Computers and Night Vision

[scorpius]

Rock up at a deep sky meeting and turn on your laptop, you will be hailed with numerous cries of "Turn off that ........ monitor" Here is my answer to messing around with red cellophane and sticky tape.

Made from 3mm red acrylic sheeting, I had my local vendor make up a screen cover with a folded U shaped top so it clipped firmly onto the laptop. For the modest sum of $35 this works extremely well and by using top quality acrylic sheeting there is very little visual loss of detail on the screen. I suggest you take your laptop in for measurements and fitting. The edges were all finished clean and polished with no sharp corners etc.

Pic is a tad out of focus had to turn the flash off which confused the little A520 AF a bit :)

[beren]

:thumbsupmate: looks good Dave, where did you get it done?

[Draig]

Great Idea Dave,

I'm also curious as to where you go the red acrylic from.

Cheers Colin

[wakaleo]

What a terrific idea Dave! Might have a marketable product there. Better register the design now mate. And acrylic is great - impact resistant, shatter resistant, UV stable and excellent clarity.

[Noel Carboni]

Cool!

All I can say after looking at your image is, "turn off that %&@#& blue LED!" :Chessy_Smile:

In all seriousness, thanks for sharing. I know some programs allow for a "night vision mode", where most stuff is dark red, but that doesn't cover popups and other programs that might suddenly put up a blinding white dialog. This handles that problem nicely!

-Noel

[Astro Dave]

Dave

Send me some hi res pics if you can. I think that might make a good story for SKY and SPACE.

[Radar]

Hi Dave, where did you get this done? I have a red screen I made out of red celephane on a frame, works okay, but that plastic looks better.

[scorpius]

I have done further tests with this at night and yes that blinkin blue led has to go !! (paint it over with red nail polish) but otherwise its excellent even on reduced screen power on batteries alone.

Where do you get it>

AAS All Acrylic Shapes 1/232 Planet Street Welshpool WA 6106.

The company is run by a very charming young lady and her 5 staff members
The phone number is (08) 93616637 Fax (08) 9361 6647. They are very happy to sent by mail order.

The cost of mine was $37.00 which included the fold over top to clip on the laptop lid .

Measurements required will be the thickness of the lid. and the size to be covered width x height. All screens have finished and polished edges with no sharp bits.

If you ring or order mention my name Dave Smithdale and you will get really screwed :eartoear: AAhh sorry.... I mean a good deal...:thumbsupmate:

PS Did you note the very appropriate address !! Apparently the streets in this district are named after astro bodies, Mars St etc etc.

I will take some better shots on and off the laptop and post tomorrow.

[scorpius]

Dave

Send me some hi res pics if you can. I think that might make a good story for SKY and SPACE.

Have PM'd you Dave..Re the HiDef copies.. Here they are much reduced(from 2.2M to 26K) sized images taken with the 350D

Cheers.

[Radar]

Thanks Dave, I'll be doing this. :thumbsupmate:

[Draig]

Thanks Dave,

That's only round the corner from my work so I'll soon have one of those myself.

Well done on coming up with an excellent Idea.

Cheers Colin

[Brianon]

I have done further tests with this at night and yes that blinkin blue led has to go !! (paint it over with red nail polish) but otherwise its excellent even on reduced screen power on batteries alone.

Where do you get it>

AAS All Acrylic Shapes 1/232 Planet Street Welshpool WA 6106.

The company is run by a very charming young lady and her 5 staff members
The phone number is (08) 93616637 Fax (08) 9361 6647. They are very happy to sent by mail order.

The cost of mine was $37.00 which included the fold over top to clip on the laptop lid .

Measurements required will be the thickness of the lid. and the size to be covered width x height. All screens have finished and polished edges with no sharp bits.

If you ring or order mention my name Dave Smithdale and you will get really screwed :eartoear: AAhh sorry.... I mean a good deal...:thumbsupmate:

PS Did you note the very appropriate address !! Apparently the streets in this district are named after astro bodies, Mars St etc etc.

I will take some better shots on and off the laptop and post tomorrow.
Thanks for the info.Me thinks i will join the rush and get one also.
CHEERS:thumbsupmate:

[wakaleo]

Hey Dave. A bit of sticky tape and red celophane should sort that blue LED out.

[Radar]

I simply use black insulation tape on all my leds on all my equipment. Works well, you can still see which ones are lit, but they are not bright.

[wakaleo]

Do you leave the tape on all the time Ray? Can you see the lights through it in daylight too?

[phoenix]

Great idea scorpius i think your on to something there.:eartoear:


Cheers Jason :pipethinker:

[Radar]

Do you leave the tape on all the time Ray? Can you see the lights through it in daylight too?

Yes and yes Jim. No need to remove it really and the leds still shine through, but faintly. Nothing worse than staring at a bright led when you have dark adpated vision.

[scorpius]

Took the laptop to Lunatiks last night. The red screen worked a treat.. Everyone was most impressed....but... Vista carked itself, was unable to find the drivers for the USB/Serial module, despite they were in the drivers folder Grrr
Why have they done away with PNP that worked so well in XP

Same again this morning, just could get get it to work again. Kicked Vista off and installed XP, graphics a bit slow as no drivers yet. But the control programs all work thru the USB/serial unit regardless of where I plug it in.

Also tried out my shiny new drift alignment illuminated reticle plossl from Orion. Worked like a charm and had things staying put for quite a considerable time.
A most enjoyable evening had by all of the 24 who turned up.

PS I painted out the blue LED with red paint. Cannot see it all now :)

[Radar]

Shame about Vista. You would think that MicroSoft would have had the brains to make Vista compatible with XP programs. Very annoying.