reading color display in daylight

[handlebar]

A couple of years ago when I bought a Bolton controller for my Radrunner, the color display looked like a great idea. It wasn't. During the day, the illumination from the digits had to compete with the reflected light from the sky, my face, or my shirt. The speed could be faint, and the smaller digits impossible to read. I stapled a strip of black roofing felt into a sort of box to shield the display, but it was still not very legible in daylight.

I bought the black-on-white LCD display for my Radmission. That was easy to read. Daylight made the white background brighter for good contrast against the black digits.

The controller I bought for my Radmission uses the same color display as the Bolton, and it's just as bad in daylight. Any suggestions?

[inoxa]

Are you wearing sunglasses?  Some sunglasses are the issue. 
Also have you tried different angles? 
I have a Bolton color screen and have few problems with it. 

[handlebar]

Are you wearing sunglasses?  Some sunglasses are the issue. 
Also have you tried different angles? 
I have a Bolton color screen and have few problems with it.

I don't wear sunglasses, but now I wonder if polarized sunglasses would help.

It's worse in the middle of the day, when there's lots of ambient light. However, it's not bad in the middle of the day under a blue sky because a blue sky doesn't reflect much light. That's why shadows are distinct. If it's overcast, it can be pretty bright, but there may be no shadows because the light coming from the clouds is diffuse. That's when I can't see much except the faint mph digits.

[crorris]

I wonder if changing the brightness with parameter C6 would help? The default is 3 and 5 is the brightest. I've seen a lot of folks change this to 4. Have you tried increasing this?

[handlebar]

I wonder if changing the brightness with parameter C6 would help? The default is 3 and 5 is the brightest. I've seen a lot of folks change this to 4. Have you tried increasing this?

Yes.

[crorris]

That sounds like you might have a bad display. I've had mine for about 2 years and have gone close to 2000 miles with it. Mine is still on the default brightness setting and I haven't experienced this issue. You may be on to something with polarized sunglasses helping. They can definitely have an effect on reflections. I remember wearing my polarized sunglasses in my car and having them totally block my heads up display that reflects up onto my windshield. I thought it was broken until I took off my sunglasses.   

[handlebar]

That sounds like you might have a bad display. I've had mine for about 2 years and have gone close to 2000 miles with it. Mine is still on the default brightness setting and I haven't experienced this issue.

I've had my Bolton display 26 months. Right away I noticed that, depending on the time of day and cloud conditions, it could be faint, unlike the reflective display of a wristwatch or calculator. I figured that was why they made the mph so big.  Making speed and "gear" number oversized didn't leave much room for things like miles, temperature, and watts. I'd sometimes stop and shade the display with my hand to read miles.

Seven months ago, I bought a Radmission with the LCD display. I loved the way I could read it clearly during the day. For the first time, I could keep track of watts during the day. A few weeks ago, I upgraded to a controller with the same KT-LCD8H display. If they'd offered a b/w display, I would  have preferred it. I hoped that they'd made the color display clearer under a bright daytime sky. They hadn't.