The frame is an aluminium channel with a T-slot channel in the back to take little corner plates and sliding nuts. I’ll post up an image in a min.
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DIY lightscreen project
- Thread starter NiteshAquascaper
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- diy lightscreen
The frame is an aluminium channel with a T-slot channel in the back to take little corner plates and sliding nuts. I’ll post up an image in a min.
bushaaayyy
Member
Hi wooki, did you manage to get any pics of the insides of the lightscreen?
did the etched dots go completely though the middle sheet, or more like dimples on the rear side?
did the etched dots go completely though the middle sheet, or more like dimples on the rear side?
Apologies, I completely forgot to come back on this one. This is the channel pictures from the rear:
I also found it available online, basically as aluminium picture frame channel type stuff:
www.yorksframing.co.uk
I also found it available online, basically as aluminium picture frame channel type stuff:
7mm 'Aluminium' M11 Frame Moulding | Yorks Framing
• Satin & textured painted finishes Matt Silver - Matt Black - Gloss Gold - Matt Gold - Bright Silver
www.yorksframing.co.uk
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Posted the channel above.
On the dots, no, they were just etched on the surface of the Perspex, maybe a fraction of a millimetre deep, presumably formed by a CNC router tool just lightly touching the surface to make the dots.
bushaaayyy
Member
Very interesting, so in your opinion does it look like something that could be DIY’d? If one were able to get ahold of some the framing.
I’m thinking the etching could possibly be achieved with a light touch with a dremmel bit
Yes, it would be a fairly easy DIY job if you can get the materials. That framing that I linked might not be quite the right size, you just need the internal gap to be around 1mm larger than the sum of the sheets you are inserting in it.
So for example, I think the Lightscreen one might be around 12mm inside, and that takes the 3mm solid white rear sheet, the 5mm clear/etched sheet, and a 3mm diffuser sheet.
You could certainly do it with a Dremmel if you wanted, but it would take a looooong time - at a rough guess there's a dot every 5mm, so on a 600mm x 400mm panel that like 9600 or so dots!! I'd probably be more inclined to order it from a CNC shop, or find somewhere that actually make these etched sheets for light boxes already.
All that said though, by the time you've bought the three types of perspex cut to size, had the CNC work done on the clear panel, bought the framing and fixings, sourced the gradient window film, bought the high output LED strips, cable, connectors and power supply, and had some clips made up to hang on the tank - you're probably not that far off the price of buying a Lightscreen off the shelf.
bushaaayyy
Member
Christ yeah that’s a lot, I think I had 5cm spacings in my head, so seemed achievable.
And yeah I lost enthusiasm for the idea when I started looking up costs of the raw materials last night. For my tank at 80x45 was looking like ~£20 for the framework and ~£60 for the acrylic sheets.
Thanks for the info though mate, may revisit the idea some day.
check this video out, you can get all the parts you need from an old telly, and luckily this guy tells you how to put it all together to make a light screen
That's a great video. Might try and get hold of an old TV to see if I can grab the parts for future experimentation, particularly that fresnel layer.
bushaaayyy
Member
Yeah great tip thanks dogtemple. I’m off to the tip Saturday morning might have a snoop around see if I can find an old tv
bushaaayyy
Member
Managed to get hold of an panasonic TV, took it all apart and....
different method of backlighting unfortunately, no fresnel lens, just a frosted layer of acrylic and about 3 frosted diffusion layers. Seemed like a slightly newer tv than the one he used in the video.
different method of backlighting unfortunately, no fresnel lens, just a frosted layer of acrylic and about 3 frosted diffusion layers. Seemed like a slightly newer tv than the one he used in the video.
Yeah, that's a more modern TV with zone based LED lighting, you specifically want to look for an 'edge lit' LED TV.
bushaaayyy
Member
Is there any way to discern which TVs are edge lit? Is it generally the older chunkier flat screens?
No, they won't necessarily be chunky. I'd just google the make and model number when you see a potential set - you can usually find numerous reviews online of most TV's and they should detail whether the screen is edge lit or not.
Wolf6
Member
Looking into this subject for my new tank, I found this as a possibility for light diffusion. Found it on a forum for photographers who also make DYI lightscreens, be it for different purposes, but they want light diffusion all the same:
Amazon product ASIN B001H83B9Q - this stuff is easy enough to find it seems, and cheap.
I'm thinking of trying around a bit with some IKEA LEDBERG strips (5 or 6 strips of 25 cm), 2 layers of frosted acryl glass covered on the inside/between the layers with that clear mesh, maybe with a layer of parchment (also used by the photographer), fitted inside a box measuring painted mat/chalky white inside. Costs would be under 80 euro. The price of the lightscreen (non-ADA one) for the tank I'm looking at is 300 euro. If I fail, I'll still have some led strips for use elsewhere 🙂 Might add a controller later to control the colours more easily via an app, but lets first see if the diffusion results using this are sufficient before adding more costs. Its going to be some time before I have time for this experiment though.
Amazon product ASIN B001H83B9Q - this stuff is easy enough to find it seems, and cheap.
I'm thinking of trying around a bit with some IKEA LEDBERG strips (5 or 6 strips of 25 cm), 2 layers of frosted acryl glass covered on the inside/between the layers with that clear mesh, maybe with a layer of parchment (also used by the photographer), fitted inside a box measuring painted mat/chalky white inside. Costs would be under 80 euro. The price of the lightscreen (non-ADA one) for the tank I'm looking at is 300 euro. If I fail, I'll still have some led strips for use elsewhere 🙂 Might add a controller later to control the colours more easily via an app, but lets first see if the diffusion results using this are sufficient before adding more costs. Its going to be some time before I have time for this experiment though.
Moss.uk
Seedling
I managed to make one.
I used:
lenses from an old tv as above.
Govee controllable led strip lights from Amazon. (Although I think I got the wrong ones for what I wanted, so not sure if I can do a gradient.)
90° aluminium corner trim for the surround.
L shaped corner plates to fasten.
Total cost was around £30
I used:
lenses from an old tv as above.
Govee controllable led strip lights from Amazon. (Although I think I got the wrong ones for what I wanted, so not sure if I can do a gradient.)
90° aluminium corner trim for the surround.
L shaped corner plates to fasten.
Total cost was around £30
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ChrisK1993
New Member
Just to clear this up, the middle layer that has "dots" is 3 pieces of perspex molded together. It has dots on the outer 2 pieces and lines on the center piece. The 2 outer are also polarised and are directional. It's actually a very simple setup, the parts on the other hand, for bigger tanks are very hard to get 😂
