Author Topic: Glow in the Calc  (Read 13162 times)

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Offline meishe91

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Re: Glow in the Calc
« Reply #30 on: March 06, 2010, 04:02:49 pm »
Unfortunately, luminescent materials aren't that strong. They wouldn't produce a suitable amount of light to view a screen image in the dark. (especially considering the material would be located behind the screen, reducing the amount of light it might capture)

Your best bet is to use the same kind of principle found in watch backlights:

"In an Indiglo watch, a very thin panel uses high voltage to energize phosphor atoms that produce light. The panel itself is extremely simple. As described in the Timex patent, you take a thin glass or plastic layer, coat it with a clear conductor, coat that with a very thin layer of phosphor, coat the phosphor with a thin plastic and then add another electrode. Essentially, what you have is two conductors (a capacitor) with phosphor in between. When you apply 100 to 200 volts AC (alternating current) to the conductors, the phosphor energizes and begins emitting photons."

Remember that any patented device must provide instructions for how the device is assembled, so the general public can reproduce the device for themselves. You can find detailed instructions for this sort of thing online.

Having four AAA batteris to power it, this kind of lighting would probably work well without diverting much power from the calculator itself. In fact, you could shunt it over to the back-up battery, and probably operate off it for a good two hours.

The only problem with this is that you need AC current to light the phosphor, not DC (which is what batteries produce). You'd have to learn how to make the program that powers this produce a AC current from DC, which I have no clue how hard that would be or not.

As for the glow in the dark tape...I can kind of guarantee that it won't work. The tape itself is really thick so that is the big issue there. As for glow-in-the-dark paper, I've never heard of it but I suppose that could work, in theory.

For the external (I'm assuming that is what was meant) LED, you would need to do all the physics behind it to make sure you have the correct current, power, voltage, and any resistors/capasitors if necessary. Then make the program to execute those exactly haha.

In short, its not easy haha.
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Offline Deep Toaster

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Re: Glow in the Calc
« Reply #31 on: October 16, 2011, 12:49:48 pm »
Did anyone end up making one (or at least trying)? It sounds like a cool idea :o
« Last Edit: October 16, 2011, 12:50:01 pm by Deep Thought »




Offline Happybobjr

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Re: Glow in the Calc
« Reply #32 on: October 16, 2011, 02:59:52 pm »
agreed.
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Offline ben_g

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Re: Glow in the Calc
« Reply #33 on: October 16, 2011, 03:12:53 pm »
If you want to backlight your calc, it wil probably be best to do it in an electrical way (like with LEDs or other energi-efficient lights). If you do it with glow-in-the-dark material, It will give enough light too see what's on the screen, but only if it's charged. You'd have to leave the slide case of your calc and the calc has to bee somewere where there is enough light to charge the material to make it work.
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Offline Builderboy

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Re: Glow in the Calc
« Reply #34 on: October 16, 2011, 03:37:23 pm »
Unless you get electrical photo luminescent tape :D  My father used some to hack in a backlight to a LCD display recently and it turned out really well.  IIRC it does require a higher voltage or something tho so it might be a bit of a hassle to install

Offline ben_g

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Re: Glow in the Calc
« Reply #35 on: October 16, 2011, 04:01:11 pm »
I think the best is still: use a flashlight that you can wear on your head. It emits enough light to read the screen, it uses absolutely no power from the calc's batteries and you don't have to modify hardware for it.
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Offline Deep Toaster

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Re: Glow in the Calc
« Reply #36 on: October 16, 2011, 04:09:25 pm »
But it wouldn't be as cool.




Offline Darl181

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Re: Glow in the Calc
« Reply #37 on: October 16, 2011, 04:19:53 pm »
..but practical, I do that myself (and it works for all the other calcs too :D)
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