LED Lighting Effect

erco

erco

Senior Member
Here's a small part of a project I've been working on, trying to evenly illuminate multiple tubes for a "turbine" effect. A bit like a lightsaber, the goal is to avoid lighting hot spots in the tube. Tried many different things, this setup worked best. Big blue soda straws with a strong 10mm white LED in one end. 20M2 bit-bangs PWM from tube to tube. The unlit ends have waxed paper diffusers inside to spread the light around. 6 tubes make a full cylinder, but I only used 4 since 2 aren't visible. Maybe this will help somebody someday.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QORTkjfEliI


Code: 
#picaxe 20m2
#no_data
pause 100

b2=12
low 4:low 5:low 6:low 7' all LED tubes off

do
for b0=0 to b2
b1=b2-b0
high 5:low 4
pause b0
low 5:high 4
pause b1
next
low 4

for b0=0 to b2
b1=b2-b0
high 6:low 5
pause b0
low 6:high 5
pause b1
next
low 5

for b0=0 to b2
b1=b2-b0
high 7:low 6
pause b0
low 7:high 6
pause b1
next
low 6

for b0=0 to b2
b1=b2-b0
high 4:low 7
pause b0
low 4:high 7
pause b1
next
 
Last edited:
J

Jeff Haas

Senior Member
Very cool. What exactly is this "turbine" a part of? Also, the video above shows a bright spot at the far end. What's causing that?
 
H

Haku

Senior Member
Nicely done. I have 3 of those Master Replicas lightsabers, one of them uses a large long sheet of electroluminescent paper curled into the polycarbonate 'blade' and instantly turns on when powered up, whilst the other two use long custom made strips of 5mm LEDs which all point away from the hilt, so when it powers up the lit up 'blade' appears to extend from the hilt. The LEDs are held in the center of the 'blade' with a foam tube for diffusion, with a translucent tube covering that for further diffusion.
 
erco

erco

Senior Member
Jeff Haas said:
Very cool. What exactly is this "turbine" a part of? Also, the video above shows a bright spot at the far end. What's causing that?
Click to expand...
This is a small part of a confidential SFX project, there will be multiple turbines in the final installation. The bright spot in the unlit end is wax paper. There's about a 2" thin tapered strand inside the tube and a big ball of it in the end to catch & even out the light.

It's like lasers & smoke/chalk dust. No matter how bright or powerful, light needs to hit something to be seen.
 
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