8x8 SK9822 Matrix Through Black LED Acrylic at 17mm

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Calling this a “build” is a stretch, but I wanted to find the ideal distance between my LEDs and piece of black LED acrylic to give it a nice diffuse look where I can never see an individual pixel, but without the light blending too much to make the overall color on the acrylic too white or muddy. In the actual build I plan to make the distance adjustable.

I made a little cardstock test rig on my cutter that would hold the matrix with the acrylic resting above it. 17mm was the measurement from the surface the matrix was resting on to the top of the acrylic which is 1/8" thick, so the actual distance of the interior surface to the LEDs isn’t 17mm but at least it’s a repeatable measurement.

Anyway, these are literally just videos of patterns that come with the pixelblaze running on this test rig, but they just looked so good that I felt like they were worth sharing.

Videos are in focus (you can tell looking at the bottom edge of the acrylic) and do a really good job of replicating how it looks in person. All the sound patterns are using the random sound since there’s no sensor board.

Line Dancer 2D:

Pulse2D:

Rainbow Melt:

Xorcery:

Blink fade:

Pew Pew Pew:

Rays:

Spin Cycle:

Spectro Kalidastrip:

Spectromatrix 2D:

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That black LED acrylic is magic, isn’t it?

Is your matrix 8x8?

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Yes, 8x8. Which I still find crazy looking at some of those videos. Especially the first four I posted. There’s no way I’d think there were only 8 pixels per side.

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Really beautiful. You can see what the patterns are doing much more clearly. Now I have to go research black LED acrylic! Thanks.

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Where did you get your acrylic from?

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Sorry, thought I put the actual name in my post. It’s from here: Black LED Acrylic Sheet : TAP Plastics

I just bought a bunch of the samples, because they’re big enough for an 8x8 matrix and very cheap.

Yes, it REALLY makes a difference for how patterns look, and the patterns that look best diffused like this often look a lot less interesting when you can see the LEDs. My brain almost turns the different brightness levels into volumetric shading that makes the whole thing look like glowing gas clouds. Today I wrote a pattern just testing things out while only seeing the diffused output, and what I ended up with I never would have made seeing just the LEDs, and now it’s one of my favorites with the diffuser.

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