Need some help with indicators painting job

Quote:

Originally Posted by fordgt40

Do not use ordinary round top LEDs, these have a light cone of circa 10-15deg - totally inadequate as you will end up with pin point lights shining through the legends.

Use two flat top leds (wide angle light cone) to avoid the above problem and get even coverage to the letters. Also, sand the rear face of the 4mm acrylic carrier to diffuse the light but do not embed the leds in this acrylic - they will be too close and give uneven lighting. Stick a 4mm acrylic carrier with the text legend on it to the front of the panel, with a further 4mm acrylic carrier with the leds to the rear of the panel

Ok I´m over this now and found the problem you mentioned.

I just made some tests with a 2000mcd round lens LED and the result was pretty bad, not only about the way the light showed, but also intensity was barely enough, even using a "small" resistor.

What is confusing me right now is looking catalogs about flat leds, they all appear with a luminous intensity of 3 or 5 mcd, that is 1/400 what I tried before...how can it be enough power?

Please enlighten me.