Hi all, the post about the diamond hotend (https://plus.google.com/+BenjaminSantalucia/posts/WYZELFTpuWE) arose some very interesting question about color mixing.
It made me wondering how you would achieve the following:
When you print a 2mm heigh square in white and you put some LEDs behind it, you can see the light of the LEDs.
If you do so in black, you don’t see the light.
Do you think mixing black and a translucent color would let the light pass?
Or would you print a sort of grid (picture) where lines are translucent and infill is black?
Would you be printing a flat array? Is it to be illuminated from behind?
A 3d printed model of the construction you describe would have interesting characteristics. When illuminated from within, with white light, it would display a certain set of colors. When internal illumination is removed, it could appear to change.
Mixing black and a translucent color? Mixing how? prior to the nozzle, or at the nozzle or simply combining the black and translucent adjacent to each other?
An interesting idea. Too much black if the grid lines are to pass the color of the LEDs inside. Perhaps to size the translucent portion to match the LED, while using a minimum amount of black to keep the color spread contained. RGB LEDs to be used in this thought experiment?
Maybe this is relevant for you: I printed a case for my raspberryPi in black PETG and the LEDs of the Pi are able to shine through 3 layers 0,2mm thick. Ok “shine” is the wrong word, maybe more like: “look the LED is on, I can see it.”
I have no doubt, that choosing the right filament will make it possible, and I think ABS and PLA are not the right materials for “shine through”-project.
I’ve seen something recently about constructing LED arrays to present images. It stated a commonly known characteristic of RGB imaging, that one needs to be far enough away to “blur” the distinction between pixels. That sort of information has been known since the first color television was invented. Your suggestion @Benjamin_Santalucia of using translucent filament would provide for closer viewing, yes?
@Fred_U indeed, I want to see the “pixels”, i do not want any blur, so the LEDs will be touching the case.
I’m planning to use an 8x8 or a 16x16.
I thought about a mini a Arduino based “Connect 4” game.
So ideally, it should be playable outside, so the LEDs have to shine enough to be well visible (thus the idea of translucent mixed with black)
Having the LEDs touch the translucent area should give you additional illumination capacity and the black masking should also be of benefit, but sunshine is so darn powerful. Perhaps an integrated or attachable sun-shade?
