DJ Facade (Plexiglas)

[miked]

Man, all that talk of +/-5v/12v lines and your description of what you're powering really got me thinking. Dude, it's not a good idea to get my thought-grinder going...now I won't be able to sleep. I have 3 ATX PS's sitting here doing nothing, and two of them are brand new...old "throw away" power supplies that came with cases. I only use Antec or Seasonic PS's in any PC I build. Anyway, I have all kinds of crap that is powered by wall-warts...I'm already envisioning 6-way ganged adapter cables. I have TONS of Molex-SATA adapter cables that I can cut one end off and...you see where I'm going with this. IT'S ALL YOUR FAULT!! LOL!

I still have that 5M (16 feet) roll of LEDs that I originally intended to light up my facade with. Now I'm thinking of some kind of banner with my company name (no logo yet) on it, with multi-colored, blinky lights around it. But that's down the road.

How's your facade coming along? Progress? Problems? Pics? Heeelllloooooo...PICS?

[escapemcp]

Man, all that talk of +/-5v/12v lines and your description of what you're powering really got me thinking. Dude, it's not a good idea to get my thought-grinder going...now I won't be able to sleep. I have 3 ATX PS's sitting here doing nothing, and two of them are brand new...old "throw away" power supplies that came with cases. I only use Antec or Seasonic PS's in any PC I build. Anyway, I have all kinds of crap that is powered by wall-warts...I'm already envisioning 6-way ganged adapter cables. I have TONS of Molex-SATA adapter cables that I can cut one end off and...you see where I'm going with this. IT'S ALL YOUR FAULT!! LOL!

GOOD! It's so handy to have 5V and 12V in the rack for all sorts of stuff. I am only using a 230V supply. but it will still put out something like 15A for 3.3V, 20A for 5V and 15A for 12 - plenty for anything I need. Contenders for voltage include:
*DRP-1 MP3 recorder
*USB charger (for phones using a Neutrik USB connector in the front panel (EVERYBODY'S phone's batteries are flat at free parties... thanks to the numerous calls to the hotline to find the place!!)
*More LED lighting for the rack (I have only got a light in the rear of the rack at the moment. Looking for a way to mount some in the front
*Arduino controlling an LED display
And I'm sure I'll find many other things to use a DC supply for - any suggestions gratefully received

I still have that 5M (16 feet) roll of LEDs that I originally intended to light up my facade with. Now I'm thinking of some kind of banner with my company name (no logo yet) on it, with multi-colored, blinky lights around it. But that's down the road.

Not too far down the road I hope You can now get the individually addressable LED's with a controller for £25 on eBay, so your multi-coloured blinky lights can now all be different colours. Here's one I saw, don't know how many LEDs per metre though... it seems to say 12, which isn't many. http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/310773743040? ... 1423.l2649

How's your facade coming along? Progress? Problems? Pics? Heeelllloooooo...PICS?

Yeah, alright... next post will be pics... got a few though, so it may be half an hour or so before I get them organized and posted. Please stand by....

[escapemcp]

So after a week of waiting for stuff to arrive in the post, I finally had (almost) everything required to get building.

I purchased a 1200x800mm piece of Opal Plexiglas from eBay. Apparently it had been in a shop, yet the protective film was still stuck on the good side. The protective film said that it is Plexiglas XT, which is the extruded stuff... I don't know what the difference is between this stuff and 'normal' cast Plexi, but I know that it usually costs more so it MUST be better, right? There were 3 rows of sticky velcro on the other side, so I have no idea of what it could have been used for - if it was stuck onto a wall with the velcro, you would have seen the protective film There seemed to be a label on the outside of the packaging that it was sent to me in with "Nestlé" on it Anyway, after peeling off the velcro, I had to use white spirit and a fair bit of elbow grease to get the remaining sticky off the panel.

I tested with the LEDs and discovered that there wasn't enough light coming from the LEDs to get the colour to the centre of the 80cm panel. I was thinking that tilting the LEDs would allow more light to hit the plexi, but this wasn't the case. The LEDs coverage is 120° - as the plexi was always in the coverage angle, tilting it made difference of 2/3rds of bugger all. However when I took a bit of paper and placed it behind the LEDs, the plexi glowed with light. A closed back facade it is then!! I decided that the ideal material for the job would be 3mm hardboard, and I had been 'given' some when I purchased my hexaboard for my flightcase. Annoyingly though my Dad had asked me if I had any use for it and after a bit of hesitation, I said it was crap and had no use - Dad therefore binned it I therefore had to pay Wickes a visit and give the £6.50 for an 8'x4' sheet of the stuff I had chucked in the bin only a month before

I was particularly worried about cutting the plexi to size and did a bit of research on the net to find out the best way. As it was only 3mm thick, a lot of sites recommended the score (repeatedly) and snap along the line technique - this looked a bit worrying as it seems that you have to bend it quite a bit before it will snap. I decided against this, as I could not afford to cock up the snap, and it looked very easy to cock up. As I had some free samples of plexi that I got from perspex.co.uk (hint: free test plexi of any colour/type), I took a leaf out of Sony's book and decided to ignore all that I had read and let my jigsaw have a crack at it. Using a fine toothed metal blade, I got a perfect test cut. I then moved onto the main event. I knew that I couldn't take it fast or the plexi melts, so going slow and steady I managed to get a perfect cut. I did find that 'revving' the jigsaw (on and then off until it stops, then on etc...) allowed me to cut without the blade getting particularly hot.

The result of my careful work looked like this (here you Miked - FINALLY a picture for you ):


After cutting the plexi, I discovered that my slot for the plexi wasn't wide enough. I therefore repositioned my 'upside down saw table jig thing'. I used a metal rule as a small spacer to go between the 'guide' on my saw sled and the side of the saw's base plate, which moved the saw over by about a mm. I then ran all the pieces of wood back through the jig. This worked a charm and I could now fit the plexi in the slot.

I then tried to assemble 3 sides of the frame using pocket holes, but due the 45° angle and the size of the wood, there was only just enough room to fit one pocket hole. Obviously, this didn't really secure it enough, so I drilled a hole in the side and attached another screw in to hold it firm. Repeated the process and came up with this:

NOTE: Picture was taken quite a way on in the build process, hence the duratex!

Although it looks ideal just to slot the plexi in, it doesn't quite work like that as it splays outward slightly, and it really needs the 4th side on to hold everything in place. I only used screws in the side of the wood for the 4th piece (the top) - with the plexi in, I can happily just use one screw per joint, as it gets quite a bit of strength from the plexi.

Next up was the plugs. I am planning to use these 8 pin ones to go from the rack to the frame:

And I'll use a D-size mount in the frame to attach it:


I will send 4 of the pins from the 8 pins to the LED strip in the central panel of the facade, and then run the other 4 pins into the 2 side panels using a 4 pin variant of the plug above. I will use a right angled plug for this:


This means that there are no wires in the frame that ever need to move or flex. Although it does have the downside that I have to remember the connecting wires!!

So next step was to route out 3 size D recesses to fit the plugs in:


I do not have the plugs yet, so I have guesstimated how much space they will require. If necessary, I only have to route a bit deeper to give me the clearance required.

The central plug will be for the 8 pin in connector... all 8 wires for this will then enter the frame through a hole:


Each of the holes is 3 holes drilled close together into the recess below, then joined up (using a wood drill as a router bit!!) The main panel's LEDs will join up to 4 wires at this point. The other 4 wires will then split and then go to then back down through the holes to the left and right for the left and right panels.

The reason why the left and right panels are on a separate circuit is for 2 reasons. Firstly is that a lot of LED controllers only put out enough amperage to power a 5m strip. Secondly (and more important for my use) is that I can now have the central panel running from one controller, and the 2 side panels running from another. This means that I can have the 2 side panels doing a different display to the main panel - so the side panels could be green and the main panel royal blue, or the side panels pulsing with colour whilst the main panel flashes (or maybe it is still royal blue) - I think you get the idea.

I then routed a 3mm recess for my hardboard back. As I had already built the frames, I did this in a very cack-handed way. I couldn't use the 'fence' (is that the right word) on the inside of the frame as I had the corners to deal with. I therefore had to use the fence/guide on the outside of the frame. This meant that I had to make sure that I was always applying pressure toward the inside of the frame, or the router could start to wander to the outside. Of course, this happened several times, so I had I straighten them off as best I could!

Then I cut a bit of hardboard and used I coat of primer on the back of it, so that it would reflect the light better:

NOTE: This is the back piece for one of the side panels.

I may add more coats to make it more reflective, but the biggest gain is from the first coat. I wanted to see what it looked like with everything in place before I decided whether or not to apply another coat.

Now onto the LEDs. I purchased 5m of the 5050 (multicolour) LED strip for the central panel, and 5m of 3528 (seperate RGB) for the side panels. I bought the 2 different types so that I could have the 2 displays looking a little different. OK... that and the fact that the 3528 was only £5 a roll... that's almost cheaper than gaffa tape!! I opted for the 'waterproof' (IP56) option, as this display will be used outside. I don't think that this was really necessary, but as I had the option, thought it a good idea to go with it. I am still waiting for the 3528, but the 5050 looks like this:

You can see that 'waterproof' plastic that covers the LEDs on the second pic.

When holding the LEDs against the frame as a test fit, I noticed that the corners would be a bit too sharp for the LED if the bend was right on an IC chip. I therefore cut 45°(ish) corners so smooth out the corner a little.

You can also see the routed section for the hardboard in this pic - I had to remove the pocket screws as they were too proud when I routed the 3mm recess!

I was then ready to proceed with final assembly of the main panel. I cleaned off the rear of the plexi one last time using white spirit to ensure a proper clean. I also had the pleasure of peeling off that protective film Assembled frame and put the back on - making sure that I had remembered to do this:


So the final result looked like this from the back:


Pretty boring, I know, but from the front it looked a whole lot better. In fact it looked something like this:


HELL YEAH! Now that's what I was after. It looks better in real life than the photos, and the photos don't look half bad either!!

And after those pics miked will be beside himself , so in an attempt to push him over the edge , here is a video of it in action:


You can see in the video where the camera is struggling with the constantly varying light.

The sides should be finished tomorrow if I get the LEDs in the post, so will update the pics then.

And just wait until I get the sound controlled LED controller - and then there's the DMX controller, and the Wi-Fi controller (change colour from your phone)... there is all sorts of crazy stuff you can do with these, which is the whole reason why I did not put the controller in the frame. With my method of the 8 pin connector I just change the controller in the rack and I don't have to mess around with the frame

OK, that's it, I'm done. This post has taken almost 2 hours! Sorry if I waffled a bit, I am hoping it may help someone else avoid some of the errors that I made. I am still over the moon with how it looks. Gotta love Duratex... it hides so many sins!

[escapemcp]

Today's Progress:

I assembled the 2 side panels today. One of them went together fine, but the other has caused me problems. My sliding chop saw which I have used for the 45° cuts doesn't actually cut at 45° I have managed to get away with it on the other 2 panels, as the slight gap was at the rear of the panel. On the final panel though I couldn't get them to go together without a gap at the front. After messing around with positioning, I finally got it 'close enough'. When I tried to fit on the hardboard on the back (which I had cut previous to the re-jig), I found that it was now the wrong size I cut it down to size, but I am thinking that I will redo it. I think this kind of makes Bill's saying of "if you cannot find the time and money to do it right the first time, how will you find the time/money to do it right the second" (or something like that) not really relevant for me (sorry Bill). I really wanted to hear how the speaker would sound when I built my first Tuba. I was also on a STEEP learning curve as I went through the build. When I completed the first sub, I had learned lots of little ways that my processes could be improved and I had also got that all-important sound test out of the way. This meant that my second build was FAR more meticulous than the first and although I was working much more carefully and taking my time, I actually built it in less time than the first. My 2 cents there

Meanwhile back in the garage...

I assembled both side panels and I gave them a couple of coats of duratex. This took most of the day whilst I waited for the paint to dry. I also went up B&Q to get some hinges, and got bog-standard ones. I found mounting these hinges a PITA. How do you mount hinges so that everything lines up??? In the 2 packs of hinges, 16 screws were supplied - 15 phillips/pozidrive and 1 slotted I thought that these screws would fit flush as the hinges had a little countersink in them but they stuck out by quite a way once installed. This prevented me opening the facade all the way - something that I would like the option to do. Also when I attempted to open it all the way (so that all 3 panels are in a line), one of the side panels started moving forward by quite a bit due to my bad hinge placement! I am going to attempt to re-fit the hinges (I do want to countersink them), but I really need to know the trick to getting them in the right place and at the right angle. It doesn't help that I have rounded everything over, so it's tricky finding a straight edge to measure from.

Anyway, time for some pics:


Just a few jobs to do now to finish:
1) Get the 8/4 pin plugs and install, also make connecting wires
2) Stick the LEDs in the 2 side panels (when they arrive - hopefully tomorrow)
3) Reposition hinges & recess them into the side
4) Await for music controller to be delivered from China - I just ordered it, so hopefully that will be a couple of weeks.
5) Wire up rack with 8 pin connector. The music controller has both a mic input and a 3.5mm jack input, so I will probably use the aux out on the DEQ into the 3.5mm jack for better responsiveness. When I end up getting the 1U MP3 recorder, the aux out will then go into the MP3 recorder as it also has RCA outs. I can then use that to feed a signal to the music controller.

I will update this as I get all the other bits and install them.

Thanks for looking

Oh, and I've already decided on the next build - it's going to be a LED UV light in the shape of my full logo utilizing both 395nm and 365nm LEDs. The woodworking bit of the build will be simple (just a box), but wiring up 200 or so LEDs won't be... still, if that doesn't improve my soldering, nothing will!

[miked]

X 1,000! You were right; your update sent me into spasmodic twitching fits.

IMO this is the best update on this forum since Hifibob dropped his "I cracked the Roman Coliseum in half with this rig" on us. Not just b/c of how it looks, but b/c of all the thought involved in everything you did. Buddy, I just gotta say "BRAVO!" I will also admit that your facade's lighting shames mine to pieces. Nothing beats edge-lit plexi and yours "looks the tits." I think I used that saying correctly. Trying to say it looks totally badass.

I went with the Lycra for two main reasons; ease of build and quickness of build. Mine was done in 4-5 days/few hours per day and most of that time was spent waiting for paint (not DTex) to dry. With my facade I went against my usual "Build once, cry once" mantra b/c I've been building things since the middle of summer. Not just cabs and such, but shoe racks, storage boxes, etc. Anyway, back to your fantastic handiwork.

I REALLY like your wiring scheme. Multi-pin, screw together connectors...that's a pro touch right there. And here I was almost going with plastic Molex 4-pin connectors. I had already cut and assembled the frames before I realized that edge-mounted LEDs won't work with a Lycra panel. Duh. As I stated already, I really should've thought out the lighting part of it more. I was too hung up on the construction/hinges/feet aspects.

You did a great job of hiding the wiring. I KNOW how much thought goes into all that and routing this and that groove for this piece and then, "OH, this needs to be more reflective...where's the white paint?" I just didn't want to exert that much effort. But man, did your investment of time and money pay off! Once you get the side panels done, you'll have one hell of a facade. The fact that all the electronics will be rack mounted is just sweet icing on the cake.

Re: Mounting hinges so panels line up. Being that you've already rounded over all the edges, it will make it a bit more difficult but not impossible. What I did was lay the panels flat on my workbench (or floor...just ensure it's clean!) I clamped a board at the edge of my workbench to use as a straightedge guide. I pushed two facade panels against that straightedge. Now the tops of the two panels are perfectly aligned. Then, you just have to separate the two boards by whatever distance the hinge pin requires for clearance, if any. Truth be told, I cut all my frame pieces from 8-foot long stock on a miter saw and being they are so long, I couldn't use a stop block to ensure EXACT dimensions. My two side panels are roughly 1/16" longer than my middle panel. This is well-hidden b/c the tops of all 3 panels are dead even. I thought about his possibility in advance (and the fact that floors aren't always flat) and that's why I used the adjustable screw-in feet. All 3 panels can be leveled w/respect to each other no matter what.

Thanks for all the pics...and the video was just the final kick in sack, buddy. Great job!

ps
It appears your hinges are mounted on the inside edges of the panels, just like a full-size door would be. Is that so the facade can fold on itself? One of the reasons I went w/a piano hinge was so that I could put the hinge on the backs of the panels and still be able to fold it on itself.

[escapemcp]

X 1,000! You were right; your update sent me into spasmodic twitching fits.

IMO this is the best update on this forum since Hifibob dropped his "I cracked the Roman Coliseum in half with this rig" on us. Not just b/c of how it looks, but b/c of all the thought involved in everything you did. Buddy, I just gotta say "BRAVO!" I will also admit that your facade's lighting shames mine to pieces. Nothing beats edge-lit plexi and yours "looks the tits." I think I used that saying correctly. Trying to say it looks totally badass.

Many thanks , I appreciate the appreciation. Just please don't look too close at it!! I used DJ Phatman's sig as a guide - you know where he says "that it doesn't matter what it looks like INSIDE", as no-one will ever see that (except you guys of course!)

I went with the Lycra for two main reasons; ease of build and quickness of build. Mine was done in 4-5 days/few hours per day and most of that time was spent waiting for paint (not DTex) to dry. With my facade I went against my usual "Build once, cry once" mantra b/c I've been building things since the middle of summer. Not just cabs and such, but shoe racks, storage boxes, etc.

I was going to go with lycra, until that Opal plexi popped up on eBay. It is only 800x1200mm, which then got chopped into a 800m square piece and then a couple of 200x800mm pieces, so it is a little smaller than I planned it to be, but it's just high enough. You couldn't hide behind it though as you could with a taller (1.2m?) one.

I REALLY like your wiring scheme. Multi-pin, screw together connectors...that's a pro touch right there. And here I was almost going with plastic Molex 4-pin connectors. I had already cut and assembled the frames before I realized that edge-mounted LEDs won't work with a Lycra panel. Duh. As I stated already, I really should've thought out the lighting part of it more. I was too hung up on the construction/hinges/feet aspects.

Why wouldn't edge lighting work? I am unsure when you say edge lighting if you think that I have the LED's shining right into the edge of the plexi... they are actually about 2cm back (i.e. toward the DJ booth) from the plexi. I would have thought that with this setup, plus a reflecting board in the rear, you could achieve a similar result. The white lycra and white rear panel will bounce the light up toward the middle and produce a similar effect - I think

You did a great job of hiding the wiring. I KNOW how much thought goes into all that and routing this and that groove for this piece and then, "OH, this needs to be more reflective...where's the white paint?" I just didn't want to exert that much effort. But man, did your investment of time and money pay off! Once you get the side panels done, you'll have one hell of a facade. The fact that all the electronics will be rack mounted is just sweet icing on the cake.

There is far more thought that went into this facade than any actual work! I had built it in my head numerous times before I really started building proper. Now where would I get an methodology like that from?? I could build the next one in half the time now that I know little things like to route the recess for the back board before I assemble the frame - this produces nice sharp corners, rather than 9mm radiused corners (from an 18mmØ router bit)

Thanks for all the pics...and the video was just the final kick in sack, buddy. Great job!

Thanks, you inspired me to get on with it... I had seen the youtube vids of how to make a facade, and had thought for a while of doing one. Seeing you proceed made me think, evaluate my life and decide that I needed one of these! We are all standing on the shoulders of giants anyway.

ps
It appears your hinges are mounted on the inside edges of the panels, just like a full-size door would be. Is that so the facade can fold on itself? One of the reasons I went w/a piano hinge was so that I could put the hinge on the backs of the panels and still be able to fold it on itself.

DOH! I GET IT - I could attach the hinges to the rear of the panel and not on the sides... I now understand that section (not quoted) where you described how to attach hinges - you were attaching them to the rear of the panel.
I attached them the way I did as it looked like a door hinge, so I mounted it like a door!! - yeah, I'm still new here It will look a whole lot better if you only see minimal hinge from the front, so I will attach them on the rear instead - great idea. All this hinge shenanigans is what you get for thinking "just buy some hinges and attach them" instead of planning it down to the millimetre!

[miked]

I bought three different types of hinges before I decided which one I would use. I bought the piano hinges, which I used, as well as lift-off hinges and normal "door hinges" like you used. I put as much thought into the hinges as to the construction of this thing. Which left little thought for the lighting...and it it shows.

You asked, so here's "Mike's long-winded explanation."
I can't edgelight/backlight my facade BECAUSE it has to fold back on itself for transport. The Lycra is stretched across the backs of the panels. In order to backlight/edgelight, I would have to build a frame on the REAR of the facade and attach the lights. That frame would prevent the facade from folding on itself.

So, use removable hinges then, and it doesn't have to fold. But THEN I'd need to come up with a disconnecting connector scheme like you did. And THEN I'd have wires hanging out and they'd get stepped on and crushed and pulled on, etc. There's a video on YT that I'm sure you've seen. A guy used phone jacks as his connectors. That only requires little shorty 6" connector cables. But you have to make them (I have the crimper AND plugs from long ago). But to me, that's "a weak solution with lots of little fiddly bits to break" as you'd say...and I say too. Your solution is spot-on, buddy. Those are solid, screw-on connectors. Nicely done.

So long story short, I chose the least of all the evils and made a simple facade that I'll backlight from below with this. I bought a 3rd bar light and mounted it to a piece of scrap MDF that I slapped some Classic Flat Black on. It's fully DMX addressable and can do multitudes of things. The light...not the MDF.


Doesn't look close to as great as yours, but it's simple to implement.

[88h88]

Wow you really are a busy bastard aren't you? Between this and the case lighting and the actual builds....... I am impressed!

It looks so good and when you consider how much companies charge for these I reckon with a bit of practice you could have something here that people would be willing to put money down on.

Also talk to me about etching a design into the plexi because I like this a lot.

[escapemcp]

I put as much thought into the hinges as to the construction of this thing. Which left little thought for the lighting...and it it shows.

If we teamed up, then there we would have built the ultimate facade... between us, we would have forgotten nothing. It just goes to show that you have to think of everything on a build like this... one forgotten thing can escalate to a major headache and sometimes even a rebuild!! (e.g. I haven't got much space on the rear for my hinges - 1 cm less and I'd probably have to rethink them)

You asked, so here's "Mike's long-winded explanation."
I can't backlight my facade BECAUSE it has to fold back on itself for transport. The Lycra is stretched across the backs of the panels. In order to backlight/edgelight, I would have to build a frame on the REAR of the facade and attach the lights. That frame would prevent the facade from folding on itself.

Of course , you would have had a hell of a time attaching the lycra to the INSIDE of the frame... I wasn't thinking that one through fully!

So long story short, I chose the least of all the evils and made a simple facade that I'll backlight from below with this. I bought a 3rd bar light and mounted it to a piece of scrap MDF that I slapped some Classic Flat Black on. It's fully DMX addressable and can do multitudes of things. The light...not the MDF.

I am liking that light. I did want the ability to backlight... I suppose I still have if I remove the hardboard rear, but then I lose almost all of the LED light output (maybe a good thing if I am using other lighting). I was thinking I could use my laser behind it, but as it is Class 4 650mW, I don't think I'd want to point it at the plexi for any extended period or I could end up with melted/drooping plexi and no-one wants to see that!

[escapemcp]

Just in case you are interested, the breakdown of cost for this project is:

£22.99 - 1200mm x 800mm Plexiglas XT Opal (eBay)
£9.96 - 2 lots of 2.4m 2x4 Timber
£10.99 - 5m 5050 LED strip (all 3 colours on 1 chip) - basic controller included
£5.99 - 5m 3528 LED strip (individual red, green and blue chips) - basic controller included
£6.50 - Hardboard (could have been free if I hadn't thrown some away previously!)
£2.94 - 2 packs of 2 hinges
£5.70 - 6 multi-pin sockets
£5.70 - 6 multi-pin chassis plugs
£4.50 - D-size socket mounts (with a 16mm DIN hole)
£1.95 - 1" rubber feet - pack of 4
£1.88 - switch to turn on PSU
Duratex left over from previous builds
Old 230W computer power supply I had lying around
PLUS a £24 sound responsive LED controller (not required, but I thought it would add a bit of wow factor). The one I got has only just been released and has 15 different sound activated modes, rather than the 3 which all the other boxes seem to have. It's also got a colour wheel, which allows for far more precise control of the colours. It's this one by the way: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/310789232769? ... 1423.l2649

That makes the total for the build £79.10 with the standard controller, or just over £100 with the sound activated controller. If you really wanted to go to town, then you could get the individually controllable LED strips, so you could have chases (and other effects) going around the frame!! - this would mean scrapping the 3528 LED strips and buying the LEDs & controller from China... net difference is only £20!! (I may have to go with this option later on for the edge panels!). The one I am on about is here.

Of course the DMX LED controller would be more suitable for me if I had a DMX controller board. I think that a lot of the controller boards (the ones with all the sliders on that you guys will probably use) have a sound activated mode on them anyway, so you could just get that running the LEDs. It also means that you control of the panel in the same way that you control your DMX washes and other lights for increased simplicity and perfect timing with your other lights. To me, this seems like *such* a good idea if you are already using DMX.

Anyway, my 3528 LEDs have JUST arrived, so I'm off to get sticking. Pics to follow later

[Grant Bunter]

Great build, loving the result...

[Radian]

Indeed! Very Cool!

Nice work!

[miked]

I think your lighting is 100% perfect as-is. Please don't remove the back panels. If you wanted additional lighting in the "DJ facade area" you could always uplight and have them point up at the ceiling from behind you. I'm planning something similar with the trunk I just built. I'll put it behind me and sit some moving head lights on top of it, or possibly some LED par cans if the budget won't allow for moving heads.

Or maybe I'll buy one of those big pyro things that shoot fire 50 feet into the air! Uh no. With my luck I'd toast myself Extra Crispy on my first gig.

About your hinge situation, piano hinges are cheap and need very little space to mount. Would that work for you?

ps
That intelligent sound-controlled LED controller looks very interesting. I really like the remote with the "color jog wheel." That's pretty snazzy right there.

[miked]

Well now, mate, don't give me a bite and then tell me I can't have any more! How's it going? Are the new LEDs going in the way you wanted them to? Throw up some progress pics. Hey, this is all your fault. You posted the Ultimate Checkmate From Hell Progress Post and spoiled us.

[escapemcp]

I think your lighting is 100% perfect as-is. Please don't remove the back panels.

No, the facade will remain as it is. I am not going to route my logo into the plexi either, as it would be far too difficult to hold the template in place, I could risk messing up the plexi and I am happy with how it looks as is. If it isn't broke....

If you wanted additional lighting in the "DJ facade area" you could always uplight and have them point up at the ceiling from behind you. I'm planning something similar with the trunk I just built. I'll put it behind me and sit some moving head lights on top of it, or possibly some LED par cans if the budget won't allow for moving heads.

The budget doesn't even allow for par cans right now!! The joys of being unemployed!

Or maybe I'll buy one of those big pyro things that shoot fire 50 feet into the air! Uh no. With my luck I'd toast myself Extra Crispy on my first gig.

WAAAY ahead of you there Mike. I saw one on eBay for £70, but at the time I had no money (do you notice that this is a reoccurring theme with me??!!). As the rig name is Thunder (i.e. the speakers) & Lighting, I thought that one of those flame machines would have really set off and made a statement. After the success with the facade, I may have a go at DIYing one!
With reference to the rig name, I have built the Thunder, thanks to Bill and everyone on this forum and I am now just sorting out the Lighting bit of the name - the facade was part of this plan. I've been to too many free parties where people only worry about fitting as many speakers into a field/warehouse as possible, it's been done before and it's just run of the mill, regardless of the size of the rig. I have been to the odd party though where there has been more thought put into it and those have been the parties that everyone remembers. If people turn up at one of my parties and the production is close to club standards, then people appreciate it, realise that I have gone to a lot of effort and almost feel like they have to enjoy themselves. It's all psychology The fact that a lot of people listen with their eyes as well makes my parties seem all the better what with colour lasers and facades assaulting their vision. Finally, for the real music buffs (of which there are many of course) the clean sound coming out of the fully BFM rig removes any last shred of doubt that I am putting on a quality party!
Sorry, I was waffling a bit there!

About your hinge situation, piano hinges are cheap and need very little space to mount. Would that work for you?

Hinges fitted as per your instructions. Couldn't afford piano hinges @ £6... I'm not made of money!!

ps
That intelligent sound-controlled LED controller looks very interesting. I really like the remote with the "color jog wheel." That's pretty snazzy right there.

Isn't it.. can't wait to get it. The 15 music activated modes won me over, as did the ability to power 2 light strips (rather than the normal 1), and the 3.5mm jack in, oh... and the colour wheel.. and.... !! It's only been out for a month, so I am getting it hot of the (Chinese) presses. A top quality lingting controller! Love the translations when you buy direct from China!
As I may be getting a few different controllers, I am thinking of using a patch panel to select which one I use. Each of the outputs from the various controllers would come out of the patch panel on it's own 4 pin connector (like the ones I showed you previously). I will then have 2 patch leads - one attached to pins 1-4 and the other to 5-8 of the 8 pin connector (which the panel would then be connected to). I can then simply patch in whichever controller I want simply by plugging it in to the controllers out socket on the patch panel

Thanks to everyone for your feedback - it means a lot. When I started here less than a year ago, I looked at some of the stuff you made thinking "I wish I could do that", never really thinking I ever could - I probably still can't but I'm getting there!

EXTRA (just saw your post Miked): Pics are uploading. Youtube is uploading. Half hour hopefully for FINAL pics (well, not quite final pics as I still have the connectors to go, but it's the "money shots" that I am uploading now )