If you need assistance, please send an email to forum at 4hv dot org. To ensure your email is not marked as spam, please include the phrase "4hv help" in the subject line. You can also find assistance via IRC, at irc.shadowworld.net, room #hvcomm.
Support 4hv.org!
Donate:
4hv.org is hosted on a dedicated server. Unfortunately, this server costs and we rely on the help of site members to keep 4hv.org running. Please consider donating. We will place your name on the thanks list and you'll be helping to keep 4hv.org alive and free for everyone. Members whose names appear in red bold have donated recently. Green bold denotes those who have recently donated to keep the server carbon neutral.
Special Thanks To:
Aaron Holmes
Aaron Wheeler
Adam Horden
Alan Scrimgeour
Andre
Andrew Haynes
Anonymous000
asabase
Austin Weil
barney
Barry
Bert Hickman
Bill Kukowski
Blitzorn
Brandon Paradelas
Bruce Bowling
BubeeMike
Byong Park
Cesiumsponge
Chris F.
Chris Hooper
Corey Worthington
Derek Woodroffe
Dalus
Dan Strother
Daniel Davis
Daniel Uhrenholt
datasheetarchive
Dave Billington
Dave Marshall
David F.
Dennis Rogers
drelectrix
Dr. John Gudenas
Dr. Spark
E.TexasTesla
eastvoltresearch
Eirik Taylor
Erik Dyakov
Erlend^SE
Finn Hammer
Firebug24k
GalliumMan
Gary Peterson
George Slade
GhostNull
Gordon Mcknight
Graham Armitage
Grant
GreySoul
Henry H
IamSmooth
In memory of Leo Powning
Jacob Cash
James Howells
James Pawson
Jeff Greenfield
Jeff Thomas
Jesse Frost
Jim Mitchell
jlr134
Joe Mastroianni
John Forcina
John Oberg
John Willcutt
Jon Newcomb
klugesmith
Leslie Wright
Lutz Hoffman
Mads Barnkob
Martin King
Mats Karlsson
Matt Gibson
Matthew Guidry
mbd
Michael D'Angelo
Mikkel
mileswaldron
mister_rf
Neil Foster
Nick de Smith
Nick Soroka
nicklenorp
Nik
Norman Stanley
Patrick Coleman
Paul Brodie
Paul Jordan
Paul Montgomery
Ped
Peter Krogen
Peter Terren
PhilGood
Richard Feldman
Robert Bush
Royce Bailey
Scott Fusare
Scott Newman
smiffy
Stella
Steven Busic
Steve Conner
Steve Jones
Steve Ward
Sulaiman
Thomas Coyle
Thomas A. Wallace
Thomas W
Timo
Torch
Ulf Jonsson
vasil
Vaxian
vladi mazzilli
wastehl
Weston
William Kim
William N.
William Stehl
Wesley Venis
The aforementioned have contributed financially to the continuing triumph of 4hv.org. They are deserving of my most heartfelt thanks.
Registered Member #30
Joined: Fri Feb 03 2006, 10:52AM
Location: Glasgow, Scotland
Posts: 6706
The power budget for plastic fibre, as Father Jack would say, is "Arse!"
Glass fibre has losses measured in dB per kilometre, with the plastic stuff it's dB per metre. It is really only useful for links shorter than 10 meters.
I gave up messing with it. I now buy ready terminated ST patch cords, which are cheap and easy to get because they're used in computer networking, and use them with TX/RX modules like the HFBR1412/2412.
I think if you glue a plastic fibre to an LED, or stick it into a hole, the performance will be crap. The light sprays from the LED chip in all directions, and it needs the lens on the end of the package to direct it. Gluing and drilling will wreck this. I'd get a 3mm LED with a clear package and narrow beam angle and just hold it against the end of the fibre.
Registered Member #1376
Joined: Wed Mar 05 2008, 08:31AM
Location:
Posts: 49
Thanks for you informative replies!
For my purposes there will need to be a length of about 0.5m of fiber optic cable down which the light needs to travel.
Here is a link to one method that does not use a drill to connect the LED's:
This link is also about drilling, although it is about lighting for models, but the idea could still apply: ,1495041
If I could, I would invest in a ready terminated cable, but unfortunately they will not provide the correct LED nm. By doing it my self it will be cheaper too, hopefully.
I have tried drilling an LED and connecting up the optic cable without the glue yet, and there was an output, frosted plastic and all.
I suppose, for maximum light transfer, the LED's would ideally be pulsed. I have found this link helpful:
The circuit designs for the infrared LED's with low voltage drops implement common components in a simple circuit.
Many thanks for you suggestions and tip, they are very helpful!
Registered Member #311
Joined: Sun Mar 12 2006, 08:28PM
Location:
Posts: 253
Ash Small wrote ...
Plasma wrote ...
This link is also about drilling, although it is about lighting for models, but the idea could still apply: ,1495041
This link suggests using CA to glue the fibres to the LED.
CA presumably means Cyano-Acrylate, or superglue.
Conundrum posted above that superglue is not suitable, and he found out the hard way.
Cyanoacrylates are not all created equal.. cheap stuff is a waste of time. As it is possible to get clear joints between acrylic sheets using CA, it would seem possible to get a clear joint between fibre and LED, however it may not be the best choice.
Registered Member #2261
Joined: Mon Aug 03 2009, 01:19AM
Location: London, UK
Posts: 581
To maximise the amount of light coupled to a fibre I once sanded the front of an LED away until I could see with a powerful eye loupe that I was as close as I could get to the LED chip without breaking its bonding wire. This required using rough sand paper to remove the plastic quickly and fine grades and polish to (several times) make the front of the led optically clear enough to follow the approach to the bonding wire. I finished with careful polishing and held a plastic optical fibre coaxially to it with some heat shrink tubing. With the led chip close to the fibre entrance it coupled significantly more light than usual. With a laser you can get even more light in though.
This site is powered by e107, which is released under the GNU GPL License. All work on this site, except where otherwise noted, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.5 License. By submitting any information to this site, you agree that anything submitted will be so licensed. Please read our Disclaimer and Policies page for information on your rights and responsibilities regarding this site.
Connecting fiber optic cable to LED's.
