Day: March 5, 2014

Given a few hanks of the 3528 double-density LED strip lights shown at the top of this picture:

And the solid models for the mounts:

Then fast-forwarding through the tedious parts:

• An hour of 3D printing
• Cut & stick LEDs to the mounts
• Peel “waterproof” coating to reveal contact pads
• Solder pretty cable with silver plating on the braid (it’s probably mil-spec Teflon dielectric RG-174 coaxial cable) to the LEDs
• Conjure a coax power connector and wall wart
• Apply foam squares to mounts
• Affix to sewing machine

The front LEDs have a jaunty angle along the bottom of the plastic panel:

You can see why I want cool-white LEDs, rather than these warm-white ones, to match the daylight from the window to the right. The wash of orange light from the incandescent bulb inside the end bell has got to go, too.

The rear LEDs over the arm may be slightly too close to the opening:

The single-segment strip on the side provides a bit more light for the needle across the opening:

Now, I’ll grant you that the strips of of black Gorilla Tape aren’t particularly attractive, but the intent here is to find out whether the LEDs produce enough light, don’t snag the quilt, and generally meet requirements.

We shall see…