FAQ

How do you light your light boxes?

There are many different ways to light up the light box. Sometimes we use 5V LED self adhesive strips which have a USB connector already attached. These work fine for smaller light boxes, however sometimes the LEDs are spread apart and can create spots of light if mounted to close to the face of the light box.

Our preferred method is to use the following components.

12V AC Plug pack, with a 2.1mm connector - we use a good quality 1Amp item

Next, we source a COB LED light strip. COB stands for Chip on Board. The COB LED strip, also called a dotless LED strip, is particularly interesting because of its continuous illumination line without hot spots. The main advantage of this technology is that there is no visible spotting, even when used in more shallow LED profiles and spaces, this ensures the finished installation will present a seamless uninterrupted finish. COB lights are also very flexible to make the installation easy in your project.

The COB light strips we use are 12V versions, usually 5mm in width, 1 meter long and a cold white color. Warm white will have a yellowish tinge which may upset the colors in your light box. As you can see in the picture above, the strips can be cut to length to suit whatever light box you an printing.

We buy self adhesive strips which have bare wires on the ends:

The next piece of the puzzle is a 12mm terminal with a 2.1mm socket for the power adapter.

The round terminal is installed into the back plate of the light box and is held in place by the ring. The COB strip is soldered to the pins. The centre pin is positive (red wire on the light strip), the opposite pin connects to the negative.