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Got some fun kits from Cyber City Circuits (thank you @MakeAugusta!), and I plan to use these snazzy LED digits in a display. Currently brainstorming how to best diffuse the LEDs in each segment while keeping the segment outlines sharp. Time to experiment...
First idea. Laser cut bezels from 5mm EVA foam to isolate each segment.
Stuck the wider EVA foam bezel over the LED digit and covered it with a piece of printer paper. It looks surprisingly nice for such a simple effort.
Tried a layer of 1/8" translucent LED diffusing acrylic over the foam instead of the paper. It fuzzes out the light from the segments a bit, which isn't the effect I want. I'm going to put the narrower bezel under the acrylic next to see if that helps.
Same diffusing acrylic (Acrylite Satinice) with an additional 5mm EVA foam bezel layer containing narrower apertures sitting on top of the first foam layer. It looks sharper. I like this a lot. Going to also try the dark TAP Plastics "LED acrylic" to see how that looks.
Here's the black TAP Plastics LED acrylic as a diffusing layer directly over the first (wider aperture) bezel. Like the white diffusing acrylic, it makes the segments a bit fuzzed out.
And here's the same LED acrylic but it's sitting on the second (narrower aperture) foam bezel layered on top of the first bezel. Much sharper and cleaner looking.
And, finally, I tried a piece of black glitter acrylic, which I've been wanting to use for a project. (All the fun of glitter with none of the mess!) Disappointingly, it doesn't diffuse the light at all, though it would probably work ok with a layer of printer paper behind it.
Just had one more idea.. Cut narrower apertures in the top foam level and inserted semi-opaque white acrylic pieces in the slots edgewise for a 3D illuminated effect. Looks better IRL than on video.
