PRS-600 Experimenting with LEDs on Sony Cover/light [PRSA-CL1]

[Dr. Drib]

Has anyone out there tried replacing the LEDs from Sony's PRSA-CL1 with a slightly larger LED that will still fit within the housing of this unit?

I like the PRSA-CL1 - and I also like the way it feels when reading on the 600 - but I'm wondering if a possible change in LEDs could result in a more powerful light source?

Any thoughts on this?



Don

[chainring]

Check out candlepowerforums.com for all you ever wanted to know about powerful LEDs. You'll have to open it up to determine what's currently in there, and how much space you have to work with. After that, I'd imagine it will be a matter of soldering and a steady hand.

[scottjl]

you'll also have to be concerned with the additional heat a higher powered led will put out. won't be good to have that plastic melting and dripping down onto your 600!

[mmmkay]

Originally Posted by scottjl

you'll also have to be concerned with the additional heat a higher powered led will put out. won't be good to have that plastic melting and dripping down onto your 600!

While anything is possible, I'd probably say that it's not worth the time and effort.

You might get worse colour rendition, like more purple/blue than it already is.
The light is actually pretty good if you're reading in complete darkness, and that it's advertised to run for close to 20 hours on two LEDs is pretty good too.

I guess I can see why you might want to change it if you're not reading in a darker environment since it doesn't do a good job illuminating the screen well, if you have ambient lighting that you can't control.

If you want something brighter, I'd check out one of the higher powered LED flashlights (candlepowerforums is a good place to start, dealextreme is a good place for supplies). That way you can position it however you like.

If you get an inexpensive higher powered LED flashlight you could remove the reflector from the light and get an incredibly even light. If it has a smooth enough beam pattern you probably won't even need to remove the reflector.

I used my SureFire C2 LED flashlight on this one.


Compared to my Sony Cover with Light

[chainring]

Originally Posted by mmmkay

I used my SureFire C2 LED flashlight on this one.

Uh oh, another flashaholic.

I think a Mighty Bright clip on is a much better option than a flashlight. They are affordable and come with more battery power. The Sony light is a one battery light. The Mighty Bright I've got has three batteries and puts out a lot more light.

As far as heat from an LED, that is not going to be an issue with LEDs used for book reading. They don't put out much heat and they don't consume much electricity. They certainly won't melt plastic. Even the large number of higher power LED lights used in traffic lights can't melt the ice that builds up on them during winter storms. If they can't melt ice they darn sure can't melt plastic.

[SCION]

Originally Posted by jswinden

I think a Mighty Bright clip on is a much better option than a flashlight. They are affordable and come with more battery power. The Sony light is a one battery light. The Mighty Bright I've got has three batteries and puts out a lot more light.

As far as heat from an LED, that is not going to be an issue with LEDs used for book reading. They don't put out much heat and they don't consume much electricity. They certainly won't melt plastic. Even the large number of higher power LED lights used in traffic lights can't melt the ice that builds up on them during winter storms. If they can't melt ice they darn sure can't melt plastic.

+1 for the Mighty Bright