How to light a piece of acrylic using leds?

[Gabriel Simoes]

Hello diyers,
I had an ideia (that probably a lot of people here already had too, so maybe thats why you could help me) of using a small piece of acrylic, like 2mm thick, in the top of the metal box and try to light it with leds ... but since the acrylic is almost transparent and the leds light go in only in direction (top) I can not get the effect I've been trying for some time...
Is there a way of doing this ? I know that there must be a way of using the box as a mirror to reflect part of the light to the acrylic again ... so ... could you help me developing this idea ?
Thanks for your help
Gabriel

[sir_modulus]

Try putting the led's inside the acrylic...aka parallel to the sheet (on the edges)

Cheers,

Nish

[The Tone God]

It sounds like you want to do something called "edge lighting". This involves sending light through the length of the clear material as opposed to through the material.

There are few ways of doing this. One is to set the light source on one side of the material and have it shoot through the length coming out the other end. If you etch anything into the surface it will be emphized.

Another method is to light from the inside, preferabily from the center, using a diffuse light source to "spray" all of the ends of the material.

Yet another way is to not use a clear material but a material that is itself diffuse for example a material with a reflector system built in or fine ground edges that will grab light from many directions and output it.

Some of these methods will alter the abilty to view through the material. Some will just be tricky to get just right. It for these reasons that they are not used often in pedals or other types of industrys.

Andrew

[MjS]

Take a look at Zvex' iMPAMP, think he's using what Tone God describes. Looks really cool!

[zachary vex]

light acrylic on edge.

[Paul Perry (Frostwave)]

I think the theory behind edge lighting, is "total internal reflection', that i to say, the light is travelling in the sheet at such a low angle to the surface, tht it is totally internally reflected & you dont see anything, except where the surface is roughened or cut.