Post by thread:[EE:] Inexpensive Fiber Optic cable for light moni

'[EE:] Inexpensive Fiber Optic cable for light moni'

Greetings

any suggestions of where to obtain

cheap fiber optic cable suitable for

monitoring visible light ?

For example:

A fiber that I could run from my rear

  tail lights to my dash so I can see

their operation.

Thanks

Gus S Calabrese

303.964.9670 w/vm   303.908.7716 cell no vm

http://www.omegadogs.com

4337 Raleigh St

Denver, CO 80212

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On Sun, 2004-10-10 at 13:25, Gus S.Calabrese wrote:

> Greetings

> 

> 

> any suggestions of where to obtain

> cheap fiber optic cable suitable for

> monitoring visible light ?

> 

> For example:

> A fiber that I could run from my rear

>   tail lights to my dash so I can see

> their operation.

Not sure how bright you need it to be, but how about a heavy fishing

line? TTYL

-----------------------------

Herbert's PIC Stuff:

http://repatch.dyndns.org:8383/pic_stuff/

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> any suggestions of where to obtain

> cheap fiber optic cable suitable for

> monitoring visible light ?

You can get 1mm nylon that's pretty cheap (you don't define

"cheap" but I'm guessing the cost of glass would exceed it).

Hobby stores have it, eg Jaycar in Aus/NZ $22/4m retail

Don't know where it would be used commercially/industrially

(except those FO lights) so that maybe you could get cut-offs

You could be cheeky and ask at a telecoms or internet company

if they have any scraps. I got some by chatting to a road gang

> For example:

> A fiber that I could run from my rear

>   tail lights to my dash so I can see

> their operation.

Haha, they are that good-looking ?  ;-)

Do you want to detect when a bulb has blown ? A blown fuse

indicator is an LED+R across the fuse. Normally the fuse will

be short across the LED, but if it blows the LED lights. I haven't

tried but I'm sure this would work with a bulb filament too

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Gus,

On Sun, 10 Oct 2004 11:25:21 -0600, Gus S.Calabrese wrote:

{Quote hidden}> Greetings

> 

> 

> any suggestions of where to obtain

> cheap fiber optic cable suitable for

> monitoring visible light ?

> 

> For example:

> A fiber that I could run from my rear

>   tail lights to my dash so I can see

> their operation.

Well I don't know about in the 'States, but Maplin here in England do a 1mm diameter fibre optic "cable" for £1.49 a metre - probably cheaper (no VAT) if sent outside Europe:   ( http://www.maplin.co.uk/  - search for reference XR56L )

I use some of this to monitor my electricity meter, which has lights indicating consumption and day / night rates, from outside the cupboard-under-the-stairs.

Cheers,

Howard Winter

St.Albans, England

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Jameco

www.jameco.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/CatalogSearchResultView?langId=-1&storeId=10001&catalogId=10001&searchType=k&searchValue=fiber&categoryId=11411

$6.95 for 10'

victor

{Original Message removed}
> Not sure how bright you need it to be, but how about a heavy

> fishing line? TTYL

That's a good suggestion. Most fishing line is quite yellow or

cloudy (no one thought to ask Gus at formulation stage) but

there are one or two that might be passable over a few metres.

I found a hand line ages ago, probably 0.6mm, OK-ish, but

high attenuation. A viewable difference between light on or off,

a photodiode receiver amp would give a more usable output.

You'd probably need to do this whatever cable is used

Spec for Jaycar 1mm cable is -400dB/km @ 650nm (red)

Radiospares' 1mm cable, NZ$110/20m, is -200dB/km at

665nm and -1500dB/km @ 820nm (infra red)

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On Oct 10, 2004, at 2:49 PM, Jinx wrote:

> You could be cheeky and ask at a telecoms or internet company

> if they have any scraps.

Telecom fiber is very tiny, and not the sort of thing you want

to use if you're trying to have humans SEE light through it.

Try here:

     http://www.thefiberopticstore.com/

Their 4x0.75mm jacketed cable seems to me like it would work pretty

well in the applications you mentioned.  About $0.33/foot...

BillW

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> Telecom fiber is very tiny, and not the sort of thing you want

> to use if you're trying to have humans SEE light through it.

Agreed. However Gus didn't say what he actually wanted to do.

Any cable will transmit the light from the rear but is this for viewing

or what ? Light coming out of the end of even a 1mm cable is pretty

directional (which is OK for just the driver to see I guess), but you

could strip a mm or two off the sheath and rough up the end to make

a dim "LED". If it's not for direct viewing, eg simply for on/off status,

then it needs to be detected and converted to a more viewer-friendly-

no-squinting-required display or some other indicator. In which case

there would be easier and cheaper ways of doing it

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>      http://www.thefiberopticstore.com/

Wow, it's like I died and went to hippy heaven......... ;-)

Pretty good prices (compared to retail cable anyway) for

combo packs and they ship o/seas too

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At 16.31 2004.10.10 -0700, you wrote:

>On Oct 10, 2004, at 2:49 PM, Jinx wrote:

>

>Try here:

>    http://www.thefiberopticstore.com/

>

>Their 4x0.75mm jacketed cable seems to me like it would work pretty

>well in the applications you mentioned.  About $0.33/foot...

Can it be used for high bandwidth communication purposes?

Greets,

N.R.

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{Quote hidden}>-----Original Message-----

>From: spam_OUTpiclist-bouncesTakeThisOuTmit.edu [.....piclist-bouncesKILLspam@spam@mit.edu] 

>On Behalf Of Jinx

>Sent: 10 October 2004 23:25

>To: Microcontroller discussion list - Public.

>Subject: Re: [EE:] Inexpensive Fiber Optic cable for light monitoring

>

>

>> Not sure how bright you need it to be, but how about a heavy fishing 

>> line? TTYL

>

>That's a good suggestion. Most fishing line is quite yellow or 

>cloudy (no one thought to ask Gus at formulation stage) but 

>there are one or two that might be passable over a few metres. 

>I found a hand line ages ago, probably 0.6mm, OK-ish, but high 

>attenuation. A viewable difference between light on or off, a 

>photodiode receiver amp would give a more usable output. You'd 

>probably need to do this whatever cable is used

>

>Spec for Jaycar 1mm cable is -400dB/km @ 650nm (red)

>

>Radiospares' 1mm cable, NZ$110/20m, is -200dB/km at

>665nm and -1500dB/km @ 820nm (infra red)

That is amazingly lossy compared to single mode fibre used at 1550nm which

gives an attentuation of only about 0.22dB/km!

Regards

Mike

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On Oct 11, 2004, at 3:55 AM, No Religion wrote:

>> Their 4x0.75mm jacketed cable seems to me like it would work pretty

>> well in the applications you mentioned.  About $0.33/foot...

>

> Can it be used for high bandwidth communication purposes?

>

No.

Depending on your definition of "high bandwidth", of course.

High bandwidth fiber is glass, single mode, very small diameter

stuff.  OTOH, this would probably work as well as air, only around

curves, for low-bandwidth stuff (say, IRDA speeds: 4Mbps)

BillW

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0.22db at 1550nm is still lossy. We used to measure down to ~0.16dB/km at

this wavelength for singlemode fibre. (I think the theoretical minimum is

about 0.15 dB/km ? Can't remember.)     About 0.35dB/km at 1300nm

And then for multimode fibre (higher doping levels) we'd get down to about

3dB/km at 900nm, and up to about 6dB/km or so on good fibre at 850nm.

At visible wavelengths the losses are higher again, but on multimode you

could still "see" through several km of fibre. You could with singlemode

too, but yoy needed a microscope as the core size is only about 10microns.

Plastic fibre is much, much,  more lossy. But the core size is larger, so

you get more light into it to start with, it's used in short length (has to

be, the bandwidth is poor also), and is cheap, as are the connectors and

interfaces.

RP

>{Original Message removed}