Off the Wall question- Lasers?
- Thread starter SgtFang
- Start date
Sidewinder
Sr Member
It would work but you wouldn't get a concentrated beam straight out of the end of the fibre, also there would be loss of beam strength.
The light bounces down the walls of the fibres and on reaching the end would be 'scattered' so you would need a beam refocuser.
SAS
The light bounces down the walls of the fibres and on reaching the end would be 'scattered' so you would need a beam refocuser.
SAS
Qui-Gonzalez
Master Member
Don't you mean "La-sers"?
Ugh, it's too early for me and my dry sense of humor. Curious to see which project you have in mind.
Ugh, it's too early for me and my dry sense of humor. Curious to see which project you have in mind.
PHArchivist
Master Member
Very cool concept...
Would there be a way to incorporate lasers directly, without use of interfering iitems like the fiber-optics?
Would there be a way to incorporate lasers directly, without use of interfering iitems like the fiber-optics?
But you could use a piece of fiber - coated in acrylic to make it hard - and make a "beam coming out of the phaser bank" - that would be pretty cool looking... It would be pretty delicate but neat! It would probably look more like the on sceen phaser that wat too...
Jedi Dade
Jedi Dade
Gigatron
Sr Member
As a fiber optic tech, I can confirm what SAS stated. the projection will be like a flashlight, wide angle and well dispersed.
But don't look at the end of the fiber optic. While almost (if not all) commercial lasers are less than 1mW in power and won't do much, if any, damage, looking at them still hurts. Even my test laser, a fiber specific VFL (visual fault locater) isn't enough to do damage or project a soild point of light.
If you're going to go with something sticking out of a laser bank (like a beam coming out) as JD suggested, you're far better off talking to any of the model makers here and asking for a piece of clear sprue that windshields come attached to. It's plentiful, cheap, comes in a wide variety of diameters and is damn sturdy. You can sand off any seams, give it a coat of Future Floor Polish to make it crystal clear and the whole thing will light up when a beam is passed through.
-Fred
But don't look at the end of the fiber optic. While almost (if not all) commercial lasers are less than 1mW in power and won't do much, if any, damage, looking at them still hurts. Even my test laser, a fiber specific VFL (visual fault locater) isn't enough to do damage or project a soild point of light.
If you're going to go with something sticking out of a laser bank (like a beam coming out) as JD suggested, you're far better off talking to any of the model makers here and asking for a piece of clear sprue that windshields come attached to. It's plentiful, cheap, comes in a wide variety of diameters and is damn sturdy. You can sand off any seams, give it a coat of Future Floor Polish to make it crystal clear and the whole thing will light up when a beam is passed through.
-Fred
Skidmarks_Diecast
Active Member
Has anyone ever tried shooting a laser down fiber optics? I know it would light the end up, but would a straight beam still come out? I was just thinking a PL Refit would look pretty cool w/ firing phasers...
-Sarge
Well technically--yes. SONET networks are the backbone of telecommunications and the internet and the fiber, which makes up SONET rings, is lit up by lasers. These laser pulses are transmitted for miles between nodes without any signal loss. So yes, you can get a straight beam to come out the end of fiber but there are some catches. You'll have to use communications grade fiber jumpers and you'll need a professional fiber cutting tool to make sure the ends are cut very straight and clean. You'll also need a fiber end cleaning tool and cleaning solution. These tools are rather expensive, so you may be better off looking for a more cost effective way to simulate phasers.
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Gigatron
Sr Member
not particularly true. I am a fiber optic tech and I make communication grade optical cables for our company's backbone infracstructure. Fiber cables that are cleaved flat and polished still have a wide dispersion beam. It has very little to do with how the fiber is cut, it has to do with how the beam is sent.
In singlemode fiber, a single pulse is sent down the length of the fiber bouncing off the walls of the fiber (imagine throwing a superball down a tube by throwing it against one of the walls). Multimode works by sending multiple beams, at different frequencies, down the fiber (imagine throwing a handfull of supperballs down a tube).
Since the equipment doesn't emit a straight beam, there's no way a straight beam can come out. And commercial grade lasers (i.e. laser pointer modules) are not even remotely closely calibrated enough to emit a straight beam.
even my testing equipment, which is calibrated to emit a straight beam doesn't produce a single point of light when passed through fiber. it's just not the nature of the beast.
-Fred
"Aaaagh! I"m blind!"
"What happened?"
"My model of the Starship Enterprise hit me with full phasers."
:rolleyes
"What happened?"
"My model of the Starship Enterprise hit me with full phasers."
:rolleyes
Gigatron
Sr Member
Since we don't use those in comms, that may be a purely commercial thing like those light up christmas trees.
Since commercial fiber optics isn't actual glass like comm grade optics, it can be treated a bit different. What they use is actually just extruded plastic wire. Side emitting optics more than likely just just have facets sanded into the sides, giving the beam an exit point along the wire.
-Fred
Well the Christmas tree applications are 99.9% of the time end-emitting fibers, but yeah, the side emitting strands are widely used commercially. Just do a search in Google for "side emitting fiber optics" and you'll get a ton of hits with various types of SE strands.
I've done a bit of work using SE and EE fibre optics as well as EL strands, and for the look you're wanting I'd actually recommend using some EL lighting rather than any use of fibre optics. The EL stuff is far less expensive overall and requires less additional equipment to run.
HouseAtreides
Well-Known Member
I thought fiber optics were specifically created for laser pulses with high speed information?
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