Greetings!

Well, given the phone numbers being disconnected, I am assuming that he cancelled the ISP, or that it was cancelled for him. Given his medical status (the recent chlorine poisoning), I hope he is okay. We may never know, of course.

I have also not heard from Steve for almost two months now. I send him an email every few weeks, but I have heard nothing back.

Edit: By the way, has anyone ever heard from Brian at all? I know that he was getting too busy for the original button orders, but I have not seen him online for a very long time.

Well, given the phone numbers being disconnected, I am assuming that he cancelled the ISP, or that it was cancelled for him. Given his medical status (the recent chlorine poisoning), I hope he is okay. We may never know, of course.

I hope he returned the player that you lend to him before he dissapeared. Anything else wouldn't be very nice.

I have three sets of buttons and knobs in front of me. One is in a flexible material that is in a sort of very dark blue. This material feels like hard plastic except with some give.

The second is an off white hard plastic.

The third is a translucent red very close to the red lens color.

Overall the quality of his work is superb. The only problem I see with these samples is that they are too close to the originals in that none of the cavities are filled. This keeps light from dispersing as much as in Brian's sets. I'll post pictures soon.

Stu

Picture of red buttons and knobs from the top.

Stu

Picture of red buttons and knobs from the bottom.

Stu

Opaque buttons and knobs.

Stu

Awesome! when can we order some?

Did the caster give any indication if there was a way to improve the diffusion of light through the button? Those red translucent look great, but I would think they would show up as one very bright dot!

Sooo... where do we place the order? :-)

Oh, those off-white knobs look awesome. What's it like when they're backlit?

What's it like when they're backlit?

Ummm... probably as described next to the picture.

Main Entry: opaque
Pronunciation: O-'pAk
Function: adjective
Etymology: Latin opacus
Date: 1641
1 : exhibiting opacity : blocking the passage of radiant energy and especially light



tanstaafl.

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Oh, those off-white knobs look awesome. What's it like when they're backlit?

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There kinda dim, but then they weren't intended to pass I light. You be the judge. I'm sure just about any color could be done. The internal structure of the knob shows through a bit, but that is the case with all of the materials. Perhaps he could fix that on the mold.

I took this without any lens installed.

Stu

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Did the caster give any indication if there was a way to improve the diffusion of light through the button?

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He said he could improve things, but didn't say how. He needs to at least fill in those cavities in the parts. Maybe the backsides could have some sort of diffusion partern applied to them, sort of like they use on car instrument panel overlays.

Here's what the red looks like lit up.

Stu

sweeeet. So with a little photoshop color adjustment....

Sweet. I'll definitely be ordering some sooner or later.

Cool! The Opaque looks the best because you don't actually see the LED.

You can't order yet and I don't know when exactly you will be able to. First I'd like to get the diffusion improved on the translucent ones as I'm sure some people are going to prefer that effect to the opaque variety. I'd also like to make sure he's got a good match with all the basic colors. Red seems good, but blue was way too dark, so we'll have to fix that first.

Stu

This might be a silly request, but could you post a picture of your molds? I'm still trying to figure out where I went wrong....

Okay, so the recent purchase of a new car (2 yr old Alfa Romeo Spider) plus the release of Alfa3 at virtually the same time (must be an omen) has renewed my interest in adding backlit buttons to my empeg. I would definitely be interested in a set of opaque buttons as well as a red set. Looks a good job there maczrool.

Question though, if I order a lighting kit from Eutronix is there anybody currently in the UK offering a fitting service?

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could you post a picture of your molds?

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I'll have to ask the caster about that. I have no idea what they look like.

Stu

woohoo! progress! thanks stu

Oops. When I said opaque I really mean't milky gray ones. Obviously, they're all opaque otherwise there'd be no point

I just talked over some more possibilities with the caster. He thinks that he can get buttons with transparent graphics molded into opaque parts using a stereo lithography process involving lasers (as discussed in this thread). If this is something you want it would help tremendously if you would decide on a design for the buttons and knobs, as we're only drawing up one set of files. Another possibility is to have a somewhat rubbery feeling material in the opaque areas surrounding the clear areas.

Also, does anyone know if there are CAD files for the knobs and buttons floating around? It would help a great deal when generating graphics of the appropriate size and shape.

Stu

Gidday you dewds,
OMG, would that push the price way up, make it all too hard, delay things, put it in the too hard basket, I wonder if it may be better to make it simple, as we have been keen on this for a long long time, you know, Simply a choice of the 3 original colors, would the majority be happy with that? I would be delighted with that.

How about this idea, I was thinking, is it easier just to make 1 type of buttons, like a Cloudy Clear, you know, Neutral color, make a lot of them, make it cheaper, then you can change the color of the LED's to whatever you like, with the LED or if you can't get a happy color LED, put in a white LED and a little baby color filter of lens like material. which we could just make ourselves with some scissors, or something, or make the buttons that take gells, and if you want a pattern, tattoo the prick on there, I don't need a pattern, I know what the buttons do.

I want da buttons, But The dollars man, the Santa is coming.

Gazz.
Outback Central Australia.

He's making clear for us for sure. Just as an option we could offer the fancier, more expensive variety with the graphics. We are just waiting for him to send us samples of some fo the other basic colors so that we can okay them and then we will put them up for sale on the site.

Stu

There seems to be some confusion here between Opaque, Transparent, and Translucent...

"Opaque" means that no light goes through it. Like a brick wall for example.

"Transparent" means that the light goes through it, and it doesn't diffuse the image. Like a window. It can however, allow for a color shift, or a decrease in brightness, so tinted glass is still considered transparent.

"Translucent" means that the light goes through it, but that the image is diffused. Like a shower door, or frosted glass for example.


So there ya go. Hope that clears things up a little bit. I don't blame anyone for not understanding the difference, simply because these are some of the most commonly misused words in existence. I just have an art background so I pay attention to this stuff. =P

As a side note, back when I used to work in the sign industry, we almost always used something we called "Milk Plex" as a substrate for backlit signage. Basically, it's acrylic sheet (Plexiglass, Acrylite, etc.) that looks kinda like milk. It's translucent, with very high diffusion, and very low opacity. It's perfect for almost all backlit applications, because you get a nice bright image, and the brightness is very consistent across the entire image. (Note also that the term "Milk Plex" is probably specific to the sign industry)

So, buttons with the properties of milk plex would be cool, but the downside would be that they would look white, even when not lit up.

What I think would probably work better, would be smoke or color tinted translucent buttons. Again, what we're looking for is high diffusion, and low opacity.

OK, enough rambling!

Those buttons look awesome! I want a set!

PLEASE the color of the original empeg face plate. I'd love 2 or 3 sets...

Thanks,

Donovan

So, buttons with the properties of milk plex would be cool, but the downside would be that they would look white, even when not lit up.

This is exactly what I'm talking about: Very high diffusion, low opacity.

I think it would be coolest to have milkplex-like buttons, but have the milky color be gray like the original buttons. Then you would get the same thing: high diffusion, low opacity, but have the color of the glow be a dimmer shade of gray instead of white. Heck, that's what you'd want anyway, having the buttons glow only dimly instead of brightly.

Heck, that's what you'd want anyway, having the buttons glow only dimly instead of brightly.

Actually, I disagree with this. I would rather have the buttons as bright as possible, and use the hijack button illumination settings to dim it down as needed. This way, you might be able to add more effects (metalized, colors, etc.) without losing too much illumination.

Opaque shiny black, translucent blood red, and translucent "matches-the-smoke-faceplate" are my top 3. I'll send the money ahead of time!

LOL, "if you build it, they will come".