Close

The illusion of diffusion

A project log for Hack-Man SAO

A Pac-Man themed SAO using an obscure but cheap microcontroller

instantarcade-bobInstantArcade (Bob) 10/08/2024 at 22:582 Comments

Since the SK6805 RGB LEDs are side-firing, they don't emit much light through the PCB, leaving a lackluster showing.

My first attempt at diffusion was to laser-cut some clear acrylic in the outlines of the shapes to act as a kind of light pipe in the hope that helped. The result was barely imperceptible.

I roughed up the back of the acrylic in the hope that would bounce more light through the front, but the majority of the light still was strongest at the edges.

Next I tried 3D printing a frame and adding reflective material to the back to help bounce the light through. This worked okay, but logistically it's a bunch of extra fiddly work and I still hadn't come up with a good way of fixing it to the PCB.

Finally I tried some hot glue, and it made the biggest difference for the least amount of work. It's a bit messy, but it works, and it's on the back where no-one is looking :)

Discussions

InstantArcade (Bob) wrote 10/11/2024 at 18:41 point

I think there are better ways, but it's hard to beat the price/performance/simplicity of hot glue.

  Are you sure? yes | no

Tom Nardi wrote 10/11/2024 at 18:08 point

Went down a similar path for my Soma FM badge, and ultimately, hot glue is what I ended up using as well. Pretty remarkable how well it works, plus it's cheap. 

https://hackaday.io/project/196876-somafm-badge

  Are you sure? yes | no