I have a white iPhone conversion and like many the prox is screwed. I did the usual google and youtube searches for the ten or so kludge fixes that are useless (black sharpie marker, remove reflective cover over sensor, remove white "grid" on phone over sensor, etc.......).
All the stupid kludge fixes that don't work and cause you to waste a week and for some tear their phone up.
Since my O'scope and base DMM are not officially calibrated I cannot give you measurements on what lumens you should be seeing, if I did they would be wrong. I just wanted to explain the issue, the REAL issue with the prox so you could perhaps get it fixed through trial and error.
The issue is reflectivity back to the sensor. The sensor see's the light, then see's the reflection off the back of the white faceplate. It's getting two signals. You have to slow the second wave down or it will confuse the sensor.
The proper way to do so is to distort the light. If you distort it, it cannot hit the sensor head on and confuse it when reflecting. I prefer using fine fiber to line the sensor face. trial and error for you until you find sweet spot since you will be doing it without measuring for lumens.
Once you have the proper amount of fiber the sensor will being working as it should. You are using the round fiber strands to distort the light, not to block it so just trying to stick anything in front of the sensor is defeating the purpose.
Good luck! This is the actual proper fix for the issue as the kudge fix's only mask the light reflectivity issue and results vary in different lighting conditions. Distorting it is the be all end all fix as it should be.
Indoor Night: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T28eWkhkU88
Outdoor Day: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQu0LIis_Zg
Edit:
To add, the fix came oddly enough from my experience with digital logic gates. Everyone who has worked with gates (nor, NAND, and, or, xnor, etc....) knows that to use them you have to build a multivibrator circuit with a debouncing switch or the circuit will ring and confuse the gate. I figured the sensor was the gate and the reflections were my ringing so I went on that suspicion and BAM.....
All the stupid kludge fixes that don't work and cause you to waste a week and for some tear their phone up.
Since my O'scope and base DMM are not officially calibrated I cannot give you measurements on what lumens you should be seeing, if I did they would be wrong. I just wanted to explain the issue, the REAL issue with the prox so you could perhaps get it fixed through trial and error.
The issue is reflectivity back to the sensor. The sensor see's the light, then see's the reflection off the back of the white faceplate. It's getting two signals. You have to slow the second wave down or it will confuse the sensor.
The proper way to do so is to distort the light. If you distort it, it cannot hit the sensor head on and confuse it when reflecting. I prefer using fine fiber to line the sensor face. trial and error for you until you find sweet spot since you will be doing it without measuring for lumens.
Once you have the proper amount of fiber the sensor will being working as it should. You are using the round fiber strands to distort the light, not to block it so just trying to stick anything in front of the sensor is defeating the purpose.
Good luck! This is the actual proper fix for the issue as the kudge fix's only mask the light reflectivity issue and results vary in different lighting conditions. Distorting it is the be all end all fix as it should be.
Indoor Night: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T28eWkhkU88
Outdoor Day: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQu0LIis_Zg
Edit:
To add, the fix came oddly enough from my experience with digital logic gates. Everyone who has worked with gates (nor, NAND, and, or, xnor, etc....) knows that to use them you have to build a multivibrator circuit with a debouncing switch or the circuit will ring and confuse the gate. I figured the sensor was the gate and the reflections were my ringing so I went on that suspicion and BAM.....
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