Reducing light from notebook

[DaveO]

Ideas anybody?

I have a widescreen notebook that I plan to use at Astrofest. However I want to protect it from dew, and I also need to deal with the light-pollution it produces, made worse because somebody thought that lots of BLUE lights on the body of the machine would look great! :screwy:

I have tried those A4 red plastic envelopes for notes, but they aren't long enough for the wide screen.

Has anybody seen any good solutions for all this?

[astrogeek]

Search for a program called 'Dark Adapted'. It allows you to make the whole screen red and also control the brightness. Very useful tool when using a laptop in the field. Oh, and by the way it is free.

[[1ponders]]

I just made myself a light screen today David. I bought a sheet of transparent red gel sheet and a sheet of .6 neutral density gel (about 600X400 I think) for $7 a sheet.

I then cut a frame out of stiff cardboard (the box my laptop came in) and glued a piece of the red transparency to it. I then sealed all the frame with black gaffa tape to protect it from dew. I had some stick on velcro lying around and I've used this to attach the frame to the laptop screen. Then to the outside of the screen I put more small pieces of velcro. I then cut a piece of neutral density film and attached velcro to that.

This way I have the red on the laptop and when I drop the laptop brightness if this isn't enough I can then fix the ND over the top of that. If that's too dark I can then up the screen brightness :thumbsup:

For your pretty blue lights, sticky tape some red celophane over the top of them. That will make them pretty dark.

[DaveO]

Paul

Where did you get the supplies from?

[[1ponders]]

I bought it from a company up here on the coast that supplies stage lighting. I'm sure if you looked for something similar in Bris Vegas you would have np finding it. the sticky velcro I got from Big W.

[[1ponders]]

I've just found the business card.

It's called "FifaLite" Effects Lighting.

Have a look in the yellow pages under Lighting Hire or Lighting - theatrical.

The red colour I bought was a dark red. The combination of red and ND work a treat.

[[1ponders]]

Our good mate Dennis did a how to on Redlight and Nightvision here (http://www.iceinspace.com.au/index.php?id=63,213,0,0,1,0) which offers good advice

[Dennis]

Have a look at http://www.iceinspace.com.au/index.php?id=63,213,0,0,1,0 which shows the effects of ND film on a Notebook display. Available from "The Production Shop" in Brisbane.

Cheers

Dennis

4-49 Logan Road
Woolloongabba QLD 4102
Phone: + 61 7 3896 1000
Fax: + 61 7 3896 1069
http://www.productionshop.com.au/

[[1ponders]]

Ha...Beat you to it Dennis :P

[Dennis]

Yeeeh.....but I provided the URL, address and 'phone number.:P ;) :thumbsup:

[[1ponders]]

Could be a good workshop opportunity Dennis. I remember last year there were a few first timers that committed the ultimate Faux Pas. What day are you thinking of heading out there?


Dave if you have any problems let me know and I'll pick some more up to bring out with me. What day are you thinking of coming out?

[Dennis]

Hi Paul

Monday or Tuesday and like you, I have both a red gel and ND gel filter, both of which will travel up with me. Look forward to meeting you face to face for the very first time, along with others from the IIS community.

Dave, PM me if you want any further details.

Cheers

Dennis

[[1ponders]]

Cheers Dennis. I look forward to meeting you and putting a face to the name :)

[DaveO]

Paul/Dennis

Thanks guys - that is most helpful. I will contact the Production Shop tomorrow. Paul, will let you know if I have trouble sourcing the filters.

I am coming up on Wednesday, and look forward to meeting you both.

[[1ponders]]

I'm going to try and beat h0ughy there Monday, though I think he is sleeping outside the gates waiting for them to open :lol: :P

[astrogeek]

Why spend money when you can do what you want for free (almost). Go to:

http://www.adpartnership.net/DarkAdapted/

and download the program. It works a treat. As for the blue lights you could either open up the laptop and cut the conection or just cover them up.

[[1ponders]]

It does redden the screen Leon, but DarkAdapted still lets an aweful lot of white light through. I used to use it but gave up in the end and when needed use the red gel. If you turn dark adapted on and then bring up a black screen you will see it is still putting out plenty of white light.

[astrogeek]

I've never had a problem with it. It is just a matter of tuning everything properly (ie. brightness, contrast, etc). If you do that correctly you get very little white light, in fact almost none.

[[1ponders]]

Unfortunately with the majority of modern laptops (certainly the half dozen I've had over the past 3 years) there is only brightness and gamma control, contrast is generally not available.

As for no white light getting through, without some sort of filter over the monitor there will always be white light getting through, even if the screen shows only a black background, especially with laptops.


The DarkAdapted program's pros and cons was fairly well discussed here (http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/showthread.php?t=1778&highlight=DarkAdapted)

[DaveO]

Guys

I installed Dark Adapted as per astrogeek's suggestion. The result was not dissimilar to setting up a custom desktop setting with various colours selected. A good start, but I think I would be plagued by windows that don't conform to Windows standards and which have white backgrounds - and there are lots of those.

I have a handle on a place that sells the gels, so I am going to try that out.

[DaveO]

Well I now have a great red screen for the notebook. I used some black foam board to create a frame, taped the red film to the back and it worked a treat. The hooks that latches the lid in the closed position slots into holes in the foam board, holding the screen in place. I have also got some velcro in case.

Couldn't get any neutral density film though. So Paul, if the offer is still there, I would appreciate it if you can bring some along - I'll reimburse you when we meet.

Now I only have to some up with a neat little "hutch" for the table top to protect the notebook from dew, and I will have my complete setup (well, at least for now - I'm hoping Bintel will be displaying and have some of those groovy viewing chairs for sale!!).