Fiber Optic Cable

[Sethski]

Hope it's OK to revive an old post.

I was just curious if anyone had used the fibre-optic cable in a thick walled 3/4" blade with a luxeon and how it worked if so?

I've got 3 3/4" EL hilts at the mo and my train of thought is that this is may be a better way of lighting it than with a hollow blade and diffuser.

I like the feel of the hilts with a thick-walled 3/4" blade; I know the thin-walled one's are better for lighting, but they feel too flimsy and I can't imagine they stand up to duelling very well.

[Jay-gon Jinn]

My Custom Luxeon saber originally used 14mm side-glow fiberoptic cable to light the blade....it was a thin-walled, but lit up fairly well. The major drawback to it for me was weight, and the dimming in the middle of the blade.

Here it is compared to an EL saber I had at the time:

The two blades look to be about the same in this pic as far as brightness goes, but the fiber-optic blade lit up a dark room, where the EL did not.

[Sethski]

Thanks for that Jay-Gon.

It looks pretty bright but not too even, as you pointed out. Is it using an optic and anything reflective in the tip with the setup you have there?

I may well do some shopping when I can next afford to and experiment a bit with this. I wonder if wrapping something translucent and semi-reflective like polyP would help at all with the evenness.

I'll certainly share how it works out as and when I do have a chance to do this.

[Sethski]

[EDIT - sorry-whoops, accidental double post...]

[Jay-gon Jinn]

Yes, there was an acrylic mirror in the tip, but no lens in the emitter. I had noticed the cable was brighter when the end of the cable was closer to the led. Lumileds has a fibercoupler made for using with optic cable, but I can't remember what size cable it would fit....it also didn't look like you would be able to use it with a removeable blade set up, either.

I've thought about trying to add polyp to that blade with the cable, but again, the biggest drawback to the size of cable I used was weight....that blade was heavy!

[Novastar]

Personally, I'd like to see a fiber optic cable "light whip"... especially since I've been thinking of making CF fonts for whip-style stuff.

Heck the "Phoenix Pyre" could easily be modified to make a nice flame whip...

[Sethski]

Thanks again, Jay.

Maybe the weight factor would just be too much, then, but I'd like to give it some testing when I can afford to.

I know you've used 3/4" quite a bit before - have you found any other solutions to get an optimal combination of lighting and duelability with an LED? I guess it'll end up being one compromise or another - trial and error and personal preference and stuff.

[Darth_DevilGuy]

Lightwhip anyone?

damn beat me to it, someone seriously needs to do that though it kinda looks like someone already did

[Ghostbat]

At the big burning man lightsaber fight someone had made EL wire lightwhips... damn those things stung!

[Jay-gon Jinn]

I gave up on using the optic cable for a saber blade when I started using the polyp or cellophane wrap for light diffusion...it got the same results and was a heck of a lot lighter. I found this a while ago and thought it might work if someone wanted to do a lightwhip with a permanently attached cable:
http://www.luxeonstar.com/item.php?i...o=FFLI-07-LL-0
It can only use 7-9mm cable, but it should focus more of the light from the led into the cable making it brighter. It works with lux I, III, and V leds only, though. I haven't used one though, because they don't make them for the larger dia. cable like I've got.