Thread: LED Color Wash

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The after Christmas clearance sale season came, and I found myself in possession of several sets of the Philips "Blue Dome Icicle Lights". I have no idea how they ended up in my shopping cart, but for 50% (normally $15) off I didnt argue.

After taking them out of the box, and realizing that these things are light miniature aircraft beacons, it got me thinking.

I realized that these lights would make an intense color wash.

A trip to the hardware store and a little meandering I came up with this list of materials;
10ft section of aluminum rain gutter ($5.50 enough to make 5 = $1.10 each unit)
2 rain gutter end caps 1 right side, 1 left side ($1.20 each x 2 = $2.40 each unit)
Perforated aluminum sheet metal 24"x36" ($25 enough for 6 units = $4.15 each unit)
Rubber grommets ($1.05 each unit)

(if you are keeping score that is $16.20 per wash light)

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I first cut the perforated aluminum into a 6"x24" strip.
I originally used a jigsaw for this cut, but on the next 4 I will use my tin snips, as they are more apt for this material.

and I cut a 24" length of the gutter.

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here is a pic of the raw materials for the chassis of the light, which include the end caps (again notice one right and one left cap, they are made/sold separately)

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Next step is to bend the perf alum one inch from the edge. I secured the material down to the table with screws, and used a straight edge to assist in the bending of the alum. This stuff bends rather easy, but I wanted to make sure it was a straigh bend.

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This is a dry fit of all of the chassis components.

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Next step is to drill out the LED pattern into the aluminum. I used a 5/32 bit for this, but check with whichever light you end up going with. As there are 70 LED's in this string I had a lot of holes to drill our. I ended up going with 3 rows of 23 holes. I will not fill all of the third row, but this will not matter.

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I then placed the perf alum upside down over the gutter section o I could use this as a table to mount the LED's into place (notice in this pic the bent portion of the perf alum is facing up, this is the backside of the "Baffle").

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After a row of LED's are inplace use a hot glue gun on the back side of the baffle to secure each LED into its hole. This is a failsafe measure, since I am closing these units with rivets, I want to be sure that the LED's do not fall out of place. Also a note, is once a row is done glue that row into place before moving to the next row. This will give you more space to do the gluing without interference.

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Here is the completed baffle back in the lab getting ready for mounting to the chassis.

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THis next pic is of the side panel, after I drilled it and installed the grommet. It is here mainly to make a point. WHENEVER A CABLE CARRYING VOLTAGE PASSES THROUGH METAL IS MUST HAVE AN ANTI-SHORT DEVICE INSTALLED. Not only is this good practice, it is part of the National Electrical Code (NEC).

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Next stop wiring the LED string. Since I have oodles of IEC electrical cables (the ones that go into you computer with a traditional male (Edison) end, and the female side is that special type of connector on the computer, TV, projector, many other types of electrical devices) laying around from work, I decided to use one of these instead of the flimsy male connector that came on the LED set.
I cut the (female) end off the power cable, ran it into the grommet, and connected it to the light string. Since this is AC. not DC it realley doesnt matter which side the White wire (of the extension) and which side the Black wire connects to.
The Ground (green) wire of the extension, I decided to not connect. I probably should connect it the metal chassis on the next units. I will simpy clean an area of paint from the chassis (so I get contact with bare metal) and rivet the wire down to the chassis.

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Here is the baffle dry fit into the chassis, as I make the holes in the edge of the baffle, and chassis for the rivets to go in.

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This is the baffle after I riveted it on one side into the chassis.

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Rivets along the back side of the chassis into the baffle. Also notice the rivets that are holding the side caps on.

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Here is a shot of the side, where the power cord enters in. Notice that I also used a wire tie wrap up against the grommet (on the inside and the outside) so provide strain relief to the cable.

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The other side...

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here it is completed, and being tested.

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Here is the test bed for the next photos.
The distance from the light to the gargoyle is 4ft.

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in the dark...
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Standing behind the Gargoyle looking into the light.

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My original intent was to pass the female end of the cord out the other side, so I can chain multiple lights together (at 4.8 watts per enclosure, I can chain up to 45 of these together on one lighting circuit). I got lazy, and decided not to do it on this unit. But I probably will on the next ones...

So far I have been shining this all over in the lab, and I can measure a good 25ft of throw with this lamp. It will wash further, but 25' is allI can measure without taking this outside, and there is snow, and that is cold, so it will have to wait.

<jumping up and down>

That is suuuuuch an awesome idea!!! I mean.... Off. The. Charts! awesome idea.

terra is right awesome idea.we a light o rama show for halloween runs for 31 days and on nov 1 the lights com down and xmas is put up. your ieda will let us have a quick change over.
thanks ssgret. http://harvardlights.weebly.com/index.html

My original idea for this was to use all three primary color (red, Green, Blue) and be able to mix them, for a completely changeable color wash.
I didnt have any green or red, so that kinda out that idea on the back burner.
These lights are A/C and as such I dont know that I can dim them full scale (0%-100%), or if there is a certain threshold that they light at.
I have made a quick dimming tester, however I am not certain that IT goeas full scale, so I still havent answered that question on dimming.

THe reason that I am talking about the dimming qualities of these lights is because that affects the color mixing abilities of any lamp that is made from these bulbs.

That said this beta design that I did, has the room in the baffle to add a full string of Red, and green, so I can play.

If these were made to be full spectrum color washes, then SSgret, that would completely work for your site.

Next step (low dow) DMX circuits for these babies...

Excellent lighting prop Mike! Amazing concept and design! Krispy kudos to ya!!!

This is a great idea to use for some of our older LED strands. This year the LED sets looked more like the old fashioned style, and warmer whites - I never liked the ultra-tacky plastic rhinestone covers they tend to use, or the cold blue-white lights. I got several of the newer kinds on clearance for next Christmas, so I'll have to look into converting our older sets for Halloween use.

I bought a bunch of the Wal-mart LED candles as well, I bought a set for Christmas but the LEDs weren't flame-orange, they were pumpkin orange bordering on bloody. Not appropriate for Christmas but I bought a bunch more on clearance afterwards.

Those are going to look great at halloween time!

Oh, thought of an additional idea. If you make this with clear ones and use a colored gel over it, you can have your whatever color you want.

Like you could slide the gel over the top of your box:

Last night I was looking at the light, while out in the lab (the one place indoors that I am allowed to smoke), and it occured to me this kinda looks like a Lite Brite (you remember the toy that you poked colored pegs into the screen, and lit them up). Then the idea of making it like one, and having a saying in red lights something like "YOU DIE" or something creepy, and then having a bright wash to obscure it, with a fade sequence between the two. That would be cool if someone had like a classroom scene, or even the zombie/demon babies in a nursury...

I think it's a neat idea, but it seems pretty involed and costly for a color wash that can be had with a larger bulb[s], no? Something cool to do with a string of leds- heck yeah. But for such a cost and the labor- larger bulbs for simple color washes may be a better way to go. Unless you just like noodling with such things! Creative, I'll give ya that!

Dan