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  • Hey Guys,

    What kind of resine should i use to make it, where can i find it, and this "tube" could be a normal plastic tube?

    Thks

  • Comment removed

  • There are too many comments for me to go through all of them, but has anyone looked into using thick fishing line for light transmission? My guess is that it would work and that it would be really cheap.

  • @rbair2285 - interesting point also.

  • wow this is like flashlight that works with solar panel...

  • The light would only work during the day when theres aleady light..the sun

  • Try distilled water.

  • @stonehold42 - lol, and yes.

  • Regarding the spool you bought on eBay: Why on earth didn't you ask what you were buying before you bought it (number and thickness of internal fiber strands)? You could have avoided your disappointment, for corn's sake....

  • is he mixing it with an old carrot?

  • @kindpotato he is mixing it with a stick.

  • 7:52

  • If you accidentally snap it like...(Grrrr!!)... actually kind of hard to snap.. Lmao:D

  • FIBRE OPTIC DATA CABLE BEING EXPENSIVE IS A MYTH!

    It's about 5c (NZD) per meter, the expensive part is the connectors on the ends and the network cards with the optical input on them.

  • I HAVE DONE SOMETHING SIMILAR , FILLED A TUBE WITH CLEAR MACHINE HYDRAULIC OIL AND CLOSED BOTH ENDS WITH RESIN IT WAS FOR PASSING LIGHT SOURCE FROM ONE MACHINE TO ANOTHER ABOUT 20 METERS ON THE NEXT FLOOR , WORKED WELL .

  • I have a simpler idea that i will be trying very soon to see if it works. If it does ill tell you in trade for one of your big parabolic mirrors

  • MEKP is the catalysit for polyester / glass fibre type resins. It not good stuff, if you can use a respirator mask ( 3M do one in their range, in the UK it's marked brown ) or at least use a well ventilated area.

  • this´s kinda cool!!!

  • 61 people doesnt have internet

  • TRY SUPER GLUE ,ITS TRANSPARENT AND ITS GLUE .

  • I agree that with a project such as this, data level transmission isn't that important, in fact my main application thus far has been for use in on-track detection for automated model railways, so transmission of light over a reasonable distance is the only requirement. I found some stuff on an electronics website that helped with this, e.g phototransistors + cable, but doubt it was as cheap as what this video was advising. Good stuff! I like the idea of making it myself.

  • anything new on this subject?

    anyone find a cheaper/easier way to create viable fiberoptics

    for lighting?

  • Great video, I was wondering since the major issue is focusing the suns energy with a parabolic would destroy the fiber optics what if you were to break up the solar energy into its individual components with a prism and pipe only the UV component. Solar radiation drops off sharply at the UV wavelengths so heat build up may not be an issue, and then you could pipe the UV into a phosphorus coated tube. Sound familiar. Florescent lighting works on these principals. You will not need the mercury.

  • This is an interesting avenue.  i wonder why communities could not self sufficiently recyle polymers and say create this or something useful. I really do think that if you are going to advocate safe usage od a combustable and vaporous material that you in fact do model it.

  • get your Sam Fisher on

  • Or you install some windows...

  • @GREENPOWERSCIENCE What about using clear monofilament fishing cable as optical cable?

  • how do you light your room at night???

  • Fiber optic lighting

  • What about using black tubing and bar top finish. would that inrease light conductivity?

  • @natepalm1 Think about it. Black absorbs light completely. This would be perfect if you need to stop any light infererrance, say if you wish to place many fibres in parallel, but it will not make the end brighter (although it may appear brighter to the human eye due to the light being high contrast to the black. A reflective coating will mean that more light makes it to the other end of the tube, although this will mean that the direction of most of the extra light will spread out

  • Acrylic Rod is off the shelf and cheap...It will fade via UV over time though....

    How about glass rod bent to the shape you want / need...

  • wow that was crap! You bought the wrong fiber optic cabel too. Go with fiber optics they do have thicker ones for a realy good price. this guy spent way too much on his fiber optic cable. what a moron. That self made stuff sux and it dont look good at all.

  • FANTASTIC! Found this while searching for info and spec data for optical fibre cable for light piping / home lighting and maybe even solar home heating methods. Don't have a big budget for off the shelf systems or even buying lots of optic fibre, so this is looks the bees knees. Now, I wonder, why not try making a collecting/ focusing lens with the transparent resin since large glass lenses are (I think) fairly expensive. Thank you, will check out your other vids. Regards, Steve

  • It'll be nice to be able to get a suntan in my own bedroom with something like that

  • I've heard you can use regular fishing line for fiber optic lighting. Likely not for data but the light travels down the line just fine. Just use large test line and bundle it together it's dirt cheap.

  • steknem ti ga majci

  • Hi, there used to be a glass company in Leicester uk that made their own laminated glass panels by pouring in a 2 part clear uv protected mixture, it was supplied to them in 5 gallon drums. This should be ideal for your project.

  • @markvalender Leicester! Reeeyyyyy!!! *high five*

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  • i need help building a steam moter.can u help me?

  • The price of fiber optic cable has come down a lot. I'm doing a project for accent lighting in a car and have done limos in the past. Take a look at a company called Trinorthlighting (you can Google it). The concept he has here is great but just imagine the bulk you would have to mix to do a 100ft piece of this! It's messy and at any long length it's going to trap air. Also a lot of light is lost due to side transmission, in other words the light lost due to the type he is making is too much.

  • Medical solution tubes have smaller calibers and could be great solution for this aplication ...

  • paint the outer poly tube black and it will let less light out nice thx

  • @pyronathanpyro not realy, the black will just absorb the light and convert it to heat

  • i have a christmas tree just like this that is purly made of this stuff(perfectly clear resin) that i purchesed about in like 2006-2007 but it still works absolutly perfect

  • great video.

  • MEK Is Methyl Ethyl Keytone

  • erm im confused

  • Hi there

    i've watched this video a while ago.

    any news about this subject?

  • how about crystal clear silicone?

  • This guys wife is hot! She should do a topless vid 4 us! ;) .-.-.

  • how about those shiny metal tube skylights?

  • i have that exact same model of laser pointer!

    hi 5s!!!

  • do you think that a fishing line could transmit light say 6 inches?

  • do you have a kind of guide describing each one of the materials for the project? ..

    if exist, please send me the direction where i can found it

  • What makes this work? The refraction or the reflectivity of fiberglass? If i'm shopping for a alternate material, what do characteristics am I looking for?

  • @joebob5000 this is kinda a bit of both relection and refraction, this has to do with partial reflection and quantum mechanics, with transparent materials like glass/water varying the thickness of glass or the angle of incidence(the angle of the beam) will very the reflectivity, you've seen this if you have looked up from the bottom of a pool at the water surface or at a sunset on the ocean(that's what makes you get sun burn/snow blindness on the water)

  • couldn't you use a water based material with caps at each end?

  • @ShawnHydedotcom, yes water would make a verry cheap and better alternative.

  • fantastics :-) the way in is the way through!

  • Great! Thank You for the video. I hope to use this technique for a small part of a larger project that I have going. T.

  • You shoudl take a look at Plastic Optical Fiber (POF). They use it quite a bit in cars nowadays.

    The cost can be quite economical and the diameter of the fibre can be in mm rather than um. 1mm is very common but you will get a 2.5mm quite easily.

    You will get a good 50m without too much light attenuation.

    I'd love to see this type of product applied to lighting a home naturally.

  • cool thanx

  • Some what of a random question. Is there an easy way of creating a single vain like cable, that way the input side (where light enters) is a single input? Very nice work by the way.

  • Can solar panels use white El Wire to recharge its own el wire converter battery by wrapping solar panels, with El wire 100 yard set 10 panels.

  • Dan- This is a really great idea, and I arrived here because I went looking for ways to do it myself for an underground application. Did you ever come-up with a flexible, more resilient and light-conductive resin? FYI, there are commercial companies doing it, including Parans Solar Lighting and Sunlight Direct, LLC. Other commenting viewers who suggest the use of solar tubes, led lighting, or webcams and monitors god forbid! .... you just don't get it.

  • I'm to turn my monitor in to a head set with fiber optics could you give me some tips?

  • nice idea .Thank you

  • hey man,

    There is acriclic crystal clear rods avaliable in acrilic supliyers with any diameter. Check this out. They are all very flexible and cheap.

  • Years ago, I saw a discovery show featuring a large multi-story structure, where optic fiber was run to enclosed areas where tomatoes where grown. Has any further studies been done regarding the efficacy of this type of project?

  • what kind of cable did you use for the fibre glass resin? thanks

  • What about putting 1 inch of that clear epoxy at the end and fill the rest of the tube whit mineral oil. Cheap and flexible right there. Also wrap the tube in aluminium paper.

  • dont go the route og fibreoptic there is already a cheap and cost efective soloution in place

    solar ducting esentially there are used in atic conversions and they are basically aluminum duckting contected to the roof behind a c.all done the other end installed in the ceiling and it bouncs alot of sunlight down to the foom it is installed in

  • cool

  • The application I'm looking for is a macro photography setup solution. I would channel the light from my speedlight flash, to the mouth of my macro lens (like the ring flashes used by dentists). I have been considering optic fiber, but now this resin option is very interesting because of thickness and maybe even some light diffusion.

    Can you tell me of a company that produces these resin tubes for light transmission to purchase a few meters?

  • sweden is already using this in large scales, people dont be to suprised, after all, it is 2010 =)

  • @abrokenheart18 yepp. but i havent got it inside yet.. but soon ^^ fattar inte varför jag pratar engelska heller..

  • @abrokenheart18 m8 thats sweden... if you go litle but down on europe map not so much xD

  • @7zot Hello agian, sorry for my late respond, due to some work etc.

    well i normaly live in Denmark. And now those optic fiber cables progessed the hole way thru Scandinavia and thru the most of europe soon. So this will all be done and upgraded at the end of 2010 i guess. And at the fall 2011 we will probelay see som laser optics etc , well thats furture for now. But Sweden is using Laser optics for high speed internet Connection like 47Gbit. So everyone will asap get upgraded. =)

  • @abrokenheart18 Like I sead. In my contury (slovenia) the optic cables arent spread so much around the contury. (not sure if I used the right woed.. :D) I live like 3km from the closes town,but sadly optic cable reaches only 1km around the city. I hope that gets fixet soon :D O, laser opticks. First time I heard about anything like that :D

  • @7zot Belive me those laser optics will blow your mind and anyone elses. =)

  • @abrokenheart18 Here is a video that confirms the laser optics =) a speed of total 40gbit. And notice is over 3years old now, so try and imagine what we can do in the furture ;) watch?v=PD0JHl4UzBc

  • @abrokenheart18 Then I will only need a comuter that will be able to read and save all those data with such speed :D

  • linky please!

  • @abrokenheart18 bt and sky are goin fiber optic now which is awesome 2010 is the shit :P

  • Just an idea, why not first coat the inside of the tube with a liquid metallic or imitation paint to increase the reflectivity of the cladding of the fiber optic tube. Therefore efficiency of the fiber optics is greatly increased.

  • so its kinda hard to see at times in the video. do you leave it in the tube? is there a limit to how long it can be? does it loose alot of light along the way or is there a way to make it looses more light? what im tying to do is hook stuff like this to a light and have it hung a round my room for cool lighting. thanks and youre a genius as always :D

  • also where could i get the fiberglass resin?

  • Have you tried using shark line instead of fiber optic cable?

  • there are a few things I would point out...the yellowing is because I am guessing you are using polyester resins and not epoxy resins. Also get one of those vacuum food jars and you would be able to pull the bubbles out of the mixture, make larger quantities, as well as make longer cables, all while being more efficient. Lastly it would not work well for data transfer as fiber optic cable uses special chemicals to transmit good quality light, and not a large quantity of light.

  • genius!

  • I swear to God you have the same voice of a man who made a video about a pitbull rescue (Charlie). Is it you??

    Anyway, great video. I was looking for a an aextension of fibre cable connected to my pc and find this video. If it is you, it is a very strange coincedence. It would be as if we two have a lot of things in common.

  • hey I like what tour doing. I am a fashion student and would like to use fiber optics in a design concept either using knit or just having the optics projecting from the outfit if you have any ideas on how to make the thin optic or where to get the plastic optic for toys in spool form please let me know. thanks matt

  • What machines turn light into data/binary code? People say you can use it for data transfer....how?

  • Optical networking equipment and including switches and routers and SONET (synchronous optical network) equipment turn the light on and off very quickly to represent the ones and zeroes of binary code. The flashing light travels down the glass (fiber optic cable) and is converted by a light sensing receiver back into bits.

  • thank you. it was very enlightening

  • Hi, Daniel.

    Do you know if your fiber cable tolerates high temperatures (as a sunner day)? I would like to try an indoor solar illumination.

    Kind regards.

    Aprendiz (from Porto Alegre-RS, Brazil).

  • ? whats the use for this video ?

  • nerd

  • fiber optic cable is glass - and you can't use water due to viscosity; maybe pure H2O would work if zero foreign particles are present.

  • Re: reducing bubble production, quite possibly you can have the resin/paint cap sit on a low vibrating mechanism and that would assist with more bubbles rising.

  • SURRAAIIINNNGGGEEE

  • damnit i have no idea wat any of u r sayin... i can make speakers w mini cereal boxes:)..

  • would a monofilament fishing line work??

  • fibre cable sucks glass cable the one that is used in Korea and Japan is the best no wonder they are leaders in technology and they have the fastest internet connection in the world.

  • Could you splice 3 or 4 tubes to the end of one tube, then draw in the fiberglass resin? or would the tubing get too hot?

  • Bubbles!!!

  • Thanks for sharing. Great work!

  • Maybe if there was something you could spray inside a black hose which would create mirror like surface? That should do the job?

  • Theoretically the best combination of materials is to have the tube material have a lower index of refraction than whatever is contained inside, so the light continues to bounce around inside (think when you are underwater looking up at the sky, you get this mirror effect unless you are looking directly up). Then all you need to do is make sure the sunlight enters the tube at an angle less than the angle of refraction.

  • if you spray paint it black the light would come out more clear i would think and good vid

  • THANK YOU! I've been messing about with LED controllers for colour changing/flashing/oscillating to be driven through fibre-op and was dismayed at the enormous expense of the material. You have just given me the PERFECT solution. Hats off sir!

  • I have come up with a "low budget" way to create a pure random twinkling effect for under $50, instead of $100's for a store bought light source with "Twinkle wheel", using my daughters fish tank, the air pump for the tank, waterproof light that you see in a water fountain. You can use a nearly limitless number of strands, You can even create random color changing twinkling strands.

    If you want the specifcs, drop me a line thru youtube, and I can send you specifics for this device.

  • FABULOUS!!! What kind of fiber glass mixture did you use to create a mix in you video? Thank you

  • This was a fiberglass resin. It eventually yellowed. I would search for a water clear non yellowing product. Also some have proposed using glycerin but I have not tried that yet.

  • @GREENPOWERSCIENCE What about the clear eboxy used for marbles which will not be affected by UV light

  • Why spend so much money when you can use sky lights? then you can look at the sky too! You could use fiber to get the light downstairs maybe? ^ ^ Maybe you could install a dimmer too? PMSL!

  • I want to buy a large clear fiber optic cable ..not long though about 1 foot long to combine four small dvd burning lasers together and take the out put end of the fiber optic cable and put it in a laser housing with a glass collimating lens to combine the diodes into a single beam that has an adjustable focal point. Can anyone help me to such a company.

  • Someone should make fibre optic lighting in their home and have all the houses lights in one room eg basement, attic. And that way you could have no reaching up to lights on ladders when they blow out. Just go to the one place for all the lights.

  • Lol awesome, huge installion to save yourself changing bulbs like twice a year. You also need to run the cables for the switches all the way there, or else you won't be able to turn off the light in parts of the house...

  • Yeah but if you used LED's, then you'd probably never worry about it anyway. And more people always change to LED's so I guess the whole problem will be replaced anyway. But the idea would be good for people who just like to experiment. Personally if I had proper fiber optics, I would use it for home networking, HD TV, and internet. Because soon in Australia we will have some of the fastest internet in the world, and we'll need the fiber optic equipment to handle it anyway.

  • marry xmas

  • Why not send wireless data via light??!!!

  • Because wireless data uses radio frequency.

  • I know of no rule that demands that wireless has to be RF. The problem with using light it's truly point to point, with the transceivers needing to be in a fixed position.

  • Possible, IR remote control send data via light but not as practicle as using RF.

  • Yo try using a green lazer pointer and see what it looks like

  • Maybe painting the outside of the tube black would increase the light effect?

  • how can i make a star cloth at home... anybody know?

  • Sweet! Now it can light my house when I need it, at night. Oh wait. It cant.

  • How many times do you see lights on DURING THE DAY with all that wasted sunlight outside.

    Wait for it. Wait for it so did you get it or did you just hear a vrooooom go right over your head?

    hehe

  • Hey, I'm not saying turning lights on in the day is a good thing. But what I am saying, is there is such a thing called "a window". Perhaps you should look into it. Quite a bit cheaper then this.

  • I guess you have never priced WINDOWS especially if you want enough of an R factor to be able to practically heat your home. I guess you never looked into the COST of adding massive quantities of windows to an existing home. There is a lot of things you never considered.

    how about we are on a spinning planet going around a sun so even if you have enough windows its sun lit for a few hours at most.

    POINT IS this would enable people to add LIGHT to there homes WITHOUT using electricity.

  • LOL

  • Wouldn't it be easier to fill the tube with water? Then you only need to seal the ends.

  • To get rid of the bubles try running it over one of those cheap sanders that shake. It does the same thing as the commercial units that they use to get rid of air bubbles in concrete.

  • for 3500$ you can get some solar paness

  • You don't use your pinky finger when you stir?

    Thooooper!

  • And if that is possible, can we cover the whole roof of a car with these and get enough temperature so that in combination with the cooling system we can use a stirling engine to run the car and switch back to the old engine that needs gasoline only when the sunligh is not adequate.

  • Just for curiosity, would it be possible to use fiber optics as a solar concentrator to generate enough heat to run a high efficiency heat engine? Like the temperature that would melt rocks? Since the individual fiber optic pipes are only carrying part of the light, so it won't melt, but the surface where all the individual pipes are emitting the light should become very hot and melt?

  • no your wrong

  • I would like to make a proper scientific response to the work Daniel is doing.

    Daniel, YOU DA MAN! I love the site and the way it is put together, and of course the projects you are working on. Keep up the necessary and good work. It's going to be people like you who get us to where we need to go.

  • I know that if you run a white light througha set of light fibers you will eventually get a loss of color. I have seen a white light actually start to turn green at distances over 50'. That is in the borescope world.

    Great videos by the way!

  • Really nice video once again Dan. What about a lightbox from some central location in an attic or other central area and see how many rooms you could light with a single 60 or 100 watt bulb. Very nice economy of electricity

  • That was my thought too. He's probably waiting until everything is tested before doing an install.

  • Even a single high-intensity full-spectrum LED light source would be cost-effective, you think?

  • wouldnt it be easier to run a sterling engine with the solar then use LEDs to light the room/house?

  • Too much energy loss doing it that way. The beauty of fiber optics is it's ability to transfer light over relatively long distances without too much degradation. An adjustable mirror with a tracking device to send the light and not the heat would be the best scenario.

  • light would be mostly needed at night, so i figure storing energy is an issue for reliability.

    seems to me cutting that out runs the risk of a cloud being cast on the whole thing.

  • LED's with NMH rechargeable battery's are for night. Fiber optics are for growing vegetables in your front room in grow boxes. also for dark hallways or basements.

  • Have you tried water, fill it up with water and just cap the ends with something, and it would remain flexible. Here is something for you that is right up your ally, have a look

  • Hey, hey, hey... the interior walls in any house are at least 3 1/2" wide, with 14 1/2" of empty sapce between studs. Line this space with that 95+ reflective material. Use a parabolic trough to focus this light through the walls, or not. wider walls would work better. Most interior walls are not load bearing and need not be framed in the standard way (bottom plate, top plate 16 inch centers) or even framed at all.

  • This is an interesting concept. Could you use in an application to bring natural light into areas like your basement where windows are small or a non intrusive replacement for a skylight.

    It would limit heat loss and bring in the natural light.

  • If this plastic tubing and resin burns does it give off toxic fumes? This would be good to know for safety reasons.

  • Any time you are working with these types of chemicals always take extreme caution. By law the manufacturers have to list all precautions to be taken so wear protective clothing and a proper mask rated for what you are dealing with. Read and follow the instructions for your safety and the safety of others.

  • is there a type of non mettalic wire?

  • I have an Idea...and I need help to get info to see if it is a concepts pertaining to this will work.

    Write me back I will email you or call to discuss...I am filing for a patent if it is feasible for the market place...etc.

  • Awesome work. Looking forward to the next video

  • bad idea man its not going to do you any good

  • First of all i want to thank Dan for the inspirational video.

    Second I was wondering where I can find some cheap epoxy resin like that like say 1 liter. I need for a school science project.

    TY guys very much

  • Great Video.

  • I got an idea. instead of refracting the light, you should reflect it.

    Get any type of hose (garden,sewage,poly....)

    You want it probly at least 1 inch in dia to make it easy. Cut the hose in half along its length. Get some reflective sheeting and glue it to the inside of the hose. After you have done this to both hoses, you put the two halfs back together with some glue and or electrical tape.

    Thats it, fast, easy, cheap. Hopefully effective as well.

  • hey you should try a small amount of coagulant,,,,,the stuff they put in pools to gather algea,....maybe it would thicken up the syrup so you could.....dump and run with the string "Fiber optic" that come from the dump..... you could dump anything into it and pull it out and it will stick to it with enough coagulant it might work

  • How about metal pipes filled with watter?

  • If you line the inside of the metal pipes with mylar tenting which is a very reflective material and leave them empty (full of air) instead of using water ... then you'll have a very cost effective light tunnel.

  • did you try fishing line?

  • yeah that sounds like a good idea. several strands all bundled together. cool

  • Interesting, thanks for posting. :)

  • Have you thought of using clear silicone caulk in polytubing?