Hi I did a video on my main channel about a do-it-yourself uh Pcb light box like this and the results were surprisingly very good. A box just, uh, filled with high cri, color rendering index leads all around the side and just, uh, all alfoil in there, just reflecting everything around. Now I got really good results with that. and by the way, some people uh, pointed out I try and use a black background so I actually uh, like a black bottom for the uh Pcb under there.

So I tried to use some black cardboard which looks really black, but when you get it under actually really intense light. Like that black cardboard's not actually black as it turns out and the results are quite poor. So anyway, um, yeah, you'd need a really vanta black is it? Anyway, that's super black, the world's blackest black or something. Anyway, what I wanted to try to do.

Instead of actually having the alfoil in here which actually just reflects the light all inside and then having the leads of course are on top, they're shining directly down onto the board. I thought I'd also try a solution where I instead of the uh, the lights being directed straight at the Pcb which can give some you know, quite harsh shadows. Actually I originally thought about maybe building a frame in there or something. maybe like you know this high or something like that and then have the leads like shoot out and like up at an angle and then it like reflected off the side so it wasn't actually directly coming down on the Leds and I might try that.

But I thought I'd try a simpler one and quite a few people uh, suggested this and I that was my original uh, thought to do something like this. But anyway, I thought that I'd try. Um, just get some white paper and actually whack that inside there, pointing outwards like this point and it just reflects off the paper. Paper should be good enough.

it's not. Once again, it's like the black thing it's You know, it's not perfect. You might have to do some white. uh, you know you can build like the box out of like white teflon or something like that.

Just like those integrating uh, spears and things like that. um, spears, spheres? pronunciation. Dave, uh. and my mate Doug Ford's actually got one of those integrating uh, spheres and I've always wanted to go to his place.

He's now moved so he's much further away, but always wanted to go there and do a video. so give a thumbs up if you want to see Doug and his uh, integrating uh sphere. That'll be fantastic. Anyway, they're covered all in white, so that's how you do lead measurements anyway.

so I thought I'd do that. Um, so I've constructed because I have leftover bits like a ring of leads like this and sort of. you know. it's got uh, six sides like this and it's It's not quite a circle.

It'd be better if you got like flex Pcb. But anyway, I've dismantled a commercial uh, studio light here and I've got these strips. so I'll do something like that and I might sort of mount them up off the uh thing somehow and then just the light will bounce out from these, hit the white and then sort of like bounce everywhere else in the box. That's the plan.

anyway. So yeah, I know a lot of it will go through the paper and it'll be absorbed into the cardboard of the box and stuff like that, so it won't be and probably won't be as bright inside. um, as it would with the leads directly down. but that's neither here nor there so I'm going to give that a burl.

So once again, ah, they're all in series. It's all a bit how you doing because it's just an experiment. Uh, no spit and polish in this. So around about you know, 35 and a half volts or something like that.

Yeah, once again, 500 milliamps. So I'll do a before and after photo. So I'll do a photo with, uh, my aluminium foil the existing box as we built in the first video and then I'll whack this in there and see what that's like. actually what I might do just for kicks.

Uh, first is actually leave this like on the bottom like this and then I'll put it in my alfoil reflective box and see what you know. I'll just see how that works. By the way, I've sent my Uh camera, it is a fixed F10 like last time, but I've set it to uh, spot metering mode now so it'll meter and expose on the uh, actual Pcb itself. So yeah, I'm just going to whack that on top.

Oh, that looks interesting. Let me show you video camera and that looks pretty jazzy, doesn't it? No problems there at all. I'm not sure like I'd have to get the meter in there to see. I think we had 8 000 last time.

It won't Deluxe, it won't be. Oh, let's try it. I got the meter there. You go eight and a half thousand.

Uh, because you know the box is mostly reflective, not 100. But yeah, that's basically very similar to what we got last time, so there's not much loss in there. That's interesting. Um, of course I expect that to be lower once I use the paper because that won't.

Uh, because it's not as reflective. Uh, but anyway, it remains to be seen by the way. my video camera is set to a white balance of 5000. That's what my studio lights here are, so the color of the board will look a bit different on the video camera as opposed to the 5600 that I've set on my stills camera.

Okay, just for simplicity's sake, I'll just leave the Leds on the bottom here rather than I was going to like put them up the top and like hang them from the top of the box. But it's just easy to do an experiment like this. So let me whack that. So I still got the reflective coating on the top, so I still got the alfoil reflection on the top.

but with the white paper now instead of the reflectors on the side, well, there's an unexpected result. We've now got over 10 000 lux in there just by adding the paper. That's really interesting. So is the paper a more effective reflector than the alfoil? I? I don't know, Maybe.

but yeah. Wow. Okay, check out how dark this looks without the uh top reflection down there with it. You know, without it.

uh, bouncing around from the top really is. Uh, very different. But yeah, and maybe the white paper on the uh top of the box would give even better or even more light if it is actually better reflector than the alfoil. But anyway, let's give this a go.

Actually, come to think of it, I don't really expect that to change with the leads much with the leads down the bottom, or at the whatever height those leads are there. I don't Maybe it's not going to make a huge amount of difference because it's You know, the fact that it's coming out bouncing off the walls and bouncing bounce and bouncing and eventually gets on the board at A? in this case, a higher level, higher lux level than what we had before. I don't think it's my going to make a huge amount of difference there. Hmm.

All right, I've gone full on how you doing. Look at this. I just taped it like you know, like inch from the top or something. so it's like it's not round.

It's not anything, it's just a blob. Anyway, I'm just going to shove the box on top of that and see what happens. Well as it turns out, look at that 15 000 lux. you've got an add an extra zero to that.

So that is our highest yet. So putting the Uh leads at the top, you know, about an inch from the top, something like that, and uh, with the paper and I've still got the owl foil on top here. I haven't used the white paper so wow, let's give that a bill time for you Seven Dave Head fan boys. Uh, let's have a comparison here.

Okay, on the right side here. I have the original alfoil one so I took the photo Again, this is not the photo I took the other day. So this is with like like a center spot meter in so they should be exposed. you know? And they look to be exposed pretty much the same, which is fantastic.

So this is the original Uh one with all the alfoil reflective stuff and the leads pointing directly down onto the Pcb. I think the raspberry Pi is a better uh example than the other one, but we might have a look at the other one as well. And on the left here we've got the L foil. Same alfoil box, but instead of the leads pointing down directly down from the top, they're on the bottom.

There's sitting like a rest surrounding this board on the bottom. So this is like you don't even have to like really construct a light box. You can just have like a ring of, uh, you know, a flexible lead ring around the bottom of your board. and just anyway.

Um, yes. so this is still a reflective box with the alfoil. So can we actually see a difference here? Well, it looks a little if you look between the Av connector here and the Uh camera connector. it looks a bit darker in there, doesn't it? I'd say than the lead ring around there.

So maybe that's because you know it's pointing directly down is actually creating a few little extra shadows in there. But apart from that, geez, I'm not really picking it. I no, hang on. Yeah, you can see the shadow on the board here.

Not sure. Oh yeah, yeah, it's showing up on the screen. You can see the shadow around the edge of the board. You don't get that shadow on here.

so if you're doing background image removal uh with the white as you do for like product images and stuff like that and places like Amazon will like automatically remove the white background and stuff like that, this is actually going to be better. Although is this one a more vibrant color? Maybe squinting, Hold your tongue at the right angle I like. I don't know, like there's not much in it is there. apart from probably the lack of shadow around the board.

I yeah, I I prefer the lead ring around the bottom. I think the broadcom looks a little bit brighter. the logo on top of the chip? yeah, there's very little difference is there That's amazing. Light directly down, or light literally from the bottom of the board, the base of the board reflecting out and then up and around and everywhere else.

And there is a difference in how the top of the connectors are lit. For example, they're sort of like brighter here. so I think oh yeah, down in, there are those joints down? Yeah, it's a bit. Yeah, it's a bit more shadowy.

So yeah, I really like the leads around the bottom. I think that's a winner winner chicken dinner. That's an improvement right there. Don't have the leads directly pointed at it, and I thought that might be the case because when you have lights directly pointed at them, it creates shadows.

Regardless of how many Leds you've got all the way around, you're going to be creating shadows. So it's just nicer if the light just starts from the bottom and then just bounces around everywhere. Isn't that neat? Sorry about the slight angle misalignments for those Ocd inflicted. this was done manually.

I haven't uh, rotation corrected any of these images. I've done no correction at all to these. These are images straight out of the camera now. Uh, what we've got now is the same lead ring, uh, bottom with the our foil and now this is the lead ring still on the bottom but with the paper and let's see if we can pick a difference.

And really, I I wouldn't expect there to be any differences here at all. Neither brightness of the top of the connectors over here is the same. The shadowing down here in between those connectors is the same. I'm not picking it so it looks like it.

It makes no difference at all. Nah, I'll leave it in the comments, but I'm not picking it so it looks like it makes no difference whether or not your box is coated with alfoil or it's coated with the paper. But as you saw in the Lux measurement, it looks like you've got a brighter image with the paper. So I'd recommend the paper instead of the alfoil just because.

Well, you get more light and more light is more better. And by the way, the more light you have, then the larger the F-stop you can have and then the larger the depth of field you can have. so the top of the connectors will be in focus and the bottom components there will be in focus. Because if you just let the camera do automatic and it's shooting at a low, very very low F-stop uh value, then you know like the tops of components will be out of focus and the board might be in focus.

And yet you know it's just really annoying. If you don't know, all of my videos are actually shot with a constant aperture. I might shoot like, you know, F7 or something like that. So when I'm looking at a board at an angle, I've done videos on this, looking the board at an angle.

Most things in the board appear in focus, whereas if I shot at a low F-stop value, then the front of the board would be in focus and the back would be out of focus. And that's all artifarty. But it doesn't make for a good Pcb video shot in my humble opinion. Leave your own comment down below.

But yeah, I I'm not going to pick that. You know. check out Like in, check out. you can see like the little hair on the board.

look at that instead of little hairy scaries. Wow, that's great. But yeah there's like I'm I'm not spotting a difference there. There is going to be like a slight angle difference with the camera because the board maybe wasn't in the exact location.

so slight angular differences for those playing along at home. But yeah, there's nothing in that makes no difference. paper or alfoil. No, it's the fact of putting the leads on the bottom that made a noticeable difference.

And now the one on the right is the same. That is the lettering on the bottom of the board, bottom of the box with the paper surround, and this one on the left is the lead ring at the top with the paper. So let's see if that makes a any significant difference. And once again, I'm not seeing that.

Wait, like you'd expect. Maybe to see some bored shadow in perhaps. But once again, I'm not seeing it because the leads are not directly down, the lids are pointed outwards like that, and they're reflecting off the white walls and then bouncing around and then coming down on the board. So the conclusion looks to be fairly solid.

that it is better to, of course, and it's fairly obvious to point the Leds outwards and not have them directly on the board. Um, but I just wanted to experiment with that in the first video. And yeah, true to form, like anyone who designs light boxes and professional lighting, they know. Yeah, you defuse having the light bounce off the walls, for example, like I do that here in my videos.

For example, when I say I'm shooting the whiteboard which is over there, I won't have and necessarily have the studio lights directly on me because that casts shadows, I like point them up at the roof and then I'll bounce it off the roof and stuff like that and it just gets more diffuse light. It's not direct, harsh light coming on me, so there you go. That's um, not necessarily surprising, but yeah, it does give a noticeably better result. I think not massively, but little, you know, smart, like shadowing around the board and stuff like that.

Yeah, it matters, but it doesn't seem to matter. whether you have the lead rings on the top or on the bottom. Seems to make no difference really. So in this case, you could just like, uh, stick paper to the walls of the box and I might do that.

I might rip my own foil out and actually stick paper to the sides of the box. and I just with some glue stick stuff like I used with the alfoil and that'll work. That'll work a treat. Um, and once again, I won't do any experiments with white paper on the top.

I think it's potentially going to be like slightly smidge and better than the alfoil, but there's probably no difference. So it looks like to do this, all you need is a white. a suitable white box with white paper walls. It's going to be better if it like has like you use a some sort of 10 white teflon box or something.

You know you could really go, uh, fancy pantsy or you know, just paper on a cardboard box and that's it. And just buy a leather ring strip which goes around the bottom and you don't even have to mount up in the box. You can just mount it and just put it around the board that you're actually uh, photographing this is. it's too easy and just briefly there you go.

For those who want to see the other card that we saw before, the one on the left here is the original alfoil box coming down. You can see as I said before, the shadow, uh from the connector there you know that was all fairly obvious lit. you know, a bit of shadow in behind the Hdmi connector here and stuff like that. I don't noticeably no major shadows for the large uh, radial caps there.

But anyway, this one on the right is the uh, same alfoil box but with the lead rings on the bottom pointing outwards instead of directly down. and as you can see like it's look the a the can the metal can on that is much better lit, maybe slightly better on that chip I don't know. but oh geez yeah it's better. and you'll notice that there's yeah that you can really see the board shadowing on this one.

Check it out right with the leads directly from the top and that's what you'd expect of course. and but the lead rings on the bottom just moving them to the bottom? Wow, that's nicer and yeah it's potentially not as dark under there, although there's probably not much in that maybe around. The caps is a bit better. We can actually zoom in on that using Earthen View for you.

Earthen View fanboys will go wild. Love Earthen View can't be beat. You do everything in earphone view like I don't use like Photoshop Earth and view everything. It's better.

There's better. more. I think There's slightly not as dark around there, although that could be my mad. Yeah, it's not as dark.

Those traces are brighter. Aren't they on on this side here? That's not my imagination. The copper shows up slightly differently. It's a bit brighter here.

It's a bit duller over here maybe. But oh, here you go. Oh look at that. I didn't notice that.

Wow, There you go. Now this might be the slight differences in the camera tilt. That can matter a lot, but we can really look at the number stamp really standing out on that oscillator there here. Can't see it at all.

so I'd have to like experiment that to see if it. you know because only slight I've had a lot of experience with only slight differences in angle can make the difference between seeing that and not. So I'm not going to call that that is a result of having the leads on the bottom, but it seems to be more consistent. But yeah, this is.

Yeah, the the chip here is darker, so this is the light coming directly down. It's actually a darker chip and you get more contrast I think between your silk screen and your package there. So yeah, definitely it's the packages appear darker look. I'm sure you could find pros and cons with each one right.

You know there's probably not some absolute perfect way to do it, but I'd say yeah. It seems like just to get rid of the shadows around the board. for starters, and less shadows on large components and things like that. Um, definitely the lead ring pointing outwards to a paper or a white painted box.

Or you know, some sort of poly put the kettle on plastic. uh, you know, white plastic box or something like that. Any sort of white reflective box. but even our foil works.

A treat. So there you go. I hope you found that. An interesting little update there.

If you want me to do more tests and things like that, please leave it in the comments down below. As always, if you found it useful, give it a big a thumbs up. Catch you next time you.