# Automatic Stage Light Box



## DJETHANOL

alright guys here is a quick guide to building your own light box (for those not familiar its basically a box with halogen lights inside and plexiglass on top with sensors that lights up when you jump on it) for those of us not playing madison square garden this is a very cool prop for do it yourself live shows.

real quick before you read this guide check out my awesome band ALAMANCE

facebook.com/alamancemusic

and listen to our single VEGAS

Vegas (Master) by Alamance on SoundCloud - Create, record and share your sounds for free

you can do this a number of different ways. I designed my box to be as lightweight and durable as possible.

you need to start with a frame first whether its build of 2x4's or thick plywood is at your discretion 







as you can see I used treated deck rail slats which I just had lying around, turns out they are a great alternative to 2x4's trading a little strength for light weight. 

I would recommend painting now or even before you start building frame, just easier in long run






i used L brackets for stability *not pictured i actually added extra supports for the frame because of the heavy use and people constantly jumping on it cant be too careful.





















now comes the outer shell of the box, you can do whatever you want although keep in mind these lights (i used 500 watt halogen lights) put out a tremendous amount of heat and that can be a problem for your wiring/plexi i would recommend having rubber feet on the bottom so there is some sort of gap in between the floor and box, also vents in sides or even plexi cant hurt.










pay no attention to the giant circles cut out in the front, that was to house inserts for my bands logo (i actually had to scrap that and make square cut outs for the logo) also note vents in the back 

last thing was to put flight case style hardware on it (since i used 1'4 plywood which isnt the strongest choice obviously because of weight.






















also note the foam stripping on top to give the needed spring to the plexiglass ive seen people use rubber stripping and carpet foam as well for this

the wiring is pretty basic stuff, you can use normal momentary contact switches available at any radioshack. they are pretty fragile though, I am currently searching for more durable options 



that about wraps it up sorry I wasn't more thorough Its late and I have work early if you feel i left anything out or still have questions please pm me Ill be happy to answer them.


----------



## metal_sam14

Pics are broken dude! Really keen to see this, can you get them working?


----------



## theo

I second that


----------



## DJETHANOL

ahhh wtf? they were literally working last night? ill try to figure out today i have work tho please be patient :/ lammmmmmeeeeeeee


----------



## shanejohnson02

Try uploading to photobucket or some photo sharing site like it...all of the IMG html's begin with "https" which may or may not be causing the issue.


----------



## ZXIIIT

Why you no pics?


----------



## DJETHANOL

ZOMB13 said:


> Why you no pics?


 
enjoy


----------



## DJETHANOL

metal_sam14 said:


> Pics are broken dude! Really keen to see this, can you get them working?


 
there up now my bro.


----------



## ZXIIIT

Nice, we made similar ones, but a bit shorter and smalled, but still are very bulky, I like your approach.

I would suggest maybe using different colored LEDs to reduce the weight?


----------



## theo

How are you triggering this?


----------



## metal_sam14

That looks awesome, it would be really cool if it had a pressure trigger so that it lit up if you stood on it, that would look awesome on stage


----------



## theo

Putting coloured perspex on it would be cool, purple floodlights 
It would be cool to trigger these with a piezo transducer controlling some relays, then you could have them flashing in time to the bass drum


----------



## JStraitiff

theo said:


> How are you triggering this?



I second this cause this is awesome. I thought the foam was supposed to compress when you stood on it to make contact with the switch but i dont see it.

Edit: okay i see. You have the momentary switches mounted on L brackets so when the foam compresses the switches trigger. Cool. Id rather do this with a stomp box style button on the edge or something so that you can still use this as a foot rest. Maybe if only part of the plexiglass was raised and the rest was flush mounted.


----------



## theo

Im seriously entertaining building one with the piezo/relay driver I mentioned.


----------



## JStraitiff

This is actually really cool.



In this video they show how if you only step on one side it will only light up one side. That would be super awesome. Im definitely building a couple of these. Probably one for each guitarist and maybe one in the middle for the singer. But im gonna make it a bit larger/higher.


----------



## DJETHANOL

ZOMB13 said:


> Nice, we made similar ones, but a bit shorter and smalled, but still are very bulky, I like your approach.
> 
> I would suggest maybe using different colored LEDs to reduce the weight?



what type of leds would you suggest? we are using 500 halogen work lights they actually are not that heavy and are bright as shit


----------



## DJETHANOL

metal_sam14 said:


> That looks awesome, it would be really cool if it had a pressure trigger so that it lit up if you stood on it, that would look awesome on stage



it does have pressure momentary switches so when we jump on them it lights up each side has a different switch so when you step on the left side only that part lights up *that one pic with both of them on was taken before we installed the switches*


----------



## DJETHANOL

theo said:


> Putting coloured perspex on it would be cool, purple floodlights
> It would be cool to trigger these with a piezo transducer controlling some relays, then you could have them flashing in time to the bass drum



hahaha that sounds nuts man i still have to build one more of these bad boys and getting colored films is a great idea


----------



## DJETHANOL

JStraitiff said:


> This is actually really cool.
> 
> 
> 
> In this video they show how if you only step on one side it will only light up one side. That would be super awesome. Im definitely building a couple of these. Probably one for each guitarist and maybe one in the middle for the singer. But im gonna make it a bit larger/higher.




this video is actually where i got the inspiration for my project. i will take more pics to demonstrate we have 2 different lights activated by different momentary switches like these guys, but if you look on the last pic with the guitar case you can see i also put in see-thru plexi glass logos of the band name in front which also light up when activated


----------



## DJETHANOL

JStraitiff said:


> I second this cause this is awesome. I thought the foam was supposed to compress when you stood on it to make contact with the switch but i dont see it.
> 
> Edit: okay i see. You have the momentary switches mounted on L brackets so when the foam compresses the switches trigger. Cool. Id rather do this with a stomp box style button on the edge or something so that you can still use this as a foot rest. Maybe if only part of the plexiglass was raised and the rest was flush mounted.




that sounds great man, just be warned these boxes are not cheap to make, this box ran me almost 300, thats why i havent made a second one yet. just wait til you start going to home depot haha


----------



## JStraitiff

^ i just went to harbor freight today. Two 500w halogen lamps for $20, i have the wood already and the plexi glass should be about $30 hahaha.

They also have LED ones there if you're interested in those..
45 Bulb LED Work Light

Also that is an AWESOME idea to have the light up logos in the front. Im going to definitely do that too but i think ill instead put them in their own enclosures inside the box and have them lit by a light switch so they are always lit up.

Thanks again for turning me on to this cause im super stoked about it.


----------



## metal_sam14

I think I will have to make one of these, they look so fucking cool


----------



## phillisbeuford

These things look so LEGIT!! When my band first started out we had two construction lights on stage. They were controlled by two power strips that were zip-tied together, and you just had someone turn them off and on with the power button while we played. Your lights look a little better.hahahaha


----------



## iRaiseTheDead

Wow. this looks sick!


----------



## DJETHANOL

no problem my man, if you wouldn't mind posting some pics of your project id love to see how your interpretation looks, you have a link for your band? while your at it check mine out facebook.com/alamancemusic 
May (Master) by Alamance on SoundCloud - Create, record and share your sounds for free


----------



## DJETHANOL

JStraitiff said:


> ^ i just went to harbor freight today. Two 500w halogen lamps for $20, i have the wood already and the plexi glass should be about $30 hahaha.
> 
> They also have LED ones there if you're interested in those..
> 45 Bulb LED Work Light
> 
> Also that is an AWESOME idea to have the light up logos in the front. Im going to definitely do that too but i think ill instead put them in their own enclosures inside the box and have them lit by a light switch so they are always lit up.
> 
> Thanks again for turning me on to this cause im super stoked about it.



^bump haha


----------



## Windwaker

Dude! This is awesome. If I had a van in Boston to lug stuff like this around, I would build one in a heartbeat.


----------



## robare99

Where did you get the hardware from?


----------



## TonyFlyingSquirrel

This should be a sticky, in the tutorial section.
Thanks for posting.


----------



## DJETHANOL

robare99 said:


> Where did you get the hardware from?



i actually forget the website i got the stuff from. the metal edges were from home depot but just google flight case hardware online or even amazon sells corners, latches and handles


----------



## iRaiseTheDead

EDIT: someone already asked


----------



## Ultraussie

I'm doing this for my band when I get it together, looks awesome


----------



## iRaiseTheDead

We already have some, I just think the hardware casing would look nicer on stage


----------



## S-O

This is sick! You ought to do a more detailed build again so I can follow it verbatim  I wonder if you could use gels to get some cool color action going.


----------



## iRaiseTheDead

Could someone explain how to work the "sensor" My friend and I have been looking towards building stage-light boxes but wouldn't exactly know how to go about making it "triggered" or with a sensor.


----------

