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DIY Light Box…
Hey pros,
Total lighting design noob here.
I am on a REALLY low budget and am making these:
1’x1′ Light boxes that are 8ft tall.
I’m using 5M RGB LED Strips (https://www.ebay.com/itm/5M-SMD-RGB-5050-Waterproof-Strip-light-300-LED-44-Key-IR-Remote-12V-5A-power-/281055672866?pt=US_Car_Lighting&hash=item4170393a22 )
To luminate them. I figure if I cut 5, 1 foot individual strips and line them on the bottom of the light boxes I’m making out of Coroplast, and cover the enclosure with a mirror or foil to help refract the light. I figure it would give me the desired effect…
Now, If I had, say 6 of these boxes lined up…and was using these strips to luminate them, how would I link them all to the same “board” i guess… so that they all sync up?
What software do I need? What equipment do I need?
Please consider I’m on a SUPER low budget so the cheapest is the best.
Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks,
Mike.
Lighting Noob trying to make my way!
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2 Replies
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Well, to synch them all up to say, a musical beat, they all have to connect to one controller. The standard way to do that would be to use a DMX-enabled controller board, which can be set to hear the loudest beat in your audio and pulse each tower to match. Your fixtures have to be controllable by DMX. The cheapest controller I know of for something like that runs about $80. If the lights can only be turned on or off, there’s another kind of this controller with an output of six or more power sockets. The controller handles all the love and switching, basically tripping a relay to each socket for bang/bang on/off, to a set pattern or a mic detecting loudness peaks.
The next thing you could do is make each tower stand-alone sensitive to audio by itself. You would need an audio circuit with mic that triggers a dimmer. Something like the home made version of this:
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Coroplast is a good diffuser, light and stiff and good for construction, but may rob you of brightness on LED lights. Consider using tough opal frost, tyvek, or other cloth-like material, or a clear plastic material with a gel or thinned paint coating on the inside, something like:
I have also seen and used corrugated fiberglass carport roofing sheets, rolled into columns and lit from inside.
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