A question about possibly backlighting faceplates...

Hi all,

A first question for me here.  I'm trying to make up a faceplate for a project I have, where the control descriptions are all backlit.  I haven't decided on the faceplate material but plastics are an option.  I really don't want to have a separate led for each control and was thinking of some kind of lens or fibre optic setup.

Anyone ever done that here?  I know it sounds like a noob question but there are quite a few options and I'm looking for a sounding board for the easiest engineering solution that requires the fewest light sources and least fabrication work...  I'd ideally prefer just using 1 LED.  Thoughts and snipes are equally welcome .

Thanks in advance!

Clear acrylic, painted white on backside, black on front side, engraved through black, lit from edge?

gyraf said:

Clear acrylic, painted white on backside, black on front side, engraved through black, lit from edge?

Click to expand...

Taken this idea a bit further, use 1mm aluminum front plate with through engraving on all graphics and fonts and you will get to keep a full faraday cage.

Also, use white (not transparent) plexiglass for better light diffusion. Transparent might look better, but then be careful not using any leds directly on the front plate throughholes.

Thanks guys!

I didn't think I could get enough light to get through with a white-ish sandwiched panel without getting "leakage" on the sides.  So I thought of maybe bringing the light to the description cutouts via some kind of fiber optic might be cool. But somehow, that seemed awfully elaborate to me...

I guess the only way to really find out is by trying it!  But, I'm definitely leaning towards the aluminium or stainless front idea with a thin, white, plexi sandwich backing.

So I'll give the "sandwich" idea a try then and report back (with some pics!).

Cheers!

I'll expand on Jacob's method which I have used for  hundreds of times.

To stop the light leakage on the remaining sides you can do two things.

1. First spray with silver paint (so that the light is also reflected back into the panel) and on top of that spray black.

2. Use a self adhesive silver tape.

If you are using a clear acrylic then you can also fill the engraved parts with fluorescent paint if yuo wanted them in colour.

Alternatively you can use fluorescent acrylic sheet in red, yellow, blue, green. The engraved areas illuminate really well.

Just experiment.

Another good tip!  Thanks!

I've got some acrylic type desks here that are layered and frosted with an LED strip lighting from the edge... Makes the whole desk "glow"... I'll take some photo's and post but you could do something like this.

Cheers,
jb

EDIT: Photo attached. The edge is rounded a bit which brings the light out a little more. You can see how the frosted layers add to the diffusion. Makes it look like it's glowing. There is a strip of maybe 20 or 30 LED's along the back edge powered by a wall wart...

Hi 1Sound,

The easiest way to make an illuminated panel is to thermal transfer or screen print on to a PVC/PC/PET/Acrylic plastic sheet, then remove areas in your metal front panel and backlight the required area with led's. This is typical of car dashboard dial lighting, control panel overlays, membrane keypads etc etc etc. If you want to stop light leakage, which should be minimum using the above technique, place an black plastic tube around the leds or both pot/switch/leds.

This should give you an idea of what i'm babbling on about...

http://www.millerdial.com/products/graphic-product-identification/graphic-overlays.shtml

Also, look into "Substrate Printing".

Hope that helps,

Regards

Paul

Thanks Paultec and 0dbfs,

Paultec, that place you have the link for does pretty much what I was thinking with fiber optics.    I had one constraint that I didn't really mention and probably should have... I wanted to try and do it with one LED.  Those guys pretty much have that working...  It just seemed kind of excessive but I like the uniform light that comes from using that technique. 

I'd ideally like to have a stainless or AL faceplate with some kind of coated backing (to prevent mixed metal corrosion and all).  It's going on a stainless chassis that has a front on it already.

I'm also wondering if Chae has the capabilities to do this as I'm going to need a few .

Again, will report back after the prototype is done (with some pics too)...

Cheers!

Hi 1Sound,

I'm not really sure what you mean by using just one led to illuminate a whole panel, so maybe a sheet of LCD backlight material would do the trick.

Please post a picture of something comparable to what you're trying to achieve.

Regards

Paul