I have been thinking about trying fibre optic lighting for my layout, and I have bought the materials to do it, just wondering if anybody else has tried this? I tested it and it works well.
For lighting the whole layout, or buildings, or ?? Seems to me MR or RMC had an article years ago about someone using fiberoptics for signals…
I am thinking that I could use it for indoor lighting, outdoor lighting and even vehicle headlights and tail lights. You can run 10 to 20 or even more strands off of one LED light bulb under the layout. For color you just use a marker of the color you want and touch the end of the strand and it emits that color, seems simple to me. When I tested it, it worked great.
I bought my fibre optic strands ( .7mm x 18 inch length ) from Monroe Perdu Studios, a pack of 25 strands for $4.00. They also sell some neat LED’s that flicker to look like arc welding or campfire.
Here is the link: http://www.monroeperdu.com/
Here’s another place that has all kinds of fiber optic stuff:
http://www.fiberopticproducts.com/
I have not ordered from them. Yet. I’m thinking that at some point, I will play with a few things, mainly vehicles. There’s a guy that sells on Ebay that now has trucks using fiber optics. Headlights, roof markers, side markers on the trailer. Pictures look pretty nice.
I wonder though about indoor lighting. Would the end of the fiber optic strand emit enough light “spread” to do much good?
When I tested it I just shut all the lights in my layout room, taped a strand of fibre optic to a flashlight, stuck the flashlight in a desk drawer and held the end of the strand about 3 inches off the top of the desk, the light looked amazingly like a prototipical streetlight would emit. I’m pretty well sold on it.
The April 1992 issue of MRR has an article on using fiber optics for streetlights. Not sure about RMC, or signals but it would work. I think fiber optics would be fine for structure illumination but the right combination of fiber cable and lights would be crucial I imagine.
I figure it will be quite cheap to install on the layout in comparison to using lights since there should only be 1 LED every couple of feet to supply light to all the fibre optics. I could use standard lights if I want to, doesn’t have to br LED.
It’ll work fine for pin-point lighting, but doesn’t work well for interior building lights. It’s been tried by many before. but if you want to try to re-invent the wheel, go right ahead.
That sounds like it would be right up my alley! [:D]
I’ll be sure to let everyone know if my wheel rolls or not. [:o)]
Actually it would seem that some have had success using fiber optics for interior lighting. One technique involves using heat to flare the end of the fiber to diffuse the pinpoint light creating more available ambient light. Using more fibers in each area to be illuminated will serve to multiply the amount of light in a given area as well. The url below may shed more light on this subject. [;)]
http://www.modelrailroadforums.com/forum/showthread.php?t=701
bluehill that was a cool link I like the styrofoam idea
I think it will work with a skyscraper I have
K
I used them successfully in illuminating marker lights on a steam locomotive. I just line them up with the side of the headlight bulb. Works great!
Mark
Works great for backdrops also. Create stars that look great. I used it on my structures as porch lights as well as path lighting on scenery. Go for it, one bulb can give enough for quite a few lights and led’s are less heat so they can go anywhere with out worries.
I started using LED’s and fiber optics for lighting buildings and billboard lamps. Most of the time I placed the LED in the building, but the billboard was routed from a nearby building and down through the surface and back up again. The effect is pretty cool. Lighting structures is a bit more difficult. What I did was use shrink tubing over the LED as a place to gather the fibers, I guess I should mention that I am using .30mm, .20mm, and .10mm fibers, also to keep the strands together, I have used shrink tubing in smaller diameters to hold the strands together. I have also used stripped wire insulation to hold fibers together. Also in a gas station I used alumiunm tube as conduit to direct the light in different areas. I am happy with the effect, as with anything else the first time you try to gather multiple fibers it takes a lot of patience, but with practice it gets easier. I would guess the hardest part is trying to figure out how many strands it will take to achieve the desired efffect. Also the thinner the fiber the more flexible it is. I have also used fibers to light out side lights on buildings. Whalters Electric Company kit has a small structure with flourecent lights on the outside, I was able to light these by slightly drilling a hole in the back of the lamp and using CA glue to hold the strand to it. Once lit this light looks almost as if it is lit buy a tube. A word of caution about LED’s watch your voltage, I have running them on either 3 or 4.5 volts. (yes I have burned a few out when experimenting with them, it’s a pain to replace them, but %$*& happens.
With LED’s the simple solution is to wire them with a resistor to limit the voltage from your transformer. Usually from 1.3V - 3V is sufficient. Using the fiber to model fluorescents is a good idea. They even make side illuminating fibers that can be used to model neon. These might work even better for the tubes in a fluorescent fixture. The heat shrink is a great idea! I wonder if using little rubber bands to gather the fibers initially might be useful? Then once a guy was happy with the effect heat shrink them?
I’ve got an old fibre optic christmas tree, which doesn’t work anymore. The motor burned out. It only cost 9.95 and there is enough fibres in it for all the lighting I care to do. No idea what size the fibres are though. A little trash picking after christmas, might produce enough fibre optic material to last a lifetime.
Heck at that price it would probably pay to go buy one just to strip the fiber out of it. [(-D]
I plan to watch for that sort of thing after the holiday.
Well I used them in old NJ international Nscale signals, they workgrat especialy for Nscale where sizeis imprtant.
Using two colorsled can help you to provide the colors signal.
On semaphores signal I use them with excellent results and don’t be obvious you can bend them even at 90 degrees if the source light is not far (the case in Nscale)