Backlight alternatives

[astra]

Originally Posted by fishcube

Why yes I google all the time, but sometimes you just need info from people who actually have the light itself. As for where to buy it, was hoping to find out where others have bought theirs and their experiences. Many stores have restock fee and high shipping.

I lives in the UK, so it was a problem to find a store that ships overseas.

Amazon.com stocks them.
Verilux in the link above stocks them as well.

I bought mine here.

[Starfish]

This is a single bright LED gooseneck light. The gooseneck is black and the rest of the light is silver, so it looks sharp with my new Sony black leather cover.

Got it at Amazon for $10.00 plus shipping.

http://tinyurl.com/29r5v9

It also comes in a metallic blue, as well as silver, so it should match the blue Sony 505s.

It's bright enough to light the entire page. I use it clipped to the back Reader cover and aim the light to the right so that it shines on the dull silver edge, rather than on the screen, so I don't get a hot spot.

The unit uses three AAA batteries. I don't know how many hours they rate the batteries at, but I've been using it for two months for many hours each day, and it's as bright as ever. I've forgotten it a time or two, and it's run for 10-12 hours at a time.

Starfish

[BenG]

It looks almost exactly like the Mighty Bright XtraFlex 2 that I bought at Borders. It's the best booklight that I've used.

[kacir]

Originally Posted by obelix

3) Next approach. I purchased LightWedge backlight ($25, Barnes and Nobles, http://www.lightwedge.com/prod_paperback.html). The light is more "scattered" and gives much more comfortable reading (though the illumination is not very uniform). The bad things are:
i) The wedge does not fit the reader size ii) it requires 4 AAA battaries (to heavy) 3) light is not stabilized and adjustable.
So I modified the LightWedge the following way:
1) Cut the wedge to fit the reader screen
2) Made a hole to get 2 LED according to new size
2) made the box with Li-ion rechargable battery with the FAN5607 chip, potentiometer and the switch.

I have just finished a "Do It Yourself" project
I have no means of purchasing LightWedge for reasonable price.
So I have manufactured one at home.
I glued (using tape that is sticky on both sides) a piece of 5mm thick plexiglas
to a board.
Then I fixed a piece of wood next to the plexiglas.
Next I glued a very coarse sandpaper to a flat surface.
I have put the plexiglas glued to the board on the sandpaper so the wooden spacer was sliding on the surface next to the sandpaper. By sliding the plexiglas back and forthe I was able to grind an even and uniform wedge.
It takes about an hour. Next I used finer sandpaper, then finer, then very fine, then 1200grit to make the sufrace very smooth. I finished the surface with a very fine polishing paste (purchased in a car-shop accesories for "paint restoration" on a car)

If you are interested in some photos, please send me a private message or reply to this thread.

Originally Posted by obelix

The illumination is not very uniform, but reading is much more comfortable than with any of other sources. Almost that comfortable as with REB 1100 (b/w LCD with back illumination)

now comes the interesting part of my project.
I went to a cheap "chinese" store - selling low quality shoes, clothes, flashlights, knives, toys and other assorted junk
I have purchased a flashight with 21 white led diods for cca $7. (yes 21 leds purchased in a store selling electronic parts cost more, plus I have holder for three AAA batteries )
I have used my beloved "dremel" tool (actually manufactured by Proxxon ) to cut the printed circuit board with LEDs to a thin strips. Then I glued the LEDs to a little thin piece of board one segment next to the other. I used a hot glue gun. I have soldered all LEDs so all plus contact are soldered to a single long wire and all minus contacts are soldered to another wire.
When you place those 21 leds next to each other they cover a distance of 13 cm (the height of the display is 12cm) with a nice bright even light.
I have glued that LED assembly to the side of my homemade wedge and I got a very nice even frontlight. The original LightWedge uses just three LEDs (or is it two?), and I can imagine the light is uneven.

[kacir]

Originally Posted by yvanleterrible

You heat up the edge with a blowtorch in a continuous movement, don't stop at the same spot.

There are some alternatives.
You can use chloroform to "etch" acrylic surface. Unlike other solvents chloroform leaves acrylic surface nice and shiny. Yes besides the use in Bond-esque plots where chloroform is used for kidnaps it is also used as an industrial solvent.
Or you can use solvent from a set for casting acrylyc parts (in some parts of the world sold under the name Dentacryl, or Dentakryl)

Or you can use very fine sandpaper to smooth the surface and a polishing paste to polish the surface. You can use toothpaste instead of polishing paste. It is not nearly as efective, but it works. You can buy polishing paste in the car-shop accessories (it is NOT a wax, like Turtle wax, but a polishing paste for thorough ... aehm ... restoration of the paint).

I often use the polishing method.
It is very, very easy to polish the acrylic glas (if the original lightwedge is made from acrylic glas). You can polish almost any kind of hard plastic.

[yvanleterrible]

Originally Posted by kacir

There are some alternatives.
You can use chloroform to "etch" acrylic surface. Unlike other solvents chloroform leaves acrylic surface nice and shiny. Yes besides the use in Bond-esque plots where chloroform is used for kidnaps it is also used as an industrial solvent.
Or you can use solvent from a set for casting acrylyc parts (in some parts of the world sold under the name Dentacryl, or Dentakryl)

Or you can use very fine sandpaper to smooth the surface and a polishing paste to polish the surface. You can use toothpaste instead of polishing paste. It is not nearly as efective, but it works. You can buy polishing paste in the car-shop accessories (it is NOT a wax, like Turtle wax, but a polishing paste for thorough ... aehm ... restoration of the paint).

I often use the polishing method.
It is very, very easy to polish the acrylic glas (if the original lightwedge is made from acrylic glas). You can polish almost any kind of hard plastic.

Very easy but time consuming and you need all that expensive fine sandpaper. This trick I shared comes from industry where things have to move fast and cheaply. Treating acrylics with files and heat leaves them perfectly transparent in mere seconds, albeit more dangerously.

[aapezzuto]

I am currently manufacturing my second light-wedge derived book-light for my 505. The first one met an untimely end when i tried to bake the polymer clay i used to make the battery holder. I was about 75% sure that it would get soft... but what i didn't count on is that the tempering process used in the book light causes the plastic to contract in strange ways... It was extra industrial grade short bus riding special. luckily for me the only light wedge I could buy in a store around here was at office depot, and was the full sized monster, so i have another peace large enough, and a 1" strip of material to do manufacturing tests on.

The original book wedge only has 2 leds, so I will only be mounting 2 on this version (my first version only had one, and though a little ... patchy, it worked pretty well). I'm making this version more contoured to the book, that may come back to bite me.

I have also done extensive research into how such a front light device would be produced on an industral scale, and have made contact with a few overseas venders of the surface treated plastic materials that would make the most since. A good example of a product using the technology I would be duplicating can be seen here. I have plenty of time to invest in such projects as my 2 girls sleep a lot still, but they do take all my money in diapers and feeding supplies. If anyone would like to front the money for r&d, I would be happy to put in the time and document how to make a proper front light display. I will have to do some research on using solvents to make the edges crystal smooth, without turning them into putty for 6-24 hours.

I will post a picture in a few days once i have finished this version, and would be willing to replicate my efforts for others. It is impossible for me to buy the materials for just one light, so It would make more since if you could pair up and demand 2 at a time :-P

[aapezzuto]

Originally Posted by mwBarlow

They're called Fresnel Lenses and that might be a pretty good place to start investigating...

Thats what i thought at first as well, but thats not what this is. First a frensnel lense would make it look bigger, by refracting light in a circular pattern. and edge lit fresnel lense will not work very well (I have a 9x12 one about 2 ft from me from my first round of research about 4 months ago).

The group of devices that I have been looking at are described as light guides. That general term is any device that can in a slim form factor rotate a light source 90 degrees. These are bipolar transparent lightguides that take advantage of something similar to one way glass. There are other light guide designs that use small etched grooves to cause their refraction, while others still are using some strange grown crystline stuff. There are even talks of using the laser tech for polar light guides (like what is behind your LCD).

The lightwedge it using 2 principals, the major is its geometry, light bounces around in non parelle area till it can escape.. by then its all over the place... and second they have "tempered" the plastic to give it an optical bias towards guiding light out... but about 80+ % of the work is being done by the geometry.

So... what I have so far:
parts for 2 cost about 40$, and it would take me about 5-8 hours to manufacture 2 of them properly... still getting the kinks out of the current design.

These are half built, but i wanted to test some stuff out... That one of it lit up is with just one LED, to make sure the holes I drilled were letting enough light through.

(ps youll find this exact same post in another related thread... about building a custom light for the 505. I was looking at my subscribed threads and posted to the wrong one :-P)

[astra]

Has anyone tried this one:
http://www.amazon.com/Mighty-Bright-...d_bxgy_e_img_a

I am very curious about the following features:

• Two SUPER LED's as bright as six regular LED's and never need replacing!
• LumaLenz™ Optical grade lens spreads light evenly with no hot spots

[mickitaz]

Originally Posted by astra

Has anyone tried this one:
http://www.amazon.com/Mighty-Bright-...d_bxgy_e_img_a

I am very curious about the following features:

• Two SUPER LED's as bright as six regular LED's and never need replacing!
• LumaLenz™ Optical grade lens spreads light evenly with no hot spots

Yep.. Bought mine a couple of weeks ago. Works pretty well. I have the 505. The only problem is you have to twist the head in an offset angle. If you have it straight on, there is too much of a glare.

When clipped onto the reader itself.. doesn't add too much weight. But putting the reader down on a flat surface for a few min.. Eh. Elevates the reader. The first time I did this it was 3am.. I couldn't understand why my reader wasn't laying right on the table. Decided at that point it was probably a good time to go to bed

I really have to say I like this one. My reader came with a different light, and I anticipated I wouldn't like that one. Boy, what I right! Plus, I had a third light I purchased for my regular books. That one I also didn't like. But this one, for the reader, works quite well.

Sorry for the rambling.

[scottsan]

any photos of the verilux in action?

[astra]

Originally Posted by scottsan

any photos of the verilux in action?

In this topic...back 1 year and a few months

[scottsan]

I looked but did not find. If someone is using the verilux it would be most helpful to post an in-use photo again........please.

[astra]

Originally Posted by scottsan

I looked but did not find. If someone is using the verilux it would be most helpful to post an in-use photo again........please.

My apologizes.

Different topic.
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...verilux&page=3

Starting from page 3 we have discussed verilux. On page 5, I have posted pics of verilux then in anothwer post pics of verilux in darkness.

[scottsan]

thanks for the directions.