Slide display box on the wall

[SalveSlog]

I have an idea about a small box that I can put on the wall with a backlit 6x9 slide. Kind of like a tiny lightbox. But homemade with a small lamp, a small battery and a tiny switch. It would have to be easy to replace the slide with another one. Has anybody seen or made something like that?

I will have no problem building the box part of it. I thought ledlamps would be ideal for lighting. But it seems they don't come in small sizes and not under 12V?

Another problem would be diffusing the light..

 

[pdeeh]

Consider electroluminescent panels

 

[Luckless]

How familiar are you with electronics? Small rolls of "light strips" can be had for cheap, and then it is a matter of wiring and metering the voltage correctly with a few layers of diffusion cloth to come up with a reasonably even light panel. However if you're going super cheap then colour temp can be 'questionable'.

Another option to explore is looking at small backlit LCD screens, or just replacement backlight panels for them. Inexpensive ones can be had if you're not in a hurry and don't mind waiting for slow shipping from China.

One of my friends took the idea and ran in a slightly different direction with it. They made frames that were more cube shape rather than panels, with a deep shadow box front, and an open back. He has a few designs on the go. Some were designed to sit on windowsills, while others have a mirror and catch the overhead light for display on his desk.

He also uses copies of the slides rather than the originals.

 

[nbagno]

I've read discussions about doing that, I seem to remember discussions about image fading...

 

[jeffreyg]

Buy a battery powered lightbox and float mount your transparency or frame it as desired. They are not expensive and you don't have to worry about the electronics. Many sources just do a search for battery powered lightboxes.

http://www.jeffreyglasser.com/

 

[Platelayer]

I had a go at building a smaller version for 35mm slides a few days ago. It's built from 'scrap' materials: an LED matrix built on prototyping board, four 25mm PCB spacers in the corners of the board supporting two sheets of perspex which sandwich the diffuser material and a few screws to hold it together. The LEDs are spaced about 1.5cm apart, any more and you can see individual LED shapes on the diffuser. The difficulty is choosing a material for the diffuser. Plain paper is OK, but you can see the texture of it through the slide. Perhaps a piece of plastic milk carton would work?

The LEDs are 3.1V powered by a 5V USB supply. They don't need their full brightness, so I'm using a 68 Ohm resistor in series with the supply and 12 LEDs in parallel.

I like Luckless' friend's approach to make a 'cube' as the light will be spread more evenly, if you put an artificial light in the back.

 

[Luckless]

Having a little extra space to de-focus and defuse the light is handy, but the other big advantage of the deeper frame is it gives you room to set the slide back far enough that it becomes shadowed from the other lighting in the room, and you don't have to try and overpower the exterior lighting nearly as much.

A nice dim environment lets the colours keep a little more punch for enhanced overall effect.

 

[locutus]

Is this for semi-permanent display? Slides do have 'wear' when projected, i dont know how they would hold up if you leave them backlit for days at a time.

 

[Luckless]

The amount of wear is related to the amount of energy you pump through the slide. Think of how many square inches a 6x9 slide is, and how much energy you would need to make a sheet of that size look 'white'. Now think of how many square inches a 5 foot high projector screen is, and how much extra energy it takes to bring that up to looking 'white'... Even if you are jacking the energy per square inch up to overcome the other lights in the room you're still at a fraction of the overall energy you would normally use for a projector at a decent size.

If you aren't putting through enough light to noticeably heat the slide, and using a source with little to no UV, then you aren't really doing much more than leaving them out on your desk.

I've been toying with the idea of doing displays like these, and plan to use duplicates rather than the originals, but honestly my worry is more of them scratching, collecting grit/dust, or otherwise taking accidental damage than I am over the wear from the light source.

 

[MattKing]

The amount of wear is related to the amount of energy you pump through the slide.

While this is true, there is also wear from light going the other way - ambient light (including UV).
As well as potential wear/deterioration from atmospheric elements like pollution.

 

[darkroommike]

I like everything I am reading on this thread but can I suggest that you don't project an original but use a dupe. I know dupes are much harder to make in these new strange times but surely there is still a way.

 

[SalveSlog]

Thanks for all your answers. I'll maybe try the led-light-strip-possibility.