Table Prototype, some details
A little bit more on the table prototype since we’ve been pushing it along. The final table is going to be 4′ x 3′ in size, but split in half to make 2 usable areas of 2′ x 3′.
Below are a handful of pictures of the first prototype that we’ve been working on. It’s nothing impressive (or entirely safe, I suppose), but it let us answer the basic questions of if this approach was even going to work. What you see is a 2′ x 3′ piece of plex with a single polished edge. Mounted on that edge is a custom-drilled board (after making it, Aubrey’s wife pointed out the striking similarity to pegboard, D’oh!) in which we’ve spaced our LEDs and wired them in series.
The LEDs are actually done in modules of 6 which are then wired in parallel to a power supply. In trying to figure out how to approach wiring the number of LEDs we wanted to use, the LED series parallel array wizard was immensely valuable. In fact, that web page was really the key component in helping us figure out the ultimate arrangement since we weren’t sure how many or which edges of the plex we’d ultimately illuminate.
So, anyway, it’s not much. A simple wood frame, a board holding a bunch of LEDs that are wired up and that a solderless breadboard to create a power bus and add the resistors. Not pretty, but it works.