Anyone know of a source for LED Standoffs or edge mounts which are rated for exterior use? I am thinking of a project to create my house address numbers in a dark opaque acrylic (would this be weather-safe enough?) mounted on a clear or frosted acrylic backing which is edge-lit by LED’s (possibly powered by one of those light-sensing solar charger switches?).
Comments or suggestions on this idea are welcomed and encouraged! Thanks!
Clear acrylic itself usually does pretty well on the weather resistance front. However, depending on the colorant used the color may fade. Though with a laser cutter you could make it again whenever they look like they need replacing. Some acrylics also have additives to improve UV resistance of the color.
That’s such a great idea, people can never find my house on the first try even in daylight! Just thinking how I might go about this, having no experience whatsoever, I think I would start with an existing outdoor lighting product, something like the link attached, and figure out if I could switch out the existing lamp design for a box with my house numbers on it.
Yes! Those are the kinds of solar lights I was thinking of. Some sort of hack to feed the power of these out to drive LED standoffs or edge-lit panels.
Found this hack which does pretty much what I want except he is using etched numbers to glow. I think I will need a frosted backing to make the entire background glow, with the opaque numerals on top of that.
I had decided not to post this because it’s not very interesting, but I guess it’s apropos here. I’m in the middle of a project to make house numbers, myself. The first step is a bunch of prototypes so we can decide what style to go with. This one is called fricking huge. The pizza guy can’t miss us now.
Every project with text presents me with this problem. So much so I’m considering, reconsidering any snide thoughts I’ve ever had about font geeks. I hate comeuppance when it’s me.