For my 1,000th post, I'm proud to reveal the first pre-production samples for the lit button project. These samples indicate that the metal molds are complete and that production can begin once I approve the parts. Within a few weeks, you all can finally have the lit buttons you've been waiting for.

But samples for free? Yeah, I'll get to that in a bit.

The samples are functionally perfect, which isn't bad on the first try. I will work with my molding company to improve some of the small flaws in appearance. Please point out anything you notice or have questions about incase I missed it in my initial review.

Here are the clear buttons, shown with factory blue lens, at brightness 3, 5, and 5 with lights on:



Yes, the right button is missing because it wouldn't eject from the mold. That is being fixed and I'll have them in a second round of sampling (if I do that). Oh, and I need a MKII to test the knob against (the one I borrowed from a friend couldn't work). Does anyone have an old dead MKII encoder shaft they could lend me?

But what's that about "FREE" in the subject? Well, I have all these samples and nothing to do with them:



These are "Crystal Sets", a low cost way to modify, hack, customize, and enhance lit buttons. Want purple or milky buttons? Hack a Crystal Set. Want end-glow rods or multiple colors? Hack a Crystal Set. Options are endless.

My offer is to enlist the skilled plastics modifiers from this board to creatively hack these first Crystal Sets. I've only thought up a few hacks for these, so I want to see what the best of you can do. I'll send you free parts with the condition that you creatively modify them and share pictures with the rest of us, ultimately to be displayed on the lit button website gallery.

These are rough samples and there isn't even a complete set. But if you want an early shot at playing with these, here's your chance. I will hopefully do a second round of sampling, yielding more complete sets to offer you modifiers out there, but this is a start. Oh, and the MKIIa knobs are REALLY nice, and I happen to have a bunch of them.

So post here or PM me if you've got the skill and want to try hacking these Crystal Buttons into something more interesting. Let me know where to mail these (international included; I'll give it a shot) and I'll send them out.

Ok everyone, stay tuned for either round two of sampling or final production, whichever comes first. Thanks for hanging in there ALL this time; the project is finally coming to completion.

Jot down my name for a set of buttons when you get them made.

Congratulations!

Here's hoping the curse is finally lifted.

Very exciting! I'll definitly be in for a set when the time comes. I'd request a beta set, but I'm afraid I'm without lit buttons at the moment, and I have no experience modifying plastics. (Hmmm. I was thinking about stopping by jameco on the way home, perhaps the first part could be rectified...)

Matthew

I am not a plastic modifier, but those are REALLY nice!!! Excellent work!!!

Wow congratulations! Nicely done, those have serious dremel potential. What are they made of? Resin or some other low melting point plastic? Will clear be an option in the final production run?

If you have an extra set, I'd like to try a couple of things. PM on it's way.

The parts are made of clear polycarbonate, which was also used for the originals, I think. They are very sturdy and apparently have good thermal tolerances.

The colors are: red, blue, green, amber, smoke, clear, and solid non-translucent black. Clear and black will cost less, since they are easier to make, and to allow for guilt-free modifications.

A note, though: The knobs are VERY tight. I have taken the MKIIa knob on and off my player a few times and it seems to have loosened, but it's still really tight. It will be very hard to make the shaft bigger in the mold, so I'm inclined to leave it over-tight. Two slots could always be cut into the shaft (like the original) to let it expand, and the spring could be uses to hold that together. I think it will work out.

And the MKII knobs seem over-tight also, but I don't (yet) have an MKII to test them on. I'll try to retrieve the encoder I lent my molders.

Tight is Good.

A little bit of soapy film on them makes for easier attachment.

Cheers

Hell I'll try them out & tinker w/them. How do I go about getting them? And I have a Mk2 & an Mk2a if you can send one for each to try out the knobs on, however the Mk2 only has light kit on it.
PM me on the details please.

At this point, I only have a few MKII and MKIIa knobs left. I didn't receive too many parts from my molders, so I'm sending people a few parts each.

If you want a knob (which look pretty awesome, in my opinion), post here or PM me, noting either MKII or MKIIa.

I found out today that these parts are more "beta" than I thought. A more finalized batch of samples is forthcoming, so feel free to torture the ones you get. Watch here for info when they're ready. Untill then, get these knobs that I have.

Looking forward to the production run on these. Keep up the excellent work

Only 2 MKII knobs left right now. I will have one or two more sample runs coming in during the next few weeks. We have to test texture then final appearance, and hopefully test the red sets to get them dark enough to match the lens.

Thanks again for your interest. All button requests have been sent. More to come soon.

if you ever have any more...i would love some...thanks!!

If you ever do another run, I'd love to have a set to experiment with...

Oh my, look what the postman brought. Warming up the dremel

Is polycarbonate harmed by UV?

Quote:
Is polycarbonate harmed by UV?

No. It's the same stuff good sunglass lenses are made from. It's absurdly resistant to chemical attacks to boot.

-Zeke

Do you have the UV lighted button kit? I'm ordering a button kit soon and saw the UV option at Eutronix.

Yes, they're UV. They still freak me out a little and I try to make sure they've always got button caps on them of some sort. Rob S wound up with "welder's flash" when he installed them. Ack!

Do you recommend them?

I'm hoping that adding UV-reactive material to the inside (or outside?) of the buttons/knobs will give them a very even and distributed glow. Thanks for the pictures, Mach, that purple glow is really nice.

Yes, I recommend them if you like to tweak your player. Otherwise stick with the white LEDs or other colors.

I'll have to get some pics up - I have used just the clear knob and top button, and dremelled the other 3 original buttons, and it all looks pretty nifty.

Along with emphatic, it is a very classy setup for nighttime driving.

Many thanks

Hey all, I received a second run of samples this morning. This time they are red to test that difficult color. I didn't receive enough to distribute, but it is the final step before production. Watch for some pictures posted here tonight.

Here's a photo of the pre-production red samples that I received today. Red is tricky because the Filener lens is so dark, but I think you'll agree that this looks downright mean:

Shown top to bottom: brightness 3, brightness 5, brightness 5 with no flash, lights off no flash. All with Filener flat red lens.


The samples have a few weird issues that did not show up last time. And the molders probably already know about them and know how to fix them, just like last time.

Now, once I work out a few showstopper fractional millimeter issues, these are ready for production. I'm excited, are you? I hope so. Stay tuned.

On the pic with lights off and flash, the left button has a bulge? Is that normal? Apart from that, all looking good!

Well I got a knob pcb from Stu the other day (very nice by the way) I assembled it that night but didn't get a chance to install it into the empeg untill last night...along with a FireFox31 knob I put a blue filter behind it for the color. The lens is really green one from FiIener I'm not shure why it looks like a smoke one in the pic. I made the buttons myself with my dremel and some clear silicone... and blue filters over the leds, this way I can change the color when I get tired of it.

tman, thanks for noticing that. No, that is not normal and is probably a side effect of my molder "packing out the parts" (adding more plastic to decrease shrinkage and reduce "sink" (dimples caused from over-shrinkage of thick wall sections)). I let them know about it, but they likely already know because they're good about that. The MKII knob, however, does have an addition that may not work, but I'll have to test that tonight.

You've misspelled "Oates".

Nice lighting kit install. Hey, those buttons are pretty cool. Did you put a blue filter behind the knob as well because it really shines!

After seeing the red parts, I think the blue parts (and other colors) will thankfully be less translucent than the clear parts. But, if you want them really bright, maybe clear + filters is the way to go. Nice work.

mrfixit and Mach:

Nice buttons! You're really making me want to try some stuff out myself.

--Nathan

Here are photos of the (unexpected) second batch of red samples I received today. The texture is better, the light diffusion is smoother, the bottom button is fixed, and the knob height was extended 1mm (against my previous decision).

The red buttons look good with brightness at max, though their color matches much better than the photo shows. Since it was a beautiful day out, I got a very accurate natural-light photo.

Now to just wait a week or two for production, then it's open season on lit buttons. Let's keep the curse at bay for just a little longer!!

How many colors are you going to do?

7 colors:
Red - translucent, matching Filener flat red lens
Blue - translucent, matching original factory blue lens
Smoke - translucent, true gray unlike smoked VFD gray
Amber - translucent, matching Filener raised amber lens
Green - translucent, matching Filener flat green lens
Clear - translucent, shows your LED color or your custom button modification
Black - NOT translucent, matching fascia (hopefully)

I will experiment with modifications and may offer additional customized colors. First attempt will be translucent milky white paint and second will be end-glow fiber flourescent colors. No limit to customization potential.

For my 1100th post, and 11 months to the day since this project was started, I'm pleased to announce that the production run of lit buttons is complete and will be in my hands, at the latest, by June 1st.

You may want to get your Eutronix lighting kit and have it installed to avoid any rush once the buttons go on sale. Or, you could wait for the buttons to be officially on sale to be sure the curse is broken before investing in lights. Either way, I'll announce the release in a new thread on the BBS.

Oh, and did any of the button beta tester plastics modders get a chance to hack up those saddly incomplete sets I mailed out? Post some pics if you'd like. For all your hacking enjoyment, the full sets will be out soon enough.

Awesome.

I know everyone here is very grateful for what you've done after the troubles the other guys had trying to get illuminated buttons. I really can't wait.

It ain't over 'till the fat plastic blinks..

I'm not getting any hopes up until somebody actually has working good buttons installed in a player.

Cheers

More details soon.

You tease!!!!!

I guess if I get a unit modded I can at the same time have the unhappy unit which may have a badly soldered pin on the IDE header and whose display is out despite no obvious nipple damage repaired at the same time.

Trying to use an empeg with a dead remote battery and no display is hard. Using the radio is harder. When "Radio Disney" came on, well, I knew I was at the low end of the AM dial, but I never did manage to switch to FM and tune.

Speaking of "dead" remote batteries..

I've been having some trouble recently with remotes failing to work, or working only intermittently, even with new batteries.

Turns out the spring contact for the bottom side of the battery is losing it's "spring" in my remotes.. so I've stuffed a small wad of paper under that spring contact and then reinserted the battery. Seems to fix it in all three remotes here that had the problem.

Cheers

I'm not the tease, I'm *being* teased; by those boxes which arrived at my house yesterday. Here I am stuck at work unable to open them and see what's inside.

Well, except for the box labeled "Green" which I tore into, dug through, and retrieved the objects which I've waited for almost a year and a half now (noted in my ever-changing signature). After a little more legwork, we'll all get to see what's in those boxes!

Yeah, the remote that I drilled into was the only one here still working perfectly before the round of paper wadding to the others!

Cheers

A year and a half, that's all?
Let's see what it takes for metal/aluminum/alloy/bronze/whatever
buttons to see the daylight

No no no, I was on the project only 11 months. The "year and a half" roughly includes the previous effort, which is when buttons first caught my attention. My research shows buttons haven't been available for about 2.5 years now.

The metal buttons should be simple. I would have had them months ago if I actually worked on the project. I'm stuck on one easy step for one stupid reason. Once the lit button system is stable, I'll crank out those aluminum buttons in no time. Now... if only the color on these buttons would photograph accurately....

The colour is easy to photograph, requiring the same technique as for anything else where colour matters. First, shoot a "custom white balance" from a blank sheet of paper in exactly the same position/lighting as the empeg will be placed. Then set the camera to use the custom white balance, and replace the blank sheet with the empeg + lit buttons.

Works for me tout les temps.

Cheers

I just ordered my lighting kit and have arranged for install of that and the memory board.

So, how do I actually order a set of blue buttons?

Bagpuss.

Hm, actually the colored buttons look kind of cool when unlit. My favorite is amber buttons with the Filener raised orange lens.

You will soon be able to order buttons from my website. I'm still finishing it now, slaving endlessly to get good photographs of these buttons. The lighting in my entire house is too yellow and too dark, so I'm trying everything I can to take photos that actually represent these parts.

I'm really sorry for the delay. Hopefully I can be finished this weekend, test the ordering system and database early in the week, than be up and running by the end of the week. Any more delay is just silly. Keep an eye out for the announcement.

Woah! I honestly think these lights have a similar effect on my after-work moods. Though my trusty GE Watt-Miser 65 watt flood lights have been running for probably over 4 years, there is something very dark about them. I often hold an object directly under the light and still "can't see" it. I'll try the Reveals.

Now, I just need to finish the nagging details of my website and I can get these buttons up for sale. Shipping and tax calculations, customer database for invoice and shipping label printing, buying the domain name?, and the pesky attempt to hide my e-mail address from spammers yet still allow you all to contact me.

This week, I told myself, I'll have it done.

One way I hide my email address is to create a simple Flash button that links to my email address. There's no way a bot can harvest it when embedded in flash...

JeffreyB

I found ways to use a CGI script to mail me the contents of an HTML input form, but I don't have CGI access on the server I'm using.

Is there no way to hide the e-mail address using pure HTML forms... or Server Side Includes or something else really simple that my free webspace could handle?

I realllly don't feel like getting spammed at my shiny new business addresses.

Is $40 too much to pay for a year of hosting on a very decent web server? Where you can make whatever email addresses you want, at whim. Each with IMAP, POP3 and WebMail access, plus optional forwards, auto-responders and server-side spam filtering... Supports all the current web goodies; PHP, PERL, MySQL (you can have 2 databases), multiple domain parking on the same site, sub-domain creation, etc... Fairly nice control panel too.

If you're going to register or buy a domain name, you should really dump the idea of running on a free feature-less host.

You can (should) use NMS Formmail (or other "secure") method to have people contact you. Don't use MSA (Matt's) Formmail. Otherwise you can put up a graphic image with low-contrast distortions and your email address written within it and let people copy out your email address by hand.

If you can click (a link) and have it pop the email address into an email client, then it's of no use to stop spam.

Bruno

Is there any reason you can't just use an image of your email address?

I understand that we all want things easy, but are we really at the point where manually typing in an email address into our mail client is too much work?

Here's one possible solution using the image idea.

EDIT: Argh! Beaten by Bruno!

You have to have something more than HTML forms and SSI in order to send an email at all, regardless of hiding your email address, other than having a mailto: link, which must obviously include your email address.

If you don't have CGI access, what kind of services do you have?

$40 a year for all of those goodies? Which reliable trustworthy webhost offers that good deal? The only services I quickly looked at were $10/month, which isn't much, but it's a little nag.

Yes, I have been using images for e-mail addresses. I just wanted to jazz up the main Contact page with some "secure" form (using the premade CGI mail script provided with my webspace). Ah, it was a silly idea.

I wasn't going to buy the domain name because it's being squatted. Instead, just host it off my ISP space. Lame, but easy. I'll try for that domain name. But all of the sudden, I have no time. This is odd.

Check out http://www.ICDSoft.com

Their normal price is $60 per year, but as I'm an existing customer I can get someone else hosting for $40/year. I just renewed my hosting package and got a further discount when paying for two years: $75. I've already been with them for two years and they just recently increased their basic-level storage and bandwidth limits too (that was a nice surprise to see when accessing my control panel).

Contact me via PM if you need any more details. I can set it up for you if you'd like and then you can just pay me via PayPal.
Bruno

Thanks for the tip, I'll check them out! I haven't recovered the domain name(s) from the squatters yet, so I may just launch it on my ISP space for now. Eh, I can switch it later, keeping a forwarding link. Most important thing is to get these buttons out to you all, regardless if the site looks pretty. It's almost done; this weekend!

It took me too long to get around to it but here's the results of a couple afternoons playing around.



I first tried making button caps out of PMC3 silvery clay but when they're fired they shrink about 20% so that didn't work out as planned. (top left pic) The I tried aluminum embossing foil to make a button cap that would allow light through the side but not the center. (lower left pic). It was too fragile but captured the idea of what I'd like to have in a button cap so I may revisit the idea with some PMC. I'd like to have button cage that matches the wheels on my car.

The last try was based on the idea of embedding fiber optic rod in the knob. (pics right) I drilled out the knob "bumps", inserted pieces of fiber rod, glued them in with white hot glue, and ground down the rod sticking out the front followed by sanding and polishing. I was pleased with how well the polycarbonate sands. I'd like to try doing the same thing with thinner rod. The purple that you see is light from the UV leds. The center is a silver insert from the failed PMC knob that I ground to size.

Thanks for the chance to play with these FireFox.

Woooooooah. Thanks for the pics, those are some clever hacks. You really make the fiber optic shine, and the PMC silver clay looks very promising. I wonder if the area to be covered with PMC could be carefully etched out with a Dremel so the PMC could recess into it. Might help hold it in place.

Now, if only I could get my Dremel back from being on loan, I could try the ideas brewing in my head. But first, back to work on the website.

Cool I’m glad to hear the buttons are almost ready can't wait to get a blue set on my Empeg. Sadly I wrecked my car so it’ll be a while before I can show it off to my friends. Oh it wasn’t a bad wreck no one was hurt, it was just stupid less than a 20mpr hit. The air-bags going off caused my car to be a total loss, bummer.

The announcement happens Monday 6/20/05. That's when the website goes final, the URL is posted, and orders are accepted. Thanks for your patience everyone, the end is in sight.

Damn the man who came up with parlay!

It was a Frenchman.

Now let's get those black buttons up for sale already. Hmmm.. You know what would go really well with some new black buttons? A black aluminum fascia....

Bruno