[Just for fun] Some LED renderings

[kalel]

Just a few off topic (well, still electronics related) LED renderings.
I designed the LED model loosely, not following any strict criteria (exact size, shape, material color and such), just for fun - and to see how the light patterns would look. Other than that, there's no goal.

Even in the low resolution, each image took about 1 hour to render. More time would yield somewhat better image quality and perhaps more realistic results (as more light paths are calculated) - although realism would require exact shapes and material tables from the actual silicone and resin.

This is a kind of standard pointed clear LED:


This is a kind of clear LED with almost flat end:


The same as above, but with a diffused lens:


Finally, a slightly higher resolution image using a different rendering technique, with random-ish colors assigned (the dots/light spots are normal - they can either be removed in post processing or as time approaches infinity, they might resolve):

[matseng]

Nice!  Almost looks better than real LEDs (which are notoriously hard to photograph properly).... ;-)

[Cubdriver]

Very nicely done!  That last one looks like it could be made into a poster.

-Pat

[garboui]

Very cool! May I ask the software this was done in?

[kalel]

Thanks everyone.

May I ask the software this was done in?

Yes of course, the "model" (not exactly a precise one) was made in Blender, and rendering using a plugin called Luxrender, which offers physically realistic calculations. Everything is open source.

[kalel]

After a while of rendering and some post processing to remove noise, I'm sharing this 1920 x 1080 wallpaper image. It's not perfect, but it would take too much time for ever diminishing improvements.

Released under public domain CC0 for any legal use.

[CatalinaWOW]

Lovely images.  Thanks for sharing. 

Nothing good comes without a downside though.  You do realize that these are going to show up someday as a demonstration of powering LEDs over the air, or perhaps by harvesting micro-vibrations.

[kalel]

Lovely images.  Thanks for sharing. 

Nothing good comes without a downside though.  You do realize that these are going to show up someday as a demonstration of powering LEDs over the air, or perhaps by harvesting micro-vibrations.

I thought about attaching an apparent cable, but in most of the images the LED pins are not 100% visible over their entire length. That means, it's possible that they are connected to some power supply in the background. Even these virtual LEDs didn't light up without power (computer power to draw them).

[Zbig]

After a while of rendering and some post processing to remove noise, I'm sharing this 1920 x 1080 wallpaper image. It's not perfect, but it would take too much time for ever diminishing improvements.

Released under public domain CC0 for any legal use.

Onto my smartphone's home screen it goes!

[kalel]

After a while of rendering and some post processing to remove noise, I'm sharing this 1920 x 1080 wallpaper image. It's not perfect, but it would take too much time for ever diminishing improvements.

Released under public domain CC0 for any legal use.

Onto my smartphone's home screen it goes!

Happy to hear that! P.S. if someone has any similar ideas for another LED wallpaper (different setup, perspective, perhaps shape), let me know.
I'm not using any model libraries (although an open source component library could be used I assume), so if hand making them, it's easier to have as little different components as possible.

Also, animations might sound cool, but would only be feasible with an expensive server computer (something with really high CPU power). Otherwise, well, up to a few days per frame * 24 = up to a few months per second.

[cdev]

Ive fooled around with that a bit.

Luxrender is quite good with AMD hardware and OpenCL which is a plus. And its fast.

[kalel]

Ive fooled around with that a bit.

Luxrender is quite good with AMD hardware and OpenCL which is a plus. And its fast.

Yup, with AMD GPUs you don't have much of a choice (yet) in the industry. There is cycles support, but compile times are huge.
However, for some things like in those images, CPU must be used (until some really bright people implement GPU support for the calculations). For simpler scenes, GPU rendering on a cheap GPU can be as fast as CPU rendering on a really expensive CPU. 

[idpromnut]

+1 for phone wallpaper.  Thanks!

[cdev]

what is the best (free or cheap) platform for rendering optical items (LEDs, other lights/lamps/lenses, reflection by mirrors etc.) realistically?

Are there any options besides Blender? I have some lighting design ideas I want to visualize and I don't want to buy (cant afford) any kind of dedicated optics program.

[kalel]

what is the best (free or cheap) platform for rendering optical items (LEDs, other lights/lamps/lenses, reflection by mirrors etc.) realistically?

Are there any options besides Blender? I have some lighting design ideas I want to visualize and I don't want to buy (cant afford) any kind of dedicated optics program.

With Luxrender and bidir used (especially using the old API), you can get a nice and realistic effect provided materials are setup correctly. Both will calculate light going through the lens you design, and with the old API you can get dispersion (e.g. rainbow) if necessary (although this slows down rendering quite a bit). But if you're looking for a true dedicated simulator, you might want to search for some free / open source light simulation tools.

Otherwise, you might be able to get by with Blender, although in every case (regardless of the software used) I expect there will be some effort to get the desired result.

[Buriedcode]

Although its free and (so I've heard) looked down upon... I started using POVray a few years back after using it for Eagle3D.   Mostly to design LED lumineers.  I dabbled with it for experimenting with backlights/lightpipes but didn't get that far as its not really 'optical software', plus I was used to nice GUI's rather than just creating a scene with raw code.  Somewhat addictive though! 

I'm not sure if there's a modern equivalent or if POVray is sitll going strong.

[kalel]

Although its free and (so I've heard) looked down upon... I started using POVray a few years back after using it for Eagle3D.   Mostly to design LED lumineers.  I dabbled with it for experimenting with backlights/lightpipes but didn't get that far as its not really 'optical software', plus I was used to nice GUI's rather than just creating a scene with raw code.  Somewhat addictive though! 

I'm not sure if there's a modern equivalent or if POVray is sitll going strong.

POVray is nice, although personally I would consider Lux more powerful when it comes to rendering such things. On the other hand, I'm not sure Lux is really integrated into things like Eagle3D, so one way would be to go through something like Blender. Other ways would be more complicated.

[cdev]

It would be cool if somebody would integrate photogrammetry especially using trans-illuminated PCBs into a PCB design program. You could possibly reverse engineer PCBs as well as build a 3D model based on their visual appearance automatically.

[cdev]

Does blender do mechanics or anything of that kind? It does, doesn't it?

[kalel]

Does blender do mechanics or anything of that kind? It does, doesn't it?

I'm not 100% sure what you mean by mechanics, but Blender is not a CAD tool unfortunately. There are tons of extensions, so there might be some which make it more friendly for that usage, but any CAD tool is likely going to be easier.

You could design the stuff in some CAD tool and then rendering it with Blender if the tool doesn't come with great rendering features itself.

[cdev]

There is also a program called solvespace which is free, and looks useful for exploring basic geometry

http://solvespace.com/


FEA = finite element analysis?

[kalel]

Here are some rectangular LEDs (no realistic model, the same as before just with changed Resin shape).
As before, the image is released under Public domain, but this time the resolution is much smaller.

[kalel]

Here's a "connected" version in a 'breadboard', with some strange unmarked resistors, no one knows what's inside but they seem to work. The LED is using a diffused shell.

It's a bit low res as the previous one. This one took about 40 minutes. As all previous ones I've posted in this thread, the image is public domain.

[Cubdriver]

Gotta love acronyms/abbreviations, and how context sensitive they can be - FDM to me is Fused Deposition Modeling (a form of 3D printing).

-Pat

[uwezi]

There is also a program called solvespace which is free, and looks useful for exploring basic geometry

http://solvespace.com/

The Github file of v2.3 was immediately quarantined by Panda AV on my computer!

P.S.: in my case it was the Windows-binary