Panel mounted row of LEDs

[shrubbery]

I need to mount a row of 10 LEDs (for VU) to a panel and I've been searching for any existing solutions and found nothing.  Do you have any ideas or experience with this?   I'm thinking of just drilling 5mm holes very precisely, putting LEDs on a piece of PCB and just pushing it in but I worry if that's ok.

[GGBB]

very precisely

That will be key.  The closer together they are, the more obvious any misalignment will be.

A section of perf board will do nicely as a spacer.  Every third row leaves you ~2.5mm between each LED.  If you do 3mm LEDs, every other row leaves you ~2mm between each LED.  Another piece of perf temporarily glued to the panel could serve as an effective drilling template.

[R.G.]

Do you have any ideas or experience with this?   I'm thinking of just drilling 5mm holes very precisely, putting LEDs on a piece of PCB and just pushing it in but I worry if that's ok.

I have experience with this. It is OK.

[shrubbery]

Thanks, I'm glad I didn't invent anything new.  Glueing a perfboard is a good idea precision-wise but I have to drill from the outside and it's a painted chassis so that probably wouldn't work out :/

I want to use 5mm as I have enough space, they have better visibility and I think there is higher margin for error so my dumb hands might actually make it work :)

[GGBB]

Glueing a perfboard is a good idea precision-wise but I have to drill from the outside

Clamps?

[shrubbery]

Glueing a perfboard is a good idea precision-wise but I have to drill from the outside

Clamps?

I'll give it a try and see if I can get it steady enough.  Probably get to finish it over the weekend.

[r.mckillop]

Do you have a drill press? My usual technique  usually results in very accurate hole location;
- print out a drill template and attach it to the enclosure with blue painter's tape
- use a spring-loaded center punch to mark the drill points - precision here is key
- drill small pilot holes with the drill press
- drill out to size using a unibit (I often do this with a hand drill).  A couple of drops of machine oil help to keep the bit cool and lubricated, and to a certain extent will also stop the cuttings from flying all over the place.

I usually cover the sides of the enclosure not being drilled with painter's tape to prevent scratches, after you've drilled out the holes there will be metal cuttings everywhere just waiting to scratch up your painted surfaces.

[Processaurus]

It might be handy to use a piece of perfboard or veroboard to make the VU assembly, if you want to be able to get it on and off.  Because the pads are spaced at .010", so you'd use a multiple of that for the space from one LED to the next.





I stuck mine out at a right angle to the LED's so that it could hold the VU LED driver chip circuit, but it could be flat to the LED's if there is more panel space, than depth in the box.

[shrubbery]

Do you have a drill press? My usual technique  usually results in very accurate hole location;
- print out a drill template and attach it to the enclosure with blue painter's tape
- use a spring-loaded center punch to mark the drill points - precision here is key
- drill small pilot holes with the drill press
- drill out to size using a unibit (I often do this with a hand drill).  A couple of drops of machine oil help to keep the bit cool and lubricated, and to a certain extent will also stop the cuttings from flying all over the place.

I usually cover the sides of the enclosure not being drilled with painter's tape to prevent scratches, after you've drilled out the holes there will be metal cuttings everywhere just waiting to scratch up your painted surfaces.

I actually have one available.  It's a really really old drill, I haven't used it.  I might be able to place and position it in a way where I'll be able to drill into the panel and with piece of perfboard on top of the panel it might work well.

It might be handy to use a piece of perfboard or veroboard to make the VU assembly, if you want to be able to get it on and off.

I'll definitely put it on the perfboard.  I don't have it prepared but it should fit vertically, it's a simple circuit with LM3915 and I have whole rack unit at my disposal.

[amptramp]

There is always perforated metal strip:

http://cpc.farnell.com/1/1/99162-perforated-metal-strip-917d2531-mfa.html



A similar plastic material is often used to hold toys in boxes.  The toys (like Tickle me Elmo and others) are held to the box with plasticized wire twist ties that go through plastic perf strips on the backside of the internal cardboard holder.

[Seljer]

Do you have a drill press? My usual technique  usually results in very accurate hole location;
- print out a drill template and attach it to the enclosure with blue painter's tape
- use a spring-loaded center punch to mark the drill points - precision here is key
- drill small pilot holes with the drill press
- drill out to size using a unibit (I often do this with a hand drill).  A couple of drops of machine oil help to keep the bit cool and lubricated, and to a certain extent will also stop the cuttings from flying all over the place.

I usually cover the sides of the enclosure not being drilled with painter's tape to prevent scratches, after you've drilled out the holes there will be metal cuttings everywhere just waiting to scratch up your painted surfaces.

I'd say the center punch is the most critical tool here, started using it a year ago and my drilling accuracy has improved by magnitudes of 10! I'd wager you could get a decent job done just with a ruler (with 0.1 inch increments) and a center punch

[merlinb]

LED bar graph?

[shrubbery]

LED bar graph?

That looks nice.  I like that it would fit vertically (at least some of those I found) but I wouldn't be able to mount it anyway.  And also the colors are supposed to be 7 green and 3 red...  I was actually thinking of using rectangular LEDs but didn't come up with anything viable.