Any clue on where to find “standard” leds as those ? I mean not the Ultrabright, killing eyes ones. And diffused as well.
I’ve heard of people manually grinding the top of LED’s to get that.. depends on how many you want etc.. but for each LED, you prob could do it with some coarse sandpaper and a DIY tool to get them exactly the same.
Regards
Mike
Yes, easily done with an emery board, or sandpaper. For best results, use a LED in a diffused package, not a waterclear, although the sanded top surface of a waterclear will diffuse a bit, it’s not as good as a fully diffused (semi-translucent) package.
Also, getting them exactly the same isn’t that critical if you’re setting them at the same level as your panel anyway… within 1mm difference would be fine.
This is probably the easiest way to do it. Anyway I ordered a few samples of those: http://www.lumex.com/product.aspx?id=137
I am actually working on a solution to eliminate the protuberant led bulbs from panels. I think it would be doable with blind holes as those used around LCDs on your seq panel: http://www.midibox.org/dokuwiki/lib/exe/detail.php?id=wilba_mb_seq_construction_guide&cache=cache&media=wilba_mb_seq:spacer_locations.jpg
Although it would raise the price of the panel. Not that much actually if large blind holes were made to encapsulate as much leds as possible in one go.
Off topic:
from this post:http://www.midibox.org/forum/index.php/topic,11802.msg110479.html#msg110479
Wilba FYI I finally decided to use the same switch caps as your design. My initial idea was to use utrabright leds occluded by brushed pexiglass with these keys http://www.xkeys.com/pigraphics/graccessories/xka001117200.jpg. But after reading a few posts about utrabright blue led dangers I decided to let it go.
So my seq will probably look a lot like “yours”. I prefer to step aside from the bulk order for now as I am not interested by the case.
Hope I will get to finish it some day. Getting there is a long and humble path :).
Protuberant LEDs are easily done without blindholes. I’m not even sure how blindholes would solve it. All you need to do is solder the LEDs with the panel attached to the PCB, and panel side down on a flat surface, so the LEDs do not protrude past the panel. This will work with flat-top LEDs either manufactured or self-made… and why I said getting them exactly the same height wasn’t that important, because they would align with the panel anyway.