If you’ve ever seen those cheap LED fiber optic wands at the dollar store, you’ve probably just thought of them as a simple novelty. However, as [Ancient] shows us, you can turn them into a surprisingly nifty little display if you’re so inclined.
The build starts by removing the fiber optic bundle from the wand. One end is left as a round bundle. At the other end, the strands are then fed into plastic frames to separate them out individually. After plenty of tedious sorting, the fibers are glued in place in a larger rectangular 3D-printed frame, which holds the fibers in place over a matrix of LEDs. The individual LEDs of the matrix light individual fibers, which carry the light to the round end of the bundle. The result is a tiny little round display driven by a much larger one at the other end.
[Ancient] had hoped to use the set up for a volumetric display build, but found it too fragile to be fit for purpose. Still, it’s interesting to look at nonetheless, and a good demonstration of how fiber optics work in practice. As this display shows, you can have two glass fibers carrying completely different wavelengths of light right next to each other without issue.
We’ve featured some other great fiber optic hacks over the years, like this guide on making your own fiber couplings. Video after the break.
[Thanks to Zane and Darryl and Ash for the tip! This one was all over the tipsline!]
looks like some interactive Ishihara test. awesome
That’s fantastic. Too bad the end result wasn’t as useful as hoped, but great job on testing a concept through quite a bit of tedium.
This reminds me of the display on the Tektronix 576 curve tracer.
Leave one end as is just scramble the other end then bind back into round shape. Make spy read only random scrambling key pattern for converting plain text etc. Was done in govt seals on nukes or so I read years ago. The scrambled fibers in the middle are potted in something hard to get off, cutting impossible without showing tampered with.
This is absolutely delightful – I’m reminded of learning how all the “random” lights in classic SciFi sets worked: A spinning disc with holes cut in it allowing through.
Srupid and useless. But nice.
Absolutely love this thing
I used to do something similar as a young teen when my grandmother wanted starry scenes for her miniatures. Melt the ends a little, stick through night sky background and run them to a bunch of LEDs, heatshrink in place. Drive with a 4017 and 555.
I regret not having all the details from this as I wish I did. But many years ago there was a great publication I liked called Readymade Magazine. There was an article about a art installation that used a CRT TV and an array of fiber optic filament similar as we see in this hack.
It’s purpose was to make a bit low DPI jumbotron style screen. From far enough back you could make out what was on ‘screen’. Was really cool, always wanted to try that msyelf.
Way back in the day Edmund Scientifics (optics & lab catalog) sold fiber optic “image conduit”:
No. 70,709 $81.00 Postpaid IMAGE CONDUIT
Thousands of fibers are fused together to form Ye” rod which is capable of transmitting images from one end to the other. These have 71,000 fibers .0005” in diam. and provide a resolution of 80 lines per mm Just heat in Bunsen to bend,
https://archive.org/details/single-page-edmund-scientific-catalog-681/page/87/mode/1up?q=fiber