Light Pipes

Why so long? Isn't it a *lot* cheaper to move the LED closer to the panel?

We use these for power indicators on a box I designed earlier this year:

Did you raise the rainbow flag on your building as well :-))

-- Failure does not prove something is impossible, failure simply indicates you are not using the right tools... nico@nctdevpuntnl (punt=.)

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No, but we are considering building a lighthouse. All other three corners of our intersection have one.

John

You guys like to throw money away ;)

Cheers

Too much stuff in the way. Besides, this was cool.

The weird thing about light pipes is that they cost a lot more than LEDs.

John

We usually use these

which have brilliant colors and solder nicely. But they wouldn't fit on this board... there are some mounting holes in the way.

John

They don't reach far enough.

You got that right! I have another box done (except for production actually making one ;-) that uses 13 straight light pipes, through the rear panel (port activity indicators). Even the simple (tiny) straight ones are about 4x the cost of the LEDs behind them.

I recently designed rear-view leds into a product as a link and speed leds next to a through-hole ethernet connector which is mounted on the solder side. Keeps all the SMD on one side.

Put up a flag mast, and make an LED light piped "lighthouse". It would be a green thing. You should get awards for it.

A good one would in fact be a telescoping mast that sends light out from several height positions so that shipgoers might see it above a spot where they were not seeing it normally.

Shame we can't store sunlight or photons. They are the one thing that we have to make on the spot or use what the sun is making as it flies.

It would be cool to have a box full of light that you could stick a light pipe into and get light out for a certain period. Oh... we have those. They are called lasers. But there is a cost.

Just buy some various diameter plexiglass rods and make your own.

There are also fiber shafts where the fibers are actually optically correct from end to end. An image cast against one end face can be observed in focus at the other end face. It transfers fingerprint info and written and printed words really well from face to face.

Fiber bundles are cheaper than light pipes to buy, but generally cost more to engineer the routing and fixturing and manufacturing repeatability thereof. You would have the panels made the same way one has an outside source make a cable run after it has been established for production. Then all you would need to do is attach the PCB end.

Another way is to place the LEDs on the panel, and run wires up from the PCB. I like it better because it makes them more serviceable, not that they are ever going to burn out. But it does happen.

I have some mil panel mnt LEDs that are hermetically sealed glass lensed based things from dialight that cost about $35 each.

I am sure they are cheaper now, if they are even still around.

I can remember what a regular LED cost back in the sixties! Damn!

Lasers have a high tendency to be less efficient than non-laser light sources, with exception only for one laser type outputting a narrow range of near-infrared wavelengths and even then not-always.

As for storage time in lasers - this sounds to me like less than 1/50 second, and around or less than a microsecond in the more efficient lasers and ones getting higher sales volumes.

I doubt a laser exists on "God's green earth" where light energy is stored within the laser to such extent that the output from stored energy matches or exceeds the amount of energy required to maintain this storage through even 1/10 of a millisecond of approaching "laser threshold".

I do invite citing exceptions ...

We were thinking about a lexan tube sticking up, with a bunch of blue LEDs inside. Here's one of the others that I can see from my office:

ftp://jjlarkin.lmi.net/RainyDay.jpg

Why there are lighthouses here, far from any water, is a mystery. Maybe they were anticipating the ice caps melting or something. We're only about 36 feet above sea level. Envision communting by gondola.

Strontium aluminate is pretty cool. It stores light way better than classic zinc sulfide. A really good phosphor would be great for, say, villagers without electricity: leave it out during the day, bring it in at night.

John

Those are Dialight part 515-1118-801. They straddle surface-mount LEDs.

John

I'm currently in the process of designing back-fire LEDs *out* of a product. The original designer had no imagination (0603 LEDs help ;). I rarely keep components to one side. Real estate is too valuable.

Did you find them stocked somewhere? Price?

Cool! So, where does one get these fancy and hopefully varied light pipes?

On a sunny day (Wed, 27 Jul 2011 14:42:50 -0700) it happened John Larkin wrote in :

Nice.

Yeah, I just like bright colored glowing things.

John