Hi,

I just did some testing with my iPAQ hx4705 and iPAQ 210 in bright morning
sunlight. With the sun on the face of the PDA the backlight made no
difference. The sun overpowers it and the display is pretty easy to read.
Turning the backlight on and off made zero difference in the contrast or
brightness.

With the sun behind the PDA (me looking into the sun with the PDA screen in
shadow) there was a big difference. With the backlight off I could hardly
see either screen. With the backlight on I could see them both much
better - but not great.

So I recommend leaving the backlight on at full power while flying in
gliders. The current draw is much higher but the readability is much, much
better.

For some reason the iPAQ 210 was a little easier to read than the hx4700.
Probably because the hx4700's backlight is about 3 years old. Lights
decrease in brightness with age/use. Another potential explanation is that
I have a Boxwave screen glare reducer on my hx4700 and not on my iPAQ 210.
I was very happy to see that HP made the screen of the 210 slightly textured
so a glare reducer is not required. The iPAQ hx4700's screen is glassy so a
glare reducer is needed. The glare reducer does slightly reduce the screen
brightness. But the difference in brightness in sunlight was negligible.

Paul Remde
Cumulus Soaring, Inc.
http://www.cumulus-soaring.com

"Paul Remde" wrote in message
news:7iCUj.100851$TT4.42547@attbi_s22...
Hi Noel,

I'm very surprised to hear that. My experience is that even if that works
with the sun shining directly on the screen, it won't work when the sun is
in front of the glider (not shining on the screen). I always have my
backlight on full power. But I'll try turning it off today. I'm very
curious.

Paul Remde

"noel.wade" wrote in message
...
On May 7, 7:31 pm, Todd wrote:
I have (2) PDA's (fault tolerance / redundancy)

An hx4700 running WinPilot I hate because I cannot see it in bright
light.


Todd - Just a tip: I was surprised to find that if I disabled the
backlight my hx4700 suddenly became easier to read in bright sunlight
(but almost impossible to read in the shade or indoors). Not "easy",
but easier. You might give it a try...

Take care,

--Noel