LED Brightness

[theshoeshineman]

I hope I'm not abusing the system by asking so many questions (:redface:)

But...

I saw this yesterday and I would LOVE to mod a case to create an effect like it: http://www.instructables.com/id/Awesome-LED-Computer-Mod/

My plan was to remove the top, side and fron't panels and replace them with a translucent plastic and then to cut aluminium to shape and basically stick it on top.

How bright would the LED's need to be to light up the panels on a full sized case?

I can get RED LED's ranging from 15MCD bright for 20cents to 30,000MCD's bright which are $4 each.

I noticed there are also RGB LEDs available which I can make any colour I want and are about 250MCD bright but they are $6 each. I would be willing to spend $48 on 8 RGB LED's if I knew these would be bright enough but I don't think 250MCD will make much of an impact through a cloudy perspex.

Setting a budget of around $20 on LED's I can get 24 x 4,000mcd leds which are a mix of red and yellow colours.

Would 4000 MCD be bright enough as jumping from 4000mcd to even 10,000 mcd is 80 cents and $2.20 respectivly which is a lot when you are talking one or two dozen LEDs.

[Zac]

The higher the MCD, the brighter. So I would go with the 30,000 MCD red LED's. If thats the colour you want. And you could also rig yourself up a potentiometer/variable resistor so you can control the brightness of the LED's by turning a knob. This can be very useful as you can get the exact brightness you want.

Also, you may want to get more less bright ones. As you have a budget of around $20 so it might work out better to position more lower intensity LED's around than just a few higher intensity ones, here it might help to get someone elses opinion because I've never worked with plastic or anything like that. But I could help you with the electronics side of it if you need.

[theshoeshineman]

Yes, this is exactly my point. If I was to get a dozen 30,000MCD leds we are talking around $50. Then add the resistors and a control knob and it's quite an expencive gimmick.

I can get twice as many 4,000 MCD leds for $20. This could possibly produce an even BETTER effect as the light would be more evenly distributed????

I was hoping someone on here has already tried something similar but I may have to buy one panel and have a go at lighting it up and seeing what I need to do the whole box.

[SXRguyinMA]

use UV reactive plexi (usually translucent plexi, NOT transparent) and get UV LEDs, it'll light up much nicer, but only if you're going for that kind of look