PRS-600 Initial review of the PRS-600 Cover + Light

[benham]

Is the light assembly removable and is it a leather cover?

[FragFrog]

SolRaven: I cannot speak for others of course, but for me the light (with the battery sony put in the package) is easily bright enough to read by. In fact, I have gotten customed to putting it in the low setting to read in bed, as not to disturb my partner.

benham: yes and yes, at least according to the manual you can clip off the light assembly and the cover is leather. There is not much use for clipping it off though I think, as the light assembly is fairly light and does not take up much space. From what I have seen, this cover is a bit wider than the one without light to accomodate the assembly.

[AndreiC]

Can this be powered from an AC adapter?

If not, are there any solutions that you know of that one might use to hack it so that it can be powered from an AC adapter?

I'm asking because having to replace/recharge the batteries every couple of days (after extensive reading) is a deal breaker for me.

[Haesslich]

Originally Posted by AndreiC

Can this be powered from an AC adapter?

If not, are there any solutions that you know of that one might use to hack it so that it can be powered from an AC adapter?

I'm asking because having to replace/recharge the batteries every couple of days (after extensive reading) is a deal breaker for me.

... don't most people call a book light which runs on AC power a floor lamp or reading lamp?

Most every book light I know of which clips onto a book or a book's cover is battery-powered. The AC adapter would be bigger than the book light itself... ergo the reading lamp by the bed or couch or chair.

[SolRaven]

Originally Posted by FragFrog

I cannot speak for others of course, but for me the light (with the battery sony put in the package) is easily bright enough to read by. In fact, I have gotten customed to putting it in the low setting to read in bed, as not to disturb my partner.

When I turned the light from dim to bright it didn't do much of anything. With my 700 I notice a big difference from dim to bright, and with my light wedge cover on the 505 there was a big difference, but with the prsacl6 not only was it was dim, but it was essentially dim & dimmer. I suppose even Sony can mistakenly ship a bad battery. Perhaps I'll visit the Sony store this week and give it another go.

[AndreiC]

Originally Posted by Haesslich

... don't most people call a book light which runs on AC power a floor lamp or reading lamp?

Most every book light I know of which clips onto a book or a book's cover is battery-powered. The AC adapter would be bigger than the book light itself... ergo the reading lamp by the bed or couch or chair.

First of all that the power consumption of a LED lamp would be negligible, whereas I would need at least a 100W lamp to achieve the same effects.

Also, there are advantages in having the "lamp" actually attached to the reader even when reading at home i.e. I can easily adjust my position, move to another chair/room etc. without having readjust the lamp or take it with me to another room.

Do you know whether there are any generic covers with included led lamps? I'm asking because for me, the shipping will cost more than the PRSA-CL6 itself.

About your second point, actually I already have a led lamp that I can power from AC but using it is not so convenient as I believe the PRSA-CL6 would be.

[FragFrog]

Originally Posted by AndreiC

I'm asking because having to replace/recharge the batteries every couple of days (after extensive reading) is a deal breaker for me.

I really doubt this will be an issue. I have been using the lamp quite extensively (on average at least one or two hours a day) for the past week and a half (ever since I got it) and the light has not even perceptively dimmed. LED lights really are very energy conservative.

To answer your question though: no, there is no AC connector plugin, so unless you get a custom battery-shaped connector (those actually exist) it is not possible to plug it directly into a wall outlet.

Something which might perhaps be a good idea: get a modern charger with overcharge (or w/e it is called) and two or three batteries. Place one in the charger, keep one in the device, switch when required. The overcharge option makes sure you always have a fresh battery. I do not use it for the light (since it is still running well on the original battery), but have found this tactic usefull when dealing the my music player's power supply.

[Haesslich]

Originally Posted by AndreiC

First of all that the power consumption of a LED lamp would be negligible, whereas I would need at least a 100W lamp to achieve the same effects.

Also, there are advantages in having the "lamp" actually attached to the reader even when reading at home i.e. I can easily adjust my position, move to another chair/room etc. without having readjust the lamp or take it with me to another room.

Do you know whether there are any generic covers with included led lamps? I'm asking because for me, the shipping will cost more than the PRSA-CL6 itself.

About your second point, actually I already have a led lamp that I can power from AC but using it is not so convenient as I believe the PRSA-CL6 would be.

No, no generic covers with LED lamps currently exist as far as I'm aware, and even M-Edge's lamp is a separate unit from the cover which fits it. Beyond that, an AC supply-powered LED lamp is just an LED-powered desk lamp, which exist and are plentiful.... and if you're worried about having to readjust the lamp or taking it to another room, then why did you ask for an AC adapter? That'll just tie you down to whatever outlets are handy, and cause the exact same issues you're complaining about...

Your best bet is a simple two or four-AAA battery charger and a set of batteries. Given this is an LED lamp, you're likely to get a few hundred hours of use out of it with most LED's in commercial use, out of even that low-capacity battery.

[SolRaven]

Originally Posted by AndreiC

First of all that the power consumption of a LED lamp would be negligible, whereas I would need at least a 100W lamp to achieve the same effects.

Also, there are advantages in having the "lamp" actually attached to the reader even when reading at home i.e. I can easily adjust my position, move to another chair/room etc. without having readjust the lamp or take it with me to another room.

Do you know whether there are any generic covers with included led lamps? I'm asking because for me, the shipping will cost more than the PRSA-CL6 itself.

Sounds like you would love a 700 if you read mostly at night. You can plug it in, plus the led's are built in. In the meantime, I'd recommend using lithium batteries. I put them in my 505's PRSACL1 after the alkaline batteries died in about a month. I put them in in May and haven't changed them yet.

[AndreiC]

Originally Posted by Haesslich

an AC supply-powered LED lamp is just an LED-powered desk lamp, which exist and are plentiful.... and if you're worried about having to readjust the lamp or taking it to another room, then why did you ask for an AC adapter? That'll just tie you down to whatever outlets are handy, and cause the exact same issues you're complaining about...

I guess I just wanted the maximum in mobility and convenience.

If I travel for example, I cannot expect my hotel room to be fitted with a lamp that is usable for reading on my PRS-600. Also, I can easily bring with me an AC adapter but not anything bigger and I also wouldn't want to run out of batteries while traveling.

Anyway, I have now ordered the PRSA-CL6.

PS: BTW, the Sony Style page says about this that it will last "Maximum 19 hours at the standard brightness level" - which I don't find very encouraging so I'll see if I can hack together some way of using an AC adapter.

[Haesslich]

Originally Posted by AndreiC

I guess I just wanted the maximum in mobility and convenience.

If I travel for example, I cannot expect my hotel room to be fitted with a lamp that is usable for reading on my PRS-600. Also, I can easily bring with me an AC adapter but not anything bigger and I also wouldn't want to run out of batteries while traveling.

Anyway, I have now ordered the PRSA-CL6.

PS: BTW, the Sony Style page says about this that it will last "Maximum 19 hours at the standard brightness level" - which I don't find very encouraging so I'll see if I can hack together some way of using an AC adapter.

Now that makes me wonder how many LED's are being driven, and at what voltage... since even cheap Chinese LED flashlights with four or five LEDs tend to last longer than this, and if they used just one or two then it should be lasting quite a long time - over a hundred hours.

As for the rest, about the only thing I can think of is to find a way to convert AC power to 1.5v DC at whatever amperage that thing's driving the LED's with... and maybe seeing if you can find a 'dummy battery' to connect it to the light, if you're wanting to go that route.