I have set up a web page all about translucent buttons and the kits I will have available soon. I have put some howtos up as well. As soon as the kits go live I'll have Paul post something in the announcments, this is for the hardcore BBS readers.

Anyways go here.

WOW! That is just too awesome. Count me in, I will definantely get one, though I may not install it until my warranty is up, 'cause I'm sure this would blow it right out of the water.

BTW, I like step 4 on the install page:
"Apply power, and look for smoke"

ditto... count me in on buying one of these =]

Two questions... on the knob install kit how to... it says to solder the leads onto the board as shown in the picture, but i don't see the leads in the picture... i'm guessing you just put that pic up as a temp.

Second... What exactly does the kernal patch do? Enable the LED's i'm guessing. Do they have brightness settings? Can this be integrated into hijack?

Okay, more than two questions... sorry, i'm easily excitable! I've wanted this button hack for a year now!

Are you going to be doing any other colors in the future? Don't think blue will jive well with my amber screen and interior lights....

Thanks,
Wes

I think he is. From his page:

"email with color request and I will reply with availablity and payment options."

looks great.. im devinatly in.. jsut need a lil mroe help once i order on the soilder points, and coudl i jsut order a set of red buttons as well or do u need differnt color led as well.. im guessing just new buttons.. becuase i woudl liek to have the option fo red or blue if possible.. becuase i like to change from time to time

I'm in if you can do green similar to the "Smoke" faceplates.

do u need differnt color led as well.. im guessing just new buttons..

Correct, no need for different LEDs, the included ones emit white light (probably with a very slight blue touch, but far far less noticeable than the greenishblue hue that the VFD emits)

/Michael

If they're like the white LEDs I put into my PC, they don't emit a blue tint at all. Just very (VERY) bright white. A fairly cold white, not to be confused with incandescent lighting which is actually yellow.

Bruno

Brian,

Is there any way to difuse the light in the 3 lower buttons. I would prefer it if the whole button lit up instead of a bright dot in the center.

- Neil

Yes the knob howto is not completely finished. The patch I have put up will only turn on and off the leds. I have a patch to do dimming but it adds a delay to the visuals comming up, so I want to try and look at that. And it can be patched with a hijack kernel.

That is one thing I've been working on. I should be getting some new materials next week that I will try.

I'm going to try other colors soon. I just did blue while working out the bubble issue.

cool thanks.. ya your instructions are great.. but if you could just go into photoshop or something.. and pur markers at the soilder points.. and where it needs to be put. im definatly in thou.. for a whole kit both sides

Hi Brian... Any chance that sometime in the future you'll consider doing button mods for people who lack the soldering expertise (or testicular fortitude) to hack it ourselves? Seeing that picture of the displya board physically separated from the Empeg took me back to 11th grade when they showed us shock tapes in driver's class with heads separated from bodies. I would love to have illuminated buttons, but the thought of hacking my Empeg apart like that scares the piss out of me.

I would love to have illuminated buttons, but the thought of hacking my Empeg apart like that scares the piss out of me.

I would suggest that if you're not comfortable with doing that sort of thing, then you shouldn't do it. This is for the hardcore only.

I would also suggest that Brian put that text on his page so people know this isn't for everyone.

Any chance that sometime in the future you'll consider doing button mods for people who lack the soldering expertise (or testicular fortitude) to hack it ourselves?

If Brian is smart, he will avoid offering this service. If he damages your player while doing the work, he could be held liable for it. And I'm sure he wouldn't want that.

I would also suggest that Brian put that text on his page, too, so he's not inundated with requests.

Greetings!

...meanwhile, if there is anyone else out there who might be interested in offering such a service, they might want to make themselves known. I, too, would be interested, but do not have that kind of experience with soldering.

I would suggest that if you're not comfortable with doing that sort of thing, then you shouldn't do it. This is for the hardcore only.

Right. And I said I wouldn't be doing it. I'm only hardcore when it comes to software.

If Brian is smart, he will avoid offering this service. If he damages your player while doing the work, he could be held liable for it. And I'm sure he wouldn't want that.

Allow me to refresh your memory on why I asked my question...

http://empeg.comms.net/php/showthreaded.php?Cat=&Board=empeg_tech&Number=58984

Note the words "LED hack service" in Brian's original post. I am just asking if this is still in play. If it's not, then he's more than welcome to say it's not. The last thing I was hoping for was to have you jump in and try to curb his enthusiasm. I would obviously be willing to pay a premium for this kind of thing, and he had shown that he was at least considering the idea.

Also, there is not a chance that I would hold him liable for any damages, I'd be willing to sign any number of disclaimers to that effect. Anyone who has the balls and wherewithall to do something like this to his empeg can be trusted with mine. If it breaks, then it breaks, and I'd deal with it.

If I had just fallen off a turnip truck last week I'd be a little less confrontational here, but it's not like my question was out of left field. You're a great moderator, Tony, and an invaluable asset to the empeg community, but sometimes you should just let two people hold a conversation without injecting needless, and dare I say underinformed advice and criticism.

I had missed Brian's statement that he was actually considering offering a hack service. My apologies for spouting off about it.

I was thinking about it and have not fully decided yet. If it does happen it will be after a while. I also thought of the possibility that someone might send me a broken player and say it worked for them. So there would have to be some strict regulations if I do a hack service.

also thought of the possibility that someone might send me a broken player and say it worked for them.

Damn, that's low... But very possible with 4000+ owners out there. Well if you decide to do it, count me in as interested. If not I *might* give this a run on my Mk2, but I'd probably have to consult a few clergymen first.

Most of the steps seem pretty routine for anyone with good electronics experience, I mean, I think there's probably a lot of people on this BBS who could do a hundred of these hacks and not screw one up. I'm just not one of 'em.

To everyone who has emailed me about the buttons and kits. I have your emails and will slowly be going through them. On non weekends I will probably only get one maybe two button sets molded a day. And I do have a paypal account which should be the easiest for both parties.

hey...

im all over these! one question: does the kernel hack prevent me from adding new versions of the kernel as they come out, and updating hijack as new versions are released? is there a way to put the hack on top of the latest kernel/hijack install?

thx
-ted

I intend to lobby Mark Lord to include Brian's backlighting code as a standard feature in future releases of Hijack.

Mark, if you're reading this, would you be interested in doing that?

The ultimate, of course, would be a Hijack screen control for the brightness level of the button lights.

I'm more of a hardware guy, so if Mark would like to include it he is more than welcome. The patch I have up on my page now only turns them on and off, I have a patch that dims relative to the display setting, but the way it is implimented it delays the screen from being updated while it is changing levels. I'll attach the entire patch and a kernel hacker could fix it up.

Brian, after removing my faceplate and checking out to see whats going to be involved in this, I noticed something that looks like an LED hanging out by the lower right hand part of the display, right next to the volume knob. What is that? and is there any way to make it light up on command? Could it be used as well? Just curious because everytime I pick up a soldering iron things smoke and I get blisters...

I think that is where the vfd was sealed off. Its not a led.

That is the fill nipple for the VFD display. It is very fragile, so use caution when working around it.

A nipple? Theres a joke there somewhere but I'm too tired... Thanks for the info guys! I'll get the guaze ready and some neosporin

That's Tony for you, going on about nipples yet again.