I do pretty much all of my flight simming in a subdued lighting environment. In fact I can’t stand to have the room well lit when looking into monitors and even during the daytime hours I keep the shades mostly closed as the big room window is directly behind my monitors and I don’t want a lot of backlighting either.
The problem is that I can’t see the labels on either the Yoke or the Throttle. The red honeycomb backlighting on the Alpha does nothing to help illuminate the switch panel and of course there isn’t anything at all on the Bravo other than the functional led’s but those are only good when engaged. It would have been great if the entire panel(s) was even dimly illuminated and then higher intensity when activated. But obviously that’s not the case.
I have a headlamp that I am using and it does the task well but then when I look at the monitors I have a large glow shining back at me as a reflection so I have to turn it on and off as needed and it’s not the best solution.
So I’m thinking about some soft white led strip lights that are usb powered but so far I haven’t found anything that I think will do the job well and still be somewhat discreet when mounted on or around the panel housing.
Have any of you guys come up with a solution or do you not find the lack of external lighting a problem? I know most people don’t like to game in a brightly lit room so there must be others with this problem.
1 Like
My first thought on this would be a small, dimable reading light that is meant to be used when reading in bed while not bothering your partnet. They normally have built-in clips and the lighting is soft enough to not be distracting. They are also designed to keep the light solely focused and won’t leak light elsewhere. I’ve been where you are and also don’t like too much extraneous light. Good luck.
I use a PTec head lamp (from REI) that has a red light. I actually just wear it around my neck and it throws off just enough light to be able to read my Saitek panels. I can direct the light so it’s angled properly. The red light is what you would use in a real life cockpit situation at night, so it adds to the emersion somewhat.
i just made a mount that screws into both the alpha and bravo using my 3d printer then places 2x USB led light bars in which i can dim down to what i like in my dark environment it works quiet well
I had the same problem. My posts shows how I solved it. https://forums.flightsimulator.com/uploads/default/original/3X/9/c/9c9ca4ea025dec2640b509d2f95df976d8cbcb3d.jpeg
The side down lights are from IKEA. The middle lights are music stand lights from AMAZON. Hope this helps
WOW! Some great responses here. I didn’t expect so many good thoughts on this but you guys came through! I did order a small led music stand light from Amazon. It actually has two small gooseneck lights that split off of a single spring clamp. Hopefully it does an adequate job. I attached a small piece of aluminum angle to the top of the Bravo TQ through the leftmost top screw hole that should hold the light nicely.
I also have a red night vision light that I used to use when star gazing through my telescope. It’s put away with my scope so I need to get up into the storage area and find it but that is a good idea for night vision as they are specifically designed to be used in a dark environment and not cause night blindness as does white light.
Again, thanks for all the replies!!
Also, an old astronomers tip - well, that is what they claim anyway: If you ask your wife/partner/significan other, or these days use your own… Nail varnish. Red hopefully but when applied it can soften, colour and diffuse the light. The more layers, the darker it gets.
