The hardware (electronics portion) for the Virtual Fireplace is ready and 100% functional.
I am experimenting with different Light Diffusers but would like to hear what you guys already using.
Front will be Black Translucent Acrylic Panel. It looks very nice but all LEDs are still unfortunately very well visible. I had around small pieces of white translucent plastic. Virtual Fire looks very nice if white translucent plastic is mounted about 10-15mm away from the LED Matrix. I think my final mechanical assembly will be Black Translucent Panel followed by White Translucent Panel and LED matrix mounted about 15mm behind white panel.
But what are you using?
Any ideas are very welcome.
Tap plastics has an LED black that is amazing. Give it a little distance and the pixels will perfectly blend. Depends on the spacing, but with my 8x8 panels it perfectly diffuses at 20mm distance.
See the beautiful box kit for example.
It does eat some of the brightness but it’s a good trade off for the contrast the black gives.
You could also try a 60-80% transmissive white, I’ve had similar diffusion results but with more light. Less contrast in well lit rooms though.
100% agree with the wizard! Black LED acrylic looks amazing with approximately 18-23mm spacing from LEDs to panel. Diffusion is perfect and very high contrast compared to white diffuser materials. Completely eliminates retina-searing pixels with a minimal loss of brightness. It’s the only diffuser I’ve found that works with a single layer.
If you are seeing individual LEDs, try increasing the distance to the panel. It is also possible you don’t have the exact same black LED acrylic panel that we used for our displays.
Here is a link to view a demonstration of Black LED Acrylic diffusion.
8x8 SK9822 Matrix Through Black LED Acrylic at 17mm
And a link to the manufacturer. (Opti-K by Chemcast)
https://www.chemcast.com.mx/optik.html
And a link to a distributor. (TAP Plastics)
https://www.tapplastics.com/product/plastics/cut_to_size_plastic/black_led_sheet/668
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@wizard @Glitch
Thank you very much for the very useful advice!
I ordered custom size Tap Plastic for my Virtual Fireplace project.
For other folks reading this in the future – Tap Plastics Illusion Film – https://www.tapplastics.com/product/plastics/cut_to_size_plastic/clear_silky_moire/448 and https://www.tapplastics.com/product_info/plastics_information/illusion_film – is another option if you want a cool effect for something like this. It doesn’t blur the LEDs as much, but gives some neat effects. If you’re picking up at in-person TAP Plastics, I’d take a look at both.
(Although I agree, the black LED acrylic is really really cool).