I tried making artificial sunlight at home • Hacker News Board

Re: I tried making artificial sunlight at home

#21

Post by fouronnes3 » Thu, Mar 27, 2025, 8:48 PM UTC

jclarkcom wrote: post #19

Very cool. I’m the CEO of Innerscene ( https://innerscene.com ) and we make a commercial artificial skylight that uses some of these concepts. Actually the coelux ht25 model is almost identical to what you made but using smaller lenses and more LEDs - however the effect they were able to achieve still isn’t that great, the sun looks like a giant orb and once you get a few feet away you can make out a sun at all. We s…

Are you hiring? I'm looking for a job currently. Contact info is on my website :)

Re: I tried making artificial sunlight at home

#22

Post by huzeifad » Thu, Mar 27, 2025, 8:50 PM UTC

Great project! Instead of routing ground traces, I would recommend to use a ground plane on the bottom layer of the PCB

Re: I tried making artificial sunlight at home

#23

Post by Const-me » Thu, Mar 27, 2025, 8:52 PM UTC

> the main thermal issue when scaling up would be the cooling of the power supply itself, not of the lamp

If I would be scaling up that device, I would consider an ATX power supply. These are relatively large and typically include an active cooler inside, but they can easily supply hundreds of watts at 12V, often have an on/off switch on the back, are relatively inexpensive (at least unless you need much more than 500W of power), and are available everywhere. Usually, you just need to connect the PS_ON wire with the ground to make them turn on once powered.

Re: I tried making artificial sunlight at home

#24

Post by goda90 » Thu, Mar 27, 2025, 8:55 PM UTC

woah wrote: post #7

Would it be possible to make it look like the light was coming in at an angle from above and the side like real sunlight?

Would moving the box itself help provide that effect? Maybe put it on a track to move throughout the day?

Re: I tried making artificial sunlight at home

#25

Post by brcmthrowaway » Thu, Mar 27, 2025, 8:55 PM UTC

Const-me wrote: post #23

> the main thermal issue when scaling up would be the cooling of the power supply itself, not of the lamp If I would be scaling up that device, I would consider an ATX power supply. These are relatively large and typically include an active cooler inside, but they can easily supply hundreds of watts at 12V, often have an on/off switch on the back, are relatively inexpensive (at least unless you need much more than 50…

Could you wire them in parallel for more watts

Re: I tried making artificial sunlight at home

#26

Post by brcmthrowaway » Thu, Mar 27, 2025, 8:56 PM UTC

fouronnes3 wrote: post #17

brcmthrowaway wrote: post #15

Wait, you can order custom fabrication of lenses online?

Turns out you can yeah! I'm not sure the quality would be anything useful for imaging applications though. But for lighting / non-imaging stuff go for it!

What was the cost details?

Re: I tried making artificial sunlight at home

#27

Post by petsfed » Thu, Mar 27, 2025, 8:57 PM UTC

Is there a reason why you went with traces rather than pours? I count 7 signals per board, and they're all meant to be low impedance. You could even expose copper on the back of the board to be used as ad hoc heat sinks without spending any extra money. The weird little triangle loops on the back really stand out to me, even though you probably don't need to worry about the impacts of a loop in your circuit.

Re: I tried making artificial sunlight at home

#28

Post by rambambram » Thu, Mar 27, 2025, 8:59 PM UTC

jclarkcom wrote: post #19

Very cool. I’m the CEO of Innerscene ( https://innerscene.com ) and we make a commercial artificial skylight that uses some of these concepts. Actually the coelux ht25 model is almost identical to what you made but using smaller lenses and more LEDs - however the effect they were able to achieve still isn’t that great, the sun looks like a giant orb and once you get a few feet away you can make out a sun at all. We s…

> If you search Innerscene patent many of our approaches are spelled out.

Subtle, nice. Maybe you can give the man a job. ;)

Re: I tried making artificial sunlight at home

#29

Post by hatthew » Thu, Mar 27, 2025, 9:00 PM UTC

isoprophlex wrote: post #20

fouronnes3 wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Turns out you can yeah! I'm not sure the quality would be anything useful for imaging applications though. But for lighting / non-imaging stuff go for it!

Well, there goes my idea of DIYing a telescope...

DIY telescope discussion on HN 2 weeks ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43351988

Re: I tried making artificial sunlight at home

#30

Post by null_name » Thu, Mar 27, 2025, 9:01 PM UTC

Really neat, thank you for posting. I took a different angle when trying to figure this out - my goals were high spectral similarity to the sun, high brightness, adjustable warmth, and low cost. The existing lower-cost solutions people have posted about end up with high brightness, but the lights are evil.

I ended up with a photography light that's /alright/. It's not nearly as bright as I want, and I can't automate changing the warmth. When I next take a crack at this, I'll look deeper into some of what you've posted about here.