Illumination side glow fiber optic cable using a laser

[LaserLover]

Has anyone ever tried Illuminating Side Glow plastic fiber optic cable using a laser to see if it does as good a job as a 150 watt Quartz lamp. ?

I imagine a 100 mW laser or even a high end pointer might do the job , last longer (quartz lamps likely to go after a couple hundred hours) and not generate UV light and heat that degrades the plastic fiber optic cable.

Rick

[yaddatrance]

True, but how can you beat $20?

http://www.mpja.com/productview.asp?product=16300+MI

[LaserLover]

How can you beat $20 (you say for the 150 watt quartz lamp I presume).

Lets see, you change one every 200 hours so that's $100 just for 1000 hours of operation. Now if you want 5000 hours operation that will cost you $500 in quartz lamps not to mention the down time and labour to change the lamps.
The big problem with lamps is the UV damage done to the plastic fiber optic cable so you will eventually have to change that Side Glow plastic fiber optic cable ( cost varies from $3 to $8 a foot depends on diameter ).
Now If you use a 100 mW DPSS laser that you can get for a very reasonable price (less than $500) it should easilly last 5 to 10,000 hours and never damage the plastic fiber optic cable .
For 10,000 hours lifetime you would easily save $500 to $800 in components and labour.

Rick

[yaddatrance]

LOL, no, that was $20 for the side fiber illumination module (Which includes
the lamp. Last I checked, the bulbs cost <$2

http://www.camcor.com/cgi-bin/cat/id=1141768068&src=fg

It's a good idea, but I also don't think the current "cheap" high power
lasers run for 10k hours...

If you're talking about running scintillating fiber, I use >2W lasers
for visibility... Anything less is pretty dim.

[Junktronix]

I've been experimenting with illuminating sideglow fiber with 3W RGB LEDs and red and green lasers. So far the results are pretty good. I'm looking for something to replace EL wire in a Burning Man project. EL is cheap and easy to work with, but is fracking everywhere at BM these days. The sideglow with a laser illumintor has the speckle you'd expect and is a much purer color than the EL. The RGB LED lets me create colors that EL simply is not available in (deep blue, yellow, reddish violet are the best so far)

[liteglow]

sorry if this is a n00b question ..

But what is this, where do you use it ?


thanx

[marconi]

Man , What a small world..
Maxy's been on me to get her some fiber to play with..

I have even stole a piece from our weed-whacker.
It is quit orange and really reacts to UV as well..

She also is begging me for some EL wire as well..!!!

Can we say .. "We are addicted to Glowies "
Yep...Thought so..hehe

[Junktronix]

sorry if this is a n00b question ..

But what is this, where do you use it ?


thanx

Sideglow fiber is fiber optic cable designed *not* to have total internal reflection so it leaks light over its entire length. Shine a bright light or laser in one end and the whole thing lights up like a neon sign. It's sold as a replacement for neon and for iluminatin pools where it's generall y a bad idea to have electric power under water.

[yaddatrance]

Heh, let me know if you guys have any good ideas to use fiber for... I've
always loved the stuff, but never ran into a "great" application for it.

The most useless and fun thing ever is lopping off a roughly 5 foot chunk
of 1/2" dia. cladded plastic pseudo gradient-core fiber, stripping the shielding
off and just playing with the funny texture it makes... I had some left over
from a theatre curtain project and it's just the neatest thing... After you
strip the cladding it gets brittle with age (lasts about two years) but leaving
it on a dash on a hot summer's day usually gets it back to the original
fun consistency. I've also made jumpropes with scintillating fiber...
scintillating is different from sideglow in that it uses some creepy deep magic
to convert the passing light into pretty colors... (colored sideglow usually
requires UV in the original light source, which is why they like arc/discharge
lamps on big runs) But the best way to make glowing fiber strands I think
is to take regular fiber and play with it a bunch, the various cracks, stresses
and whatever leaves the most interesting patterns.

[fluff]

I have a 1m*3m fibreoptic chandalier, which is nice. I haven't fired a laser at it yet, but you know I will!