Illuminating the wall of a transparent tube

ledlight

I have a plastic tube that has a wall thickness of around 3 to 4 mm and it is transparent. I am trying to build a ring for the top of the cylinder that just illuminates the sides of the tube, but nothing inside of the tube.

For more context, I am trying to light up the sides of the tube as shown below. I don't want the rat inside to be illuminated by the light as much as the sides of the tube will be illuminated.

enter image description here

I'm thinking of using LED light pins, but I am unsure of whether that will just illuminate the side of the tube or the whole thing. Any help?

Best Answer

You are asking about Edge lighting or Edge Lit. As a tube, it just means you have to make/fabricate a round ring of lighting. See How to make whole top side of project box glow uniformly? for a good primer on lighting plexiglas or acrylic sheets, everything applies. Including that the sides will not be highly lit, if they are smooth/clear. It would look like this, unless you go with opaque tube (meaning you won't see whatever is inside the tube):