I'm trying desperately to re-create the luminous panel as seen in the floor of several Murderbox builds. I've searched high and wide for the perfect way to do this, but with no real luck so far. Let me start by throwing in some references. Have a look at these 3 MurderBox builds: http://www.million-dollar-pc.com/systems-2011/murderbox-mk2/murderbox-mk2.htm http://www.million-dollar-pc.com/systems-2009/murderbox/008/murderbox.htm http://www.million-dollar-pc.com/systems-2009/murderbox/009/murderbox.htm Now, Charles Harwood had a worklog going for Murderbox 008, where he explained very briefly how he created that sLight panel (http://forums.bit-tech.net/showpost.php?p=2054609&postcount=10), but not really giving away his secret, as he planned to make money off selling it as a custom panel for TJ07 builds. In that worklog, Charles somewhere says this about the sLight panel: "After extensive design and prototyping, we feel we’ve nailed it. Although the light panel looks very simple, there’s actually much more to it than meets the eye. There’s a special material within the outer box that provides the diffusion. Essentially, the outer surface is for looks; oh and to keep the highly toxic "light emitting" chemicals contained safely within which is why nobody should ever attempt to take one apart! Doing so may result in impotence or in some cases, an erection lasting longer than 4 hours." "Special material", he says. I wonder what that could be? Also, in some of those pics it doesn't really spread the light THAT evenly, especially not when the sLight panel isn't installed in the TJ07. Once in the TJ07, it looks fine. But, I'm wondering if there's some kind of "foul play" going on here? Perhaps over-exposing the photo, making it appear as if the light spreads much better than it actually does in real life? In some of those photos it really looks like "just" a LED strip or a CCFL under that dark piece, lighting up the white acrylic. But how? Does anyone here have a sLight panel and could tell me a bit more about it? Continuing with oliver92, who was going to try lighting up a piece of white acrylic using electroluminescent panel (see http://hardforum.com/showpost.php?p=1035597394&postcount=36 and http://hardforum.com/showpost.php?p=1035623569&postcount=74), but he gave up eventually, as he couldn't perfect it. To me it DOES look too blue-ish and not very powerful, so maybe EL panels aren't the way to go either? Now, if you're on Facebook and member of the MNPCTech group, you might recently have noticed this DIY luminous panel by japan-based casemodder "Iren Modz": Iren Modz says he used a layer of plain see-through acrylic, a piece of cardboard (I assume that he means plain, ordinary inkjet paper) and "milky white" acrylic. Now, I've also tried that method - made all possible combinations of those 3 layers, but couldn't make that work, either... Also, have a look at this worklog by Kier: http://forums.bit-tech.net/showpost.php?p=2958362&postcount=58 He uses white acrylic with CCFLs below. Looks like he's raising the acrylic up a bit, making some distance between the light sources and the acrylics - this certainly helps spreading the light better, but I could not produce anything that was even close to what he made there... Now, to show you that I've actually TRIED and is not just talking theory here, I've made some shots of my various attempts. In the first one here you see how I place the white acrylic over 2 white CCFLs: This clearly doesn't produce the sought after result, as the CCFL's are easy to spot AND the light doesn't spread out evenly into the acrylic plate. Lifting up the acrylic makes the light spread better, but the intensity is waaaaay too low now: Then I tried to light up the acrylic from the side - but, as you can see, the light doesn't travel very far: I also tried this with a LED strip that is much more powerful than those CCFLs, but still the result is not good: If you look at the edges, almost no light is seen at the opposite end - almost all of it is being stopped before it reaches the end: I then tried with something called "Opal" acrylic - it's foggy/hazy acrylics that allows a certain amount of light to pass. In this case it's approximately 78 percent: As you can see, it's still very possible to see the light sources - raising the piece did help, but it's not lit up brightly at all, and the result is far, far away from what I would like to achieve: Another thing about the opal acrylic is that you can slightly see through it at all times - this means that if you put it up against e.g. a black wall, it will get considerably darker. Not really what I want, since I want a white surface when it's not lit up... Lighting up the edges of the opal acrylic produces a slightly better result than what was the case with the white acrylic - but it's still very far from good enough: Then, I started experimenting with what Iren Modz had told me - I put a piece of clear acrylic in the bottom, then a piece of regular white inkjet paper to spread the light and finally a piece of white acrylic on top - all lit of from below using a single white CCFL. As you can see almost NO light is allowed to pass - clearly not what I wanted: I'm starting to think that I simply purchased the wrong kind of acrylic - most kinds here in Denmark are the extruded kind. Meaning that for creating acrylic plates, the hot acrylic mass is being pushed through a die that shapes the acrylic into plates (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plastics_extrusion). The light apparently spreads differently in acrylic plates of this kind, depending on the direction it was pushed through the die. The other way to produce acrylic plates is by casting them - see this article for the differences between extruded and cast acrylics: http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-acrylic.htm The cast acrylics should spread light much better, so maybe I'm simply using the wrong kind of acrylics?
Update: Just been talking to my brother-in-law, who works as an engraver. He told me to produce a pattern in a piece of clear acrylic and then use that pattern as backlight for a piece of white acrylic. The pattern should be milled using a 45-degree bit to break the light perfectly and send it straight upwards through the white acrylic. Interesting idea - and see what I also found just now: http://hardforum.com/showpost.php?p=1037798933&postcount=9 (full thread here: http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1638812). I'm going to try that method with the 45-degrees lines in a square pattern. Just wondering how small I should make this pattern, but we'll see. Still, I'd like other suggestions if you got some!
OMG - massive breakthrough after I posted this thread - rather typical, though. I had been looking for weeks without any luck, and as soon as I posted this thread, I came across a thread where several people explain how it can be done. Have a look at Genny's solution in this thread: http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1638812&page=2 And then have a look at the AWESOME project that Fraze made: http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1655149 That luminous panel with a water channel inside is frikkin' genious!!!
Seems like all succesful attempts so far have been made by using CAST acrylics - NOT extruded acrylics.
I put something like this together for a friend a few months back for a mod he was doing. The key to this is refraction of light. When you engrave a window, the engraving catches the light and makes just that piece glow while the rest of the light passes through the window. Same concept with the engraved acrylic; the light is caught by the engraved bit and is then diffused. The white acrylic diffuses the checkerboard across its entire surface, thus glowing panel. For a more dramatic effect, nix the card stock for mirrored acrylic. Paper or tape will absorb the light, whereas a mirrored acrylic will bounce it back. Bind the edges with something opaque (I used electricians tape, but vinyl will work as well if you have any lying about), and it should be beautiful. Remember to share your results!
So, engraved mirrored acrylic with opaque material masking the edges will work much better that engraved regular acrylics with a white background and masked edges?
You generally need a 1:1 ratio between the distance between the light sources and the distance to the diffuser. This will generally give you an even effect with any opal or frosted material.
You considered an EL panel to give you a strong solid large surface of light, rather than using ccfl's? Just a search on fleabay, not looked anywhere else though. I was tempted a few years back to do something like your above shots with a logo glowing at the bottom of my case, never happened. http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/A4-EL-Panel-200micron-thin-Lightbox-Backlight-Flats-/160716614342?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item256b74eac6
I too have been looking at how to install a mod like this in a new rig I am planning. I recently found this thread. http://www.overclock.net/t/1187138/banthracis-led-acrylic-lighting-testing-murdermod-luminous-panel-analysis
Here's a link to a mod I made in a HAF 932. The luminous panel is indeed cast acrylic. The difference in price between cast and extruded is minimal. This video's kind of long, but is broken up with some excellent bots: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=poUqSbmd0Ms&feature=youtu.be Lighting is by way of an SMD LED strip -- already set up to take 12 volts -- no messing with nasty resistors. Couldn't have been any easier. I left quite a long write-up in the video. Let me know if you have any questions. Best, Paul
I don't know why more people have never found this: Heres the tread by the guys who made the Murdermod panels and how to make them. http://www.hardwareluxx.de/community/f141/rund-um-das-slight-701766.html Use google translate to translate it and read the whole thread start to finish, it will take about and hour but is 100% worth it. Heres where to buy the cast arcylic TruLED and the SatinIce http://www.plexiglas-shop.com/IE/en/sheet/plexiglas-gs-allround-4aql41br8z4.html http://www.plexiglas-shop.com/IE/en/sheet/plexiglas-satinice-d3k0ydk22v3.html http://www.plexiglas-shop.com/IE/en/sheet/plexiglas-truled-hrikze7jsb4.html
Great video, Paul. I was wondering how thick that cast acrylic is? And is it opal? How much light does it let through? Did you do something to it do make it glow more? Oh, and the SMD LED strip: where is it mounted? On the back panel? How thick is that strip? Surely a 8 mm. strip wouldn't fit under that mobo, or would it? Did you raise the mobo somehow to make room for the acrylics and the SMD LED strip?
Hey JayGannon. Welcome to Bit-tech. Your 1st post was a reply to my thread? I'm honoured! And since it was such a great reply, here's some rep for you!
Thanks Nutman. The acrylic panel is 3/16" (5mm). Mobo standdoffs are 6mm, so no height shift was required. The acrylic panel was lightly sanded on its face and edge to diffuse the light and enable the face to glow. If the face wasn't sanded or otherwise roughed up (a laser-etched grid would do the same), the effect would be a sharply defined edge light only. Which also is a nice effect, by the way, just not the effect I was after. All the best, Paul
Have been playing around with my acrylic over the weekend and am in the same boat - couldnt get an even spread over a sufficient surface with one sided edgelighting using cast clear with a roughend surface. Last night I emailed several laser engravers to enquire on pricing for a sheet of 205*600mm 8mm acrylic with a 3 or 4mm engraved crosshatch pattern. One of the Companys concerned came back and asked if this was for an edgelit light panel. Turns out they have a plexi panel which needs no modification to achieve an even light distribution: - LINK This is a direct link to the PDF technical sheet. Page 6 - product is S-Lux. Coated with a bead of some sort apparently. Cost me £16 for a 205mm*600mm sheet. Considerably cheaper than a similar sized clear cast acrylic and then getting it laser engraved. Should be with me tomorrow so will report back and get some piccies up. The D-Lux product is apparently double coated for bigger surface areas but the chap assured me for the size of my panel the S-Lux would be more than sufficient. From bayplastics.co.uk - but you need to call them as this isnt listed on their online shop. Cant wait to test it tomorrow!
