Keyboard lcd magnifier.

[Larry]

Hey Guys and Gals,

Has anyone looked at finding something that could be attched to the Lcd display?

Kinda like this, but hands free and can be the old school glas type (Glue,Velcro it on?) so it sets on the keyborad and gives the look of, say 1.5-2.0 times the size.

Just a thought.

 

Larry

[Gnomo Alegre]

Is it a scanner?

[Jokeyman123]

Where did you find this, and is it a good size for the XW, WK series LCD displays? I could use it with my crappy eyesight.

[Larry]

Oh my, no,no guy's i'm asking YOU .

Do you know of or have a glass magnifi that one can put on the keybord.

a "Magnifying glass for keyboard instrument"

 

Google = https://www.google.com/search?biw=1120&bih=564&tbm=isch&sa=1&q=Magnifying+glass+for+keyboard+instrument&oq=Magnifying+glass+for+keyboard+instrument&gs_l=img.12...0.0.1.43.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0..0.0....0...1c..51.img..0.0.0.MxM92hSfOBY

[Null]

I've never seen anything specific but I imagine it would be simple enough to kludge something together with one of these.

 

http://www.amazon.com/s?ie=UTF8&field-keywords=fresnel%20magnifier&index=blended&link_code=qs&sourceid=Mozilla-search&tag=wwwcanoniccom-20

 

I might try it myself.  Wearing reading glasses is a PITA.

 

Gary

[Null]

BTW Larry, I just listened to your latest track on Soundcloud.  This one is REALLY pretty GOOD.  It sounds delightfully sinister.

 

You should post it up here on the forum.

 

Gary

[Null]

Well I just ordered 3 of these from Amazon.  It shouldn't take anything fancy.  Cut to size with scissors and then use a little double sided carpet tape around the edges.

 

http://www.amazon.com/Flexible-Magnifier-Sheet-Enlarges-300%25/dp/B009WZLXO6/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1408224332&sr=8-1&keywords=5+x+7+fresnel+magnifier

 

 

I'll let you know how it turns out for me. 

 

Gary

 

[Larry]

Yep that should work if it's like the old 3M projector stuff.

Glass'es a PITA Gary? really...lol and they told me i could go with contacts.. no way!

Lazeic maybe, but it's still a bit too much for me as of now. $$.

 

Thank's for the coment on the song Gary, it was for my son.

You say sinister?  kinda like this dude on soundcloud?

 

https://soundcloud.com/happyrat1/lefty-casio-remix

 

 

Larry

[Null]

Glasses are a PITA but the alternatives are worse.  Stick a filthy sheet of plastic on my eyeballs?  Let some mini mall hack with a laser burn away my corneas?  NO FREAKIN WAY!!!

 

I limp along just fine with my 50 pairs of dollar store reading glasses thank you very much

 

Your son is very lucky to have  such a cool dad btw.

 

As for mounting the lens over the displays, I have three keyboards with different sized displays so I'll be having to do a bit of a hack job on them.  I might also have to mount them a quarter inch above the displays for the magnification to work but I can just glue a 1/4" square dowel to the edges to make a frame and then stick the whole thing to the keyboard with double sided tape.

 

It'll be at least a week before the lenses show up from Amazon and then I'll have a better idea of what I'm dealing with.

 

Gary

[Null]

Maybe I'll just glue on a few popsicle sticks instead of firing up the ripsaw to try and cut 1/4" square dowels?  I'm trying to keep this as cheap and easy as I possibly can

 

Gary

[Jokeyman123]

I have a few credit-card sized magnifiers with the fresnel lens which I seem to remember wasn't very clear but did magnify a little. I will check this out with the XW and PX350 and get back here.

 

I too have dollar-store specs all over-since I constantly lose my 300 dollar plus prescription readers and am hopeless without them. But the dollar store readers' noseguards smell like hippo breath (not that I know what that really smells like .) The lenses work good, except when they pop out of the frames-for a dollar hey I'm happy.

 

Now I have more money for more music stuff.

 

Like the new XW-PG10000 with 76/88 weighted keys, a huge multi-color touch screen display, 128 GB of sample RAM, a 4-million event sequencer and the arpeggiator, the phrase sequencer, an updated 1000-step sequencer, 4 separately programmable DSP units, the hex layers, mono mode, more analog knobs, organ drawbar mode, 16 sliders to control anything and everything, a built-in JBL 5.1 Dolby surround speaker system. A built-in, collapsible sturdy stand. And finally, one of those cool Casio watches built into the panel, removable if you want to wear it. All under 500 dollars, and weighing less than 20 pounds. But that's another post, isn't it. Sorry I brought it up, a musical hairball I guess.

[Jokeyman123]

Tried the credit card size magnfier. This size is barely large enough for the PX size LCD. Only problem-it needs to be about 3-4 inches away to magnify enough to make a difference. The XW models would need 2 side-by-side to fit but still needs to be 3-4 inches away unless you only need a bit of magnifying. So Gary's larger piece would be better since this would give more room to make a frame. It will need to be fastened with something or weighted or it will slide around. Might be messy depending on how you do it. Probably best done with cardboard and some gaffer's or painters masking tape, the blue kind leaves no residue.  Will be a tight fit so as not to block any other controls. The fresnel lens is not as sharp as a glass lens, but is sharp enough to be usable IMO.

 

Another idea but don't know if a large enough size is available, will have to check around the web. A prism of large enough size woudn't magnify the LCD, but woul project it forward so it would be viewable facing front rather than looking overhead which could help. Fisher Scientific used to sell these, A surplus house or some similar website might have ones large enough. I'll do some research.

[Null]

Amazon is yer friend...

 

http://www.amazon.com/s?ie=UTF8&field-keywords=glass%20prism&index=blended&link_code=qs&sourceid=Mozilla-search&tag=wwwcanoniccom-20

 

There's a 6 incher there.

 

Gary

[Null]

I just realized you need a mirrored prism to make that work.  It has to be silvered on one side in order to reflect the image 90 degrees.

 

You used to be able to find those at army surplus stores as they were used in tank periscopes during WWII.

 

I have no idea where you'd find one today.

 

Gary

 

EDIT >>> Plus it would be reversed as a 180 degree mirror image.  Pretty much a dead idea I think.

[Null]

BTW, I've seen these fresnel magnifiers in strengths ranging from 1.5X to 3.0X.

 

The ones I ordered are 3.0X so they should do some considerable magnification even from a short height above.

 

Gary

[Jokeyman123]

Hello happyrat-did you get the lens stuff yet? Curious to see if it works. Like i said before, the credit card sized ones need to be too far away to kludge a frame for the XW or PX-350 although from about 2-3 inches away does magnify enough to help a little.

[Null]

I'm still evaluating the lenses.

 

The lenses are soft PVC vinyl and easy enough to cut to size with ordinary scissors.

 

From what I can see in order to be usable the lens has to be about 1/2" above at the bottom and 1-1/4" above at the top.

 

From that angle there is some significant distortion though and the bottom 1/4" of the display is cut off.

 

Seriously I don't think these things will replace reading glasses however I am still not 100% certain whether or not it would or would not work.

 

I'll get back to you when I find the time to really finish my evaluation.

 

Gary

[Jokeyman123]

Ok, not a big deal but yeah, I now am sight-challenged guess from peering into too many lcd and computer screens large and small. Will see what I can come up with too.

[Null]

A picture is worth a thousand words.

 

Here's 2000 words describing how these work.

 

First a couple of caveats. 

 

1) First picture is with flash, second one without.

 

2) Most of the distortion is caused by the unsupported weight of the lens curving it as it's held.

 

3) Camera could not focus properly on the focal point of the lens as it uses IR doppler to focus and ends up focusing on the lens instead of the display behind the lens.

 

Conclusion: This may in fact be workable but it will require some precision trimming of the lenses and building custom support frames for each of my keyboards.  I also have yet to figure out how to make these work neatly with my keyboard covers.

 

Gary

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Larry]

Cool Gary, look's like it might be doabul, if not at least you can set stuff on fire useing the sun.

[Jokeyman123]

Looks like about the best size for this.

 

Another way to fasten this with a "kludged" frame around it would be to use "poster" putty I found for fastening paper to stuff instead of tape. It leaves almost no residue, is easily removed and cleaned and can be used many times-sort of like silly putty but found in stationery supply stores like Staples, etc. I use this stuff to hold small screws to screwdrivers when fitting in tough spots, works really well. There is a yellow colored version and a white softer type, don't know if it's still around, bought it a long time ago and it's still good. A few small globs of this would hold a frame in place on plastic, and could be removed no problem without messing up the keyboard covers.

 

My double-sided foam tape I use for fastening extra felt to keybeds will work, but it's nasty to remove once it's on, holds real well and leaves no residue but tough to remove. Hope this helps, I think I'll follow your lead and get the fresnel lenses you found, much better size and will fit other keyboard displays I now need.  Thanks Gary.

[Null]

Honestly I'm not worried about securing it to my keyboards.  The weight of the frame plus some rubberized tape or stick on rubber feet on the bottom would hold it in place thru a typical performance.

 

My main issue is constructing two or three precision frames to hold them at an optimum height and angle without a decent workshop to do this in.

 

If possible it would be nice to do this in plastic or metal as it's not as bulky as wood but if I have to cobble this together with hand tools in whatever limited workspace I can find I'm afraid the results will be nothing short of craptacular :D

 

Gary

[Display Name]

MAGNIFYING GLASSES??? Did I just stumble into Shady Acres Retirement Home????
For  crying out loud, just go and get the ocular implant and be done with it.




LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL

   

[Null]

Yeah buddy...  Just WAIT til you hit the geezer side of 50 and see if you can still read a phone book without a magnifier

 

Bloody kids think they're all f***ing immortal!!!

 

And you kids STAY THE HELL OFF OF MY LAWN!!!!

 

 

 

Gary

[Larry]

Oh boy......

Shady Acres Retirement Home Scott ?

As you illustrated in you post with a poor Mike Martin art work potral i see you know of the place and we look forward to your weekly visits.Doin't forget to bring along your own water color set, we shall be happy to help you "Paint by Numbers" in a new and inproved old school way.