Have you ever been flying (especially at night) with the lights in the room turned OFF and have someone (perhaps your loving wife) walk into the room and switch the lights ON?Well...I bought a plastic hood for my 19" monitor thinking that would help....not!So I'm planning to make a hood on the order of the kind they have for the old picture cameras.Perhaps out of pvc pipe and black fabric that I can attach to the monitor when flying.I have a basic idea but thought I'd see if anyone else has done this and if you have could you give any pointers?I'm looking at cheap but effective.Thanks,Cliff (PDX)

It would be better, (and your wife might like), if you went to the source. Get some indirect lighting fixtures. The kind that shine light straight up to the ceiling. You can get a ceiling mounted one for under 20 bucks american, if you let her pick one it might be 30-40. Glare, however, will be all but gone. Easier on the eye's too.

Use a strong cardboard box and shape it into a type of cockpit shape. Make sure it extends to at least the edge of your table and that it is big enough to fit your speakers, keyboard, mouse and joystick in. Paint the inside black.With this in place, nothing else in the room should be visible to you, just your monitor. Take an aerobatic aircraft and do a few rolls and loops and feel the sensation!You can easily make this to fold up nicely to put away when not in use.RegardsJohan

I do occasional computer based DJ/Karaoke work, sometimes in bright sunlight (a real bummer).I built a hood from light framing wood and 3/8" plywood. Then I painted it black. It's cheap, rigid, customized, and effective. It sits to the front side of the monitor only, overlapping just a little and then further with a 5" black felt strip. The top (only) of the hood is black felt cloth that can be adjusted to any length across, and then down by just unrolling it. It "rides/unrolls" from a "center rod/stick" that sits on the top of the hood sides. The hood sides are not flat at the top but start out flat and then taper down at about 45 degrees for several inches. That way I can quickly go from pretty much wide open, to just a small slit, it extreme lighting conditions. (Looking at one hood side, from the side, it looks like a rectangle with the one upper/outer corner cut off.) Probably took me a 3-4 hours to build, and I used all scrap material. Have about $6.00 in it, for spray paint and felt (Walmart).I'm thinking about building a similar one for FS because I use 2 monitors at night with FSNAV on the second monitor. I don't like the glare off the second monitor, but I still want it on at all times.By the way tigerdirect.com has an illuminated keyboard that is made specifically for night time gaming. I'm thinking about giving it a try.Bob (Lecanto, Fl)AMD, Athlon XP, 1800+MSI, K7T266 XP ProPC 2100 DDR, 1024 MBXP, Home Edition Elsa GLadiac 920, GF3/64Mb andPNY, Verto nVidia TNT 2-M64/32WD, 100 MB, 7200, Ultra 100Sound Blaster, Audigy MP3+CH Prod, VPP Yoke - Sound CardCH Prod, Pedals - Sound Card