Restoring the face of a trip computer?

[admin]

I see where you're going, but here's the thing: What I received are four prototypes. Two with black lettering, and two with an attempt to make the backlighting work with white lettering. All four are BRIGHT silver in color. Although the finish is "flat", not mirror like, it is bright enough that an unexpected reflection from the sun would distract a rider. It is also so bright that the white lettering barely shows. (i.e. way too bright.)

I must now confess, I'm sure there are people who would love to have these prototypes, and they would use them. I applied one already to my "spare" trip computer, but I consider it inferior to the stock faceplate I have now (which looks pretty good) so I won't use it. Maybe I'm too picky.

So, what I have left is one with black lettering, and two with white lettering which is inferior in two ways: not only that it barely shows during the day (because it's white on bright silver), but also at night it would just show orange and green rectangles because it's too thin.

The black one is the one someone would really love to own. But well, frankly I'm not interested in entertaining a begging or price war for the one "decent" one that exists. I just don't have time. But I would like to see this project come to fruition.

BUT... It fits absolutely perfectly so if someone else gets it into their hands, they will have confidence in the graphics I made. That is, it fits perfectly if you remove the original and all the glue with GooGone first.

Forgive me Vic, but I'm gonna put the burden on you to decide who gets the prototype... I figure it should be the person who appears to have the best connections with a company that can do the job right, and the ambition and time to follow through, and maybe someone who can show the original piece from their bike to the company who will duplicate it (in person) where they will use thick material (not just a thin sticker.) I think the material should have a brushed metallic face, in a bronze color like the original.

So, although I think some people would be satisfied with what I got, I didn't want to order a larger quantity of that design because I'm SURE it can be done correctly by a different company.

Am I making sense?

I'll see what the guys come up with Paul and we'll take it from there. The one with the most promising prospects for a finished applique gets your black prototype.

If any of you are interested in the black prototype send me a progress report on where you're at with reproducing an as close to original as possible trip computer applique using Paul's graphics available from me at <!-- e --><a href="mailto:goldwinger1984@yahoo.com">goldwinger1984@yahoo.com</a><!-- e --> and whoever can get the applique printed accurately as possible for a realistic price will win Paul's custom black prototype applique.

[RustyTheDog]

Great. I'll mail it when I know where it's going. (It got a bit wrinkled, but it would be an improvement if applied to some bikes, depending on condition.)

One important note: Since the artwork doesn't contain dimensions, the company will need to know the major dimensions along the bottom edges, which are precise to the 1000th of an inch as I conveyed to you by email Vic. All else in the artwork is to the same scale.

[Guest]

Wow, that didn't take long. In under an hour I sent 10 emails to 10 companies requesting quotes to reproduce these overlays. There are so many companies that make "graphic overlays" I could have kept sending the same email for hours, but I figure 10 should be enough that somebody will quote a decent price.

I asked for quotes in quantities up to 100. 100 might be too many, but heck, if I can get them for $10 each, this could be a marketable product for restoring the look of trip computers to "like new" condition.

I will be doing it for sure, but I'd like to know if there's interest in this. (Assume I will post photos of my computer with the new overlay, looking like a brand new computer with working backlighting before you buy.)

Anyone? Please let me know. There's no commitment by expressing interest of course.

I am very interested in getting some (2) of them. Can you also get the upper part for the radio controll that goes with it?

Gordon

[Guest]

All, here's a summary of emails I had with Vic on this subject.

I think to do this, it will require 4 or 5 overlays

1. (1 or 2) Black on clear - light mask
2. (1) Base color
3. (1) Fonts White on clear
4. (1) Clear top

The 4 or 5 vinyl layers would be laser cut for all of the knob and button cutouts. Then they would be laid over the plastic piece in order. The light mask layers would solve the problems Paul had with light shining through. They would be mostly black with the font areas in clear and edge reduced so the light would shine from inside of the letters.
The clear top layer would be laser cut only and would protect the font layer. The base color layer would be color only with clear in the fonts. I believe that the original color of the faceplate matched the brown plastic, correct?

To get them printed and laser cut, it will require being able to seperate the fonts from the backgrounds and also to put registration marks for the laser cutting and overlays.

Unfortunately, Paul's files are not editable. They are in .pdf and .eps formats.

My wife has some graphics arts experience, we're going to see if we can re-create an editable source file that can be sent to a printer.

BTW, I'm not looking to make any cash from this, I have a good paying job already. But because of my good paying job, it will likely be a while until this project hops to the top of the list. If I come up with something, I'll keep folks informed.

[admin]

Looking forward to your finished results. Don't forget to add a high UV coating to the top layer to protect everything.

[RustyTheDog]

I do have an editable file... a TIF file, but it's 35Megabytes. That's because TIF's are pixel graphics, so I used about 600 dots per inch so the dots don't show. I didn't happen to have a good editor for vector art, but pixel graphics can be vectorized cheaply.

The art I sent Vic is a vectorized version, an EPS file of the same art which I had transformed, but the original is too big to email. If you can tell me of a place to upload the .TIF file, I would be happy to do so. Also, if you're gonna be the guy to do it (Vic's call) it would be helpful to have my prototype. I can include the one with white as well.

Email me pls and let me know if I can provide these things.

[admin]

I'll leave it to you guys to take it from here.

[Guest]

I do have an editable file... a TIF file, but it's 35Megabytes. That's because TIF's are pixel graphics, so I used about 600 dots per inch so the dots don't show. I didn't happen to have a good editor for vector art, but pixel graphics can be vectorized cheaply.

The art I sent Vic is a vectorized version, an EPS file of the same art which I had transformed, but the original is too big to email. If you can tell me of a place to upload the .TIF file, I would be happy to do so. Also, if you're gonna be the guy to do it (Vic's call) it would be helpful to have my prototype. I can include the one with white as well.

Email me pls and let me know if I can provide these things.

If you need a way to transfer the file PM me back and I can set it up for you.
Gordon

[RustyTheDog]

Sorry for the delay folks. As it turns out, when the .TIF file is zipped, it's actually very small! Who knew? Anyway, I have attached it to this message, so it is available for ALL to see!

Any company that works with these files will also need to be told: The bottom edge of the large piece is 6.875" wide, and the bottom edge of the smaller piece is still 6.656" wide. All other dimensions will be to the same scale.

Good luck folks! Sorry I couldn't finish it myself.

[RustyTheDog]

Also FYI, the exact scale of this .TIF is 600 dots per inch. (Which happens to match most laser printers nicely if you print "actual size".)

For whatever it may be worth, on a laser printer you can generally trust the horizontal axis, but the vertical axis will usually distort by a bit when printed, because it is dependent upon the roller mechanism moving paper under the print head. So I don't suggest printing this out and expecting someone to get it right from that.

[Guest]

Thanks Paul. I have a friend who does custom electronic equipment fabrication. I'm hoping he has a lead on panel makers.

[Guest]

Anyone who wants the raw .tif file can download it from here:
http://webzoom.freewebs.com/azairheads/G...dyNew3.tif

I haven't yet been sucessful in extracting layers from this file.

[RustyTheDog]

There are no layers. If it's black, it's a hole. If it's white, it's lettering. If it's grey, it's the exposed surface.

This is just a bunch of tiny pixels... Like a bitmap. Your PM asked if I used MS Paint... Oh please. I used Paintshop Pro, but there is NO vector art in it at all. The EPS file has vector art, and I have provided that if needed. The EPS was sufficient for the last company to make one.

Come on... If you need layers, make all white one layer, make all grey another layer, and you're done.

These files are provided as-is without warranty or support of any kind. Respectfully, I need to get out of this project.

[William_86]

you can also use photoshop to open the file, i dont see the point of downloading the raw file and is an uncompressed version of the file that Paul attached in zip.

[Guest]

Paul, sorry for being pesky. I got all of the info I need now. Like I said, I'm in the electronics biz and the drawing tools we use will be done with layers, which would allow the print shop to do multiple overlays. I'll probably re-create the art into another tool and go from there. Thanks mucho for your help !