What do you think about side emitting LEDs?

[andyfeller]

In reviewing the specs, I thought about trying side emitting LEDs like Adafruit NeoPixel LED Side Light Strip since they're designed to work with Arduino boards. I was still confirming whether the connections would work, but love your thoughts, @martinwoodward 🫶

[martinwoodward]

Connections will definitely work, however they are pretty thick so might be a tight fit and honestly you don't need them because of the diffusion of the white cover combined with the reflection of the white inner component.

The thin, non-waterproof ones are the way to go for this particular model I think and should be cheaper. I went for 60 LED's per meter ones so I could power it from a low power USB supply and not need to do anything fancy. I was really tempted by the 144 LED's per meter strips but you'll need two of those for this design and that's a lot more LED's to power so the electronics are a bit more complex. Also even at 60 LED's per meter you have to turn the brightness down to get the colors of the light to show up on camera.