PSOne Screen - EL backlight instead of LED Mod?

[Jason]

I just bought my PSOne screen on ebay... and was thinking about the lighting mod.

I know most people use LEDs... but I was thinking about using an EL strip.

I found this: http://cgi.ebay.com/A5-electroluminesce ... 286.c0.m14 which is an EL panel that glows white.

Seems to me that an EL panel would:
a.) create a more even light
and
b.) create less heat.

Considering what I plan on using as a battery power source (a set of 4 packs of 6 lithium-ion cell phone batteries - approximately 1200mah each - for a total of 14.8v 7200mah*), can anyone give me an analysis of the costs and benefits to using an EL strip?

My mod log is here: http://forums.benheck.com/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=33272

Thanks.
-Jason


*If my math is correct, each pack will be 6 3.7v 1200mah batteries wired in parallel, which should put out 3.7v @ 7200mah per pack. Wiring the packs in series should give me 3.7v * 4 = 14.8v @ 7200mah.
Please correct my math if I'm wrong.

[vskid]

*If my math is correct, each pack will be 6 3.7v 1200mah batteries wired in parallel, which should put out 3.7v @ 7200mah per pack. Wiring the packs in series should give me 3.7v * 4 = 14.8v @ 7200mah.
Please correct my math if I'm wrong.

Seems right to me. Only problem would be charging them.

I'm pretty sure EL panels have been discussed before. I think there was something preventing them from being practical, it was either the light output wasn't much or they used a lot of power (or both), but I can't remember.

[Jason]

Seems right to me. Only problem would be charging them.

Yeah... could get interesting... that's for sure.

I'm pretty sure EL panels have been discussed before. I think there was something preventing them from being practical, it was either the light output wasn't much or they used a lot of power (or both), but I can't remember.

If it has been, a search of the forums won't find it.

Of course... it's not very helpful when the forum search engine ignores the 'EL', and very few would use the full name 'Electroluminescent'.

Would be useful to find though.

-Jason

[snowpenguin]

I've always hated the search, it doesn't let you search for things cause they're 'too common terms' or they're 'too short.'

[vskid]

Search the forums with Google. Type in your search terms and add "site:forums.benheck.com" (no quotes). I use that all the time, I rarely use the forum's search engine.

[daftmike]

I looked into this a while ago and EL panels are not suitable for a psone screen backlight. I couldn't find reliable info on power consumption but it didn't matter as they are an order of magnitude too dim to be useful here.

That EL panel has 120cd/m^2, in a colour tft screen about 4-5% of that light will make it out the front, meaning a screen brightness of at most 6cd/m^2 or 6nits far too dim to be useful. For comparison, a 4 led-mod is about 40nits and the original backlight at least 200+nits.

[Jason]

I looked into this a while ago and EL panels are not suitable for a psone screen backlight. I couldn't find reliable info on power consumption but it didn't matter as they are an order of magnitude too dim to be useful here.

That EL panel has 120cd/m^2, in a colour tft screen about 4-5% of that light will make it out the front, meaning a screen brightness of at most 6cd/m^2 or 6nits far too dim to be useful. For comparison, a 4 led-mod is about 40nits and the original backlight at least 200+nits.

Umph... ok.

I guess I'll order some LEDs then.
3mm LEDs seem a touch large to be using on such a small screen though... I'm thinking of getting some surface mount LEDs and mounting them to a strip of PC board (using the holes as the connecting copper) and soldering a bunch on said strip.

-Jason

[daftmike]

I'm thinking of getting some surface mount LEDs and mounting them to a strip of PC board

That's probably the best way of doing it, I did something like that in this thread.

[Kurt_]

Just throwing this out there:

My laptop screen is relatively dim compared to other makes. It has a brightness of 200 cd/m^2. This is probably the equivalent of an 6-8 led mod or so.

That EL strip has a brightness of 120 cd/m^2. That's pretty dim. If you can layer them, that'd be great.

[samjc3]

If you can layer them, that'd be great.

i dont think layering tham would work. they are opaque, witha reflective layer on the back, so all the light goes out one side. although, it may be possible to remove the reflective layer on one panel, then stack them together. i dont know if the actual panels are clear, though. bibin might know. he has used el panels in several mods.

[daftmike]

Unfortunately even if you could stack el sheets together you would be wasting your time.

You might have missed my point when I said that only about 5% of the light produced by the backlight will make it out the front to light the screen.

A 120cd/m^2 backlight will mean a 6cd/m^2 screen brightness.

[Kurt_]

You can get free samples from 3M for some crazy backlighting material. It can evenly distribute the light, and reflect wrongly polarized light to be recycled, while letting correctly polarized light through the screen. It's not 100%, but it'd sure help.