Diffusing a diy RGB LED?
rwgast_logicdesign
Posts: 1,464
So I was going through a book and some of the exercises called for an rgb led which I dont have I figured I could take a red green and blue led and then solder the ground togather encase it and put a diffuser over the top, problem solved. The thing doesnt need to be perfect but i need to be able to make it mix the RGB colors to make new colors so I was wondering if there may be a good house hold material for this?
Comments
You didn't say whether you want the colors mixed when illuminating a surface or when you are looking directly at the LEDs. The latter requires more diffusion than the former which, in fact, may require no diffusion at all, depending upon the angular output of the LEDs.
But, yeah, wax paper is good. A piece cut out of a gallon milk jug might also work, as might white tissue paper or half of a ping pong ball. BTW, multiple thin layers of diffusive material spaced apart work better than one thick layer for the same transmissivity.
-Phil
Here are a few more materials you could try.
Polymorph or a piece of clear plastic with sanded surfaces.
(I've only tried grinding the dome off myself (I think I learned it from one of JonnyMac's articles).)
BTW, even if the three colors are all in the same LED doesn't guarantee the colors will be well mixed.
Or, cut a small portion of a glue stick, and then make a hole, allowing the LED to be fit inside. That thing makes a primitive diffuser, but it works.
-Phil
I generally run RGB LEDs at 5V since some of the blue & green LEDs have a forward voltage very close to 3.3V.
With 20mA LEDs (at 5V) I usually use 150 ohm resistors on the red LED with 100 ohms for the blue and green.
As Phil mentioned the individual PWM values can be changed in software to get a good looking white.
With my 8x8 array I used $FF, $CF and $3F for the RGB values to make white.
(Your posts can be difficult to read with all the typos.)
+1, generally incl. no caps or punctuation.
The non-destructive options should be the first considered.
But he needs the result to be diffuse, not the LEDs (separate R, G, and .
The part about a bomb was a joke.....
The ultimate goal is to take a concentrated light source and spread it out over a larger area, correct ? Cutting a straw up in to peaces and putting each led into one, and putting a bead of superglue over the top will do just that.
Piece out.
My bad, I missed the part about him wanting to consolidate them into a single housing/bulb.
Well buy a straw in a larger diameter....
http://www.brianmicklethwait.com/images/uploads/DrinkingStraws.jpg
Can you ellaborate a little on how to code this using a BS2 stamp? I would like to try it out on a few different colors of LED's.
I'm not really sure how to do this with a BS2.
I'm not sure if my syntax is correct or not. I'd think you'd use something like this:
I added one to each of the brightness values to get to work out correctly (I think).
I don't know if the BS2 if fast enough to keep the LEDs from looking like they are blinking.
Sure it is: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iDXY6l7IxJ8