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Blue-green VFD sweep

A vacuum-fluorescent dash that glows blue-green: a widening arc of tachometer segments, upright speed digits and vertical fuel and temperature stacks.
Technology
Vacuum fluorescent display
After
Aston Martin Lagonda (Series 4)
Gearbox
5-speed automatic

Original design inspired by 1980s digital dashboards. Not a replica of any manufacturer’s instrument cluster.

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Hold ↑, W or Space to accelerate and ↓ or S to brake while the dashboard has focus. K turns the key, L switches the lighting.

Controls

Keys work while the display or one of its buttons has focus. The simulation pauses when the tab is hidden or the display is scrolled out of view.

Start
Key on or K. Every segment lights, sweeps up and back down, then the gauges settle on live values as the engine starts.
Accelerate
Hold ↑, W or Space, or press and hold Accelerate. With the key off, this turns the key first.
Brake
Hold ↓ or S, or press and hold Brake. With both released, the car coasts.
Gearbox
A 5-speed automatic: it shifts up late with the throttle held, early when it is released, and kicks down when the throttle is floored at low revs.
Fuel and temperature
The tank drains faster at high revs; Refuel fills it. Coolant temperature climbs from cold to normal as the engine warms up.
Lighting
L or Night lighting dims the display, as the headlamp switch dimmed a real cluster.
Reduced motion
The start-up sweep is skipped and values change without easing.

Based on

The vacuum fluorescent display of the Aston Martin Lagonda (Series 4). The layout of the recreation is an original design, not a copy of the car’s cluster.

Cockpit of the Aston Martin Lagonda (Series 4)
Aston Martin Lagonda (Series 4)1987–1990CockpitIn progressPhoto: Asurnipal · CC BY-SA 4.0 (opens in a new tab) · Wikimedia Commons: source page for this photo (opens in a new tab)

Display layout

  • Arc tachometer from 0 to 7,200 rpm whose segments widen as revs rise, with a red zone from 6,200 rpm
  • Three upright seven-segment speed digits in kilometres per hour
  • Gear digit for the five-speed automatic
  • Vertical fuel and coolant temperature stacks on either side
  • Odometer in kilometres with a tenths digit, and oil, battery and check lamps

Display technology

From the mid-1970s, several manufacturers swapped needles for electronic displays. Most were segment displays that could only light the shapes built into them: every bar, digit stroke and word was a fixed segment wired to a driver chip. That rule explains the bar-graph tachometers and seven-segment digits of the era, and the recreations here follow it too.

These are the three main technologies. Some early dashes also used light-emitting diodes (LEDs).

More cars from this period are listed under the era Digital dashboards (1976–1995).

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Fig. 1. Seven segments, a to g, draw every digit from 0 to 9. A segment display can only light shapes built into its glass.

Vacuum fluorescent display (VFD)

A VFD is a small vacuum tube. A heated filament gives off electrons, a fine wire mesh grid steers them, and segments coated with phosphor glow where the electrons land. The usual phosphor glows blue-green; filters in front of the glass produced other colours. The mesh is often visible over the digits.

VFDs are bright and work in the cold, so they spread through dashboards, radios and clocks. They need a filament supply and higher voltages than an LCD, and the phosphor dims with age.

In the archive

4 of 6 shown.

Liquid crystal display (LCD)

An LCD makes no light of its own. A thin layer of liquid crystal sits between two polarising filters, and a voltage on a segment's electrode realigns the crystals so that segment blocks or passes light from lamps behind the panel. Coloured filters gave dashboards their amber, orange or green tint.

LCDs drew little power and could carry detailed shapes, but they turned sluggish in the cold, when the liquid crystal thickens, and the bulbs behind them burned out over time.

In the archive

4 of 5 shown.

Cathode-ray tube (CRT)

A few cars put a small monochrome CRT in the dash: the same technology as a television, with an electron beam drawing on a phosphor screen. Because it could show any text or graphic, it suited trip computers and menu-driven controls, and some versions were touch-sensitive.

A CRT is deep, heavy and needs a high-voltage supply, and it is hard to read in direct sunlight. It stayed rare in cars.

In the archive

Cars with VFD instrument clusters

Showing 4 of 6 carsSee all

A vacuum fluorescent display instrument cluster, as standard or as an option.

2 more not yet photographed: Buick Riviera (7th generation), Austin Montego (LM11). Add a photograph

Other recreation

  • LOWHOTOILBATTCHECKRPM × 10000123456MPHGEARFUELEFTEMPCHODOMI

    Amber LCD bar graph

    LCDAfter the Chevrolet Corvette (C4)1984–1996

    A backlit liquid-crystal dash in amber: a rising bar-graph tachometer, large slanted speed digits and segmented fuel and temperature gauges.

    LCD clusters

Photo credits

Photo credits (4)
  1. Aston Martin Lagonda (Series 4), cockpit“Dornbirn-Oberhuber Concierge-Car Show-Aston Martin Lagonda-02ASD” (opens in a new tab) · Photo: Asurnipal · CC BY-SA 4.0 (opens in a new tab) · Wikimedia Commons
  2. Buick Reatta, cockpit“2016 Northeast Texas Buick and Classic Car Show 18 (1989 Buick Reatta interior)” (opens in a new tab) · Photo: Michael Barera · CC BY-SA 4.0 (opens in a new tab) · Wikimedia Commons
  3. Cadillac Seville (2nd generation), cockpit“Morsang-sur-Orge, France (3651124316)” (opens in a new tab) · Photo: Mic from Reading - Berkshire, United Kingdom · CC BY 2.0 (opens in a new tab) · Wikimedia Commons
  4. Austin Maestro (LM10), cockpit“Maestro vp” (opens in a new tab) · Photo: Decampos · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons

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