Okay, so I’ve got my cyclotron cakepan ready with four large holes, and I’ve got my cyclotron light kit from Exoray (excellent product, by the way)… now I’m ready for installation. What did you guys do to mount the cyclotron lights? Did you build any kind of housing for each bulb? What did you use for the red lenses/windows inside of the holes?
I bought square pieces of transparent red plastic (pieces larger than the diameter of the holes in the cake pan) and apoxied those in place over the holes.
Then I took four of those old school black film canisters and cut them in half to shorten them. So what I ended up with was four little cups. Next I drilled holes in the center of the bottom of the cups, slightly smaller than the diameter of the LEDs I was using. That way when I pushed the LEDs in, they will hold themselves in place… Before I put the LEDs in, I sprayed the inside of the cups with silver spray paint, I thought it would be a little more reflective than the black plastic of the film canister. Then I apoxied the cups over the holes, making sure they were centered over the hole. Then pushed the LEDs in… I always use two part apoxy when glueing things, that stuff will never release once it has cured. Just make sure it something you’ll never want to take apart though. Like I said, it’s tough!
I hope that made sense and maybe helped you a little bit.
phantom50 on the proptopia board sells cyclotron reflectors, with pre drilled holes for the led’s. I’ve got some, and they’re really good. Give him a pm/email.
That’s right!.. I forgot to mention those. :x I’ve got a set of those too, they are great 
… I had built my last pack before I had boughten parts from phantom50, his reflectors will be on my next pack… He’s a great guy to deal with. I have no hesitation to recommend his parts.
My cyclotron LEDs are a 45? spread so that should be considered when mounting them, they should be spaced back from the surface if you want a fuller fill of the whole areas instead of a hot spot in the center…
Phantom50’s reflectors are the easiest turnkey mounting option, or creating something similar like the film container above…
I’ll be using P50’s on most of my packs as they’re the eaiest, quickest, and cleanest way of doing things. On my number 1 pack, though, I’ve mounted each LED at the end of a 3" length of PVC pipe, which is 2" in diameter. The inside the of the tube is coated with (crinkled) tin foil for reflective purposes.
Setting the light as far back as possible, as well as giving it lots of diffusion and reflection, creates a more even, all encompassing glow. I’m also using Ken’s “reflector” lenses. The mounting/lenses aren’t screen accurate (you really just want one bulb about an inch behind a red transparency), but it’s the best way of creating something that’s actually realistic, and more idealised to the nature of the pack, since the lighting system they used in the real things doesn’t really look all that good in real life, IMO.
Edit:
This is a quick test of said method:
Yeah, as stated above I have some of those “reflectors” if you need them. They are chromed sheet metal and are perfect for mounting the LED’s. I bought Exoray’s kit and they work with his setup. Great kit as well. Highly recommended. As for other lighting options, they would easily conform to T1 3/4 LEDs (5mm) or smaller. For the jumbo LED’s you would probably need to open the pre-fab hole a little. As for the reflective nature, it is similar to a flashlight reflector base…but in no way am I claiming any ability for them to direct the light. Just a very simple fix to the problem of mounting lights. Here’s a pic:
Price on these is 12 for $1 plus shipping (usaully $2 extra.) PM me for any needs.
Brock
phantom50
Thanks, guys. Phantom 50, I’ll give you a holler if my tinkering doesn’t work out. Frinky, can you tell me more about “Ken’s reflector lenses”?
I haven’t heard if Ken is back up and running yet. But another option is to check your local hardware store for round, red driveway reflectors (or something along those lines) that you can take apart and just use the red plastic diffuser bits. As for reflectors, I went to the dollar store and bought a couple of 2 flashlight sets, pulled them apart and used their reflectors. I glued a piece of sign plastic over the hole in the back of the reflector (where the bulb would go) drilled a hole the right size, and used LED holders I’d gotten from Radio Shack to well… hold the LEDs. I used hot glue to hold the reflectors to the diffusers and the whole get-up inside the cyclotron (just in case I had to move things a little to accomodate the speaker for the sound setup.)