<html><head><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body dir="auto"><div dir="ltr"></div><div dir="ltr">Beware not just the color of substrate but the spectrum of its translucency! FR-4 blocks uv light to varying degrees and blues/greens end up looking very different! I do like the idea of perforating the faceplate if it fits with your aesthetic objectives. We encountered all kinds of challenges trying to make this work repeatably on our modules (<a href="https://starling.space/via">https://starling.space/via</a>)</div><div dir="ltr"><br><blockquote type="cite">On Jan 27, 2024, at 9:27 PM, brianw <brianw@audiobanshee.com> wrote:<br><br></blockquote></div><blockquote type="cite"><div dir="ltr"><span>It's certainly possible, but beware that not all FR4 material is the same color, nor does it all have identical translucency. You probably need to get samples and then make sure to specify a particular brand of material when ordering the boards.</span><br><span></span><br><span>I designed a board using clear solder mask, which was beautiful because it shows all the copper without allowing the copper to tarnish due to exposure to the air. However, different production runs ended up being different colors around the copper because FR4 material ranged from light tan to dark brown. I never tried to shine lights through it, but just with normal lighting there was a huge difference. If I had to guess, the brown was not as translucent as the tan.</span><br><span></span><br><span>The nice thing about FR4 is that everything meets a standard, and you can be sure of the performance across different fabrication houses, but that standard includes neither color nor translucency.</span><br><span></span><br><span>Brian</span><br><span></span><br><span></span><br><span>On Jan 27, 2024, at 1:48 PM, Scott Bernardi wrote:</span><br><blockquote type="cite"><span>You see some modules that have transparent areas on the front panel that are lit from behind. How is that done? Is it possible on a regular DIY FR4 PCB panel?</span><br></blockquote><span></span><br><span></span><br><span>________________________________________________________</span><br><span>This is the Synth-diy mailing list</span><br><span>Submit email to: Synth-diy@synth-diy.org</span><br><span>View archive at: https://synth-diy.org/pipermail/synth-diy/</span><br><span>Check your settings at: https://synth-diy.org/mailman/listinfo/synth-diy</span><br><span>Selling or trading? Use marketplace@synth-diy.org</span><br></div></blockquote></body></html>