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Creating larger light bars/letters/symbols with Leds/Bulbs
MK14:
Creating larger light bars/letters/symbols with Leds/Bulbs
From a hobbyist point of view. How do you make Leds (and sometimes bulbs if very retro), light up entire bars/symbols/letters/digits etc. Approx 3 inches by 3 inches, per char/digit/symbol/sign/shape/arrow/square.
I 'almost' know how to do it. You sort of use light guiding plastic/glass/transparent-materials, tubes or half-tubes, possibly hollow.
The effect I'm talking about is the method that most led seven segment displays use to cause the (approximately), 3 tiny individual leds, per segment. To light up in a bar effect, where the individual leds are blurred/merged together.
I want to know, so that I can potentially make things (which can be read/seen at, e.g. 2 metres away) such as, very large seven segment displays, made out of 5 or 10mm, standard Leds.
Hence things like 'EXIT' signs (only for fun, not for serious use), old arcade like machines, massive Led (7 segment) clocks, large traffic light (or similar) things. Etc etc.
I know you can do a similar thing, by using many Leds, close together in a dot pattern and/or make/use 5x7 Led matrix character arrays, with a suitable number of characters. To do a similar thing.
BUT I don't want (or like the look of), the 'dotty'/pixelated way that looks. I find it, partly unpleasant.
I want the nice smooth look of a diffused light filter filtered.
My google searches, unfortunately failed me. I just kept on finding lots of Led lighting things, rather than what I wanted.
Also, I want to know what to buy and/or how to make these things.
This is an example of what I want. Each of the 4 characters, could be turned on and off, by its own Led. Having multiple Leds, per character, is fine. As long as it looks smooth, like this:
This is an example of what I DON'T WANT, because it looks all pixelated, and dotty:
themadhippy:
one way is to use a diffusion filter,no need for anything fancy like rosco119 ,tracing paper and tissue paper both work.
MK14:
--- Quote from: themadhippy on June 04, 2020, 02:21:01 am ---one way is to use a diffusion filter,no need for anything fancy like rosco119 ,tracing paper and tissue paper both work.
--- End quote ---
Thanks.
That sounds good, easy, quick and cheap.
Leds are (relatively) very cheap now, so having lots is not a problem. The large square ones (approx 1 cm square), on a PCB, with the appropriate symbol (made by a pattern of Leds, e.g. 20 of them) on it. Then the tracing paper (or similar), should be good.
Ian.M:
I would suggest two diffusers, physically separated, preferably by a similar distance to the spacing of the light sources, with light-tight barriers between segments. The rear diffuser evens out the illumination patterns of the light sources over the segment, and the front diffuser acts as rear-illuminated screen. Its possible to use a single thick diffuser (e.g. poured resin lightly loaded with colloidal silica) but some experimentation will be required to get the required effect.
MK14:
That makes sense. I intend to play with that idea (I can try 1, and then 2 diffusing layers, possibly using cut up plastic sheet, around 3 mm thick, with tracing paper on both sides), and see how it looks.
So, it is as simple as the frosting inside the glass of the old tungsten filament bulbs, or modern white semi-transparent plastic Led mains bulbs. Somehow, I got it into my head, that it needed some kind of light conducting tube, shaped to make the symbols or effects you needed.
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