An Artificial Sun In A Manageable Size

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The sun is our planetā€™s source of natural illumination, and though weā€™ve mastered making artificial light sources, it remains extremely difficult to copy our nearby star. As if matching the intensity wasnā€™t enough, its spectral quality, collimation, and atmospheric scattering make it an special challenge. [Victor Poughon] has given it a go though, using a bank of LEDs and an interesting lens system.

Weā€™re used to lenses being something that can be bought off-the-shelf, but this design eschews that convenience by having the lenses manufactured and polished as an array, by JLC. The scattering is taken care of by a sheet of inkjet printer film, and the LEDs are mounted on a set of custom PCBs.

The result is certainly a very bright light, and one whose collimation delivers a sun-like effect of coming from a great distance. It may not be as bright as the real thing, but itā€™s certainly something close. If youā€™d like something to compare it to, itā€™s not the first such light weā€™ve featured.



from Blog ā€“ Hackaday https://ift.tt/eTA2tGy

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