But i love you guys more. For a project i'm doing i want to put a VFD i've got, behind a semi-silvered mirror. This way it will be all sleak n shiny, but also allow the VFD to be read. Anyone ever tried removing the mirror finish (What is it in most mirrors use, i'm guesing that dull brown stuff is for protection and is going to have to go!) also anyone know what they are like for using a touch sensor behind them I'm going to be buying the mirror to do this project (i'm hoping i can just buy a small bit from a glass shop) so if there are any types that would make it easyer.
With most mirrors, the silver itself is thin enough to allow light through, once you've removed the backing paint. As long as the area around the VFD is kept dark, only its light will shine through. Zip-Strip works well for removing the paint without harming the silver beneath.
A decent glass stockist will have the one-way stuff used in some houses for privacy. Looks like a mirror from outside, but you can see out from inside or see in if the lighting's on behind it. Pilkington do one, be around 3-5mm probably. Or even the pucka 1-way mirror glass that shops use to spot shoplifters. Other way is to cover the flip side of ordinary picture glass in that tinted film sold for car windows. The macroman used some in a case mod (Macro Black). Good mirrors have a chemically-deposited film of silver backed up by electro-copper and laquer, cheap ones just the silver and laquer.
Probably not a viable option (unless you have a shop around there that uses this stuff) is MirrorChrome paint. I haven't had a chance to play with this yet. I'm planning on using it in spring on some future plans for my car. (Like having the chrome door guards act as hidden directionals).
Here in the US, people use window-tinting kits on thier cars. Basically its a large sticker you put on the inside of your cars windows to tint them if the car did not come with tinted glass. This window-tint can come in different shades and colors, but more importantly (for you) they also come in reflective mirror finish. Ive been looking forward to playing about using this stuff on a plexiglass case, so that the outside is a mirror finish, but at night the lights inside would overcome the mirror effect and show the insides. Mirror-tint is pretty easy to apply. You slowly peel off the backing and stick it to the surface, all the while smoothing it out with a flat edge of some form of flexable plastic (like a plastic trowel used for mudding sheetrock). I have no idea if this helps or not. But to finish, removing the brown off a silver mirror will do exactly what you want. Its only there to keep light from penetrating the backside and keep the silver side completely reflective (just like a reflective LCD). Remove the brown paint, and light should be able to shine through (just like a transflective LCD). The only problem I see is that VFDs dont provide a great amount of light strength.
I thought The Animus came out with gibberish, but you get a Gold Star. A squeegee to us Brits, used for cleaning windows. How to 'mud sheetrock'
Well thanks everyone i think i'll go at the brown stuff with some paint thinner, now i just need to find a bit of mirror to test this on! i'll also have a bit of a go at trying to use it as a touch sensor hopefully the silver won't be too conductive, i've just realised how stupid that last statement sounds, i might try making a break in it or somthing, i'm sure i'll figure out a way . amount of whats percived by some people as gibberish is directly proportional to genious some might say.
Its the 'across the pond' effect. If you were in New York City and asked someone "Do you have a *** I could smoke?", it would mean an entirely different thing, and the result would probably be unpleasant.
LOL! I worked as a software developer at a startup game company in the early 90s in my late teens. The founder was from England. We went to this bar/diner for a meeting (the only place you could smoke in this town ) and he turns to me and says "Mind if I bum a ***?", My initial thought was "WHAT??!!!!!!", then after a few uncomfortable seconds, I remembered that *** was slang for a smoke. I then tried to diplomatically point out that given it's meaning here, he may want to rephrase that in the future.
TheAnimus, i would like to know if you have any success with this. I bought some very small mirrors that i had planned on doing the half silvered thing with, but i never did figure it out...
