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Hints, Tips and Solutions (Do NOT post requests for help here) If you have any useful general hints and tips for vintage technology repair and restoration, please share them here. PLEASE DO NOT POST REQUESTS FOR HELP HERE!

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Old 4th Jan 2022, 8:42 am   #21
Radio Wrangler
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Default Re: Seeing things

Thanks, Electronpusher, I did know, but wrote it wrong.

Once you have the total number of dioptres, something at the reciprocal of that value is made to appear to be at infinity as far as your eyes are concerned.

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Old 4th Jan 2022, 9:40 am   #22
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Default Re: Seeing things

I wear varifocals throughout the day but in the workshop and on the computer I have a variety of different strength reading glasses for optimum magnification and focussing depending on how close I am to the subject. Works for me, no faffing about or balancing, just a swift change of glasses, five seconds and it's done. Plus readers are couple of quid a pair!
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Old 4th Jan 2022, 1:31 pm   #23
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(All this has resulted in a change to my - ahem - wardrobe, as I find I now prefer shirts with two breast pockets - these needed to carry the various glasses I use, like Steve, for various tasks throughout the day. It also rules out jumpers (can't get to glasses) and necessitates cardigans. Truly, I have suddenly turned into an old ).
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Old 4th Jan 2022, 1:41 pm   #24
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Originally Posted by mark_in_manc View Post
(All this has resulted in a change to my - ahem - wardrobe, as I find I now prefer shirts with two breast pockets - these needed to carry the various glasses I use, like Steve, for various tasks throughout the day. It also rules out jumpers (can't get to glasses) and necessitates cardigans. Truly, I have suddenly turned into an old ).
I hook a pair down the neck of my top, be it a tee shirt, shirt or jumper.
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Old 4th Jan 2022, 2:38 pm   #25
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I hook a pair down the neck of my top, be it a tee shirt, shirt or jumper.
I do that but then forget that I put them there and spend half an hour looking for them,😳

Hugh
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Old 4th Jan 2022, 4:15 pm   #26
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Default Re: Seeing things

I've done that while actually wearing them
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Old 4th Jan 2022, 4:59 pm   #27
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I've done that while actually wearing them
Me too. You name a way of misplacing your glasses, and I've done it; already wearing them, on my head, tucked in my shirt etc etc.
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Old 4th Jan 2022, 8:33 pm   #28
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I've done that while actually wearing them
Yep, done that too. Increasing “maturity” is a wonderful thing,

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Old 4th Jan 2022, 8:45 pm   #29
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Default Re: Seeing things

A fascinating thread. I started to be short sighted, and need glasses for driving in my late teens while at Poly. Really noticed it when driving home after an intense lab session. Ford Cortinas had started to become furry.

Then, much more recently I've started to struggle with close work. Off the shelf reading glasses help a lot. Enough so that with those and decent lighting it's not so many years ago I was soldering zener diodes between the lifted leg of a SOIC and it's pad. Don't ask!

Then a few years ago, I started to struggle. My distance glasses for driving were fine in the morning, but I would find them hard when driving home. A routine eye test sent me to my GP with suspicions. Turns out that blood glucose has a significant effect on your eyeballs and if you are diabetic (I was diagnosed T2) then it messes with your eyeballs. (Don't get me started on the other issues including retinal damage). Good news though is now I've got control I'm using less powerful lenses for distance!

Close work vision is not getting any better, unfortunately.
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Old 4th Jan 2022, 8:53 pm   #30
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Me too. You name a way of misplacing your glasses, and I've done it; already wearing them, on my head, tucked in my shirt etc etc.
Bet you haven't done this one:

Couldn't find them. Thought about all the things I'd done that day. Even went to the extent of lifting up the matress in the second bedroom as we had made the bed for visitors the day they went missing. No matter where we searched, nothing, and I had to get another pair from the optician.

Found them some months later when I next went up into the loft!
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Old 6th Jan 2022, 1:08 am   #31
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I am fortunate that both eyes require the same correction for reading, don't need any for distance vision.
At the workbench I had been swapping between several strengths of off-shelf reading glasses. This became annoying when I eventually needed to swap even when glancing up to the computer screen after some close up work. I tried a very expensive set of prescription lenses from a high street retailer but those were dreadful, could only focus in a narrow area directly ahead, out of focus a few degrees either side. Took them back got a refund.
Tried a few off-shelf varifocals from on-line sellers around the £18 mark and was not impressed. Eventually found some online for nearer £28 and those were really good. Bought a second pair to keep at my workplace. Only downside with these is the frame is not very strong, but with reasonable care they are lasting quite well.

I also have a far eastern illuminated headset, the white coloured one with the 5 interchangeable lenses. I use this for Surface Mount work, the built in LED lamp helps a lot. The arms on this headset are weak and need reinforcing with epoxy on the inside

Chris
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Old 6th Jan 2022, 1:50 am   #32
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Default Re: Seeing things

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That puzzled me for 5 mins (but hey, that's part of the joy of a Christmas present, right?). They clip to the arm of your specs - in my case (and this might be weird) I can only wink my right eye, not my left, so they clip to the left specs arm. Then you use either one, or two lenses, and look through one-eyed....
Ahhhh! Yes! They sound really good. Thanks for that I think I'll get some
Right eye for me though as my left one is not brilliant.

Steve.
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Old 6th Jan 2022, 12:51 pm   #33
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I am fortunate that both eyes require the same correction for reading, don't need any for distance vision....Eventually found some online for nearer £28 and those were really good.
I'd be interested in more info on these Chris, if you don't mind - perhaps a search string which will bring them up (or a link by PM if you prefer?). I know everyone is different and what works for one will not necessarily be much use to another.
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Old 9th Jan 2022, 4:03 am   #34
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Default Re: Seeing things

When I was daily repairing electronics, I found my sight was getting sub-optimal for working on PC boards.
I was into Harbor Freight Tools ( A U.S. chain of stores selling Chinese made items, mostly tool related) one day and for $7.99 I bought a flip up headband magnifying headset with 3 (!) levels of magnification, plus "Headlamps" on either side.
The headlamps were just too heavy for comfort with the batteries in them, and so I just removed them by unscrewing 2 screws for each light assy.
So by using them with my existing glasses or in some cases without them I have over a dozen different levels of magnification I can use. I bought a 2nd pair after damaging the first and added the single flip down side mag from the first pair to the 2nd pair.
Amazing, light weight and I ended up with 4 flashlights from the removed headlamps from the pair of magnifying headbands. Lenses are plastic, but unless you manage to step on them (I have a balance problem due to nerve damage in my ears.) they work just fine. I have had my 2nd pair (Modified) of "Borg headgear" for 6 years now.
Harbor Freight Tools SKU#38896 Now they are currently $3.99 USD
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Old 9th Jan 2022, 5:11 am   #35
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Originally Posted by stevehertz View Post
Me too. You name a way of misplacing your glasses, and I've done it; already wearing them, on my head, tucked in my shirt etc etc.
I actually have 3 pairs for this reason (as well as a set of prescription sunglasses). I'll set them down, never paying attention where. I try to remember to hook them in my shirt, but then I'll forget they're there. Eventually the glasses will turn up, but keeping a couple of spares saves me hours of searching.
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Old 9th Jan 2022, 4:02 pm   #36
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I get two for the price of one glasses from a certain shop and frequently have to put on the second pair to help me find the first pair which take themselves off into all sorts of places.
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Old 10th Jan 2022, 10:46 am   #37
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Perhaps like many of us, I get pleasure out of small practical schemes to re-purpose things and avoid waste. The relevant one for me in this thread is buying rimless reading glasses (which are somewhat fragile) cheap online; because I like them. So far, so vain / impractical. As a sop to my inner puritan, I buy the same pattern every time, and keep the bits of dead pairs so that when the bridge breaks off (which is usually the mode of failure) I can make up a good pair out of spare, decent L and R lenses.

The last time I did this, I somehow (thinking all my spares were +2.0) ended up wearing a cut-and-shut mismatch of +2.0 in one eye and +1.5 in the other. It felt pretty weird
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Old 10th Jan 2022, 11:26 am   #38
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Quote:
I buy the same pattern every time, and keep the bits of dead pairs so that when the bridge breaks off (which is usually the mode of failure) I can make up a good pair out of spare, decent L and R lenses.
I also do that, but mainly because the type of readers I like are the very narrow lensed rimless ones which used to come in a tubular case like a cigar case. They are very light, with the 'arms' made from little more than thick wire with plastic ear 'cushions' pushed onto the ends.

They were available everywhere, including high street shops, until about five years ago but have now all but vanished in favour of full height non-rimless ones which I don't like and don't suit my way of using them - they are much harder to look over the top of.

So like you, I have a 'graveyard' of similar pairs from which I build a 'new' pair every now and again.
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Old 10th Jan 2022, 1:26 pm   #39
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On the occasion of spotting a Poundland (Maidenheads one shut a while ago, shame, they had a good range) I buy half a dozen or so in 1/2 dioptre increments, some I don't use but the frames come in handy for lens transplants.
 
Old 10th Jan 2022, 6:01 pm   #40
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Default Re: Seeing things

Interesting reading: I need glasses for distance-vision/driving, but over the last few years I have found I now need them for close-up work too! My experience with varifocals was bad; I was tilting my head back to look through the lower part when on the computer/watching videos and this led to nasty muscle-knot issues in my shoulders/neck which cost me loads for twice-a-week physiotherapy sessions to un-knot.

My current 'long range' driving-glasses are now a year old and the lenses have gained the sort of micro-scratches which give a starburst-effect from the headlights of oncoming cars; Hello, Vision Express!

IMHO it's worth getting regular [at least every 2 years, annually is better] eye-tests; there's a range of diseases [from diabetes through glaucoma and on to brain-tumours] that eye-tests can identify, and the earlier these are identified the better the outcome of any treatment. You don't _have_ to buy your glasses from the same place that does the eye-test, though I generally do because it's the path of least-astonishment and if anything goes wrong I have some decent comeback.

The one-eye "Jeweller's Loupe" things are rather handy when trying to read the part-numbers on SMD chips; lots of ambient light helps too [my 'bench light' gibes 5000 Lux at 40cm]
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