When I saw how inexpensive the red bulbs were at WalMart, I bought enough to
replace all of the light bulbs I painted and have a few more as spares.

"Len Krauss" wrote in message
news
Be careful with nail polish to color incandescent bulbs, which I assume
you
have. Some get quite hot, esp the bright ones. When I was a kid I did
the
nail polish thing on boat instrument bulbs, and it gave off smoke that
clouded the instrument lenses. As these were sealed, the lenses couldn't
be
cleaned. Instruments were still readable, but the cloudy appearance of
lenses wasn't pleasing.

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Eliminate "ns" for email address.
"William G. Andersen" wrote in message
news:gDz8d.24930$Hz.9852@fed1read04...
Colored light bulbs are no problem. I painted the original bulbs in my
instrument lights with nail polish. The next week I saw colored light
bulbs
in WalMart - very inexpensive.
So now I just need the time to take the display out of the boat and
tinker
with it. I boat at least twice a week, so it may be a while before I
have
the time...
My boat: http://members.cox.net/wgander/family_boat.htm

"Len Krauss" wrote in message
news
I had a similar issue with lighting for two fuel gauges. I rewired the
bulbs
to be in series which cut the brightness considerably. Also painted
bulbs
red -- used special paint for this designed to take heat. Theatrical
supply
places have it as do some mail order auto supply places. If you get
lucky
you may actually be able to buy the right bulbs already colored red.
Len

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"William G. Andersen" wrote in message
news:6%j7d.12517$Hz.2496@fed1read04...
Anyone have ideas about how to add a light/backlight to an
instrument?
I want to add interior illumination to the display panel of my
Si-Tex
525
ADF. It has three lights for operation and they're very bright: I
think
it
would be easier on my eyes at night if the face of the panel was
softly
illuminated. Si-Tex only states they don't offer an illumination
mode.
I'm thinking of a small 12 volt bulb inserted in a notch on one
edge -
thinking the light would be distributed through the clear panel.
An alternative would be to just mount one or two bulbs inside the
case
so
that the bulbs aren't directly visible, but so that the light would
be
dispersed throughout the case.
In either case, I plan on wiring the bulb(s) to the power switch of
the
ADF.