Light Emitting Border tutorial

[Renegadrian]

I'll see if I can make a video with my gf laptop. Glad you liked Rick - I love this pedal!!!

[Jarno]

Haven't seen this tutorial before. For a Neutron build, I need a couple more mm's in the enclosure, this will be just the ticket, and look cool to boot! :-)
I will need to make a perspex ring instead of a complete plate, so I don't think I'll get a away with just a single led.
Now, first to get that damned Neutron to work!

[Renegadrian]

I applied the LED border to my original DOD 308 - now i'ts so cool...

[~arph]

Very nice!

Everytime I see it I think I have to pick it up again.. I still got loads of plexi in the shed. BTW. is there a good way getting around the problem with the screw lenght? anyone know where to get (online) slightly longer screws that fit the hammond boxes?

[Renegadrian]

I've never done this, but rather than messing around with duct tape and stuff, couldn't you just drill your screw holes first, and bolt that sucker together, then trim the sides?

Seems like it would alleviate a step, and make cutting more stable.

This is how I do it BTW...First a rough cut (not paul shortino's band!) and then with a mouse sander to make it F L A T!!!

This last one in fact has come up with a challenge - I didn't want to sand the pedal's sides and take off the original paint.
I ended up covering the sides with tape, so only the plexi was exposed to the sander...But I had to be careful not to go thru the tape...

[Paul Marossy]

I don't think I've come across this thread before. In any case, that looks very cool. But does it make it hard to see the other pedals on your pedal board?

[El Heisenberg]

thats cool! Do you buy the plexiglass in peices like that or you gotta cut it yerself? Ya use water clear LEDs or regular ones?

[Renegadrian]

I am recycling a broken frame of my (now-ex) GF - It has this thin plexi thing instead of glass.
I didn't throw it away, cause I know what to turn it into...As it's thin, I need 3 layers...I rough cut them with a small saw, then place them on the pedal, drill the screw holes and screw the thing down...Then patiently cut all the pieces, starting with some pliers, and then with a mouse sander to get it F L A T to the enclosure sides...

[punkin]

Nice stuff as always Adriano.

[Renegadrian]

Nice stuff as always Adriano.

THX - your avatar pic is so cool, Steph!

[ManCas]

Hello! Thanks a lot for the tutorial!

I wanted to use it as an indicator (on/off) but, as I am using the Mill. Bypass, the light was too weak. So I just wired it up tp remain lit.

Crappy pic:



Cheers

PS: I used just 3 LED's (as you can see), I wonder if using 4 or maybe 6 LED's would look much cooler. Anyway, maybe I'll try that later.

[amptramp]

A long time ago, there used to be "colour organs", devices which separated the audio into three frequency bands and lit up a different colour for each band.  It might be possible to add a biquad filter to separate low-pass, bandpass and hi-pass outputs and three rectifier/filter/current amplifiers to drive RGB LED's.  Try stuffing that plus an effect into a 1590A!

This would give an output that changed in colour and intensity with the notes that were being played.

[electrosonic]

I have a Radio Shack Engineer's Mini-Notebook, Op Amp IC circuits by Forest Mims III. It has a mini color organ schematic which uses a couple of op amps to drive 3 LEDs for lows, mids and highs.

This is way over my head, but how about taking the signal at the diode clippers and sending it into two divide by ten counters (ie divide by 100) and driving an LED with that. A low E (~80Hz) would flash quite slowly, about every 1.25 seconds the high E string at the 12 fret would flash about 6 times a second.
Andrew.

[oliphaunt]

I have a Radio Shack Engineer's Mini-Notebook, Op Amp IC circuits by Forest Mims III. It has a mini color organ schematic which uses a couple of op amps to drive 3 LEDs for lows, mids and highs.

Post it please! 

[Hupla]

Would it be easy to make a cut along the plexi glass and then snap it off and then sand down, instead of cutting it?

[DUY1337GUITAR]

Are the screws that are included with the enclosure long enough to reach from the lid, into the plexi, and into the threaded hole?

[G. Hoffman]

Two thoughts on this - though I've never tried it.  

One, if you need longer screws, and can't find them at your local Ace hardware store (mine is remarkable - the only screws I ever can't find are of really odd lengths, or odd materials, such as aluminum nuts so I can use them for router jigs), you can find just about any screw you can imagine at McMaster-Carr.  They also have the single best search engine I've ever seen on a web site.  Go, type "screws" into their search engine, and be amazed.  It's really cool.

Second, I use a lot of Plexiglass (which is a brand name for acrylic, by the way) for jigs/templates/etc. in my day job.  The best way to cut it is to get it close (I usually use a band saw, which is messy and awful; but score and snap works pretty well too, though it is slow), and then cut it to final size with a flush trim router bit.  The big problem with using a Dremel and cut off bit for this is that so much of the bit is in contact with the material that you will always create a lot of heat (then again, I hate Dremel tools.  The only thing they are good for is filling your dumpster!).  The flush trim router bit will give you a better cut, and less of the bit is in contact with the plastic at any one time so you don't create so much heat, which means little or no melting.  Just make sure you have already trimmed the Plexi kind of close to the box - less than the radius of the bit.  Because of the angle on the edge of the box, it is probably a good idea to put a couple layers of masking tape on the sides of the enclosure so you don't eat away any of the aluminum from the box lid.  That said, don't worry too much if you DO bite into the aluminum a bit - any decent router or laminate trimmer will do fine with a light cut on aluminum - just don't go too deep.  Oh, and as always, make sure you push against the rotation of the router.

Also, it's really easy to polish cut plexi - use a blow torch and melt it a bit!  It works great (seriously - that's the right way to do it.  I'm not making that up or anything.  Nothing else works as well!  Just be careful), but you don't want to polish the edges for this purpose because the light needs the "rough" edge to be visible.  Think of it as being kind of like a rear projection movie screen.  Same basic idea.  If the screen were clear, the image would just shine right through it, and you would call it a window.

Oh, and I'm sorry for being such a wordy bastard.  I'm afraid its genetic.


Gabriel

[Renegadrian]

Are the screws that are included with the enclosure long enough to reach from the lid, into the plexi, and into the threaded hole?

I made a couple pedals with the border - they are 3mm high and I used the same screws.
If you want a higher border, you have to use longer screws.

[G. Hoffman]

I just found some Knightbright right angle SMD LED's that might make for better distribution.  The big problem you are likely to have here (this is the former lighting designer in me speaking) is that LED's typically have a very narrow focus for their light output.  Even the "wide angle" LEDs fall off a lot when you get even a little off axis.  They are getting better, but they are still a problem.  By pointing, say, 4 right angle LEDs towards the edges you are trying to light, you will probably be able to get away with a much lower brightness LED.  Ask me again in a week - I've got some parts on the way.


Gabriel

[DUY1337GUITAR]

Alright, thanks for the reply.  I think a 3mm border would work, my friend's wanting me to build a Dr. Boogey for him.  This is going to be fun