Is the article author here? Mark Dehlinger is a CAD designer. We had the displays made to order. I was part of the restoration team. There was years of research in going through dozens and dozens of LED manufacturers in China to see if we could find anything off-the-shelf first.
If you're having trouble getting hold of Mark, I would go through Joe Walser. This is the main contact page for the team:
Tip I didn't see mentioned in the article (but a prop maker would be aware of):
If you're having trouble with color-matching with now more rare n-segment LED parts, you might be able to use lighting gels (from theatre, cinema, and photography).
Also worth a nod toward @mitxela’s gorgeous and absurd Precision Clock series, the latest of which pretty much nails the 7-segment elements TFA references…
I don't like how short the middle segments are on those example displays. There's no reason they can't have squarer top and bottom edges. The diagonals don't have double-beveled ends.
This one runs down some other designs for a 14 segment display and also has 16 segment displays (where all of the cross-bars are split in 2 instead of just the middle)
I would consider just 3D printing the 14-segment baffles and then use SMD LEDs behind them rather than try to source the exact precise size and color of display.
When we designed the replacements for the real DeLorean 3D printing wasn't that great, and we needed a lot of sets. Doing it again for a small run? Definitely the best way in 2025.
Is the article author here? Mark Dehlinger is a CAD designer. We had the displays made to order. I was part of the restoration team. There was years of research in going through dozens and dozens of LED manufacturers in China to see if we could find anything off-the-shelf first.
If you're having trouble getting hold of Mark, I would go through Joe Walser. This is the main contact page for the team:
https://www.facebook.com/TimeMachineRestoration/
edit: oh, the article is 8 years old :)
Tip I didn't see mentioned in the article (but a prop maker would be aware of):
If you're having trouble with color-matching with now more rare n-segment LED parts, you might be able to use lighting gels (from theatre, cinema, and photography).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Color_gel
(2017)
Also worth a nod toward @mitxela’s gorgeous and absurd Precision Clock series, the latest of which pretty much nails the 7-segment elements TFA references…
https://mitxela.com/projects/precision_clock_mk_iv
Discussed here 1 month ago, 532 points, 130 comments (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44144750)
I don't like how short the middle segments are on those example displays. There's no reason they can't have squarer top and bottom edges. The diagonals don't have double-beveled ends.
This one runs down some other designs for a 14 segment display and also has 16 segment displays (where all of the cross-bars are split in 2 instead of just the middle)
https://uk.rs-online.com/web/content/discovery/ideas-and-adv...
I would consider just 3D printing the 14-segment baffles and then use SMD LEDs behind them rather than try to source the exact precise size and color of display.
When we designed the replacements for the real DeLorean 3D printing wasn't that great, and we needed a lot of sets. Doing it again for a small run? Definitely the best way in 2025.
I definitely did not clock that this was from 2017- back to the future indeed.
Nam gyu