Extreme Power Backlight for LCD – Read Text under Direct Sun convertibles Sunny LCD

tempgp · 05-12-2009, 07:49 PM

Hey all,
Ive herd many ppl having trouble with direct sun hiting the screen and you can read text on it. If you happen to have a convertible then its huge problem for summer driving. Transflective layer seam to help a bt but not much. So i decided to start my project called Sunny LCD to try to do DIY LED backlight that will have enough power to see text or GPS in convertible or when sun falls on the screen through the sun/moon roof.

Simple idea is to use high power flash LEDs (those that are used in police cars as their white siren lights)

Bigest one I can find is 3W 50,000 lumens (for comperison 100W incadecent light balb has 1500 lumens). I say if i use 4 such LCDs i will get 200,000 limens that is technucally so bright that you cant look at it (we can reduce sight intencity at night =)

Biggest problem will be heat. About 200C is closed box, so if i can figure proper radiator we are good to go. Or we can yse our car as owen as on the go amlet maker =)

So if you interedted in the project drop me the line here or tell me your thoughts. I will need to rise few bucks in donations to afford all parts for experiments. Also if you got spare monitor I can take that. So far I only got extra TM-868 but it broke alredy. I also bough 1 unit of 1W LED that i will test drive tonight when i get powersource ready for it. For now just will postr pix of this LED. its exacly the same one as used in NYS traffic signs.

trader007 · 05-12-2009, 09:55 PM

i think heat is going to be your biggest enemy... leds normally run cool but i think those 1-5watters put out heat that you really cant radiate inside a dash without major mods to the car.

tempgp · 05-12-2009, 09:57 PM

my 1 watt requires heat sink... soldering few samples right now

Bugbyte · 05-13-2009, 01:21 AM

Check into Turbocad's liquid cooled backlight. He's got some experience in radiating heat!

tempgp · 05-13-2009, 02:09 AM

seen that one long time ago...if my memories ae corect he spent 2000$ on setup which i think is expansive + water in the car looks cautios to me, id rather stick with air cooling and heat sinks..

also late night test results 1W LED just gave me no heat emmisions at all =) I still pushing it to the max.. but now my eyes going blind... so gotta take a brake or get sunglases =)

nobb · 05-13-2009, 09:52 AM

I would have thought that transreflective is better. The problem with having a super bright screen would be that you need to automatically dim it somehow at night. I've been wanting to try to mod an existing 7" LCD panel I have laying around, but dont have a feasible idea on what I should do. LEDs are usually really focused, and one thing I did not see you mention is how you propose to evenly spread out the light. Anyways, Id love to see pics on your progress.

tempgp · 05-13-2009, 12:59 PM

pix are comming in few hours...
as to controling dimming at night thats easy as to contoll LED efficiently i need to build a controller unit that will impulse the curent, at the same time i can lower the curent if external photo sensor will show me that light level is less then 200 lumins (thats like room lidgt w/o direct sun hit)

as to defusing the light. high powe leds are 100 degrees, so if we use regulat paper + defusing layer (that we can get for 20$ of the net) we can more or less spred the focus... fore more intrense defision i need to use either mirrors, perforated clear glass, or perforated gark glass... i have to try which one wotkd do better job

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