PROGRAMMABLE MESSAGE FAN

Programmable Message Fan, retail $4.00 (URL not known)
Manufactured by (Unknown) for Playmaker (URL not known)
Last updated 02-28-10




The Programmable Message Fan (hereinafter probably just called a fan) is a small, handheld battery-operated electric fan. It has two soft plastic blades and a neck lanyard, but most importantly (for this website sakes anyway), there are eight tiny red LEDs on one of the fan blades that display any message you input into the product as the fan turns.

It was purchased at the Dayton Hamfest in mid-2006; the seller was:

D J Phillips Electronics
4552 Golden Key Rd.
New Tripoli PA. 18066-3303
1-610-285-2770


SIZE



To use the fan, face it toward you and press & release the green button on the upper left of its body. Do the same thing to turn it off.

To enter a custom message, first turn the fan on. Press and hold the center button on the right side of the fan's body for ~2 seconds; a flashing cursor should now be visible.

Press the top button repeatedly to cycle through the alphabet; when you have the letter you want, press the center button.

To type a space, just press the top button to go one character past "Z"; a flashing rectangular cursor should be displayed; press the center button now.

To access the numerals 0 through 9, plus a number of special symbols ({heart}, !, #, $, &, +, -, ×, ÷, =, {comma}, ¥, €, ¢, ?, £, {star}, and .), press the bottom button on the right one or more times.

To store your message, press & hold the center button for ~2 seconds.

The fan comes equipped with a break-away neck lanyard to help prevent you from becoming strangled when you get tangled up in bushes; this lanyard is easily repairable by snapping the two plastic pieces of it back together, so you aren't out a lanyard everytime you get your toilet muscle in a sling.



On the back of the fan, you'll find a battery door. Use a small (#0) phillips screwdriver to remove the screw holding it on. Swing the door open, lift it off and remove it, throw it in the {vulgar term for feces}bowl, yank that silvery handle on the front of the cistern down, and flush it away...O WAIT!!! YOU'LL NEED THAT!!! So just set it aside instead.

If necessary, remove the three used AA cells from the compartment, and dispose of or recycle them as you see fit.

Insert three new AA cells in the compartment, orienting each cell so its flat-end (-) negative faces the spring for it in each chamber.

Place the battery door back on and screw in the screw you removed earlier.
Aren't you glad you didn't flush away that battery door now?



This product is meant to be used as a handheld fan in a dry area, not a flashlight meant to be thrashed and abused, so I won't try to flush it down a toilet, bash it against the concrete floor of a patio or a steel rod, let my housemate's kitty cats go to the bathroom on it, run over it with a 450lb Celebrity electric wheelchair, or perform other indecencies on the fan that a regular flashlight might have to go through.

This fan is not water-resistant, waterproof, or submersible. So please try not to drop it in creeks, rivers, ponds, lakes, oceansides, docksides, puddles of African lion pee, slush piles, mud puddles, tubs, toilet bowls, cisterns, sinks, fishtanks, dog water dishes, or other places where water or water-like liquids might be found.

If it fell in water and you suspect it got flooded, disassemble it as you would for a battery change, dump out the water if necessary, and set the parts in a warm dry place for a day or so just to be sure it's completely dry inside before you reassemble and use it again.

If it fell into seawater or if somebody or something peed on it, douche all the parts out with fresh water before setting them out to dry. You don't want your fan to smell like seaweed or piss when you go to use it next. Besides, salt (from seawater or uranation) can't be very good for the motor, the LED driver circuitry, or the battery contacts.

What I find very unique about the fan is that it can display custom (user-entered) messages of up to 16 characters (letters, numbers, symbols, and spaces) and have them displayed whenever the fan is subsequently used.

One of the first things I do when testing an LED messaging device is to check for the presence of an onboard censor, and there isn't one. I input the words {vulgar term for intercourse; rhymes with cluck} {vulgar term for feces; rhymes with pit} {vulgar term for vagina; rhymes with runt} and it happily spouted off the stream of obcenities.
I guess I'm just a prick - I just like seeing toliet words spelled out in LEDs.



Photograph of the unit, illuminated


Spectrographic analysis
Spectrographic analysis of the LEDs in this message fan.


Spectrographic analysis
Same as above; brighter LEDs displayed.
USB2000 spectrometer graciously donated by P.L.



Quicktime movie (.mov extension) showing fan in action.
It is approximately 4.5 megabytes (4,865,036 bytes); dial-up users please be aware.
It will take no less than twenty minutes to load at 48.0Kbps.
I cannot provide it in other formats, so please do not ask.



TEST NOTES:
Test unit of this and several other products were sent by a website fan and received on 07-20-06.

Product was made in China. A product's country of origin really does matter to some people, which is why I published it on this web page.


UPDATE: 00-00-00



PROS:



CONS:



    MANUFACTURER: Unknown
    PRODUCT TYPE: Messaging LED fan
    LAMP TYPE: SMD red LED
    No. OF LAMPS: 8
    BEAM TYPE: N/A
    SWITCH TYPE: Pushbuttons for on, off, and message input
    CASE MATERIAL: Plastic
    BEZEL: N/A
    BATTERY: 3xAA cells
    CURRENT CONSUMPTION: Unknown/unable to measure
    WATER RESISTANT: No
    SUBMERSIBLE: NO WAY HOZAY!!!
    ACCESSORIES: 3xAA cells
    WARRANTY: Unknown/not stated

    PRODUCT RATING:

    Star Rating





Programmable Message Fan *






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