> > It's hard to cut thin strips of glass, 5mm should be ok.  Assembled 
> > would be
> > 35 x 25mm per 'number'.
> > 
> > Bi-colour can be done by having a LED at each end of the 
> glass strip 
> > (window glass is 3mm, for pictures it's 2mm).  Gosh, where would I 
> > find a 2 x 5mm LED?
> > 
> > I'll add it to the pile.  Don't expect much progress  :)
> > 
> > Tony
> > 
> 
> you could probably hack something up with 5+7 sheets.
> etch lines rather than dots and activate a horizontal + 
> vertical line at the same time to make the "dot" light up 
> (brighter than the rest of the line).
> scan through them and you should be done, It would be funky 
> to see anyway.


The problem is all the other lines light up too, not as bright as the main
one though.  That's why you have the 'one dot, one bit of glass' thing.

Could still make a cool display though.  A gauge springs to mind.

If you do want to make some, use plastic rather than glass, much easier to
work with.  Plastic also comes with a protective covering, any tiny
scratches you make will show up.  Very annoying.  You also need to paint the
edges of the bits to stop the light leaking out into other panels.  Not hard
to do, just a bit tedious.

One tip I came across was to glue or epoxy the LED to the plastic.  You lose
a lot of light in the 'air gap' as it tends to bounce off the edge of the
plastic, not go inside like it's supposed to.  

Agilent have a very nice PDF on making light pipes on their website
somewhere.  Drilling holes in the LED to insert a fibre optic cable as close
to the die as possible is going a little too far though  :)

Tony

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