Jukebox and Cabinet LED Ideas OTHER THAN Control Panel Buttons

[enskpo]

I'm trying to get some ideas/inspiration on what I'm going to do with the 20 rgb led's and the Led-Wiz I've got coming soon.  I'm NOT going to light the control panel buttons at this time.  I've ordered them on the circuit board with the 4-wire leads.

Any mounting ideas? One thing I was thinking about was putting some along the top sides of my full size cabinet- and down the back on both sides, too.  I scoured the hardware store for something to mount them on to make a low profile strip about 2-4 feet long, but nothing rang my bell.

The closest things I saw were the square, U-shaped moldings with a cover that you use to hide your electrical wire in, along the surface of your finished wall.  The other item that came close was the shelf bracket piece you mount to the wall and then mount your shelf brackets to (it's also a square, U-shaped).  Also, I thought about zip-tying the RGB modules to a piano type hinge.  How much protection do I need to give them?  What if I wanted to drill small holes in the sides/front of my cabinet and mount the LED's there- Do I use some type of collar around the LED?

What have you done?  I'd love to hear from you crazy jukeboxers too because my cabinet is kind of turning into a hybrid arcade/jukebox.  THANKS!

[Franco B]

For [Pinky] I just drilled some 5mm holes around the screen, the LEDs are a nice snug fit when the LEDs are fully inserted into the holes:



I'm nearly finished wiring the 34 LEDs up in the bezel, they will be controlled by two LED Wiz's.



I've also routed a channel in the bottom of the case to mount 8 LEDs in for underlighting, these will also be controlled by one of the LED Wiz's.

For my [cocktail project] I am having rings of LEDs around the joysticks to show if the game is 2-way/4-way/8-way etc. I've drilled the though holes 5mm and have counter-bored them 10mmx5mm deep to insert some polycarb inserts.



I'm then going to cut arrows out of the CP overlay to reveal the backlit polycarb below, kinda like this:

 

I should also be able to get some nice lighting effects with the rings, I made a quick and dirty test CP and had a quick go at programming a sequence:

[youtube]http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=GwPkp8YLPV4[/youtube]

They are just plain 5mm inserts in that vid, not arrows like the planned final design.

I'm also going to have ~20 LEDs in the top of the cocktail to give a star field effect.

mccoy178 used lots of LEDs/lights in his [Dual monitor/ touch screen jukebox]. You may want to have a look at that thread for some ideas and mounting techniques.

[enskpo]

Looks fantastic!  Where did you get the polycarb inserts? 

[Franco B]

Its just some polycarb rod that I parted off to length on a lathe. You could do the same thing with a hacksaw and some polycarb or acrylic rod. I had to use polycarb as acrylic doesn't turn very easily.