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Xtuners Products general information
Last Update 26. Feb.08 |
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General information about xtuners
Who we are?
We are the Xtuners tuning Studio!
Our Studio is mainly specialized in car gauges modification and upgrades and also some other interior and exterior mods! The Studio is located in Bulgaria, a country that is a part of the European Union since 2007. Because of the location of the production base, we can produse very high quality products and sell them to fair prices. This location makes it easier to deliver our products to the EU countries, UK and US.
We do this kind of business on professional basis for 4 years now. We have developed strong business relations with one of the best studios, tuning clubs and car dealers. Since end of 2007 our products are offered as upgrade option in the new car dealerships on the local market. We are looking forward to expand our market and make more und more customers happy with the upgrades, that we can offer!
And remember ... we are jung and creative like You, we also love to tune our cars, and tuning is not only our job ... it is our lifestyle! We will be glad to help You!
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General information about xtuners dials
The first thing, that we would like to mention, is that we do not produce our products in China! No, we don't!
We have our own production base in Bulgaria, where the living standard is still not that high and we have the opportunity to produce at lower costs. We can not beat the Chinese prices, but our quality is much, much, much, much better and we can prove this any time! We do not see the dials, which are produced in china, as a competition, because this is just not real stuff!
Ok, let me tell You, what you will get for your money here on our website.
Our dials are printed on high quality material, manufactured from a leading German company. This material is specially designed to suit our needs in the production of backlit gauges!!! The material is 1mm thin, very strong, heat and humidity resistant. Your dials will never bend under extreme heat or crack in very cold weather.
To have the right material is just the first step. The second step is to have the right inks, which can be printed on the material. We do use the same type of inks like all the car manufacturers. These inks make a permanent connection with the used material. After 24 hours of drying nobody will be able to scratch these inks down from the material. Our priorities are the permanence and long live of the produced dials, because our dials are also installed in brand new cars, where they have to last at least 10 years.
Another very important thing is, that we use the same print technique like the car manufacturers. The dials are printed on the face of the material and not on the backside. The print resolution is very high ..this allow us to print very small details with high DPI, like this logo for example:
All we have mentioned until now, make our dials look real and not like a cheap stuff. To be honest we have seen a lot of dials from competitors, but only our products have this genuine look, that is typical for original dials.
We can produce any kind of dials for any model. Background colors like white, matt black, silver, titanium and other custom colors or color combinations are possible. We do make personalization or customization of any kind. The color of illumination can also be specified from the customer. Almost everything is possible, You just need to tell us how You want the dials to look like! Note that any kind of customization is related with extra charges! The most of the dials in the gallery are custom made (unique) for customers from all over the world! You may want to take a closer look at our gallery :)
Most of our dials are optimized for white LED illumination. They will work with your original illumination also, but we strongly recommend installing several LEDs for best results. Other option is to ask about illumination upgrade Kits, that we can prepare for you car model.
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What is a plasma tacho?
We need to answer this question before we proceed. This thing, called plasma tachos is a regular tacho, that illuminates from it self. It doesn't need any bulbs or LEDs to start illuminating, because it gets the light from electroluminescent foils attached on the backside. See example:
Our plasma tachos have 3 main components:
1. the "standard" dials like the one on the following picture:
2. electroluminescent panels, called also el foils or plasma foils, that illuminate the regular dials from behind! See example pic:
3. Power inverter, that drives the el foils.
Important!
Our plasma tachos are absolutely different from anything else, that you have seen on the market. All 3 components are optimized for each other and are made only for in car installation. Why do we say all this? You will understand, when you get familiar with the history of the plasma tachos.
A long time ago, someone in Asia, invented the el panel. This was a revolution in the lights/illumination industry, because that was the first flat light source ever! The technology was simple - a few layers, printed over each other, that react on 10-110 AC power. A chemical reaction causes illumination! The industry started to use the el panels as a flat light source in electronics business ( as light source for illuminating LCD and many different things, that just can not be illuminated from anything else). After a few years, Asia started to produce the el lamps in big quantities and worked hard to make them usable in more and more industry segments. They soon developed machines, that were able to print the el particles on any kind of surface. Soon they started to export all kind off illuminating stuff - T-shirts, prints, frames, pens, rings and similar commercial samples, also big variety of electronic products ...and guess what...... car gauges! Someone has realized the potential of the car industry and just printed the back side of an ugly paper (tachometer) with this illuminating particles. The result was an ugly thing, that was looking like a tachometer with illuminating numbers! The first plasma tacho was born. The inventor was someone, who had no idea of car gauges, tuning and tacho modding. ... that was just an owner of an advanced printing machine, who tried to print something like a tachometer.
In present day the worldwide market is overloaded with this "plasma tachos"... in most cases they come from china, where they are produced for cents with equipment, that was designed to print something else! The inverters are poor,... also the overall quality, and they look just too cheap. All these parts make the plasma tacho a bad name.
Why we say all that? You need to know , what other people sell..... and what we sell. In this way you can make the difference, you can answer your questions ....why some tacho cost more and other less, and why we sell quality and not quantity!
Now we want to explain what is the difference between our products and the rest, that You can buy on the market today.
1. All of the parts we use are developed from us! This means, that the power inverter is optimized to drive exactly the el panels we use and to illuminate the dials we produce! All that, is only good for in car installation ... and nothing else. All the stuff is optimized for 12V installation. Our equipment is designed for production of dials only ..nothing else! Genuine look is guarantied! No cheap parts are used.
2. About the el panels:
They are the component, that illuminates our dials from behind. They are a separate and replaceable part. This is not the case by any other competitor! For us, the el panel, is nothing more that an advanced light buld, that has only one duty - to illuminate a high quality dials.
Why is it important to have replaceable el illumination? We need to explain, that all el panels have a useful live. That means, that after 4500-6000 working hours they will just stop working. This is the main reason, why we make them as a replaceable component! If something goes wrong or the live time of the panels is over, you can just replace them at low cost with new ones and the tacho will be like brand new again! The competitors can just offer You a new plasma tacho, because non of their component are replaceable!!! They will charge You for a new tacho!
The useful live depends on the working voltage and frequency. Higher values mean shorter live. To prevent problems and to extend the working hours, we optimize the illumination area of the el panels. Optimized illumination area, results in less power consumption and longer live. Our dials are also optimized to be used with el illumination. They have the needed transparency and work great with wicker light sources like el foils! We can achieve great illumination with only 50-60V output power. The competitors products work on over 110V ..and that is deadly for the foils and the inverter. You will hear a nerving "pppppppiiiiiii" noise all the time, while your tacho is working. This sound is a result of the overloading voltage and frequencies.
You will NOT have this kind of problems with our products.
3. About our power inverters:
You can get them only from us. They have the following advantages:
- they operate silent
- overheating during work is not typical
- color and brightness are adjustable over a small flat button, that can be hided anywhere in the car if necessary.
- they have a short-circuit protection
- they have a thermal protection, that is very important in case of improper installation ( near the heating pipes, where the inverter can be damaged from extreme heat)
-because of the overall optimization, they extend the live of the el panels.
- they are chip controlled and overloading voltages and frequencies will not be aloud ever!!!
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What is the difference between plasma tacho and non plasma tacho (dials only)
Ok, the difference is clear! We have explained what we call a plasma tacho - regular dials + el foils illumination. They are perfect for dashboards with weak stock illumination or for dashes with no illumination like in Golf 3 or for custom projects.
The owners of cars with SMD illuminated tachos may purchase only the dials (note, that the stock illumination color will remain the same, unless you change the SMDs or upgrade the light with one of our kits)!
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General info about "black edition" dials
Black Edition dials' or also called smoked dials, came out with the previous generation of the MB S-class. You can also see them as stock dials in Toyota Avensis and some "americans" like the new Escalade!
We have developed this kind of dials for the SMD based tachos only. During day the dials appear dark, when the ignition is turned on, the illumination starts (independent from the lights)
This is how it works. To upgrade Your standard tacho to black edition, You need to install one of our 12V SMD Kits ( may require small mods). See example pic of a SMD Kit:
This Kit will provide the necessary illumination power during daytime and night time. It is a plug and play kit, that works on 12V!!! We have installed it in:
- VW Golf 4, 5
- Opel Astra H, Vectra C
- Chevy Captiva
- Ford Focus 1, 2 , Mondeo
- Mitsubischi Eclipse
This kit may be good for other cars too. We can not provide at this time detailed instruction on how to connect the SMD kit to the car el system. Professional installation may be required if You have no idea from car electric systems!
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Extreme tests
With the following tests we would like to prove the quality and durability of the our dials. For the tests were used raw uncutted dials! Enjoy!
1. The print detail is perfect. The dials also correspond to all law regulation according car dials.
2. The dials are flexible. They can NOT brake. The material is not soft plastic like the competitors dials and it does not bend during/after installation of the dials. No matter what you do with it ....it remains flat!
3. The dials have an excellent shining through technology. The material diffuses
the background light very well.
Ok, lets get extreme now!
4. We wanted to test the heat resistance of the material, because this is very important for car installation. In the car dash, the temperature can go up to 60 degrees in the hot summer days! If the material don't last .... it does not make any sense to use it!
We have a warranty from the manufacturer, that the material will last to over 100 degrees without any deformation! That's cool!!! We did not spend any time to wait for a hot summer day.......... we tried to set it on fire (why not). 40 sec. test with the cigarette lighter schould be enough! In fact the flame did deform the material, but the damage was not bad at all.
we did the same test with the gauges from some another manufacturer. See what happened:
Other manufacturer product after same extreme test
5. Next we tested the ink quality and resistance. We started scratching the surface of the dials with a coin! The coin left marks on the dials, but the print was ok! The light block was still ok as you can see on the second pic.
6. Next we played a little bit with the water blaster .... just to see if it can cause any damage to the print.
No demage at all!
We think that was enough to convince You, or not? ;)
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Xtuners and the competition
We can spend hours in discussing who is competition and who not. In our opinion most companies do not offer quality and all of them have reached their limits. The car industry is moving forward. We can stay on .... but can they do it? We don't think so!
One is clear: every customer can decide what to buy, where to buy, how much to spend ... ! We can only provide You with information, that may make your decision easier. If You want to make a deal with us, You are allays welcome
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FAQ
Q: How do I connect my plasma tacho?
A: We recommend all customers to connect the plus and minus wire of the power inverter to the bulb slots or to the bulb it self (for bulb illuminated tachos)
. SMD based tacho require, that the inverter is connected to the lights switch. In this case You will need to find a permanent plus wire, that work when the lights are turned on!
CAN based tachos may require professional installation. If You have no idea what to do, please visit a professional!
Q: Will my factory brightness regulator still functioning after the installation of your plasma tacho?
A: If You connect the power inverter to a bulb slot ( light bulb, responsible for the instrument illumination) or to the light switch, your stock brightness regulator will still be functioning! If you car does not have a stock regulator, You cab use the inverter switch to adjust the brightness and color.
Q: Can You produce dials for my car?
A: We can produce dials for almost any car make and model. If we don't have your dials in our shop or in the gallery, please contact us per email to discuss the details.
Q: How long does it take to produce my dials?
A: Most of the dials we have on stock, and they can be shipped right after payment. If we don't have the right dials on stock, or You have decided to buy some customized dials, we may need more than one week for production. During this time, we will keep You informed about the work progress. Please inform your self about the availability and delivery time before purchase if You are in a hurry!!!
Q: Do You give any warranty for Your products
A: Yes, we do! Dials come with one year warranty. El panels have 6 months limited warranty against production defects. More info about that is posted in the shop section! You should be sure, that we will test every part before it leaves the studio.
Q: Are exchanges possible?
A: Exchanges are only possible if we shipped a wrong item or the customer have a problem with the item. Please check your order before You pay, because we do NOT exchange wrong picked up item. If You are not sure, what You need, please contact us for assistance!
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