There is no mechanical needs for the HVAC. Just my concern is the bond between the decal and faceplate. I do plan to try PETG and ABS to play with. What do you think the max temp inside the cabin can hit?Originally Posted by megamanex
Location: Leonardtown, MD
Posts: 9,006
My VIN: 03572
There is no mechanical needs for the HVAC. Just my concern is the bond between the decal and faceplate. I do plan to try PETG and ABS to play with. What do you think the max temp inside the cabin can hit?
Location: Los Angeles
Posts: 45
My VIN: 6895
In California before I tinted the windows it hit about 118 or so in the summer one day which is right on the line for PLA.
Location: Leonardtown, MD
Posts: 9,006
My VIN: 03572
Thanks. I plan to test to 140 F or above.
Location: Leonardtown, MD
Posts: 9,006
My VIN: 03572
Ran into another problem. My 4 corner standoffs, the top 2 were shifted to the right. Checked my design a 100 times and then thought to use a square to check the print. The print is not printing at 90 degrees to the X and Y. Now is this a problem with the printer or the slicer? The printer hardware must be good but the software may be at fault.
That error shifted about 0.03" the top standoffs. You would never know this when just printing display art.
Location: Leonardtown, MD
Posts: 9,006
My VIN: 03572
I did get that clear filament and printed an HVAC panel. Only real problem was that 0.71 deg offset from square so the two standoffs are offset to much. I'm not sure if the clear will block the light much. It's not like the resin print in clear which can be as clear as glass if you sand and polish both sides.
Location: Leonardtown, MD
Posts: 9,006
My VIN: 03572
Well I'm going with the idea to print the HVAC in black and have made cutouts for the decal illumination areas. It would probably work without filling those cutouts with clear epoxy. The stock face plate left the indicator lights cutout.
This is done with red cheap PLA which takes about 8 hours to print. When I'm done with adjusting this design I may just print it on my FORM3 resin printer so it won't be affected by heat. I could also try ABS on the filament printer which is better than PLA for heat.
Location: Leonardtown, MD
Posts: 9,006
My VIN: 03572
Trying to get something engineered so I can place the decal exactly in the correct position. I can only think of using the two push button holes for alignment. The holes in the decal are 1.420" so I think I will turn two cylinders with a lip to hold the decal a little off the table, then it guides the faceplate with those holes. I will have to sand the faceplate holes a little since the filament print is not as perfect (smooth edge) as the resin print.
These decals can not be lifted once it touches the faceplate. If you try to the decal will be trashed.
Location: Leonardtown, MD
Posts: 9,006
My VIN: 03572
Alignment cylinders worked out perfect. These are 1.416" dia. which makes it snug on the DMCH decal. My printed faceplate I made the holes 0.010 smaller so I could sand them on my oscillating drum sander for a snug fit. It worked out perfect installing the decal.
I need to make the 4 guide pins on the corners. I decided to glue in steel pins rather than print them for strength.
I could not wait to test it with my LED board just to see if it showed the LED dots without pouring clear epoxy into the cutouts.
Guess what.
Location: Leonardtown, MD
Posts: 9,006
My VIN: 03572
So what kind of plastic do you think the OEM faceplate was made of? I just ordered some ABS filament to try another HVAC face plate made with that. ABS works to higher temps than PLA.
Location: Leonardtown, MD
Posts: 9,006
My VIN: 03572
Like always the photo just can not get the true colors of LEDs. I do see I need to fix the small green dot above and to the right of "MAX". I also want to look into covering the two push button switches over the ends to reduce light bleed on the walls of the push button holes. My current design is the same as the stock face plate on those push button holes.
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