DIY Illuminated Name letters

Excellent thread Pete ,as I've said earlier, thanks for taking the time and trouble to research and report all this.

Just a thought.....If Yachtlite are the accepted experts in this would it perhaps be worth ordering 1 letter or number from them and dissecting that when it arrives to see exactly what their tech and method of manufacture is ?

Am sure you'll get there anyway with an excellent end product though.
 
I'm going to order some of the flexible LEDs that I linked to above. They have less LEDs per metre but are still 1300l/m (they're 2835s and way brighter than 3528s and 5050s). We should be able to properly scrunch them up and in particular around the apex of the A.
 
Scrunchable tape now ordered. Supplier contacting manufacturer to see if they can supply without backing tape. My mate has resoldered using 0.5mm two core wire with better results. Our plan is to use this gauge for the tails but we need something thinner for the internal joins. Incidentally, the wire is stranded which we think is making soldering harder. Is there a subtlety in terminology between wire and cable? Is one single core and the other stranded?
 
Looking at your pics you have obviously stopped at least 1cm short on the top of the A so that the cross bar of the A aligns with a junction with the led strip on the sides of the A. Could you not nave moved up the strip higher in the channels so they met much nearer the top then using fine wire and good soldering still have managed to link up the cross bar even if you had to enlarge the channel width to accommodate the wires by a couple of mm.
 
Going back to the stabilised 12v power supply, I bought a pack of 5 of these only a few months ago for £1.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/KA7912ATU...673187?hash=item2caceb7563:g:J~IAAOSw6btXQzop

Maybe that's where the expression "cheap as chips" comes from...

Basically most of the other items linked to above probably have one of these chips inside, and I'm sure you're capable of making your own heat sink.
OK only rated at 1A, but what current will your LED's be drawing? I would be suprised if it's as much as 1A.
 
Andrew M said:
Excellent thread Pete ,as I've said earlier, thanks for taking the time and trouble to research and report all this.

Just a thought.....If Yachtlite are the accepted experts in this would it perhaps be worth ordering 1 letter or number from them and dissecting that when it arrives to see exactly what their tech and method of manufacture is ?

Am sure you'll get there anyway with an excellent end product though.
Click to expand...

Thanks. I suspect that YL use different LEDs for different names. Anyhow, trial and error is more fun and gives a better understanding of each part.
 
Croftie said:
Looking at your pics you have obviously stopped at least 1cm short on the top of the A so that the cross bar of the A aligns with a junction with the led strip on the sides of the A. Could you not nave moved up the strip higher in the channels so they met much nearer the top then using fine wire and good soldering still have managed to link up the cross bar even if you had to enlarge the channel width to accommodate the wires by a couple of mm.
Click to expand...

Yes I think we could improve the channelling position on our A but the 25mm cutting restriction is just too much of a handicap.
 
Would the system used by BMW 'angel eyes' work? That's one super bright led pointing along a perspex light channel, with grooves cut to 'let the light out'. Proven to technology.
 
As previously discussed, our first attempt using regular LED tape left a gap at the apex of the A and at the bottom of the letter. The effect of this can be seen in the following photo.



Today, the (gratis) scrunchable tape arrived (why can't all suppliers be so helpful?). As can be seen from the following photos it's really flexible and will definitely allow a single strip to line in the uprights of the A (i.e. curved around the apex).









The manufacturer has confirmed that they can supply without the 3M tape backing which should make it even more flexible. Actually I might ask for a separate strip so that we can line the channel to hold the LED tape down whilst the potting compnd sets. The benddable tape only has cut marks every 5cm so we may have to fold it back on itself and obscure the unwanted LEDs somehow to make it fit. The bendable tape is way more expensive than the regular tape but we won't need much of it.

JFM, if you read this, don't forget to measure the thickness of your perspex layer and I'd also be interested to know the height of your letters.
 
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guyd said:
Would the system used by BMW 'angel eyes' work? That's one super bright led pointing along a perspex light channel, with grooves cut to 'let the light out'. Proven to technology.
Click to expand...

Clever idea!
a bit difficult imho to achieve as there's no uniformity and symmetry in all the letters meaning it's going to be rather hard to sort out the best placement for the hipower led on each letter and carve/fit everything together. I think you'll also find that you'll need to go inside the transom in order to fit this single led and shape the perspex right. I'll ask my colleague on that if you want Pete

petem said:
As previously discussed, our first attempt using regular LED tape left a gap at the apex of the A and at the bottom of the letter. The effect of this can be seen in the following photo.

Click to expand...

this pic looks v. nice and uniformally lit Pete, it's the cave in the ply/chipboard you used for mock or is it actually a perspex letter glowing?
If the latter you're getting very close (unless it's a case of a crappy digital pic that's bleeding light and not showing what's happening in real life

cheers

V.
 
vas said:
Clever idea!
a bit difficult imho to achieve as there's no uniformity and symmetry in all the letters meaning it's going to be rather hard to sort out the best placement for the hipower led on each letter and carve/fit everything together. I think you'll also find that you'll need to go inside the transom in order to fit this single led and shape the perspex right. I'll ask my colleague on that if you want Pete
Click to expand...

Thanks, always worth knowing what your colleague thinks, all opinions add to the debate!

vas said:
this pic looks v. nice and uniformally lit Pete, it's the cave in the ply/chipboard you used for mock or is it actually a perspex letter glowing?
If the latter you're getting very close (unless it's a case of a crappy digital pic that's bleeding light and not showing what's happening in real life
Click to expand...

Unfortunately that pic is of the LED's lying face up in the MDF. My cheapo camera phone is making the letters glow.
 
Minor update. The scrunchable tape is turning out to be very flexible meaning we're getting good spacing of LED's along the channel and to the extremities of the letter. Perspex samples have arrived and we're going to dry milling them this week and potting the strips in place.

Just need to decide on 10mm or 15mm thickness for the perspex.
 
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