DIY Perks
9 HN recommenders · recommended in 14 months, 2020–2025
19:45 · 3.3M views · Oct 31, 2020
DIY Perks builds a realistic artificial sun for dark winters, using a powerful water-cooled LED, a satellite dish reflector for near-parallel rays, and a scattering layer to mimic the blue sky. The video explains the optics behind why most lamps do not look like sunlight and shows the build and its results.
Whenever HN discusses seasonal affective disorder, myopia, or bright home lighting, people point to this as the most convincing buildable example of sunlight-like illumination.
20 comments from Hacker News
There's an amazing youtuber/creator I've been following for a while and he does exactly this. Goes into the science of what it takes, and the results are really stunning. I'd love to give something like this a try, just need time. this video Also there was a breakthrough a while ago with LED ceiling lights that mimic natural sun. I haven't heard much since their release, so I'm sure cost is still a major issue for these sadly. [LINK]
I cannot remember if I first saw this here on HN but, here is a detailed video of an incredible artificial sunlight rig build. It's big but the results look, well, amazingly real, at least to the camera. this video
this video If you want one, you can build one following the video above. The result is quite stunning. I've never seen anything like it. [LINK] The one above is an easier build that takes up less space.
I'd wager they're pretty good. If you can leverage a parabolic reflector at a light's focal length, you can get them to collimate in a way that approximates the sun by appearing to be pinned near-infinitely far away. The reflector is generally what takes up the space, but it's necessary(ish) -- you could approximate the effect by using a fresnel lens at the light's focal length, but it yields a smaller light with rainbowing effects. [This video]( this video ) does a good job of showing how to make your own, as well as illustrating how good the effect is, while also demonstrating why space-hog implementations are likely to yield good results and slimmer ones not.
DIY Perks also attempted to make artificial sunlight at home, also focusing on things like Rayleigh scattering! This was a great watch: this video EDIT: After reading the article, I see the OP calls out DIY Perks specifically - the OPs design is much more compact :) > It's compact. The total size is 19cm x 19cm x 9cm. This is quite compact for a 5cm focal length and an effective lighting area of 18cm x 18cm. Reflective designs like the DIYPerks video or commercial products like CoeLux do not achieve this form factor.