Changing Backlight Colour with Colour Gels (filters)!

[gl.tter]

OK, I want to change the colour of my H140 backlight, so I finally opened it up today to see what's what. I wasn't quite ready to mess with the LEDs this time, so I thought I'd try some colour gels (plastic filters) instead.

Check out my writeup here: http://rockbox.gl.tter.org/gel_mod

[adamti91]

whoa! looks neat

[gl.tter]

Thanks, I've added a pic showing the gel samples.

The colour is growing on me - it's still a bit too dark but I'm getting more used to it.

[gl.tter]

Well, had to try the green. Here it is.

[gl.tter]

Now that I've lived with the green gel a few days, I love it. The backlight is almost as bright as the original, actually brighter than my old MD's green EL backlight, and just as easy to read as before. Our eyes are most sensitive to green so that makes sense. The gel does cause a very slight diffusing, but as I said in the writeup, it's very subtle.

In fact I like it so much that I'm not bothered about doing an LED mod anytime soon.

[NPswimdude500]

That green does look really nice.....where could these gel filters be purchased?

[gl.tter]

I got mine a long time ago from a stage equipment supplier. They usually have little sample books with all the colours available (you can see them in the pics), and they should be free.

[Sleeper-Service]

looks good, is it hard to perform this mod?

[gl.tter]

Originally Posted by Sleeper-Service

looks good, is it hard to perform this mod?

Depends if you're confident opening up the player and disassembling the parts. You need to open the case, unscrew and unplug the HD, unscrew and remove the circuit board. That leaves you with the outer front shell - taping a suitably cut filter into that is pretty easy with tweezers. Then you just put it all back together.

Of course it's all delicate so you really need to take your time.

[Tomarlowe]

You can also get gels like that from any good photography store.