The whole point of radio backlights is to make the display visible in the
dark. I noticed that there is a trend towards blue LED's, and this is a
very bad idea. Degen's DE-1102 radio uses these, and also Radiolabs has a
modified ATS-909 that uses a blue backlight. Grundig also has a number of
products which appear to use blue backlighting or keyboard lighting. I
imagine pretty much all future portables will be like this.

I have a DE-1102 myself, and I find that the backlight is pretty much
useless, as although it does allow me to see the display, the blue light
kills my nightvision, and also the blue LED's used are rather dim compared
to traditional orange LED's that could be used. I find that other radios I
have had, with orange lighting, are much easier to read in a hurry. The
blue color is also closer to the black color of the LED lettering, which
doesn't help.

An example of this tomfoolery:
http://www.radiolabs.com/images/prod...thumb_mask.gif
I don't know what other manufacturers are doing this, but I really wish
they would stop. I guess this is what happens when design teams get
compromised by marketing.


---
swap "hotmail" and "com" to reply by email.

Why not white LEDs?

On Sat, 05 Jun 2004 08:14:38 GMT, Conan Ford
wrote:

The whole point of radio backlights is to make the display visible in the
dark. I noticed that there is a trend towards blue LED's, and this is a
very bad idea. Degen's DE-1102 radio uses these, and also Radiolabs has a
modified ATS-909 that uses a blue backlight. Grundig also has a number of
products which appear to use blue backlighting or keyboard lighting. I
imagine pretty much all future portables will be like this.

I have a DE-1102 myself, and I find that the backlight is pretty much
useless, as although it does allow me to see the display, the blue light
kills my nightvision, and also the blue LED's used are rather dim compared
to traditional orange LED's that could be used. I find that other radios I
have had, with orange lighting, are much easier to read in a hurry. The
blue color is also closer to the black color of the LED lettering, which
doesn't help.

An example of this tomfoolery:
http://www.radiolabs.com/images/prod...thumb_mask.gif
I don't know what other manufacturers are doing this, but I really wish
they would stop. I guess this is what happens when design teams get
compromised by marketing.


---
swap "hotmail" and "com" to reply by email.

In article 9,
ail says...
The whole point of radio backlights is to make the display visible in the
dark. I noticed that there is a trend towards blue LED's, and this is a
very bad idea. Degen's DE-1102 radio uses these, and also Radiolabs has a
modified ATS-909 that uses a blue backlight. Grundig also has a number of
products which appear to use blue backlighting or keyboard lighting. I
imagine pretty much all future portables will be like this.

I have a DE-1102 myself, and I find that the backlight is pretty much
useless, as although it does allow me to see the display, the blue light
kills my nightvision, and also the blue LED's used are rather dim compared
to traditional orange LED's that could be used. I find that other radios I
have had, with orange lighting, are much easier to read in a hurry. The
blue color is also closer to the black color of the LED lettering, which
doesn't help.

An example of this tomfoolery:
http://www.radiolabs.com/images/prod...thumb_mask.gif
I don't know what other manufacturers are doing this, but I really wish
they would stop. I guess this is what happens when design teams get
compromised by marketing.


---
swap "hotmail" and "com" to reply by email.


I kind of like it (the blue backlight) myself, and I just looked at all
the LEDs in my house, none of them is even close to "orange". I have a
couple of yellow ones and about 100 red ones, counting the three clocks
I have, but no orange.....

I don't remember ever having an orange LED...

Guess I don't get out much, or you're color blind maybe??

BDK

"Conan Ford" wrote in message
3.159...
The whole point of radio backlights is to make the display visible in the
dark. I noticed that there is a trend towards blue LED's, and this is a
very bad idea. Degen's DE-1102 radio uses these, and also Radiolabs has a
modified ATS-909 that uses a blue backlight. Grundig also has a number of
products which appear to use blue backlighting or keyboard lighting. I
imagine pretty much all future portables will be like this.

I have a DE-1102 myself, and I find that the backlight is pretty much
useless, as although it does allow me to see the display, the blue light
kills my nightvision, and also the blue LED's used are rather dim compared
to traditional orange LED's that could be used. I find that other radios
I
have had, with orange lighting, are much easier to read in a hurry. The
blue color is also closer to the black color of the LED lettering, which
doesn't help.

An example of this tomfoolery:

http://www.radiolabs.com/images/prod...thumb_mask.gif
I don't know what other manufacturers are doing this, but I really wish
they would stop. I guess this is what happens when design teams get
compromised by marketing.


---
swap "hotmail" and "com" to reply by email.

I have the KA-1102 and I kinda like the blue backlight. I too don't think
it is as optically affective as amber backlighting, but it sure looks neet
:-)

Perhaps a radio manufacturer needs to do what The Ford Motor Company is
going to do about backlighting. On the 2005 Musang, there is going to be a
color configurable backlight for the dash instruments. You will be able to
adjust it via a control button to mix and match color tones to create up to
as many as 125 different colors of backlights. LOL....

So.... How about it ???? A 7600gr or YB-400 with mix and match backlighting
up to 125 colors ???

Michael

I noticed that there is a trend towards blue LED's, and this is a
very bad idea.

I can't agree. I like blue backlighting, if it's not too dim. Not owning a
DE1102, I can't 'disagree' with your experience with its backlight, and
wouldn't pretend to. Perhaps it is too dim for you, not so for others.
I always like to modify and adjust the backlights on my radios anyway, if the
stock display is fatiguing or annoying. You may wish to go into your DE1102 and
change those LEDs to amber or some warmer, brighter color which serves your
eyes better than the stock blue does.
I find myself going the opposite direction, for example, the stock amber/orange
LEDs on my R75 were always glaringly annoying to me, so I eventually changed
them to green, then reversed the polarization filter on the LCD so that now
it's a dark background with bright alphanumerics, and THEN I swapped out the
green LEDs for white LEDs, which gives a sort of dark/deep blue background with
white alphanumerics... and in front of this, I can use any color of filter I
want, so one day it's red, another green, blue, purple, whatever suits me that
day. Now THAT is a flexible display modification, and has given me much better
results and avoidance of fatigue or eyestrain.
I've never liked amber/orange backlights much, so most of my display modifying
has been predicated on that personal taste. But that's just me.
Linus

Conan Ford schrieb:

The whole point of radio backlights is to make the display visible in the
dark. I noticed that there is a trend towards blue LED's, and this is a
very bad idea.

Well, at least it's not a brilliant one. If you want to illuminate
something without using too much valuable battery power, you best do
that with an LED that emits light in a spectral range where the human
eye is most sensitive (in darkness), so you can use one with less output
power. This would be roughly around 550 nm, with a tendency to higher
wavelengths as it gets darker. So in theory, something yellow to
greenish should be ideal, maybe also orange. In fact, Sony portables use
green backlighting.

Stephan
--
Meine Andere Seite: http://stephan.win31.de/
PC#6: i440BX, 1xP3-500E, 512 MiB, 18+80 GB, R9k AGP 64 MiB, 110W
This is a SCSI-inside, Legacy-plus, TCPA-free computer
Mail to From: not read, see homepg. | Real gelesene Mailadr. s. Homep.

I don't remember ever having an orange LED...

Guess I don't get out much, or you're color blind maybe??


- This is what I was thinking.. Possibly Color deficient ??

GrtPmpkin32 wrote:

I swapped out the green LEDs for white LEDs, which gives a sort of dark/deep blue background with white alphanumerics

That's what I did with the display on my R8B. I removed the green LED's
in the array and replaced them with four white ones located in holes I
made in the ends of the display frame. The display background is now
aqua/blue with white charecters. I like it much better than the original
all green display.


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(Diverd4777) wrote in news:20040605191456.23857.00000260
@mb-m18.aol.com:


I don't remember ever having an orange LED...

Guess I don't get out much, or you're color blind maybe??


- This is what I was thinking.. Possibly Color deficient ??


Sorry, I guess the proper name is amber...

"Michael" wrote in message et...
"Conan Ford" wrote in message
3.159...
The whole point of radio backlights is to make the display visible in the
dark. I noticed that there is a trend towards blue LED's, and this is a
very bad idea. Degen's DE-1102 radio uses these, and also Radiolabs has a
modified ATS-909 that uses a blue backlight. Grundig also has a number of
products which appear to use blue backlighting or keyboard lighting. I
imagine pretty much all future portables will be like this.

I have a DE-1102 myself, and I find that the backlight is pretty much
useless, as although it does allow me to see the display, the blue light
kills my nightvision, and also the blue LED's used are rather dim compared
to traditional orange LED's that could be used. I find that other radios
I
have had, with orange lighting, are much easier to read in a hurry. The
blue color is also closer to the black color of the LED lettering, which
doesn't help.

An example of this tomfoolery:

http://www.radiolabs.com/images/prod...thumb_mask.gif
I don't know what other manufacturers are doing this, but I really wish
they would stop. I guess this is what happens when design teams get
compromised by marketing.


---
swap "hotmail" and "com" to reply by email.

I have the KA-1102 and I kinda like the blue backlight. I too don't think
it is as optically affective as amber backlighting, but it sure looks neet
:-)

Perhaps a radio manufacturer needs to do what The Ford Motor Company is
going to do about backlighting. On the 2005 Musang, there is going to be a
color configurable backlight for the dash instruments. You will be able to
adjust it via a control button to mix and match color tones to create up to
as many as 125 different colors of backlights. LOL....

So.... How about it ???? A 7600gr or YB-400 with mix and match backlighting
up to 125 colors ???

Michael

Michael - Kiss your Radio's Battery Life Good Bye ! ~ RHF

..