Lighting for displays?

[metrosonus]

I have one of these Ikea bookshelves and I'd like to organize my prop collection in the top shelves.

I like the idea of lights like these that hang over the top and then point down into the shelf..

My problem is though you can't put them on a dimmer. Do you guys know of any similar lighting that you can put on a dimmer like that?

 

[Sluis Van Shipyards]

Just make sure you don't get Halogen lighting. When I built my shelf for my lightsaber display they didn't have LED lighting in the type I wanted so I had to use Halogen. I can't turn them on for more than 10 mins. at a time. I actually partially melted one MR acrylic top... It now has a concave circle in the top. :lol So LEDs are going in eventually.

 

[metrosonus]

I wonder if it's possible to swap out the halogens with leds? I may look into that..

 

[FuseNova]

Consider SMD light strips.. 15 feet of lights for about $30. You could drill a 1cm hole through your shelves to run a strip for each level.

I'm still working on this shelf but used RGB light strips. The two shelves in the picture use about 20' of LEDs and the lights, power and remote cost less than $100. I'm using red light for the most part because it fits TV/gaming environment. Unfortunately, RGB can not produce a warm white.

 

[Alan Castillo]

LED's are definitely the way to go. They are powerful, and on average consume only 1.5W each, so you can put in, for example, 100 lights as opposed to one strong halogen, thus illuminating much more. LED's also have the added advantage of being directional and precise, so you can illuminate a very specific area too.

 

[Thibault]

Agree with Alan... Led is the best thing and give a nice result...

I have the same Ikea bookshelves.... And I used that :

http://kaolumixi.up.seesaa.net/image/OSRAM.JPG

It is a portable Led device.... There is durable scotch at the back, so that, you can fix them at the top, side of the bookshelves cases...

 

[kevinericon]

Thanks Fusednova, you just gave me a great idea for my display.

 

[ave4uevoli]

LEDs are the way to go. Here is my ikea besta display with dioder lights.