illuminate the joystick shifter?

Provide some links if you have them.. if this is a total failure... I may consider tucking the stock one away for safe keeping and go with Tacky... yes... I can be tacky sometimes!

 

I want solar cells in the bottom and a LiIon computer bios battery for the LED :rockon:

 

Wow!.. now thats interesting!.. especially with the supercap.

Now you really got me thinking!

 

OK.. boys and girls.. I finally got a chance to dump some glowpowder into the shifter!.......

I haven't spent time in real life driving with it to see just how charged it gets and how long it stays charged into the evening verses first thing in the morning when its been dark all night and I leave for work in the dark and the only fresh charge it would get would be the brief dome lights but so far I'm impressed!

This stuff stays charged a long time so I think I may be good to go!
BTW... if anyone orders this glowpowder, note the "green" is the most powerful and will last the longest.

Here is a look at the knob itself


Here is a look with the headlights on so you can see how bright it is compared to the normal ambiance of the LED shining down on the center console and the normal lit lights.

I have my night lights at full brightness and my Nav screen subdued to the second to the lowest brightness setting for night driving.


1. How I did it..... I have some glowpowder I bought and FYI you prob need to buy 1 oz. as I bought 4 oz and it filled a medicine bottle nicely and I gestimate I used maybe 1/3 to 1/2 oz to fill the joystick shifter. I'm not sure 1/4 oz would be enough.

2. I rolled up a sheet of paper to a tiny point and stapled it "or tape" to hold its shape to make a funnel with a small enough hole to go inside the hole in the shifter.

3. I filled with glowpowder and tapped it on the table several times to shake down into all the cracks and crevices in the hollow spaces in the shifter.

4. Dump out any excess so you can see the bottom of the threads "or rather see all the threads" and then I pushed a tiny wad of toilet paper into the hole and pushed it down so it rested toward the other end of the threads. If I wanted to reverse the mod, I'm thinking I could grab the paper with some hemostats and dump out the powder..... but I can't see the reason to ever do that.

5. Now you can turn the knob rightside up to place back over the shaft to thread back on and the toilet paper should prevent any spillage.

6. Powder is strange to work with... note that if its not packed well.. you could get "uncharged" powder that lay underneath the charged powder on the surface to spill onto the top and cover up the charged powder....... so when you fill it.. fill it full and tight before you put in your tiny wad of toilet paper!!!

7. Screwing it back on the shaft should pack it even more.
Now "to test", charge the powder by putting a small pocket light or source near the knob to energize the powder.
You shouldn't ever had to do this again as the surface should receive an even charge to look uniform under normal use.

Your done!


After about an hour, I didn't notice enough charge to really appreciate.
I turned the car on "its still dark outside" and just the light from the Nav screen charged it and I could see it steadily get brighter and brighter "but subdued".

Once the headlights are turned on, the nav screen goes to dark mode so no longer gives the shifter an appreciable charge, but at that point the dim LED is shining on it... As you know, glow powder will never glow brighter than its source, so the LED alone doesn't do much for it and tends to drown out the light of the shifter.

A lighted shifter obviously wouldn't be a problem, but we are testing this first.

Hitting it with a pocket light really makes it pop!.....

I won't know how noticeable it is under normal use until I do just that.

I'll report back later.

 

Only if you went into a tunnel or darker area, the daylight would blind away what the shifter emitted as it will never be brighter than the source illuminating it.

I'm expecting it to look quite nice when the evening sun sets into the dark.

 

At night it looks green, but in the day, it looks basically normal "blue".

I"m afraid if you used any color of powder besides green you would lose a ton of light abilities.. if you follow the link I gave for glowpowder, you will see that the other colors drop dramatically in their brightness ratings.

Our human eyes see green the best..... true with lasers too!

 

I doubt ou would break it.. the shaft is solid steel and the knob is solid plastic "at the base".. its pretty well made.

Mine wasn't bad at all... but do the turn left, turn right thing, if you can ever get it started your good.

I thought I would have to put some plumbers tape or something to keep it tight again, but no.. I took it off twice before I did the mod, and it still went back on nice and solid.

Looks like they have some red thread compound on it.



I'll take a daylight pic... but the blue plastic is pretty dominant.... if it were more clear the powder would be blinding at night.

I think it may look less translucent, but not enough to notice..

I'll post pics.

 

I agree..... I'm going to try this for a week or so, but I'm not in love with it enough to turn down some of the alternatives out there!