Original ballasts for fluorescents were magnetic and flickered at 60 Hz. Many people could hear them too.
The electronic ballasts were so much better. 40 kHz and the buzz was gone.
My basement is lit by T-12 fluorescents. I switched the ballasts in 3 of the fixtures to electronic, but I left the rest magnetic because I hardly ever turn them on. I do see the difference when they are on.
T-8 tubes on electronic ballast are great.
Thanks for your reply. The full range cone computer speakers are most likely radiating sound very differently for different frequencies. See sound radiation at this link: https://www.genelec.com/correct-monitors
I did try and made a very rough incandescent backlite portable monitor with all the LEDs components remove but still had negative effects despite wanting the display to work so probably not nocebo effect. The light shining through the panel is still polarized I think?
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I also agree that Irlen really works: I totally was suspicious about whether it was "real" at first, but even literally having that doubt in mind before meeting with the specialist, I was still blown away by the results lol
There is a very visible and immediate difference in the amount of depth perception I have in the real world, and the sense of "scale/proportion" to things. I can see it changing immediately when taking them on and off. Although there is no traditional prescription (unless you add one), I can see the position of objects slightly move when putting them on, so the colors definitely change my perception of space in some kind of way.
Note that I'm referring to custom Irlen tint, this was part of evaulating 50+ different combinations and layers of the lenses in a dark room.
I've heard that some Irlen distributors don't go through the whole process to personalize it (which wouldn't create as good of a result). Fortunately, the specialist I worked with was very familiar with the process.
In fact, the first time I ever tried Irlen the amount of increase in depth perception was so immediate/surprising that it made me realize "I swear the last time I was able to see the world like this was over 10 years ago"
And this was with the initial doubt that "it's probably not going to do anything", LOL.
It is certainly real since it very noticeably changed the way I see, even when I initially didn't believe it would. No other types of glasses have done this for me.
(BTW, Neurolens actually didn't work at all for me! However, Irlen has been working great for me for more than a year now, I can tell the difference every time I put them on.)
My ability to coordinate movement, feel less tired under cheap LED bulbs, deal with large crowds, able to judge distance/proportion/scale is all better while using Irlen glasses, the change happens immediately and was very obvious to me.
However, they don't improve my LCD screen sensitivity and are not really useful for that purpose -- I actually take them off while using screens. (except for some OLED phones for an unknown reason, which it actually does make a bit less "noisy" feeling to my eyes and slightly more tolerable)
Larkenn
Here they say the federal ban doesn't apply to the 50 states:
Never said ballast had anything to do with spectrum. It does have to do with flicker which LED is affected by if it's a cheap PWM circuit.
If you have a LED fixture that is DC powered from a high quality transformer, then you won't have flicker issues.. but you might still have gaps in the colour spectrum.
Uncommon, but there were fluorescent tubes with 5 phosphors in them. The "cheap" way to adjust the spectrum a bit was to use one cool white tube and one warm white tube in the fixture.
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hahahaa the strawman
jordan when did I say ballasts affect color spectrum? Do you have something more going on? you're behavior is weird
thats whats happens when you are sucked in by light modulating screens
miripump we use computer monitors for eye testing in the optometric clinic and we noticed weird changes in our results when we changed from old dell CCFLs to newer led backlit monitors. eye movement was decreased
you should also test with incandescent monitors and see what results you get
DisplaysShouldNotBeTVs have you tried the cheap FL41 or FL60 glasses available on amazon to compare with irlen? i've been pretty impressed, especially when driving at night
DisplaysShouldNotBeTVs I thought it was ehh first going there but after putting the lenses on it was a game changer. It didn't fix my screen issues either but overall light sensitivity, mood, depth perception all improved dramatically. Some other people who go to the irlens lady I see said they can use their MacBooks now after using the lenses. She also has the huge lens kit too which is very helpful.
I hope @miripump or somebody can answer this question. I remember finding positive reasons for circular polarization but nothing against display polarization like this. But I also found:
Human-made light sources can alter natural light cycles, causing animals that rely on light cues to make mistakes when moving through their environment. In the journal Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment, a collaboration of ecologists, biologists and biophysicists has now shown that in addition to direct light, cues from polarized light can trigger animal behaviors leading to injury and often death.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/01/090107092714.htm
And this:
Most animals do not have eyes that are sensitive to polarized light or behavioral activities that require polarized light. Wilhelm Karl von Haidinger published a paper in 1844 announcing his discovery that the human eye does perceive linearly polarized light. This visual sensation is manifested as two opposing paddle-shaped yellow regions with blue areas orthogonal to the yellow. This pattern, known as Haidinger's brushes, is best seen when looking at a highly polarized white background.
photon78s Human-made light sources can alter natural light cycles, causing animals that rely on light cues to make mistakes when moving through their environment.
I believe polarization is basically another strawman to blame for low quality light, first, there is no such thing as Human-made light, there is no such thing as artificial light, light is either incandescent or luminescent, and those two can be either celestial, chemical or electric, except there is no celestial luminescence. Problem with animal disorientation is that low quality light disrupts their mental processes, just like us, but they are more sensitive. I sincerely think it all boils down to luminescent light sources being the culprit, but because there is no alternative in many applications and circumstances, people make up all sorts of strawmans and wild theories. But the solution is simple, yes sometimes the simplest facts are the hardest to understand.
