

Thanks Marc - praise indeed coming from you!

Despite having had new batteries and a new alternator, i was still getting charging problems until recently, i now have a tried and tested cure for the problem which is the new generation of Silver-Calcium batteries. They need 14.7V MINIMUM just to start charging!

On the 827 it's a very simple fix, i'll post details later! :wink: :D
Cheers,
Dave

'02 Honda CR-V SE Executive
'99 Jag S Type 3.0 V6 SE


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Re: Scoobys 827 Sterling aka "Project Galactic Dawn"

Post by Marc-827-Vitesse » Tue Aug 20, 2019 8:37 pm

Can't wait!!

Cheers! :) ;)
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1982 Rover 3500 Vanden Plas.

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Re: Scoobys 827 Sterling aka "Project Galactic Dawn"

Post by scoobyh123 » Tue Aug 20, 2019 10:12 pm

Marc-827-Vitesse wrote:
Tue Aug 20, 2019 8:37 pm
Can't wait!!

Cheers! :) ;)
Sorry Marc, you'll have to wait a little longer, had a long day today collecting a replacement back axle for my Volvo and too tired now to find the pics and do the write up.
Cheers,
Dave

'02 Honda CR-V SE Executive
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Re: Scoobys 827 Sterling aka "Project Galactic Dawn"

Post by Marc-827-Vitesse » Sat Mar 28, 2020 5:38 pm

No rush. Take your time. ;)
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Re: Scoobys 827 Sterling aka "Project Galactic Dawn"

Post by scoobyh123 » Sat Mar 28, 2020 6:34 pm

Marc-827-Vitesse wrote:
Sat Mar 28, 2020 5:38 pm
No rush. Take your time. ;)
Thanks for the reminder Marc! :oops: I have to confess to totally forgetting to add the details! :oops:

In very simple terms, there is a battery voltage sense wire to the alternator and you interrupt this with a diode to create a 0.6-0.7V voltage drop so the alternator "thinks" the battery voltage is lower than in fact it is. This "boosts" the voltage regulator output by 0.6-0.7V giving 15.1-14.7V regulated output.

That's the theory. In practice it's very similar but because silver-calcium batteries develop a very high internal resistance when fully charged, it means very little current flows from the alternator into the battery so the alternator is powering the rest of the car with just a tiny bit going into the battery.

When idling with the heater fan, lights or any other load on, the alternator doesn't quite cover all loads so the battery voltage starts dropping again and then the alternator starts charging again.

This is the wire to interrupt, the yellow/blue one :

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I used some cheap sealed 2-pole plugs and sockets to make the connections, first i made a plug with a wire link to let me switch back to 14.4-14.0V if i need to :

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Then one with the diode in it :

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Some heatshrink sleeving to protect it :

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Fitted the socket and diode plug :

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Finally reconnected the green plug to the alternator :

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Although it's not obvious from the pics, the cathode of the diode (with the ring round the body) goes to the alternator and the plain end goes to the loom side of the cut in the wire.

The diode used is a 10A10 rectifier diode, fairly cheap on ebay.

In other news on the updates, i've firstly built a custom grille for it :

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I can honestly say it's a parts-bin special, not giving away the donor vehicle just yet but you're all welcome to guess! I do have plans to make a new badge for the grille using the "skeleton" longboat design and back-light it (with the sidelights) like the old Wolseley "ghost light". Need to do more research on exactly how to make the badge but i'm nearly there!

Despite my best efforts, the original stereo head unit and CD changer got to the point where they were giving me more trouble than enough so i succumbed to a new head unit. Although a single-shot CD player, it has the ability to stream music from my phone via BlueTooth, sat-nav from my phone and also handsfree from my phone, even came with a handsfree microphone!

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As you can see, it also has a USB charging socket (up to 1.5A) and can also use a USB stick as a storgae device for music and playback from it. There is also an app which means i can control it all from my phone but i haven't succeeded in connecting it properly. At least not yet anyway!

Although it's a modern head unit, it has a certain retro look to it so doesn't look out of place in a 26 year old interior.

Hoping that the weather, my health and other things stay conducive to getting more jobs done this year so hopefully more updates to follow! :wink: :D
Cheers,
Dave

'02 Honda CR-V SE Executive
'99 Jag S Type 3.0 V6 SE


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'94 827 Sterling saloon
'88 Volvo 760 V6 Estate
'95 827 Coupé LPG gone but not forgotten!

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Re: Scoobys 827 Sterling aka "Project Galactic Dawn"

Post by Fastback » Sat May 23, 2020 2:41 pm

Looking back through this topic, I remember commenting somewhere about the fully illuminated drivers' door pack. I was certainly going to add a few LEDs where they were omitted in later models and even got the LEDs and a few resistors (680 & 470) but can't remember why. It is easy to see where they go on the PCB but in what order? Is there anywhere here with fuller instructions on what you did or would you be so kind as to give me a few pointers please?
Mark
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Re: Scoobys 827 Sterling aka "Project Galactic Dawn"

Post by scoobyh123 » Sat May 23, 2020 4:53 pm

Fastback wrote:
Sat May 23, 2020 2:41 pm
Looking back through this topic, I remember commenting somewhere about the fully illuminated drivers' door pack. I was certainly going to add a few LEDs where they were omitted in later models and even got the LEDs and a few resistors (680 & 470) but can't remember why. It is easy to see where they go on the PCB but in what order? Is there anywhere here with fuller instructions on what you did or would you be so kind as to give me a few pointers please?
I'll dig out a switchpack later Mark and see if i can show you. :wink: :D
Cheers,
Dave

'02 Honda CR-V SE Executive
'99 Jag S Type 3.0 V6 SE


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'94 827 Sterling saloon
'88 Volvo 760 V6 Estate
'95 827 Coupé LPG gone but not forgotten!

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