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Well... I tried to make a thing

Ares

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I really wanted a light up bronco grill letter that matched the factory proportions, and lit the face.

Well... I tried, even used addressable LEDs (I dreamt of making animated turn signals or start up sequences or something cool). but I just cant figure out a way to make the lighting more consistent. Not enough depth to diffuse the light. probably why the ones you buy are 10mm wide and single color, probably used a COB strip or something like a normal sane person.

Anyway, thought Id share my failure anyway.
Ford Bronco Well... I tried to make a thing 20220113_230948
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Hyfly

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Ford Bronco Well... I tried to make a thing D5E7C43A-A0A2-4AA7-A026-CE6E029947AC
 

CptSamFalcon

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Maybe consider a version that is as opaque as possible - that way your aRGBs will be backlights instead of trying to make the actual letters glow. The concept is solid.
 

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ne2000

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I really wanted a light up bronco grill letter that matched the factory proportions, and lit the face.

Well... I tried, even used addressable LEDs (I dreamt of making animated turn signals or start up sequences or something cool). but I just cant figure out a way to make the lighting more consistent. Not enough depth to diffuse the light. probably why the ones you buy are 10mm wide and single color, probably used a COB strip or something like a normal sane person.

Anyway, thought Id share my failure anyway.
Ford Bronco Well... I tried to make a thing D5E7C43A-A0A2-4AA7-A026-CE6E029947AC
I like this idea and may try something similar, just white pla in the prototype?
 
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Ares

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I like this idea and may try something similar, just white pla in the prototype?
yep, I think that version was .8MM thick, I tried as much as 2MM thick, then I tried 4mm thick with a fill, I tried putting a solid layer over the LEDs to act as a scatter filter closer to the LEDs (helped a little).

I even tried putting little sphere mounds in the inside of the surface under the LED thinking maybe I could vary the thickness near to the LED to smooth the light gradient. That worked in theory, but I cant tune it to actually produce a consistent amount of light (and it would presumably change if I printed it out of another filament). The plan would be to print in ABS for UV resistance.

So yeah... Im trying falcons idea now of an opaque filter over the face... maybe it can glow from the edges...

Also for everyones awareness, the rainbow puke and other sequences is just a default animation, not the goal :p
 

iamchewby

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Could you maybe find a way to set the lights back in the grill? Put some distance between them?
 

Herbie

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Ford Bronco Well... I tried to make a thing Latrell
 
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Ares

Ares

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Could you maybe find a way to set the lights back in the grill? Put some distance between them?
doesnt appear so, the grill is solid behind the letters, save for the mounting holes. I think it would need a lot of depth too, even if I wanted to make them thicker than the stock ones..
 

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LaMamalona

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How much for a set when you figure it out?? Very intrigued with how this could end up
 
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Ares

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ended up moving to a new state and havent made any progress on the project unfortunately. Ill get back to it eventually
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