Gauges... What color "Black or White"

[jssailem]

Hi all I am in the process of refitting my 45 year old gauges and panel (with the help of my sailing buddy @LeslieTroyer ).

The choices on line are black or white background. I'm wondering what you guys have and what are your thought of the gauges.
I am leaning to gauges that have red LED lighting and dimming capable.
The white background looks to provide easy to read info. What have you found are benefits or drawbacks. Any Brand preferences.

 

[SG]

If you sail at night, I'd use the dark background with the lights. The white background would disrupt my sense of "night vision" -- even if you dim the LED's. If you have a choice of the LED lighting colors, I'd use blue or white.

 

[jssailem]

Colors are available. I had heard that Red is better for night vision. Blue can be used but it affects your sleep cycle. White light would harm night vision.
Concern is that the white may give off too much light. I have not seen a white background with red light at night.

 

[SG]

My concern with red or green has to do with confusing other vessels with nav colors. The white (which won't be that bright would be at the stern. Blue is a non issue for confusion; and if keeps you awake, so much the better ;^))).

 

[Davidasailor26]

This is our tach, which has white background and red lights. At night time the fact that it's a white background doesn't really hurt night vision, since it's not emitting any white light.


Same dial at dusk -


And during the day -


Our tach is down by the floor, so it can't be seen from off the boat. I never really thought about whether one mounted higher up could be confused for a nav light. My guess is that it's dim enough not to be visible by very far.

 

[jssailem]

Thank you @Davidasailor26 that helps. It looks pretty easy to read day or night.
I see you have the lcd clock version. How do you change the data displayed. Is there a toggle? What size is the tach 4in diameter?

 

[Davidasailor26]

Thank you @Davidasailor26 that helps. It looks pretty easy to read day or night.
I see you have the lcd clock version. How do you change the data displayed. Is there a toggle? What size is the tach 4in diameter?

If you look just below the dial there are two buttons, to scroll left and right through data items. We never really use those though. From what I remember the other items are battery voltage (also on our chartplotter at all times) and coolant temp (not wired by Yanmar). I think it is 4", and yes it is pretty easy to read in all conditions.

 

[Ken Cross]

In the aviation world, the lighting has gone from red (thought to help with night vision) to blue. As I understand it the reasoning is while red doesn't interfere as much with night vision, it takes so much red to allow you to read that the benefit is lost. Blue requires less light to do the job. Note also that for mechanical instruments, most airplanes use a black background with white or light colored writing and needles.

Ken