HI

I was going to make a LED starcloth from 50 leds to a 12v source. I can make this ok as I have some electroncis experience. But I suddenly started thinking about H&S concerns as the white LED's are really bright. A cloth say 2m wide with 50 of them might be a wee bit bright

I was thinking of kids dancing in front of my console -then saying 'daddy daddy i cant see anymore'

I don't think this would be any more of a hazard than them staring directly into a 250 watt lighting effect.

Have you considered using fibre optic for a star cloth?

Paul Snr

A fibre optic starcloth was the method I chose, so I didn't have to worry about breaking legs off LED's and wires snapping during the folding of the cloth after every gig for months on end. Something which really concerned me about using filament lamps and LED's. After all, if the LEDs were wired in series and a wire snapped when the cloth was folded away, then I would be faced with losing part of the starcloth due to more than one lamp failing and be very difficult to repair once the cloth had been stitched together.

After nearly 1 year of being used constantly every weekend, I am pleased to report that apart from the cloth being very creased (Which somewhat does add to its appearance) that all the fibres are intact despite the cloth being folded several times at the end of each gig in order for it to fit into a sports bag

However, if you wanted to continue with the LED idea, and were worried about the brightness, then simply under run them by increasing the value of the dropper resistor for each chain of LEDS, or add one or two extra LEDS in series with each chain. Both methods will lower the voltage to each LED, and hence a subsequent drop in brightness.

The other option, would be to use a multi voltage PSU or add a variable control to the PSU so you can vary the voltage, and hence the brightness of the overall output.

hi 5 star. I was thinking of the LED becuase I happen to have 50 of them. The fibre optic option looks very good (I especially like the DIY starcloth on the forum) Its just maybe a bit expensive for me at the moment as im trying to spend my money on more lighting units etc.

Chris has covered most of the options to consider for this project. The only other piece I can add is if you already have a fixed output power supply the you could add a variable resistor in the chain to adjust the density output from the LEDs.

Good luck and let us know how it works out.

Paul Snr

I might mount the LED's so that they are side visable - therefore not as bright - but still effective. I so have a variable PSU so that will be useful. The wires breaking after being folded etc could be a problem. I hope to design the cloth in such a way as to enable it to say be folded into 6 without bending a large group of wires. Im going to spend my time on it and try and be as neat as possible (using heat shrink on solder joints etc. Hopefully it will be a success. I dont actually have any cloth at the moment (sort of important I know:) so thats my next buy. I saw some leatherette cheap but it might end up looking a little 'porn pad' with black leather and white LED's

Once I get something sorted I will post up a few pics for the forum

cheers
and again thanks for all the replies