1. Home
  2. Electronics Design
  3. fairly OT : glass doors

fairly OT : glass doors

There have been articles lately about the new Apple Spaceship campus, about people walking into the glass walls and doors.

We had a grubby bathroom refurbed at the cabin. The bathroom is small and the new shower doors are clear glass, right next to the toilet. First time I peeded in the middle of the night, I whacked my head on the glass. It is very dark up here at night.

formatting link

There is a light/vent thing in the shower, so I was thinking it would be cool if the light were on dim all the time.

formatting link

So I need an LED spotlight that runs at low current; most do. Maybe the one already there would.

So I need to put an impedance across the switch for this light. It could be a resistor, a cap, or a series RC. But it has to be small to jam inside the switch box, and it can't get very hot.

A resistor could conduct 10 mA and dissipate a watt, which might work. Or I could use one of those high-voltage XY-type film caps. If the cap ever shorted, it wouldn't be a big deal... the light would just go on.

ps- It's 10F up here in Sunny California.

--

John Larkin   Highland Technology, Inc   trk 

jlarkin att highlandtechnology dott com 
http://www.highlandtechnology.com
Reply to
John Larkin
Loading thread data ...

It's a good idea. But don't you have an outlet in there where you could just plug in a store-bought night light? Mine are a single LED and has an ambient light sensor.

Reply to
John S

"Motion Sensor Light, Battery powered LED Light for Entrance, Hallway, Garage and Bathroom"

Reply to
Jeff Liebermann

We have a lot of guests use the cabin, and the night lights tend to move around. Everything moves around! The only outlet for a night light is near the door, so the glass might not be very visible. The towel rack on the door would help add some contrast.

But mainly, having that shower light glow softly would be cool.

I think commercial LED night-lights use a series RC to limit the current. The C is the high impedance, and the R limits spike surges that could kill the LED. I wouldn't need the resistor.

A couple of other places, I use tritium tubes as night-time hazard indicators, but there's no obvious not-ugly way to add a tritium light to this glass door. I might try one taped to the far side of the toilet tank, and see what the reflections look like.

--

John Larkin   Highland Technology, Inc   trk 

jlarkin att highlandtechnology dott com 
http://www.highlandtechnology.com
Reply to
John Larkin

Nightlights. We have 9 of them thru out the house. ...Jim Thompson

--
| James E.Thompson                                 |    mens     | 
| Analog Innovations                               |     et      | 
| Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC's and Discrete Systems  |    manus    | 
| STV, Queen Creek, AZ 85142    Skype: skypeanalog |             | 
| Voice:(480)460-2350  Fax: Available upon request |  Brass Rat  | 
| E-mail Icon at http://www.analog-innovations.com |    1962     | 
              
     It's what you learn, after you know it all, that counts.
Reply to
Jim Thompson

I hope you mean at the cabin.

10F is a lot, but if you mean all of California the capacitance would be a lot bigger.
Reply to
Tom Del Rosso

The darkness is beautiful and natural. You might want to consider a heat sensor to switch on when needed.

Reply to
aioe usenet

Whoa, TMI. That shower needs a shower curtain!

--
 Thanks, 
    - Win
Reply to
Winfield Hill

Some famous old guy, it may have been Farad himself, said that no-one would ever be able to make a 1F capacitor.

The capacitance of Earth to the universe is only about 700 uF, so California must be less.

(Back to designing pulse-width limiters. If it warms up to 20 or so, I might go skiing.)

--

John Larkin   Highland Technology, Inc   trk 

jlarkin att highlandtechnology dott com 
http://www.highlandtechnology.com
Reply to
John Larkin

Den mandag den 19. februar 2018 kl. 17.32.17 UTC+1 skrev John Larkin:

some cheap low power ones use a capacitive dropper, others use a buck converter afaiu they tend to blink if you have a "leaky" switch

Reply to
Lasse Langwadt Christensen

Let me see if I got this right. You want to put an impedance across the switch contacts so that it's in series with the existing bulb when the switch is in the off position. The switch shorts out the impedance when it's on so that the light glows to full brightness.

That should work with lamps that already work with a simple series impedance inside to set the current. But others have proper switching current regulators to power the LEDs. I wonder how the latter type will work with the extra series impedance.

Reply to
Pimpom

Grin, maybe some stick-ons on the glass. A few tasteful fig leaves or something. That would let you 'see' the glass too.

GH

Reply to
George Herold

Not in the dark! A dim shower overhead light might have good optics.

At work, I stuck some amber kapton tape on a few glass doors and walls. Apple is going to have to do something.... maybe custom apple-shaped stickers.

--

John Larkin   Highland Technology, Inc   trk 

jlarkin att highlandtechnology dott com 
http://www.highlandtechnology.com
Reply to
John Larkin

The dimmable LED light bulbs do seem to light at low current, or at least some of them do. I have one LED in a garage that's controlled by a motion sensor, and the idle current of the sensor makes the LED glow a bit.

I wonder if all dimmable LED light bulbs have switchers inside. Seems like just resistors would be problematic.

--

John Larkin   Highland Technology, Inc   trk 

jlarkin att highlandtechnology dott com 
http://www.highlandtechnology.com
Reply to
John Larkin

Den mandag den 19. februar 2018 kl. 19.14.36 UTC+1 skrev John Larkin:

in some places "glass manifestation" is a safety requirement

Reply to
Lasse Langwadt Christensen

How about just using an illuminated light switch? Your eyes are going to be pretty well dark-adapted, after all.

If the same switch runs the fan, you should have have enough of a load to light the neon bulb with no problems, but I don't know about the LED fixture.

Cheers

Phil Hobbs

--
Dr Philip C D Hobbs 
Principal Consultant 
ElectroOptical Innovations LLC / Hobbs ElectroOptics 
Optics, Electro-optics, Photonics, Analog Electronics 
Briarcliff Manor NY 10510 

http://electrooptical.net 
https://hobbs-eo.com
Reply to
Phil Hobbs

Den mandag den 19. februar 2018 kl. 19.21.48 UTC+1 skrev John Larkin:

formatting link

Reply to
Lasse Langwadt Christensen

Get jazzy modern... edge-light the glass... it's most likely safety glass, so will have a slight green tint. ...Jim Thompson

--
| James E.Thompson                                 |    mens     | 
| Analog Innovations                               |     et      | 
| Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC's and Discrete Systems  |    manus    | 
| STV, Queen Creek, AZ 85142    Skype: skypeanalog |             | 
| Voice:(480)460-2350  Fax: Available upon request |  Brass Rat  | 
| E-mail Icon at http://www.analog-innovations.com |    1962     | 
              
     It's what you learn, after you know it all, that counts.
Reply to
Jim Thompson

A really cool solution would be to drill the frame at an inconspicuous location, stick an LED in there, feed that from a small med-grade or otherwise code-legal power supply and have that whole glass lit in a dazzling color.

I'd try an X-cap. It won't short but even it it did the light would just go to full brightness. Of course, this is not per code and could also create a nasty bzzzt surprise if anyone were ever to work on that circuit.

It was 29F in the foothills here, a scorcher. I walked our dogs this morning in shorts and T-shirt. Same on the bike ride into the valley yesterday. The guys at the pub shook their heads but it takes less than a mile on a bike to reach operating temperature.

--
Regards, Joerg 

http://www.analogconsultants.com/
Reply to
Joerg

This is getting dangerously close to the engineering rathole of pondering whether one needs a "go"-"no go" status indicator mounted on the toilet seat for the missus.

The reason that's a danger is because it's a solution looking for a problem the seat stays up when not in use, always.

Reply to
bitrex

ElectronDepot website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.