Difference between revisions of "Diffusing Leds the Fast Way"
From Just in Time
(Created page with "For my Led Cube project I needed diffused (opague) leds. And I didn't have any. On the instructables pages you can find instructions how to sand your leds by hand. There it is...") |
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First step: make a fitting for the led. I used a wood plug. Wood is good, plastic might tear apart or melt sooner. The wood needs to be kinda hard too; after about 50 leds the holes seemed to widen. | First step: make a fitting for the led. I used a wood plug. Wood is good, plastic might tear apart or melt sooner. The wood needs to be kinda hard too; after about 50 leds the holes seemed to widen. | ||
[[File:LedandPlug1.jpg|200px]] | [[File:LedandPlug1.jpg|200px]] | ||
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| + | Second step: drill two holes in the plug using preferably a 0.8mm (or 0.7mm) drill. A PCB drill bit will likely be that size. | ||
| + | [[File:LedPlugHoles.jpg]] | ||
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| + | Third step: saw through the plug, so the led pins can come out of the bottom and the led can sit to the top of the plug tightly | ||
| + | [[File:LedInPlug.jpg]] | ||
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| + | Fourth step: get the power drill and fit the plug in. | ||
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| + | Instead of sanding paper I used a sanding sponge, because that could adjust to the shape of the led very well. It takes about 10 seconds per led to diffuse it. | ||
| + | [[File:DiffusedLed]] | ||
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| + | Here are the diffused result and the clear original compared: | ||
| + | [[File:DiffusedCompared.jpg]] | ||
Revision as of 22:01, 12 May 2013
For my Led Cube project I needed diffused (opague) leds. And I didn't have any. On the instructables pages you can find instructions how to sand your leds by hand. There it is mentioned that it takes about 5 minutes per led. I don't have that kind of time (or patience) to spend 64x 5 minutes. So I went on a 'Home Improvenent' mission to use some power tools to diffuse my leds.
First step: make a fitting for the led. I used a wood plug. Wood is good, plastic might tear apart or melt sooner. The wood needs to be kinda hard too; after about 50 leds the holes seemed to widen.
Second step: drill two holes in the plug using preferably a 0.8mm (or 0.7mm) drill. A PCB drill bit will likely be that size.
Third step: saw through the plug, so the led pins can come out of the bottom and the led can sit to the top of the plug tightly
Fourth step: get the power drill and fit the plug in.
Instead of sanding paper I used a sanding sponge, because that could adjust to the shape of the led very well. It takes about 10 seconds per led to diffuse it.
File:DiffusedLed
Here are the diffused result and the clear original compared:
