| Artsyficial Skylight | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Participants | |
| Skills | Hacking, Electronics, Programming, making, lights |
| Status | Active |
| Niche | Artsy stuff |
| Purpose | Fun |
| Tool | No |
| Location | Space |
| Cost | LED strip, ESP32 |
| Tool category | Electronics |
2Dhrqa0_page_0018.jpg {{#if:No | [[Tool Owner::{{{ProjectParticipants}}} | }} {{#if:No | [[Tool Cost::LED strip, ESP32 | }}
-irl-
-artist impression-
In the space there is an old skylight that has been boarded up with a wooden panel and does no longer provide daylight into the space. Besides being a gaping hole in the ceiling it does not look pretty either.
After seeing a youtube video of DIY-perks about re-purposing broken LCD TV's into light panels I got the idea of putting a broken TV in the skylight space to hide the wooden board that there is now and and make it pretty again.
These backlights do provide a bright cold white light, but that is not cozy and pretty (artsy) so the idea is to replace the white LED's with WS2812 LED's to make the skylight colorful and less bright. The Fresnel lens inside the diffuser panels provide a nice effect on top of all this.
notes: The dimensions of the skylight are 70x100cm. A 43" screen is the closest default size that fits nicely inside the skylight space.
For this project I am looking for a broken LCD or LED TV of 43" (108cm) diagonal.
Cracks in the screen and/or broken electronics is not a problem. Brand / type does not matter. It's ok if it does not look pretty anymore :) (only the size of 43" is important)A 43" broken screen has been acquired.
Challenges:
A first test with WS2812 pixels behind the diffuser panel showed that the light gets projected onto a very small area which does not make for a great effect. To remedy this there are a few ideas:
- add an extra in between diffuser layer that projects the light onto an in between larger area and thus provides a better effect.
- increase the distance between the LED's and the diffuser panel. This creates the desired effect but does involve seperating the backplate from the frame which involves some metal cutting. (probably the easiest solution)
- bigger pixels. Not sure if this will fix the effect and it will become very expensive very fast, besides the WS2812 strip has already been acquired and should be bright enough.
- Increase the spacing between the LED's so that a more even pattern can be created.
The diffuser material is very floppy, once the glass LCD panel has been removed the diffuser layer will fall out under it's own weight once the panel is hung up with the diffuser facing down. Also the Fresnel lens is the most outer layer and is very easy to damage with impact / dirt / fat fingers. The clear PET window material that is available at the space is too floppy to be usable for this project, ideally a material that is very stiff needs to be sourced. The glass panel is 1.5mm thick, the material should be either 1 or 1.5mm thick and stiff.
LED info for now:
WS2812 LED strips
6 strips of 26 led's in zig zag pattern
WLED ESP8266 Skylight GPIO4 (D2)