Ended Custom Sony Prs-505 Book Light

[aapezzuto]

This is the second version of a custom book light for the Sony PRS-505 e-book reader. As our household makes -35,000$us per year I need to raise some money to continue development. I have already selected LEDs that I would like to try, and am currently looking at RECHARGEABLE BATTERIES that could work with my current designs. So Let me describe what it is I am selling.

This book light was manufactured from a full sized light wedge. It has been milled down to fit perfectly (less than 0.5mm gap) within the recess of the sony readers screen. It is powered by two 3v button cells (pretty sure they are cr2012). It has limited battery life, and if my measurements are correct the light drains 8mA... so from a standard pair of cr2012s it should last between 6-10 hours. It is possible to find rechargeable cr2012 form factor batteries, but I felt it was prohibitive for a wide spread design. The Device is operated by a single sliding switch, in the upper right corner.

The edges are covered with reflective foil tape, and painted black. This occludes about 2mm on each side, and the bottom. However I have not found it to be a significant problem, unless the word A or I have been at an edge.

I will leave this post here for a few days to see if I get a strong enough response, if not I will put it up on ebay. As stated above, I am selling this to raise the money to refine the concept further, preferably to either sell a small batch of here, or sell to a 3rd party vendor for larger scale production. My "reserve" would be 50$us, as that is the money I have spend thus far on this, and will accept any offer of 100$us so long as I do not receive a higher offer within 12 hours. If someone purchases this for more than 100$us, they will also have first rights on my next prototype, as well as the right to purchase at a discount from any small batch production that I may make.

I have been open about the limitations of this light, and any flaws, to the best of my knowledge. This is based on it being my creation, and having used it for approximately 2-3 hours of reading in a dark room (bed room at night) This is a prototype, buyer beware! What I am actually "selling" is an investment in further development of a similar product.

V2Light.zip is a short vid of the light being turned on in a dark room, and the 505 going from a page of text back to the TOC

[igorsk]

Those bright spots on top are not very nice, but the rest of the page is lit pretty well.

[Ervserver]

I like where the light mounts, battery life kind of bites though. I can go for weeks an weeks with my led clip on light

[aapezzuto]

All the battery solutions that I am currently looking at are in the 600-1200mAh and all the LEDs I am looking at drain less than 30mA, so worse case, the next generation will get 20 hours on a charge, best case (20mA @ 1200mAh) would be 60 hours per charge. The bright spots are going to happen some with a transparent light guide, unless it is lengthened significantly. I can assure you that the camera makes it look worse than it is. It gives less "bright spot" glare than any book light I have used that has a light source within 6 inches of the surface of the book.

Like I said, this is a prototype. I doubt anyone is going to buy this just because at its current state its awesome. Buy it if you have the money and you wish someone was making a "perfect" solution.

[bookbinder]

I have a lot of respect for your work and am grateful you're doing this. I'd love to help financially... but I'm on the wrong side of the class division in Ukraine! Good luck, though. Hope you're able to be successful with this.

[zeek2517]

Not to throw water on your fire but, here is a product that is very similiar.

http://www.lightwedge.com/prod_paperback.html

A plus that yours has is that is it hands free. However, I noticed in your pictures the border cuts off letters at the edge of the screen. I think I would find that a little annoying.

A plus I find with looking at the lightwedge is that it is more evenly illuminated, with no border.

To the readers out there, I haven't tried either product. These are just my observations from pictures.

Perhaps as you work on refining your product you can take the best ideas from both and combine them for a better product.

[aapezzuto]

That would probably be because this product is using a lightwedge lens. There are lots of ways to light up your ebook reader. What I am trying to get is something that will be as convenient as back lighting. As far as evenness... They are about the same, my images used no photoshop.

[=X=]

Wow if you can get this product developed that will be great.

I personally already own the product listed in a the link above. It works very nicely. They have two sizes the smaller of the two covers the reader completely except for the farthest right page buttons.


Here is a recommendation, have the reader fit nicely in the SONY window else the reader will scratch the lens. Also I don't know if one can draw power from a reader but if you could that would be another great feature.

[aapezzuto]

Originally Posted by =X=

Wow if you can get this product developed that will be great.

I personally already own the product listed in a the link above. It works very nicely. They have two sizes the smaller of the two covers the reader completely except for the farthest right page buttons.


Here is a recommendation, have the reader fit nicely in the SONY window else the reader will scratch the lens. Also I don't know if one can draw power from a reader but if you could that would be another great feature.

This lens is a little less than half of one of the big ones, cut down to fit just inside the recess of the e-ink panel. As far as drawing power from the device, the only method I have come up with, without voiding your warentee is to use the audio out to drive something... however it would not be LEDs because the voltage required is to high.

[ehubbard]

Did you sell the prototype yet?