A possibly dumb LED Question

Can a cool-white LED be "softened" in color by shining it through a colored thin plastic film, or thin tinted piece of clear? Or via any other simple method that doesn't reduce the brightness too much?

The warm-white LEDs are either way too dim, or have viewing angels that are about 2X wider than I need/want.

TIA!

- Kris K.

I'm not sure what you are looking for, but it sounds as though you'd like a diffuser. Try a piece of wax paper to start. See if that gets closer to what you are looking for. Or a piece of glass with a ground surface to it (etched with HF acid might work okay.)

Diffusing will definitely disperse some of the light, though. And you already don't like the effect of too-wide a dispersion, so I may be way off base.

Jon

Maybe consider an RGB LED cluster and adjust color temperature as you wish electronically. Here's a product for aquariums:

You could also add some yellow light from other LEDs to the cool white one. Any sort of filter will reduce efficiency.

Paul

Another 'trick' is to take some sandpaper,and rough-up the surface of the LED,giving it a sort of "frosted" finish.

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smear petroleum Jelly on it, or dot the top with clear nail polish. otherwise, try spitting on your finger and mixing some dust with it, and wiping that on it (which has the added bonus of being easy to clean later).

Jon Kirwan wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com:

Thanks for those ideas - the wax paper is probably a good place to start before I muck-up an dactual LED That's a good idea for using something on-hand, cheap, and nondestructive to see the real-world effect on the light, thanks! :) I'm thinking of putting a tube inside the body of the lamp but here too, the wax-paper idea is really clever - I could just rig it into a tube to get a rough idea of the appearance before investing time and money.

- Kris

"Paul E. Schoen" wrote in news:49c444fc$0$29986$ snipped-for-privacy@news.coretel.net:

I've seen referenced online to color-mixing, but was wondering whether a blue light plus a yellow might just give me green. Someone else on either this list or on sci.electronics.design mentioned that a red LED made red items in the environment "pop" unnaturally, so I didn't consider red. Maybe orange would be better?

- Kris

Grouchy wrote in news:924f7a18-7999-4e10-b0fb-29115a650c32 @z9g2000yqi.googlegroups.com:

Those are clever ideas, too, thanks!

- Kris

no, it'll give a light that appears white.

Right. A red and green LED combine to make yellow, and R+G+B = white. It is additive, which is different than mixing paints, which is a subtractive process.

Paul

Jasen Betts wrote in news:gq9ef7$jid$ snipped-for-privacy@reversiblemaps.ath.cx:

Oh! OK, that's pertty cool - also interesting, since some of the non-white LEDs have rpetty high millicandela ratings for fewer V and/or mA.

Thanks! :)

- Kris

"Paul E. Schoen" wrote in news:49c8448b$0$29978$ snipped-for-privacy@news.coretel.net:

THat's what got in the way of my thinking - I'm mroe of a paint/glass type (pigments and inks), so it can be a bit confusing to "switch gears" so to speak. Thanks for the additional info! :)

- Kris

Jasen Betts wrote in news:gq9ef7$jid$ snipped-for-privacy@reversiblemaps.ath.cx:

Thanks! A couple people have taken the time to set my thinking straight on this , and I appreciate all the info :)

- Kris

"Paul E. Schoen" wrote in news:49c8448b$0$29978$ snipped-for-privacy@news.coretel.net:

THanks for all the info and clarification, it's much appreciated :)

- Kris