I think we've solved the issues with lighting up the spinners (and joysticks for that matter)
The lightpipes we made were from 3d printed formers, which we made a mould from and filled with casting acrylic - we tried 5 different steps of angle for the light to exit... 5, 15, 30, 45 and 60 degrees: -
The top area I'm trying to get lit is a small ring around the spinner base...
Here's the underside so you can see where the LEDs go in (x 4):
And here's a crude cross-section drawing to help explain things: -
You can see the light needs to go up at a diagonal angle to get to the roughed up bit of plexi for good edge-lighting. Previous attempts failed to direct the light properly and the plexi ended up very dim - even in a dark room.
So we tried each one but the 60 degree one was the best. This has been covered in tipex apart from the angled bit on the top where the light escapes...
You can see even in daylight, with just 1 LED at low current, the light shines nicely when pointed with the 60 degree light-pipe
Aaand... with the spinner in...
FINALLY happy we can edge light these babies nicely
Next step is to make some optimised proper light-pipes now the concept is proven and we've done a successful test. Once these are done (we'll make lots of spares) I can FINALLY start to wire up these panels...