LEDs or Halogens?

[Whytech]

A couple days is not much time!

Well, if you have access to perspex rod or even layered sheets you might be
able to create a light pipe from it. Just keep the bend diameters large-ish.
You should be able to pump light down 4-5 stacked layers, bent appropriately

If you don't mind a throw-away item what about hobby casting resin - you
could cast the whole damn light in clear resin for 10-20 bucks. With care it
should be just about immersible then...?

(watch out for movement while the resin sets. Things can become unconnected
so solder everything that moves)

-Andrew

Whytech
MSP430 / PIC / AVR tools, SMD prototyping adaptors
Imagecraft MSP430 C compilers
http://www.whytech.com.au

 

[Brian Goldsmith]

"Whytech" <thru_website> wrote

A couple days is not much time!

***It is, considering that the OP wrote his message before the 4/9/03
not the 7/9/03.
Brian Goldsmith.

 

[Russ]

"Whytech" <thru_website> wrote

A couple days is not much time!

***It is, considering that the OP wrote his message before the 4/9/03
not the 7/9/03.
Brian Goldsmith.

It's a favour for a friend, and its a one-off for an art installation - a
room full of huge blocks of ice. They are going to have a tray (a huge one
used for photography) of ice with drinks and glasses sitting in it. I made
the mistake of suggesting it would be nice to light up the ice from within.

Being unpaid, but wanting to do something decent, I was looking for a
solution that I had at hand, or something I could recycle for other uses - I
had plenty of halogen lamps, and blue LEDs would come in handy down the
track.

I'm grateful for the advice and opinions given by people in the group - it's
certainly added to my understanding of different light sources, and I'm sure
I'll use this knowledge down the track at some point.

As it turns out, I'd forgotten that I had got a few Sharp panels for laptops
from Oatley a while back, along with inverter kits which I'd been planning
to convert to little light tables for looking at film negs and trannies.
These panels have a 150mm cold cathode tube which is easily removable.

I've siliconed one in perspex tube and depth tested it to a few metres
(swimming pool = test tank) to make sure it's water-tight. I'll wrap some
blue gel around it and hopefully 2 of them will put out enough light -
they're rated at 4w, although the Oatley inverter draws about 600ma at 12v .

Many of the suggestions were both innovative and interesting, and I probably
would never have discovered the range of possibilities had I not asked the
question.

Russ.