Brightness control problems

[Health-Spy]

Hi there

I've had my Procyon for a couple of days, and although I've not experienced any of the amazing effects others have reported, it seems reasonably good.

I have OS 2.1.4. I have a Mac and haven't upgraded the software.

I have a question about the brightness setting. The volume and brightness controls do not respond instantly to movement and I assume they are controlled by the OS in some manner. However, on the brightness knob, if I set it to zero, and slowly increase it, there is no light and nothing happens, up until a certain point, when suddenly the LEDs come on. I personally don't like to be blinded or cause my retinas any damage, so I like to have the brightness lower (less visual effects but more relaxing (and blue light only) - and yes I do keep my eyes closed the whole time!) It thus appears there is a threshold value on the brightness knob, below which there is no light at all between there and zero. We are talking 0.5 - 1 cm of knob circumference here. Anyway, this wouldn't be so bad, but if I keep the brightness at around this threshold value, sometimes the lights cut out and I need to increase the brightness to get them to come back on. This may happen after 10 seconds or 5 minutes. I need to therefore increase them to a brightness much greater than I'd like in order for the lights to stay on the whole time. Otherwise it becomes really annoying and spoils the whole relaxation effect that the device is supposed to convey.

So any thoughts please? Do other users experience this problem? Is it a known issue with this OS version? Or is it just my device? If the latter, is it a hardware issue (likely not) or a software issue (more likely) please?

Many thanks.


Health-Spy.com

[~Brainwave~]

Do other users experience this problem?

Yes, I do. I think all LED based AVS machines are the same. It's to do with LED's - they require a minimum voltage before they light up. They're not like incandescent bulbs. Infact, different colours turn on at different voltages. Red requires the lowest voltage, then green, then blue. You can check this yourself by getting to a point where all three colours are on, then gradually turning down the brightness. The last to go out is red, the first blue. If you set the brightness so that the red just comes on at the start of a session, and later in the session only the blues are meant to light, they may not come on at all because the brightness setting isn't high enough for blue. I think this is what you are noticing, and it's the same problem I had when I started using my Procyon.

I found that my eyes were initially sensitive to the lights at first, but you become accustomed to it to some degree. I focus on relaxing my eyes, which tend to tense up in response to the flickering light. Remember, it's been shown that the degree of brainwave entrainment is proportional to the brightness of the flickering lights. i.e. brighter lights, stronger brainwave entrainment. One thing I do is move the glasses slightly further away from my eyes down my nose a bit, and turn up the brightness to compensate. That ensures all colours come on when they are meant to during the session.

[Health-Spy]

Hi Brainwave, thanks for the post. Regarding the order in which the LEDs come on and go off, it is actually the other way around on my unit, blue is the first to come on and the last to go off. Is this an oversight on your part or does your unit function differently to mine?

Fair enough, I can appreciate a minimum voltage requirement, but if I set the brightness to a significant level about the minimum voltage level to power the first LEDs to come on (the blue LEDs), then I expect the power management of the unit to be consistent and not fluctuate the average voltage output to the headphones TOO much (ignoring the actual program's natural fluctuations and patterns etc.) and not cut out all LED output all of a sudden. This to me signifies a deficiency in the power output management of the unit/software.

I can live with a threshold voltage level, but to have the LEDs cut out is just annoying. Once I get used to the intensity and increase the brightness, this will be less of an issue, but still. If the unit cannot guarantee the power the LEDs consistently below a certain voltage, it should not allow them to come on. Or it should be better at maintaining the average voltage output properly to ensure it doesn't happen.

Cheers

[Andy]

Hello and welcome!

Well, I must say that this is certainly a first. We've seen people asking for brighter light frames but never anyone looking for them to be dimmer!

I don't know that you'll be able to enjoy any of the effects of the device if you have the intensity down so low. You certainly cannot be harmed by having the lights brighter as you do have your eyes closed. You should try slowly increasing the level until you get accustomed to the higher level. I think once you get to a decent operating level, you will start to really reap the benefits of what this device can do.

Enjoy!

-Andy.

[~Brainwave~]

Regarding the order in which the LEDs come on and go off, it is actually the other way around on my unit, blue is the first to come on and the last to go off. Is this an oversight on your part or does your unit function differently to mine?

I based my colour switching order on my understanding of generic LED turn on voltages, plus what I had observed when using the Procyon. But these effects could be caused by the way a particular LED amplitude/brightness level has been programmed in the session. So to find out, I created a session that turns all the LED's on with the same brightness (and all other parameters the same - "All LEDs Full On" session attached) and uploaded it to my Procyon. I found all the LED's turn off/on at the same thumbwheel brightness setting. In conclusion, if you see the red turning off before the blue, it's because the session has a brightness/amplitude value for the red that is lower than the blue, not anything with what I was saying in my first reply. Sorry. I should have done this check first.

Fair enough, I can appreciate a minimum voltage requirement, but if I set the brightness to a significant level about the minimum voltage level to power the first LEDs to come on (the blue LEDs), then I expect the power management of the unit to be consistent and not fluctuate the average voltage output to the headphones TOO much (ignoring the actual program's natural fluctuations and patterns etc.) and not cut out all LED output all of a sudden. This to me signifies a deficiency in the power output management of the unit/software.

This may be due to different brightness (amplitude) levels for the same coloured LED being set differently in different parts of the session (or tired batteries loosing their voltage over the course of the session).

I'm not sure any of this will help with the issue you are seeing. I'm just a non-expert user with no affiliation to MindPlace just chiping in with his 2 pennies worth. The Procyon and Proteus are the only AVS machines I've owned. But I don't think your unit is faulty as such, it is IMHO just a charactoristic of the design and all Procyon's (and probably other LED based AVS machines) will do this when the brightness level is set near a threshold and the LED's have variable brightness.

[Health-Spy]

Hi Brainwave, yes I did think it might possibly be due to lower brightness levels of the LEDs in some parts of the program, so if one is near the threshold of coming on, they may well be seen to cut out. Maybe I've being overly conservative about the brightness intensity.

Yes I think you are right, I've mainly been using programs that use more blue type light, so that might well explain this.

I will try getting more accustomed to the lights and see how I get on. Thanks for the input. Much appreciated.