If somebody made good quality backlit buttons, I would buy in an instant. :-D

Calvin

But, as already said, it's not just the buttons that are needed. It's great if you know how to solder surface mounted ICs with an extreamly small pin seperation. But for the majority of people, they just can't do that. I have decent soldering expereince and I don't know if I could do that without screwing anything up. Isn't there another place that the backlit buttons could draw power from? What about straight from the DC power supply line with it's own voltage regulator? That way the backlit buttons will only be on in the car. I know that there are some people that will want to use the backlit buttons when plugged in at home. Maybe it could pull a high/low signal which corresponds to the display brighness to also control the button on and off. I don't know enough about the circuit to know if this is possible, and if it is would it be a location easy enough for the average person to solder to? But wouldn't this make it easier to "hook up" the new circuit this way? Wouldn't it avoid micro-soldering?

Can we not make the buttons out of that 'glow in the dark' material that is used for some remote controls ...

If we can ... does it come in the different 'glowy' colours, as the only one i've seen is sort of greeny. That would be OK, but bluey would be even better.

Glow in the dark paint? hmmmmmmmmm!

Calvin

This has been discussed in previous threads about illuminated buttons. Can't remember what conclusion was drawn.

http://www.glo-net.com/glow/

Try them, they may provide an option

Now this I would like to see. The stuff can be used by injection moulding, though I'm not sure about injection moulding in plastic. And, according to them, lasts 10 years. Even so, this might be a good alternative. Wait, they have injection moulding pellets available. http://www.glo-net.com/glow/pellets.html

I'd pay to get a set of buttons to paly with. And it doesn't mean soldering. They have blue and yellow green. I'd love the blue.

Anyone else wanna get in on this and have someone do the injection moulding?

Even easier, they make epoxy paint. It's about $400 for 1kg, but that would paint a LOT of buttons (and knobs too) with zero modifications....

Of course, I'd probably go in on a group deal if someone knows an injection moulder too...

I might of mentioned this before but how about having on the screen of the empeg two little dots one either side right next to the buttons and the knob giving you a visual guide towards the buttons. They are well designed so it is east to know what each one is.

Painting the buttons would be a bad idea I reckon as

1. It would slightly alter the shape / fit
2. The paint would wear off

I found this too ...

Now, once the powder is mixed with inks and painted or silk screen printed, the lifespan is over 5 years if used indoors and 1 to 2 years in an out door environment. Plastic molded products have a longer life span of over 10 years.

You have to order 5kg which will cost about 115$, but they can get sample batches.

Does anyone have the right experience / facilties to make up the buttons from this material.

As mentioned, no soldering, and personally I think they would look OK.

I'm getting some price quotes on short run injection moulding now. We'll have to see how they turn out. My guess would be kind of expensive, considering the material alone is quite expensive. Does anyone have any connections, at colleges maybe?

Have you approached the guys@empeg about using their mould for these? It would certainly bring the price down considerably compared to getting a mould made. These things cost thousands to manufacture.

This came to my email box this afternoon. If anyone has computer (surface or solid) models of the buttons I could get a quote. The upside is that there's no molds (it's essentially 3-D printing) but the piece part cost can be high. The material ought to be sufficient, although I don't know how good the color dyes are. Accuracy is about +/- 0.003" with some slight stair-stepping which is usually fixed with a light bead blasting.

I assume that empeg/Rio have the files, but I don't know if they'd be willing to share...

I've also attached a picture of some sample parts that was along with this email.

-Zeke




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Welcome to SciTech Solutions, the e-mail newsletter of SciTech Plastics Group. Our intent is to periodically inform you of capabilities, solutions, successes and changes that may be of interest to you.

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Agree that painting buttons wouild be less likely to produce long-term happiness, though if no other illuminated button option solidified, I might try it. Illuminate buttons of *some* sort are high on my list.

If the cited "glo" product works even moderately well, it seems like the least painful way to go. I looked at their web site and MSDS. It seems like they are for real. I was going to call them until I saw that they are in Singapore. Would one person like to take the lead and contact them? (I will if noone else wants to, but I'm going to be away for all of next week) Perhaps they can provide samples in translucent injection molded materials; I'd chip in to pay for samples if that is what's required.

One other big question is just how many folks would want them, in what colors, and just how much would they be willing to pay. Perhaps another poll to start once more info has been obtained.

One other twist -- might 2 (or even 3?) different knob molds be needed to cover Mk2/2a shaft varuiations?

Agree that painting buttons wouild be less likely to produce long-term happiness,

Well, it's not like you're painting the floor in a busy hallway. I mean, these buttons only get touched, and by a non-abrasive fingertip, a few times a day. I would think a good epoxy-based paint would last years and years. And how hard would it be to take a small paint brush and touch them up once in a while if necessary?

tanstaafl.

tanstaafl: these buttons only get touched, and by a non-abrasive fingertip

You've obviously never seem my fingertips!

I would consider the paint route, but always enjoy exploring the more complicated, more expensive route first! Seriously, with paint one question I have is whether the luminesence would be as uniform -- would it look as nice. Another thought I had -- and this may just be another baseless flight of Jim -- was that, if you completely impregnated an otherwise translucent/transparent plastic with these tiny glow bits, it might absorb more light during the day, and shine brighter at night (than a necessarily thin coat of the paint product).

Oooooh, I just want to GLOW!

From what I gather, the ability of the luminesent paint to radiate light is directly related to the amout of the stuff (to a point of diminishing returns). Of course it also depends on, for powder, the grain size. The larger the grain, the longer and brighter it will glow. After looking at the powder it might be a viable option. But you'd have to cover it with epoxy, as they suggest, which would produce a glossy button. Not bad at night but might look tacky in the daytime. Also, you have to remember that the color of the stuff when it's not glowing is white. So you'd have a white button durring the day.

Well, actually, on that subject.. why don't you paint the *inside* of translucent buttons? Then you wouldn't scratch them at all

But once again, we're back to the point of, do we have any "good" traslucent buttons to try this with? And by good I'm talking about direct replacement for the original.

But once again, we're back to the point of, do we have any "good" traslucent buttons to try this with? And by good I'm talking about direct replacement for the original.


Sorry for the double post, I have no clue how it happened. Darn UBB :~)