Re: Very cheap source for fiber optic

Here are some pics of a proof of concept. The quality sucks but shows whats
going on:

http://server6.theimagehosting.com/image.php?img=MVC-001S.48c.JPG
http://server6.theimagehosting.com/image.php?img=MVC-002S.3ec.JPG
http://server6.theimagehosting.com/image.php?img=MVC-003S.4a3.JPG
http://server6.theimagehosting.com/image.php?img=MVC-004S.688.JPG

The first is with flash. It should be obvious which one is the fiber optic
and which one is the led on the surface. The fiber optic is running both red
and green while the lifted one is just red.

The fiber optic is much "tighter" but as the last picture shows, at a
different angle the green comes completely through and sometimes the red is
more prevalent(3rd link).

The fiber optic looks "nicer" because it looks more professional but that
might be just because of of the other being rigged(hot glued to hold it in
hole). The fiber optic method is much easier to do because I don't have to
"lift" the led into the hole but can put the led's on pcb.

On the other hand, the fiber optic is clearly not as bright and it is a bit
harder to see off angle. Increasing the diameter of the fiber optic core
should help a little and may help with "mixing" the colors beter.

So, the main thing I need to get my idea rolling is some fiber optic cabling
that solves the following problems(or where it can be easily modified to):

1. Mixes the colors better(so viewing at different angles do not give
different colors)
2. Disperses the light at the end a bit better
3. A thin jacket so that it will fit snug in the hole. (the one I used fits
very nicely but the jacket is 1mm thick. I'd like to reduce the jacket size
and increase the core size but same snug fit without screwing up the fiber
in some way)
4. A lot of light seems not to be going into the fiber. When I look
underneath the wood it is almost just as bright as what is above if not
brighter. Seems pretty in efficient to me since I could probably get the
same brightness by using the "lifted" led at 1/3 power(or maybe 1/2) but
"lifting" the led has many of it's own problems.

I was also thinking of maybe having some type of "lenz" that fits on top of
the hole that can be pressed in that disperses the light and mixes it.
Although this complicates things by a few factors(mainly resourcing them and
extra cost).


.

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