We seem to have strayed from the intent of my original question.
Thanks to those that offered advice. I'm planning on an LED solution with wide angle 120 to 140 degree flat top LED's to mitigate any hotspot issues and will assume the total lack of collimated light will not be an issue.
This is based on my thought that "consistently wrong everywhere will be easier to work with than 100% right in some places but way over and way under in others".
If anyone would like to advise against that and recommend that I use the narrow angle 20 to 25 degree round top LED's please let me know.
Thanks,
Arvid
--- In Homebrew_PCBs@yahoogroups.com, "arvidj01" <arvidj@...> wrote:
>
> Having been given several flat bed scanners I am finally going to build an exposure box and was thinking about the light source.
>
> The boards could be as big as 5 x 5 inches down to .75 x .75 inches.
>
> I look at the multi-led solutions and it seems like the non-collimated light might be an issue.
>
> The nail dryer bulb solution might be slightly better but maybe not.
>
> A single point source such as a single high powered led by definition would not be collimated but at least it would be a single point source. But then one has to deal with uneven exposure from viewing angle issues.
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> Any thoughts based on your experiences would be appreciated, including "Your are over thinking this! Just build the d..n box.".
>
> Thanks,
> Arvid
>