How to build a cylinder LED screen
LED screen at power off
LED screen before installing the display modules
A cylinder shape LED screen looks great, whether it's hang from the ceiling, stacked from floor or surroung a pillar.
A curved screen, whether its shape being cylinder, ring, spiral, sphere, etc. is composed of flexible modules, unlike other regular screens, which are made up of rigid modules. Modules are display units that emit lights, and must be stationed on structures.
The picture of a flex module
The design process begins as the need analysis:
Where is this screen installed? hanging from ceiling? surrouding the column?
What is the viewing distance and angle of the screen? If the viewer is close to the screen, it's better to have small pixel pitch screens, however, it's not the smaller pitch the better, for any pixel pitch screen, there is an optimum distance to view, which is, by our empirical formula, 1000 times the pixel pitch:
If the pixel pitch is 2 mm, the optimum distance to view is 2mm x 1000 = 2000 mm = 6.5 feet
A ribbon style screen
The physical dimension of the screen, if the screen is to install outside of a pillar or column, the perimeter of the outer arch must be measured, if the screen is to built like a ribbon shape, the radius of the arch must be decided.
The structure to support the spiral ribbon
Especially for this type of spiral ribbon, there are more measurement items and design is complicated.
The strucutre is decided by the installation site, after the dimension is measured , we can begin building the structure.
Below is an example we build a cylinder screen outside a round column in a shopping mall.
The screen is designed to surround a column with diameter 1000 mm, 5000 mm high
Build a metal strucutre with inner diamater d= 1000 mm, thickness 200mm, outer diamater D = 1000 + 200x2 = 1400 mm presumably, the entire perimeter of the cylinder L = Pi D = 3.14x1400 = 4398mm
The flex module we use measures 240 mm wide 120 mm high, horizontally there will be 4398/240 = 18.3 pcs
We can't do 18.3 pcs modules, we must go either 18 or 19 pcs
If 18 pcs, the perimeter will be 18x240 = 4320 mm, correspondingly, the revised D=L/Pi = 4320/3.14 = 1375 mm; similiarly with 19 pcs modules, the revised D = 19x240/3.14 = 1451 mm
Likewise, the vertial number of modules is decided by height of the column / height of module, which is 5000/120 = 41.6 pcs, we may choose 41 pcs, with 41 pcs modules, the total height of the screen 41x120 = 4920 mm, the remaining 5000 -4920 = 80 mm will not be covered by module, however, this part can be placed at the bottom covered by siding, unnoticeable.
So we choose the structure diamters 1000 mm inner 1375 outer, total module 18x41 = 738 pcs
Each module maximum power consumption is 15W, so total power is 738 x15 = 11,070W, if the power supply we choose is 200W nominal output, with discount it to 80% output, the number of power supply is 11070/(200x80%) = 70 pcs
The number of receiving cards depends on the load capacity of the card and resolution of the modules, varies case by case
Lessons we've learnt:
The material for the strucutre shall be gavanized steel tube
The bending machine must be precise enough to process the tubes, otherwise, there will be seams after putting all the modules onto the structure
Paint must be applied to the surface of the struture, there is good opportunity the strong magnetic force damages the module
Do not bend the flex module too hard or too frequently, it is not a toy
Finalization of the screen
There will be some redundancy on the vertical side, the modules can't touch the ground for safety considerations.
Advices from us:
Use professionals to design the structure, down to details
Use manufacturer with precise bending machine to do the sheet metal work
Leave redundancy for power supply and receving card load capacity
Divide the high strucuter to several segments for ease of shipping
Hire skilled worker to do the wiring at the intallation site
Service we provide
We are experiemced professionals, providing design, sourcing and installation advices
We can work on customer's project upon request
Contact: jeff.mrled@gmail.com