panel layout

Here's my panel layout.  I print this (after further processing) on my CNC foil-punch, but that's a different story.  The scale is such that the adafruit.com "dotstars" will fit.  The dotstars are spaced at 1.666cm.  That magic value is the center-to-center spacing of the two "side" segments within one of the digits in the alphanumeric display; it's also the spacing between side segments of adjacent digits.  The digits are four times this value tall.

The overall unit fits nicely in readily-available 8x10inch "shadow boxes", available from Mr. Internet.  These are like picture frames with deeper boxes, usually about 1+1/2" depth.  These most often have glass front panels, but I seek out ones with plastic ("Lexan" or similar), and I highly recommend these: because this makes them much easier and safer to ship, it makes them more robust and trustworthy in general as household objects, and it does not detract from the visual appeal whatsoever (at least in conjunction with my pierced-foil techniques).

 

The four 9-element alphanumeric digits are formed from two dotstar segments of length 10, and four segments of length 5.  The length-10 segments go horizontally, covering the upper and lower halves of each digit.  The four LEDs at the ends produce the am, pm, degree, and percent symbols.  Then the other 8 LEDs of each segment cover the left and right vertical edge segments of the four digits.  The length-5 segments go vertically down the middle of each of the four digits.  The 5 LEDs illuminate the top, center, and bottom horizontal segments, and the two middle vertical segments, upper and lower.  (This is how the spacing between the vertical segments can be only half of 1.666cm.)  The length-5 segments just tuck very neatly in between the LEDs of the length-10 segments, making kind of a big cross-hatch pattern.  The whole thing can then be superglued together, creating a relatively robust sub-unit.

The colon (which is also used as decimal point and "dash" separator) is produced by a separate little segment of two dotstars.

The big circle in the middle is for the Moon segments.  A line of six dotstars stretches across this circle horizontally, and there are curved baffles in the "labyrinth" which make the segments into crescent shapes, like orange sections.  In my foil-punch designs, this circle is occupied by a complicated line-drawing, which gives enough coverage that the segment shapes are clearly visible, while also providing visual ("artistic") interest.  Any type of sufficiently-complicated drawing or mandala shape could work here, including a representation of the actual Moon surface (just a suggestion).

For the twelve Zodiac signs, I cut six pieces of dotstar, each segment two dotstars long.  Then I position the segments so that each one of the pair of LEDs just peeks over its side of the "fence" (i.e., the labyrinth).  This makes wiring easier, although the illumination is far from uniform, especially with the short 1/2" labyrinth height required to fit into my chosen shadow boxes; it's my artistic decision that this looks good.  Smoother illumination could be obtained by splitting the dotstars into twelve singles, optimally-placed.