LED Light Plate

[DSpenceATL]

Ok so I’be scoured the corners of the internet, and whilst I’ve found a good bit of discussion and some videos surrounding LED light plates, I have yet to see a comprehensive guide on how to make them work.

I have a light plate a friend installed on a circulator, and I have the Chuck D. bones throb LED which I would like to illuminate it.

I have drilled a hole in the center of the light plate, but when I put the LED in it and close it up, it’s barely visible. I’ve tried sanding the top and sides of the LED to make it opaque, but saw no real difference.

What am I missing here?

 

[Bricksnbeatles]

How bright does the LED get at most? If it’s still dim enough that you can comfortably look at it head on, then it probably isn’t bright enough for the light plate. In my experience you need a pretty strong brightness for a light plate.

Also, what size is the enclosure? If it’s 1590BB or larger you’ll probably want at least two LEDs

 

[phi1]

I’m able to do a 1590bb reasonably well with one of these green leds in the center, with a 1k clr. I think the diffuse plastic is key, and also these are a lot brighter than the green ones from Tayda. Not sure about the other leds from the same maker, might be similar.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B01C3ZZTB4?psc=1&ref=ppx_pop_mob_b_asin_title

 

[DSpenceATL]

How bright does the LED get at most? If it’s still dim enough that you can comfortably look at it head on, then it probably isn’t bright enough for the light plate. In my experience you need a pretty strong brightness for a light plate.

Also, what size is the enclosure? If it’s 1590BB or larger you’ll probably want at least two LEDs

That could be the issue, then. It isn’t terribly bright even though it’s a water clear super bright from Tayda. I have it installed per the instructions laid out on Chuck’s circulator mod thread. Wonder if I need to change something to make it brighter, or try to find an even brighter LED.

It’s all housed in a 125b, so I thought one LED should do the trick.

 

[DSpenceATL]

I’m able to do a 1590bb reasonably well with one of these green leds in the center, with a 1k clr. I think the diffuse plastic is key, and also these are a lot brighter than the green ones from Tayda. Not sure about the other leds from the same maker, might be similar.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B01C3ZZTB4?psc=1&ref=ppx_pop_mob_b_asin_title

I’ll try one of those. Found a multi-pack of different colors which has the pink LED I need, should be here tomorrow. Fingers crossed!

 

[Paradox916]

I’m have found there are some draw backs to light plates, depending on what you want and are trying to do, to really make them impressive or do tricky kind of stuff especially in a room with more than just ambient light. It requires more than just one. And even though LEDs are efficient sometimes tacking on a few more LEDs really adds up on the MA draw of a pedal and can cause issues that f you aren’t running a decent power supply (it all adds up quicker than you would think) and although you can do some cool visual effects with them (and trust me I love that shit!) it can In Certain cases come at a cost that degrades the operation of the pedal. And you eventually don’t even pay attention to your light show anymore. I’m not trying to discourage you from doing it just trying to give you a heads up of possible out comes.

Here are a couple of projects I have done to give you some inspiration

Muzzle.... with all the bells and whistles

So I finally finished this one... had to make it special... made the range switch external, bi color (green/red) illuminated stomp and the gating indicator in the light plate (inspired by @Stickman393 parasite build) and help with the graphics from @SillyOctpuss

forum.pedalpcb.com

Dwarven Hammer

Finished up a Dwarven hammer for a friend..(but I want to keep it...) with help from @Chuck D. Bones making the blinking lights work( that was all Chuck I was banging my head on the table trying to figure it out) and the green LED swap for the 1n4148 clipping diodes (makes the pedal way more...

forum.pedalpcb.com