Hi guys...A few weeks ago I purchased a Pronto NG3000 on E-Bay and eagerly awaited it's delivery to my home in Australia.....The girlie was even excited to see it turn up...unforunately...when I turned it on, I was WAY less than impressed with the light blue EL backlight. Something had to be done and done fast.

i searched the net and these forums to find some felow modders...but alas, nothing...looks like I was on my own. The Pronto never even made it into the lounge room...straight to te work bench for this little bugger!

To cut a long story short, two weeks later and alot of dremeling and a small amount of soldering I now have well lit screen which I must say has completely revamped the usability of the pronto.

I shan't go into all the nasty details, unless there is interest, but the basics went something like this.

Take the backlight lightguide assembly from one old laptop LCD screen add one pronto, 7 ultrabright LED's, a few surface mount resistors, trimpot and a mosfet, some 900Mah NiMh's and mix well with a Dremel.

The light guide from the laptop screen was cut to the size of the EL and inserted behind the LCD and the EL replaced as a backing to the light guide.

The 7 LED's fire into the right hand side of the lightguide which does a nice job of diffusing the light evenly across the screen (same as happens in an LCD screen on say a colour PDA) and provide the bright, even backlight for the screen. They are driven from a MOSFET (triggered from a line on the chip that controls the EL so it comes on and off as per the normal EL behaviour). The trimpot provides fine tuning of the brightness.

Needless to say this draws more power...and I am yet to use it in anger so I don't know the actual useful life...but in theory I expect it to be a number of hours.

The next 2 mods are...
1) Fit 4 x 2500Mah batteries...yes that dremel will get another workout.
2) Insert a small microswitch or PWM to allow progressive dimming of the backlight.

Any other suggestions?

Now, if only you'll put up a website like joey6p.com for the 3000 mod.

Happy to Lyndel if there is any interest....

What they hay, I'll do it anyways and we'll just see if anyone visits :)

I'll post again when draft v.0.01 is up :)

Love to see more detail on how you went about this mod.

If this works without any side effects other than shorter battery life then this is really exciting news! I have never been able to understand why the touch screen on my office copier is bright and crisp while the NG3000 looks like crap!

Sorry for the delays in posting....

Women!....Now that the mod. is complete...she's at my ankles to get the screens coded and get it into action :0 Oh yes, and look for a house, clean, do washing, go for dinners...!!!! ARGHHH!!! Look woman, there are people waiting on me damn it....

Anyways, will post some sample pics tonight and get to work on the web site in the next week.

And yes, it REALY does work and oh is it good!

BTW....re. battery life..I've still not run it for any length of time...however, I am just about to make another mod. to squeeze in 4 x 2500Mah NiHm's AA's :) (and yes, they will fit thanks to Mr Dremel...and no one will ever know. That'll fix any battery life issues for good!

G'day guys...I have not had any time to get into the web page as such, but I have generated and uploaded an album of pic's that I will use in the site...and as they say a piccie is worth a thousand words.

[Link: prontomod.50webs.com]

Oh, btw...I did the mod for the 2500Mah battery pack tonight...hmmm...now that was a really tight fit...but thanks to Mr. Dremel and his good mate Mr. Hammer (yes, no joke), the Pronto is on the charger now and should work out fine....But I'll tell that story another day.

Hope you like the pics....they prob. don't show the image too well, but you will get the general idea...There is one pic...(about 11 or 12 from the end) that shows the screen with the normal backlight and a single LED shining across through the lightguide...that gives some idea of the brightness differential...basically think of a modern colour PDA and you'll understand the improvement.

Let me know what you think!

Cheers.
Tom

Looks great! Keep working.

Tom, I am completely blown away by your work. I trashed my 3000 a year ago because it was too much trouble to read the dim screen. You will find dozens of posts on Remote Central from folks who have done the same. You should hurry to the patent office. Of course, Philips will say that your warranty is voided. However, judging by the posts from those who have exercized Philips' warranty service, that may not be important.

I recommend you start your own company. OEM the bits you need from Philips. Add your kit. Hire one of the arty geniuses on this forum to design some tantalizing screens and away you go.

Hmmmm...Mental note...Don't hit shiny new 2500Mah batteries with a hammer...not even a little bit. Oh well...I guess it was a bit like myth busters :) This myth is true! I'll squeeze them in yet!

And thanks for the words of encouragement guys. I'll keep playing ;)

C'mon people speak up - give me some ideas...279 views and just 6 replies....hmmmm...not a very talkative lot on here :(

I think most people think this is just too good to be true. If you can pull this off at a reasonable price you will have more work than you can handle. I hope you will offer to modify existing remotes, not just sell new ones. I can't afford to buy another one!

LOL!....the concept certainly works...but there was something like 40+ hours of labor so I do not think it cost effective as a business...but you have got me thinking how I can I simplify it for the ProntoLight Mk. II :)

Not to mention running out of old laptop screens and the need for a bigger battery....

Tom.

Wow, this is very impressive Tom! So you used 7 white LEDs? Wondering what blue would have looked like.

This is great work!

Keep on the battery mod going.

Martin :-)

Martin, white is soooo very much easier to read than blue and provides better contrast. It's more expensive (generally) than the colours but I highly recomend it. As you might be able to see from one of the picies, I files/sanded downm the plastic lenses of the LED's so that they a) were smaller and b) produced a more "spread" light source.

As for the battery...yeah, I am still working on that,,,that latest is looking like the back cover will need some remoulding...ao I am playing with just how I will deform it using some offcuts.

So..come on guys, grab that dremel and make your pronto REALLY shine :)

BTW...prelim test show the 900Mah might be fine...seems to last well over 1 1/2 hours continuous on time (with the backlight)...still testing though and will post my final findings....I still want to fit 2500Mah's...just to show it can be done!

Chat soon.

This message was edited by tomwaters on 04/02/05 01:57 ET.

Tom,
Just took a look at your pics. Very interesting! I'm pretty handy with a soldering iron but not ready to tackle your mod yet. I have dusted off the old Dremel though! Looking forward to your web page.

This message was edited by London on 04/06/05 01:46 ET.