Re: Automatic Palmistry
Posted: Wed Jun 11, 2014 10:41 pm
I said in an earlier post that I intended to use LED strips mounted below a perforated plate to give a scanning effect.
I used six strips wired in pairs, 1 - 4, 2 - 5 and 3 - 6, driven by a 3 channel chaser. Although it worked well, I found that where one's line of sight made direct contact with an LED through a hole in the plate, there was a considerable glare. It was therefore clear that I needed some sort of defuser. Fortunately, I had a large sheet of semi opaque plastic sheet in the workshop, so I cut out a piece and taped it to the underside of the plate. That solved the glare problem, but I then found that the scanning effect was largely lost and became more a sensation of flashing lights. So the next job was to build little 'compartments' for the strips, thus containing the light from each in a specific area. I assembled dividers between each strip but was careful to ensure they weren't quite high enough to reach the underside of the perforated plate, thus allowing a certain amount of light 'bleed' from one compartment to the next.
I am extremely pleased with the end result, even though it did take a while to get there.
I used six strips wired in pairs, 1 - 4, 2 - 5 and 3 - 6, driven by a 3 channel chaser. Although it worked well, I found that where one's line of sight made direct contact with an LED through a hole in the plate, there was a considerable glare. It was therefore clear that I needed some sort of defuser. Fortunately, I had a large sheet of semi opaque plastic sheet in the workshop, so I cut out a piece and taped it to the underside of the plate. That solved the glare problem, but I then found that the scanning effect was largely lost and became more a sensation of flashing lights. So the next job was to build little 'compartments' for the strips, thus containing the light from each in a specific area. I assembled dividers between each strip but was careful to ensure they weren't quite high enough to reach the underside of the perforated plate, thus allowing a certain amount of light 'bleed' from one compartment to the next.
I am extremely pleased with the end result, even though it did take a while to get there.