I am working on a lighting mod for my case. I am going to be putting some acrylic rod (frosted finish) behind the front panel grill. I am going to put some 5500mcd LEDs at each end of the rod, to cause it to glow. Here's the problem. The rod, is .25" in diameter. The LEDs are 5mm LEDs, or, if you don't want to do metric to US conversions, close enough to .2" in diameter to make no difference. My original plan was to drill out the ends of the rod, and glue the LEDs in (probably with Elmers white glue) Obviously, I will not have enough material around the LED for this method. So here are what I see as my options: 1) I can "dish out" the ends of the rod, so that the dome of the LED fits reasonably well, and use heatshrink or such to hold it together. 2) I can file the tops of the LEDs flat, and smooth the ends of the rod, and again use heatshrink or such to hold them together. Anyone have any better ideas? Thanks, Jason A.
or go the ghetto method and just put the LED at the end of the rod and just tape it together, the viewing angle of the LED should be quite enough to put alot of light into the rod
Grab a hot glue gun and hot glue those buggers to the end of the rod. I like your idea about making a little hole for the top of the led, but seems like a bit of work.
I would do a little of both 1 and 2, and use hot glue. Just put a glob on one end, and push the LED into it... It should stay.
um. elmers WHITE glue is not totally transparent =P so that would not be a good choice dude =P i would go with the hot glue method, take a drillbit that is .2" (5mm) and drill out a little dome like you suggested, add a drop of hot glue, then shrinkwrap it together. this way. NOTHING will break when you least expect it to. and it will keep almost ALL of the light in... if you wanted to be even BETTER, surround the LED+hot glue with aluminum foil- THEN add the heatshrink. that will reflect almost all the light thru the rod yea. dont use elmers for ANY casemods.
Yeah, just to see what it would look like, I held the rod up to the top of one of the LEDs, which I have on a project board. It didn't seem to light too far up the rod, but then again, I just measured, and I'm only going to have about 8-9" total length of rod. About 7" will be running veritcally, then I'm going to have a 90d bend at the top and bottom, so that the LEDs and wiring are hidden behind the non-grill portions of the front. I'm thinking I may go with filing down the tops of the LEDs, only because I want to get as much light into the acrylic as possible. With 4 LEDs total, I can give it a try with one, see if it works out better, and if not, I won't have lost too much, as I will still be able to use the LED... Thanks, Jason A.
Well easiest solution is to go pick up some 3mm LEDs. I emailed LSDiodes.com about their 3mm page being buggy and it looks fixed now But yeah, drill a tiny bit bigger than the LED and hot glue. Or if you don't think that's enough hold maybe some clear epoxy (the kind I usually use dries yellowish). For even more glow, sand down the outside to help diffuse the light, and maybe even drill a very small hole down the length of the rod and try to sand that too (somehow...)
Well, the rod itself is already frosted on the outside, and doesn't need to be sanded. As far as going with 3mm diodes, I got greedy, and really liked the 5500mcd 5mms I found on superbrightleds.com I just looked at the 3mm blues on lsdiodes, average mcd is 4000, max is 5500. The ones I picked up are average 5500mcd. Probably not a whole lot of difference, but what the heck. Thanks! Jason A.
Well max means if you run them at full power... and in all reality either one is blindingly bright (or spots for a few minutes afterwards, trust me)
Yeah, that's why I kinda wish now I had maybe gotten the 3mms, but at this point, I've spent the $$, and my wife would have a fit if I told her I bought the "wrong" LEDs, and was going to buy new ones... Jason A.
drill a hole in the side of the rod not the bottom and use krazyglue as it holds better and it a bit clearer
The only problem I can potentially see with this method is that the LEDs viewing angle is fairly narrow (15d), and I would think that will create a "hot spot" without much light going down the rest of the rod. As I have two 3' peices of acrylic, I am planning to experiment some, such as creating a "ladder" of acrylic, to get some horizontal bars to light up. Not sure how this will work out, but should be worth a try. Thanks, Jason A.
best way I can think of to attach leds to those rods is some E6000 Adhesive. The stuff dries clear and is hard as concrete. Try googling for some. Definitely a good investment for any modder! And never never never never never never never never never never never use white elmers glue on a mod. That is asking for trouble!
i'm guessing elmers wouldn't be as strong as hot glue then? ps cogitoergosum you've got 30 posts per day!? man that's a lot...
supposed to be working but the boss skipped out and locked me outta the supply room. Kinda hard to fix compuiters without parts! So i figured, I might as well have some fun on my favorite forum!
this is my summer vacation. I work for my school. lol. I get paid to play with computers and have a t1 internet connection. lmao.
hehe. I am so happy. Except now I have to do something. My boss wants me to hook a laptop to the network and *gasp and sigh* its windows 98. Why me!?!
