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Diffusers

A project log for Mega 7-segment clock

oorspronklikheidoorspronklikheid 12/03/2015 at 05:220 Comments

I thought I would make a small update what I've learned about diffusers.

Generally I found that the DIY advice for making a better diffuser is to add more semi-opaque material like paper or cloth. But the issue with this advice is that you lose a lot efficiency. You can easily half your power output doing so. This means you you need to double your light output which again means twice as many LED's and twice as much power. I found the answer to this dilemma from LCD screens. They have additional layers in the back light part. One of the layers is a lens that acts like a Fresnel lens but not with a single focal point , rather like an circular focal point or line like {lenticular diffusers}. This type of lens greatly increases how much the light is spread and also does not block as much light. According to the link i just linked it has an efficiency gain of 42% ! These lenses is however not very cheap for consumers. So I plan to try and make them myself and see how well i can replicate this affect.

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