# Has Anyone Ever Built A Car Dasboard Display With Those magnetic Displays? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 28, 2010, 12:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-ever-built-a-car-dasboard-display-with-those-magnetic-displays/548302 "2010-07-28T12:35:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2010, 12:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-ever-built-a-car-dasboard-display-with-those-magnetic-displays/548302/1 "2010-07-28T12:35:09Z")
Those Ferranti-Packard mechanical displays are pretty cool-you have probably seen them at airports or on road signs-they have the interesting property that the display doesn’t change until energized. They are nice because they are readible under all conditions-which isn’t the case with the vacuum-fluorescent displays in my car (you cannot see them in direct sunlight). Has anyone ever used these displays in a car? ---
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2010, 1:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-ever-built-a-car-dasboard-display-with-those-magnetic-displays/548302/2 "2010-07-28T13:25:46Z")
No. ---
**Author:** ![gotpasswords](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c57346/32.png) [@gotpasswords](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gotpasswords)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2010, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-ever-built-a-car-dasboard-display-with-those-magnetic-displays/548302/3 "2010-07-28T19:14:15Z")
They’re a bit noisy, so I doubt they’d see much acceptance for use in a car. Unless your dashboard is entirely alpha-numeric with no analog gages or meters, these things wouldn’t even display the dashboard info very well. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Second\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bbe5ce/32.png) [@The\_Second\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Second_Stone)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2010, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-ever-built-a-car-dasboard-display-with-those-magnetic-displays/548302/4 "2010-07-28T19:48:42Z")
link with better explanation? ---
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2010, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-ever-built-a-car-dasboard-display-with-those-magnetic-displays/548302/5 "2010-07-28T20:28:27Z")
> [@The\_Second\_Stone](#): > > link with better explanation? > **[Flip-disc display](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flip-disc_display)** > > The flip-disc display (or flip-dot display) is an electromechanical dot matrix display technology used for large outdoor signs, normally those that will be exposed to direct sunlight. Flip-disc technology has been used for external destination signs on buses and trains across North America, Europe and Australia, as well as for variable-message signs on highways. It has also been used extensively on public information displays. A few game shows have also used flip-disc displays, including Canad Th... ---
**Author:** ![The\_Second\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bbe5ce/32.png) [@The\_Second\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Second_Stone)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2010, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-ever-built-a-car-dasboard-display-with-those-magnetic-displays/548302/6 "2010-07-28T22:13:38Z")
Then que! ---
**Author:** ![SD\_Dude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b19c9b/32.png) [@SD\_Dude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SD_Dude)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2010, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-ever-built-a-car-dasboard-display-with-those-magnetic-displays/548302/7 "2010-07-29T00:33:04Z")
Might be better to use an LCD display and have it draw the flip-disc elements. ---
**Author:** ![sharding](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/90db22/32.png) [@sharding](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sharding)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2010, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-ever-built-a-car-dasboard-display-with-those-magnetic-displays/548302/8 "2010-07-29T01:27:20Z")
If the goals were readability in direct sunlight and not needing constant power, [E-Ink](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E_Ink) might be a better choice. How often is your instrument cluster in direct sunlight, though? On every car I’ve had, it would take a pretty specific sun angle to hit the instruments directly. However, my cars mostly have had analog and LCD displays, not vacuum-flourescent, so even if the sun did hit them I don’t think it would be much of an issue.