Help.. Adding Frontlight To An Unlit Lcd?

[skeezix]

Hey guys,

I have a very rare very old machine around - an Atari ST Book, one if the first laptops - that has a unlit LCD (to save on power; their previous model, the full featured STacy runs a mighty 10mins on full battery so they wanted to fix that for the ST Book..)

Anyone have clever ideas to make the LCD usable? (its only good in a very well lit office type environ as is)

There used to be frontlight panels you could buy when designing devices but I suspect that tech is all dead. Using super bright LEDs on screen edge may work (though creating pools of light ..); maybe thin LEDs around glass to help even it out..

I'm a software guy though; any ideas on how to just add light to an existing lcd?

(other than using a hacked usb keyboard/originalGBA light

Jeffphone

 

[dnlgreenwood]

Well, you could carry around a desk lamp with a halogen bulb, they work really well for lighting my GB Pocket. Some of them can be quite portable, and their light more closely matches natural light than LEDs do. I find that LEDs don't do as well as a job at lighting screens as halogen/incandescent bulbs.

If you really want to use LEDs, maybe you could make a cover for the top portion, and have LEDs sticking out of it facing the screen or something... and hook the LED's up to the serial port (if it has one) via a mutilated serial cable and a resistor (so you don't destroy your LEDs and you port. I've destroyed a USB port before. I don't know what value because I don't know what the voltage of the serial port is)

Well, I'm out of ideas. I remember one of my older laptops (an IBM Thinkpad with 128MB of RAM and Windows XP) had a fluorescent lamp above the screen that lit the keyboard. I guess it was only useful if you were typing in the dark with an external monitor or with your screen off, or reading a book... I don't really know. That was the same computer that shocked me every time I touched one of the corners.

maybe you could attack a few book lights (or worm lights, whatever they are called) to the back of the screen with velcro, that way they're removable.

 

[skeezix]

Lolyeah, I was reserving a lot of those ideas .. the 'ghetto duct tape ideas' for last resort (ie: Get a USB worm light, hack off the USB end and afix it to the internal battery and good to go )

Theres probably some clever way to do it .. I'll keep looking; I should hit up Ben Heck or someone

jeff

 

[dnlgreenwood]

Lolyeah, I was reserving a lot of those ideas .. the 'ghetto duct tape ideas' for last resort (ie: Get a USB worm light, hack off the USB end and afix it to the internal battery and good to go )

Theres probably some clever way to do it .. I'll keep looking; I should hit up Ben Heck or someone

jeff

Yeah, maybe post in the Ben Heck forum.

Hey, maybe you could replace the internal battery while you're at it... screen lighting will drop your power efficiency.

 

[dnlgreenwood]

Lolyeah, I was reserving a lot of those ideas .. the 'ghetto duct tape ideas' for last resort (ie: Get a USB worm light, hack off the USB end and afix it to the internal battery and good to go )

Theres probably some clever way to do it .. I'll keep looking; I should hit up Ben Heck or someone

jeff

Yeah, maybe post in the Ben Heck forum.

Hey, maybe you could replace the internal battery while you're at it... screen lighting will drop your power efficiency.

 

[skeezix]

Drop the sig man, thats brutal!

jeff

 

[dnlgreenwood]

Drop the sig man, thats brutal!

jeff

Ah, sorry I forgot to scale it down!