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LED Diffusion Ideas


Hutt-trooper

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So I'm coming towards the end of many (many) hours of sanding a print of Germain's awesome F-11D and am working on the electronics.

 

I'm looking at how to light the red panels in the magazine and hengstler counter.

 

One mystery is how the Lucasfilm wizards manage to make red 'star wars' lights appear as a single, solid red panel - and not have the appearance of a bright LED that is visible behind a red panel? I've tried a number of 'diffusing' plastic sheets to try and make this work, and they still show the single bright light source inside the cavity and not a solid bright panel as in the movies.

 

Can people share what they've done (if they've bothered to avoid the problem I'm looking at)?

 

I've tried EL Sheets on an earlier Nerf conversion - and while they provide the solid block of red light I'm looking for, they don't have the brightness.

 

I've heard about using glue sticks? But not sure exactly how that works?

 

There must some solutions to this...

 

Thanks

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What I did was use clear red acrylic 3mm thick, on one end grind a slot big enough so the led will fit in then hot glue in place. On one of the flat sides I glued chrome decal sheet I had from another project, (I presume tinfoil would also work), this helps to reflect the light outwards and illuminates the red acrylic, you can’t see the led as it’s hidden on the end. 

 

You can can see the diffusion in my first F-11D video:

 

 

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8 hours ago, gmrhodes13 said:

What I did was use clear red acrylic 3mm thick, on one end grind a slot big enough so the led will fit in then hot glue in place. On one of the flat sides I glued chrome decal sheet I had from another project, (I presume tinfoil would also work), this helps to reflect the light outwards and illuminates the red acrylic, you can’t see the led as it’s hidden on the end. 

 

You can can see the diffusion in my first F-11D video:

 

 

Thanks. That seems like it works well.

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  • 2 years later...

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