Light Emitting Border tutorial

[Renegadrian]

old iphone 4 for a light border?! man, would he give you his girlfriend if you ever build him a whole pedal?! 

[Psychotronic]

Alright, I'm a n00b when it comes to this stuff, but I'm giving it a try. I lowered the value of the CLR for the existing LED to 1k, but it's still not bright enough, and I'm using a high brightness water-clear 5mm orange LED. I haven't sanded the LED because I'm not exactly sure how to do that. How exactly do I sand, which part do I sand, which part do I NOT sand? Thanks.

[deadastronaut]

hi psycho....and welcome!.

heres what i did, sand the top of the led flat...but not right down to the inner bits ok.....and sand the sides this spreads the light better..

try dropping your led resistor as low as possible...maybe 470r/ even 220r....

[Psychotronic]

Sand the top FLAT! Wow, ok, I'll give it a shot. And I'll lower the CLR again. Thanks!

[Psychotronic]

Hmm...an interesting result, and not what you'd expect: I had the CLR @ 1k, and the LED would blink until the rate knob was at either min or max, then it would stay lit. Turning the pedal off and then on would reset it.

Lowered the CLR to 100k, and the LED would not work at all.

Raised the CLR to 680k, and the LED would flash very brightly for a split-second, then stay lit.

Please note that this is a BYOC trem whose LED is set to blink along with the trem rate.

[pedaljunkie]

Hey guys, I'm fairly new here as well, and I've read through this a couple times now and my only question is this...  are you wiring the LED for the plexi to the 3PDT switch?   (if you want to use it to show on/bypass)  If so, could someone post a typical wiring diagram with the added LED wiring for the plexi?  (I know there are quite a few ways to wire a switch)  It would be tremendously helpful.


Thanks

[deadastronaut]

hi and welcome...

you can either wire to switch as in a normal on/off indicator..but on base...

http://gaussmarkov.net/wordpress/thoughts/wiring-up-a-1590b/

or wire switch with led as normal and wire another led for the base which will be on all the time too...9v> resistor>led+..led -  to ground...

[pedaljunkie]

Cool!  thanks for the link.  really helpful in deciphering different 3PDT wirings.  Also, thanks for clarifying the different ways to hook up the base/plexi LED.

Last question.  I am wondering if possible/how to hook up a bi-color LED (3 leg) so that the light base is wired constantly on (when pedal is bypassed (lets say RED) until switching the effect on in which case it would change colors to say green. 

Do able?

[deadastronaut]

bi colour leds are not bright enough imo..well the ones i have anyway...


you could do this though!...

have your base led (say green) on all the time...

and wire 2 other colour leds for your on/off in series...but lowering the resistor too...(around 220r maybe - experiment)..and having one led on top...and one in the base too...

thats what i would do, the choice of the 'blended' base colours is up to you....try them out first..

you could have green near the front, blue at the back...of the base..

green is always brightest imo.....
http://www.diystompboxes.com/smfforum/index.php?topic=66840.msg741130#msg741130

[pedaljunkie]

Thanks again!  So many ideas to try!  Your pedals in the video and pictures look killer!  I like the additive LED color idea... maybe bright white for always on and green to blend in once the effect is on!  Pretty cool! 

So if I have this right...  I would wire the on/off LEDs in series with ONLY 1  current limiting resistor (lowered value for both LEDs) .  Now the link you showed me has the CLR on the LED's cathode connecting to lug 4 of the switch... other diagrams show the CLR on the anode of the LED between it and the 9V jack lug.  Is one way better than the other?  Seems like the cathode approach is more popular... or I read a diagram wrong!   

[deadastronaut]

cool idea white, then colour blend..nice..

yep 1 resistor for 2 leds in series...breadboard the leds with a resistor to find a good brightness on 9v...

resistor can go on either, but i prefer to put it on the positive side for protection....    

[pedaljunkie]

I used a few of the light boards on sale in the store here and they worked very well!  I loved the results!  Does anyone know if the store will be selling the larger sized 1590BB boards anymore?

[The Tone God]

We have gotten a few emails about these. For the record we will make them as long as people want them. They will not be discontinued anytime soon so no one should fear. As for out of stock you can always send Aron a polite email or a message in the "Store" forum poking him for more.

Andrew

[pedaljunkie]

Thanks Andrew!  Much appreciated!

[chromesphere]

I recently made a light plate and used dead astronauts "sound to light" board which looks pretty cool, the border flashing with the output of the delay.

I'm going to do a video tutorial on building a lightplate at some stage. Its not rocket science but there are a few tips i could share.  Might save you breaking 3 plates like i did lol.  I've made one with the backplate and one without (this one).  I left the backplate off this one to give it a sort of "PC Modding" look

Heres a couple of videos of the build. Hope you like.

Paul

Build Report:

Sound Demo:

[kato]

Thanks Chromes, I get a lot out of your tutorials so I appreciate all the work you put into them.

I'm adding this to the long list of things to try, along with etching an enclosure, etc...

[chromesphere]

No problem Kato, glad you liked it!  I reckon the light border would look pretty cool on a tremolo or phaser with LFO led's etc as well.
Paul

[rockhorst]

Question: I just got a 3mm plexi plate in the shape of a wah shell. It has four holes evenly spaced down the center line (I was guessing, hoping this would be a good configuration). I sanded down the sides of a blue LED (since they tend to be the brightest anyway) but that didn't really do anything. Neither did sanding the top flat. Most of the light is still directed forward. There is of course some light coming out of the sides, but it's not really a 'light emitting border', more like a simmer .

Suggestions? Lights around the rim instead of hoping to trap it from the center of the plate? Some other LED configuration? Should the plexi sides be smooth or is diffuse/sanded better?

Edit: just tried it with the bottom plate on, hoping for some reflections, but that didn't improve it much (a little though).

[deadastronaut]

go for diffused...light sanding should be better..

[rockhorst]

I'm trying to get this to work and have been re-reading the first few pages for a few times now...I still don't get the sanding of the LED part. I've tried it with bright blue LEDs but it hardly matters. The light produced by the LED is aimed full forward and not much strays off to the sides. So how will sanding the outside of the LED help produce more light along the edges? Just doesn't make sense to me at the moment...