Curved Liquor Bottle Display

I refused to put a diffuser over the LEDs and kill the brightness. The liquor display was an open metal grid. I wanted to hit the glass bottles from multiple angles to make them pop. To preserve the throw distance while hiding raw diodes from guests, I needed custom louvered fixtures.

I designed the tracks and ran my 3D printers for a couple of weeks to manufacture 96 units. A flat bracer slid in behind the LED strip to hold it against the plastic. The fit was so tight I had to use un-spliced sections, because a solder joint would not clear the gap. The diodes poked perfectly through the slots. I wired them all at my house, hiding a strain relief inside the end caps.

The metal frame started at hip level. I sat on a checkout table behind it and used foam tape to mount the fixtures into the corners. With nowhere to hide wiring, I wrapped the routing in black tubing and let the stiff bundle support itself across the gaps.

The array tied into the building's Madrix server. It worked cleanly until guests started abandoning drinks on the shelf. Spills dripped down and corroded the unsealed tape. Because my printed tolerances were so tight, waterproof tape would not fit as a replacement. I had to pry five fixtures off the metal and completely rebuild them. I asked management for a sign to not put drinks there.