Mini Translite - Illumination project

[AlanJ]

I bought a bunch of mini translites about 18 months ago. They cost a pretty penny, from usa what with postage and the inevitable vat/import duty

They’ve sat gathering dust on my desk all this time

I also had a number of wood frames made to size. Again not cheap, and they too been sat on the desk.


Anyhow I’ve decided to get them on the wall, so need some illumination behind them.

So i’ve designed a large pcb with 96 rgb leds on it

It will also have a processor board on the rear so i can control the lights. Esp32s as usual.

Will probably need an opaque acrylic filter between the leds and the translite to diffuse the light, or maybe i’ll just stand the led board way back.

 

[stoptap]

Nice board design but why not just use RGB strips with a remote control ?
I have fitted them to Stern games in the past. Dirt cheap.

 

[AlanJ]

Because those rgb controllers only do a limited number of display patterns. with this setup i can do a lot of different lighting patterns. I can customise them to the specific translite too!

Yes I could have used some “off the shelf” strips of addressable rgb lights, but it’s nicer to have them all on a custom made proper sized board. plus it’s the fun of designing it and then having it professionally made. It should also work out cheaper.

 

[stoptap]

Because those rgb controllers only do a limited number of display patterns. with this setup i can do a lot of different lighting patterns. I can customise them to the specific translite too!

Yes I could have used some “off the shelf” strips of addressable rgb lights, but it’s nicer to have them all on a custom made proper sized board. plus it’s the fun of designing it and then having it professionally made. It should also work out cheaper.

I had plenty of people asking me to start making the led panels for Stern backboxes when I made a few several years ago. If you scaled up your board to full size you would make a killing selling them for full size games. How cool would it be if you had individually colour controlled areas ? Specific colours behind lettering etc.

 

[AlanJ]

don’t tempt me. i’ve got so many projects on the go already

 

[AlanJ]

boards have arrived

 

[Arv]

Which company are you using for PCBs Alan?

 

[AlanJ]

Jlcpcb.