Detolf Display Case Mod

[Dio]

Hey guys,

I know the IKEA Detolf has long been a mainstay of the display cabinets in use by MW members, and I finally joined the club about a month ago. However, I also found some cool lighting that can be mounted pretty easily along the upper ceiling of the cabinet, using the IKEA "Dioder" brand of LED light strips. They're originally intended to provide edge lighting around a TV set and help with eye strain, but the size and profile are just right for the cabinets, and the LED's are quite energy efficient as well.

See attached photos for how I rigged them up, one set of Dioders is adequate for lighting two cabinets with a top-mount (2 rails per cabinet), but I'm sure you could get creative with them. Photos taken with and without flash, for comparison.

[Talonvar]

Hrmm, ive been meaning to get lights for my detolf and this looks pretty good!

[MacrossJunkie]

Awesome! That is exactly what I was looking for. I was looking for some lighting solutions but I didn't want to risk yellowing the plastics with fluorescent lights or adding extra heat from incandescent ones. I had been thinking of getting LED light bulbs to put in my cases but I couldn't find any that would work well or were extremely expensive. At $50 for a pack of 4, that is a much better solution. Thanks for bringing this up.

Btw, just how far does the light go? Do the toys at the bottom get any usable illumination from the LED strips?

Edit: Oops. fixed the price. looked up the Dioder multipurpose light instead of the light strip version, but that looks good too.

Edited July 11, 2010 by MacrossJunkie

[big F]

The detolf cabinet must have paid for many a new store build for IKEA the amount of them I see in shops and in collectors displays and friends lounges.

These led lights are a definite purchase next trip. My low watage bulb solution Is coming out

Edited July 11, 2010 by big F

[skizz]

Another cheaper option you might want to consider are Car LED light strips.

You can get them at around $3 for 2 strips of 24 led lights on ebay, and they're also flexible.

I bought a few of them, but at the moment just can't find the time to hook them up. I just need to connect them to a dioder transformer which I already have, but I'll have to clear a whole cabinetfull of toys to pass the wires at the back

Edited July 11, 2010 by skizz

[anubis20]

any pics with the room lights or flash off?? I wanna see how well it illuminates the whole case.

[boyarque]

always wanted a detolf....but so far, the money saved goes to buying more valks......

[Dio]

any pics with the room lights or flash off?? I wanna see how well it illuminates the whole case.

Sorry, my photos earlier were from the morning, had to wait till now for dusk. My wife has a knack for lighting (and was actually the one who pointed the Dioders out at the store), so every room in our house gets sunlit for most of the day.

Obviously, the degree of lighting is going to depend on how crowded the shelves are, but one valk per shelf seems to work out nicely. My third shelves down are packed more densely, and it shows in the shadows over the bottom figures. Lower-profile display stands may also help, I've just been too lazy to pick up clear FlexiDisplay stands... ironic, because I live within shopping distance of LAFToys

With the sticky-pads (alternative to screwed brackets) and very thin wiring the lights offer, it wouldn't be any trouble at all to run wires down the support rails and attach a second set two shelves down if you'd like more light throughout the cabinet. The nice thing about these style of lights is that they can be very easily adapted to different configurations, and can be daisy-chained with one another... so someone creative could probably run a set of extension wires out of the first light rails, to a second set, and still drive them with the one power supply.

Edited July 12, 2010 by Dio

[BlueMax]

Looks very nice indeed! Only thing: at $50 bucks, it is a little expensive.

[MacrossJunkie]

Sorry, my photos earlier were from the morning, had to wait till now for dusk. My wife has a knack for lighting (and was actually the one who pointed the Dioders out at the store), so every room in our house gets sunlit for most of the day.

Obviously, the degree of lighting is going to depend on how crowded the shelves are, but one valk per shelf seems to work out nicely. My third shelves down are packed more densely, and it shows in the shadows over the bottom figures. Lower-profile display stands may also help, I've just been too lazy to pick up clear FlexiDisplay stands... ironic, because I live within shopping distance of LAFToys

With the sticky-pads (alternative to screwed brackets) and very thin wiring the lights offer, it wouldn't be any trouble at all to run wires down the support rails and attach a second set two shelves down if you'd like more light throughout the cabinet. The nice thing about these style of lights is that they can be very easily adapted to different configurations, and can be daisy-chained with one another... so someone creative could probably run a set of extension wires out of the first light rails, to a second set, and still drive them with the one power supply.

Nice. That seems sufficiently bright to me. I've got 3 items per shelf for my 1/60 scale VF cabinets and 2 per shelf for my 1/48s. I may have to play around with the positioning of the lights a bit when I get them.

Looks very nice indeed! Only thing: at $50 bucks, it is a little expensive.

That's true, it is expensive if you compare it to normal lights. But compared to the LED lightbulbs I was looking at before, these are a steal. It seems a decent LED bulb would cost between $30-70 per bulb. These Dioder strips come in a set of 4 so you could kind of look at it like each strip costing a little over $12.

I'm a little paranoid with discoloring plastics, especially with the whiter VFs. Fluorescent lights use a low amount of energy and less heat than incandescents, but emit a good amount of UV light which would likely facilitate discoloration. Incandescents emit low UV, but produce a ton of heat which can also discolor plastic, probably more so than UV light from a flourescent bulb could achieve in the same amount of time. LED lights seem to be the best of both worlds. They produce very little UV like incandescent lights and produce even less heat and use less energy than a fluorescent. Given that, I'm willing to invest in some of these Dioders so that my display will look nicer with some lighting and still give me some peace of mind that I'm not hastening the yellowing process by having them on.

[Mechamaniac]

Looks very nice indeed! Only thing: at $50 bucks, it is a little expensive.

That's what I thought too when I first saw these lights about a year ago. They're sweet but damn, the Detolf only costs what....$59 these days?

[anubis20]

The lighting definitely looks nice, I also have only 3 items per shelf so the LEDs should provide more than enough lighting. Ill check and see if I can find them at my Ikea.

[lilgreenlude93]

Here's my Detolf setup with the round Dioder lights. I have the 8 cases hooked up to my half-hot outlet for easy on/off through my wall switch. I like that the strips provide more light, but seem a little distracting. The round ones have a diffusing cover over them, the strips have the same?

Flash off,completly dark room(night time)just the Dioders on. As you can see they're not very bright, but they do offer the accentuating lighting to provide focus.

Flash on

[STL]

Here's my Detolf setup with the round Dioder lights. I have the 8 cases hooked up to my half-hot outlet for easy on/off through my wall switch. I like that the strips provide more light, but seem a little distracting. The round ones have a diffusing cover over them, the strips have the same?

Flash off,completly dark room(night time)just the Dioders on. As you can see they're not very bright, but they do offer the accentuating lighting to provide focus.

Impressive display! Do you have any more pics of your collection?

[ae_productions]

Man, that is one nice collection you have...

And the lighting idea is pretty grand too.

[lilgreenlude93]

Impressive display! Do you have any more pics of your collection?

Here's a link to my collection on tfw2005.com, it's a little outdated. I don't really live at my house, mostly just visit from time to time. I have so much stuff it's overwhelming, as I don't have enough time to organize it.

http://www.tfw2005.com/boards/transformers-collection-showcase/233381-lilgreenlude93s-growing-collection.html

[ae_productions]

Here's a link to my collection on tfw2005.com, it's a little outdated. I don't really live at my house, mostly just visit from time to time. I have so much stuff it's overwhelming, as I don't have enough time to organize it.

http://www.tfw2005.com/boards/transformers-collection-showcase/233381-lilgreenlude93s-growing-collection.html

Thanks for sharing man. Just fantastic.

[MacrossJunkie]

This site, www.ledlightingkit.com, seems to have nearly identical kits to the Dioders that Ikea sells, but at a cheaper price. Some even come with remotes which Ikea's doesn't, but at a higher price of course.

Has anyone tried the products from this place?

[Million Star]

has anyone tried removing the shelves and lying a detolf on its side for displaying long items like Super/Strike Takatokus and Bandais still in their original packaging?

[Maiden Japan]

Here's my Detolf setup with the round Dioder lights. I have the 8 cases hooked up to my half-hot outlet for easy on/off through my wall switch. I like that the strips provide more light, but seem a little distracting. The round ones have a diffusing cover over them, the strips have the same?

Flash off,completly dark room(night time)just the Dioders on. As you can see they're not very bright, but they do offer the accentuating lighting to provide focus.

How about placing a sheets of mirrors on bottom base. So that light reflects to bottom mirror that will make the case much brighter in the dark.

Edited November 16, 2010 by Maiden Japan

[Minelayer]

I recently purchased 6 kits from them and they work great. They are nearly identical except that the ones from ledlightingkit are a bit longer and contains one more light per strip. Cheaper and more lights....can't beat that.

I would suggest buying super strong double sided tape though because the ones they give you are small and end up coming off (at least this was my experience).

This site, www.ledlightingkit.com, seems to have nearly identical kits to the Dioders that Ikea sells, but at a cheaper price. Some even come with remotes which Ikea's doesn't, but at a higher price of course.

Has anyone tried the products from this place?

[ae_productions]

How about placing a sheets of mirrors on bottom base. So that light reflects to bottom mirror that will make the case much brighter in the dark.

I tried the Mirror at the bottom trick and it works like a damn charm. Thanks for the suggestion!

[MacrossJunkie]

I recently purchased 6 kits from them and they work great. They are nearly identical except that the ones from ledlightingkit are a bit longer and contains one more light per strip. Cheaper and more lights....can't beat that.

I would suggest buying super strong double sided tape though because the ones they give you are small and end up coming off (at least this was my experience).

Thanks! Very useful info. I'll give them a try.

[DARKWIND]

I tried the Mirror at the bottom trick and it works like a damn charm. Thanks for the suggestion!

Where did you get your mirrors from?

[ae_productions]

My wife had these old hanging mirror things that you put up on the wall. She was going to donate them, and I stole them from the donations box. They look a little odd, but because they're on the bottom shelf you don't notice them too much.

[DARKWIND]

My wife had these old hanging mirror things that you put up on the wall. She was going to donate them, and I stole them from the donations box. They look a little odd, but because they're on the bottom shelf you don't notice them too much.

Any pics of your set-up/upgrade you can post?

[DARKWIND]

Just a couple shots so far, I know not much but ill get it set up better soon.

And no, that bit of sun was just to take the pics I don't leave the blinds open.

Its actually a jewelry store display case, its pretty big and still a work in progress.

Still gotta put a back on it, (to keep dust out)

-replace the lights, (it came with installed incandesant heat lamps of all things)

-and I'm considering replacing the bottom cabinet doors to display doors (for more shelf/display space)

Edited November 20, 2010 by DARKWIND

[Dio]

So I added a second mod today, based off of an old cinema trick. If you get some clear monofilament fishing line (I had 10lb test lying around but 8lb would probably be thinner) and tie two loops around the shelves, you can use them to suspend a valk in the "bay" and effectively double the Detolf's capacity with supports that are nearly invisible to the naked eye.

In this photo, I set up the loops around the upper shelves, and suspended the YF-19 and VF-11C using two simple loops each (one is a little visible around the 11C's cockpit, but disappears in different lighting/angles). Creative placement around each Valkyrie allows you to adjust the positioning for some pretty attractive poses, and I'm sure there's a whole host of other things that can be done with a little creativity.

[slaginpit]

Here's my Detolf setup with the round Dioder lights. I have the 8 cases hooked up to my half-hot outlet for easy on/off through my wall switch. I like that the strips provide more light, but seem a little distracting. The round ones have a diffusing cover over them, the strips have the same?

Flash off,completly dark room(night time)just the Dioders on. As you can see they're not very bright, but they do offer the accentuating lighting to provide focus.

Flash on

ABSOLUTELY STUNNING 10 Thumbs up

Here are my detolfs and well one Ikea I forgot the name of, could be RUFENCORBEN

Old pics Set up is much more different now

Yes I have my local Minons dust off the collection once and a while

Anyways you can check out the entire collection here

I dont know how to shorten this blasted link but here...Collection

Collection 2 Hopfully it worked Enjoy

Sigh this site needs work I tried to link Collection as hot link and it worked in full editor mode but it doesnt work I give up

Edited January 5, 2013 by slaginpit

[Kelsain]

Brave man, Slaginpit... My girl loves my scant collection, but certainly doesn't have a touch light enough for that!

(null)

[Kicker773]

The New disorders now available are not the same as the previous ones. The new ones are less bright and are more warm light the ones before. Sucks that they went with the ones I guess to save money but I prefer the previous versions.

[Roy's Blues]

I tried the Mirror at the bottom trick and it works like a damn charm. Thanks for the suggestion!

I put a second set of those round leds on the bottom of each case.

Edited January 9, 2013 by Roy's Blues

[Old Man]

Has anyone ever used these for their Detolf?

http://assets.sylvania.com/assets/Documents/LUMI091_FINAL.5697e9c1-9c71-44dd-9443-7f277632b1dd.pdf

My buddy picked up a set of these, and although its not focused light, I was quite impressed with the amount of light they put out. Cool colors too!