Have added a new chunk to the old girl. Aquired a very used 1971 Cessna 182 glareshield on Ebay. Thought it was just going to look better across the top of the instrument panel than the piece of pipe insulation I had on there before. It did indeed! It also came with factory lighting installed underneath the thing to shine on my panel. The lights were set up to go on with 28v dc from the 182. After some helpful advice from someone whose internet handle was Emesis over at mycockpit.org, I discovered that I could go to my local auto parts store, and replace the bulbs with 12v ones. Miracle of miracles! It worked! They had bulbs that fit perfectly, and cost less than a grande skinny latte.
I had heard of hacking a pc power supply to power 12v systems before, so a Googling I did go. Found out it is about as hard as sticking a paperclip in an electrical outlet, so I did it! Some sloppy soldering, cussing and head sratching later, and I had a real life lighted instrument panel!
Feel kinda like Harry Potter the first time a spell ever worked for him. It works, I am not sure how, and it seems very mystical. But Dammit...It worked.
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